Juarez and Cesar Cantú (1885)/Our duty is done
OUR duty is done.
We do not even remotely imagine that the documents which we have published, in other words, the true statements of the facts, will be enough to silence for ever the intemperate vociferations that, from time to time, are launched against Juarez by his political enemies.
They will continue to say, however absurd it may appear, that Juarez sold a part of the national territory to the Americans.
They will repeat that Juarez, for a money consideration, delivered to the Emperor of Austria the bloody corpse of his unfortunate brother.
They will repeat even to satiety that which so often has been said, that Juarez, as the leader of a demagogic minority, tyrannically imposed his will without having had, at any time, the support of the Nation, since the Nation, in its great majority, was Imperialist and gladly had accepted a foreign monarch sent by Luis Napoleon as a token of his benevolence. And as a matter of course, there always will remain, without a satisfactory explanation, the imcomprehensible fact that this immense majority, formed by partisans of the Empire, as it was affirmed in Europe, having, as it had, the support of the French army and the sound part of the country, would have permitted that a handful of bandits, demagogues or men of that stamp, could cause the death of the so-called monarch in the Cerro de las Campanas, re-establishing immediately the republican institutions which the said majority had vainly attempted to destroy.
The unjust accusations against Juarez will be repeated; the calumnies intended to stain his historic reputation and even his personal honor, will become multiplied; but all this will be perfectly useless, and moreover, all will produce the contrary effect, since the glory of the illustious departed will be so much the greater, as the attacks of his enemies are unmerited and passionate.
Let them insult as they will the extraordinary man who sleeps the eternal sleep of death in the pantheon of San Fernando, and who there awaits the judgement of History and the sentence of posterity; they will not succeed, by this means, in overthrowing the venerated institutions which form the political creed of the great liberal party.
Abhor, hate, curse Juarez, as much as you will; you have the right to do so, and you do well, you who abhor the Republic, who hate the Constitution and who curse the Reform.
Copy that which Cesar Cantú has writen, if it will please you; cite the authority of a Saldapenna in historical controversies I allege, as a further proof, the testimony of a Salm-Salm; repeat what was said by O'Donnell in his speech, and what was affirmed by Forey in his proclamation; torture the genuine meanning of words, converting into crimes even the colonization contracts . . . . and you will neverbe able, in your impotent passion, to darken, even for one moment, the imperishable glory of Juarez, nor diminish in the very least the prestige he had, which his name maintains at present, and which he forever will have, whatever may be the noisy declamations of those who, in their humble condition of the conquered, sought in calumny a consolation for their defeat.