the purpose of driving out the French. He organized a great number at San Antonio, and then, with a regiment of cav alry under General Merritt, proceeded to Fort Duncan near Eagle Pass, got into communication with Juarez, and informed the latter that he was prepared to invade. The reports circulated and the demonstrations made by the American troops finally discouraged the Imperialists so that the French and Austrians withdrew from the northern border into the interior. Then came the first sign of the tottering of the Maximilian empire, and finally the battle at Queretaro in May, 1867, Maximilian's capture and execution at the Hill of the Bells on the nineteenth day of June, 1867. Great efforts were made by this government through Sheridan to save Maximilian's life, Serg. Richard White, one of Sheridan's scouts, conveying a plea for mercy signed by Secretary Seward, all the way from Tampico overland to Queretaro, but to no avail.

During the year 1867, a band of Mexicans accompanied by one or two foreigners, late one evening dashed into 'Clarksville, Texas, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. They killed three persons, among them William Phelps and Hammond, U. S. Customs inspectors, wounded several others and succeeded in carrying off considerable plunder. They fled to the Mexican side. Their exact identity was never discovered.

Mexican
Reforms

CHAPTER VIII

In 1856, the Congress of Mexico called and held a constitutional convention at which, among other rad1cal reforms was one d1vorc1ng the State from

the Church.

On March 11, 1857, the Liberal constitution was proposed but was suspended on December 1. Ygnacio Comonfort at once became a dictator. The reaction against the reform laws was backed by the church, most of the army, and many of the conservatives. But Benito Juarez, one of the judges of the Supreme Court, at the head of a party of advanced liberals opposed the reaction.

In 1858, Comonfort was deposed by Zuloaga who abdicated in favor of Miramon, general of the Conservative forces. Miramon refused and insisted on Zuloaga remaining. In 1859, the U. S. envoy at Vera Cruz acknowledged Juarez as the head of Mexican affairs.

During 1860, the Liberals triumphed, and in 1861 Juarez entered Mexico City and immediately upon assuming the chair, introduced many radical reforms, among others being: declaring marriage to be a civil contract; celibacy and ecclesiastical tribunals suppressed; confiscation of church property valued at about $400,000,000.00 and more than a third of the real estate; and the final separation of the Church from the State, and postponing payment of the National debt.

At once Spain, France, and England urged claims due for losses occasioned by their subjects through the reform laws. During December, 1861, the three allies mentioned occupied the Port of Vera Cruz. A satisfactory settlement being made, Spain and England withdrew their vessels; but France and Louis Napoleon decided to continue the war, and in consequence did not reembark her troops; France declared war in 1862, placed Maximilian on the throne as

emperor, and drove Juarez and his adherents to the northern states of the Republic of Mexico.

Maximilian, archduke of Austria (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph) and emperor of Mexico, in 1863, at the instance of Napoleon III, accepted the crown as emperor of Mexico at the solicitation of many Mexican notables. He landed at Vera Cruz on May 28, 1864. He was captured May 16, 1867, while trying to escape from Queretaro, was courtmartialed, condemned to death, and executed by shooting on June 19, 1867. His body was transported to Vienna where it was buried in the imperial vault a year after his death.

After a very spirited resistance, Juarez and the liberals, as has been shown elsewhere herein, succeeded.

The French troops which arrived in Mexico on the fifth day of June, 1863, withdrew in February, 1867.

After the death of Maximilian, in August, 1867, Juarez was again elected president. The characteristic spirit of revolt, predominant among the Mexicans, caused ceaseless insurrections, but Juarez reigned until July 18, 1872, when he died in Mexico City from a stroke of apoplexy.

Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, secretary of Juarez immediately assumed the reigns of government in Mexico and remained in power for four years, until succeeded by Gen. Porfirio Diaz.

This, the most illustrious of all Mexicans, was born Porfirio September 15, 1830, in Oaxaca, Mexico, a town about Diaz 150 miles southeast from Mexico City. He had studied law, but in 1854 took part in the revolutions, and likewise afterwards participated in the three-years' "War of Reform." In 1863 he was appointed commander of the Mexican armies and until Maximilian's downfall and execution in 1867, was leader of the Republican or Liberal party.

While Lerdo de Tejada was in the chair, Diaz started a revolt against him and forced him to flee from Mexico. Iglesias was named president pro-tem.

On April 2, 1876, "Don Porfirio," as the entire Mexican population was wont to call him, with a handful of followers who had been with him at Brownsville, Texas, for nearly a month prior thereto, crossed the Rio Grande into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, at a point just east of the latter city. It had been arranged that the Mexican garrison should renounce its allegiance to the Tejada government and should at once join hands with Don Porfirio. There were about one thousand of the National Guard under Gen. Baltazar Fuentes Farias, and four hundred regulars under Col. Leonides Cristo, in charge of the garrison. Fuentes Farias immediately pronounced in favor of Diaz but about a hundred of the regulars, commanded by Col. Cipriano Villanueva resisted. Several were killed on both sides, but finally the entire garrison pronounced for Diaz, who was soon after proclaimed as President of the Republic.

Don Porfirio ruled until 1880 when he was succeeded by Gen. Manuel Gonzalez who ruled for four years. In 1884, Don Porfirio was reelected and from that time until 1911, 27 years, he ruled Mexico with great wisdom, foresight, and patriotism.1

At the beginning of his administration he caused to be executed all those who in any manner attempted to foment

1During the year 1890, one Catarina Garza, at one time a citizen of Brownsville and afterwards of Matamoros, Mexico, aggrieved over some alleged indignity suffered at the hands of his countrymen, headed a revolt against the Diaz Government in Mexico. He soon gathered about him quite a number of anti-Diaz followers and on the day of 1890, crossed from the Texas side at a point in Zapata County, Texas, to the Mexican side where he raided the place called SAN YGNACIO. This he razed to the ground killing a number of its inhabitants. Later Garza recrossed into Texas and with his men had several encounters with American soldiers who had been sent out to apprehend him. In one of these encounters an American soldier was killed and several wounded, a number of Mexicans being killed by the soldiers.

Garza evaded capture and sailed for Central America where he was afterwards killed in a battle at Boca del Toro."