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PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
xv

ing the salted ears of Colonel Borda, which were sent to the daughter of Rosas."[1]

These and similar outrages are alleged as the cause of the recent intervention of England and France. The interference is said to be one of merciful humanity, and we trust that the continued succession of mobs and revolutions with which Mexico has been scourged for the last twenty years will not reduce her to the sway of some tyrant like Rosas who will deluge her with native blood and compel us to be no longer indifferent spectators of her misrule.

In such a juncture the course of this country will be perfectly clear. True statesmanship looks steadily to the advancement of mankind—to the eradication of all brutality from our race—to the assertion of the omnipotence of Peace and Reason in modern government. If it be the will of God that Christian civilization and refinement are to be spread over this world, I shall hail the day as a blessed one for the Mexican people when perfect peace and perfect alliance shall be established between us as Independent Nations. But if it be the Divine fiat that we are to interfere in Mexican politics, and that the various bloods of the Mexican race are finally to mingle with the mighty stream of the Anglo-Saxon, which seems destined to fill every vein and artery of this mighty Continent, then, assuredly, will our distracted neighbors, at length, secure to their country tranquillity, progress, and glory.


Baltimore, 1846.

  1. "Buenos Ayres and the Republic of the Banda Oriental," by Mrs. S. P. Jenkins—in the American Review, vol. 3d, pp. 161, 163.