e settlement of
international disputes. The recent conflicts between the French and the
Arabs in Algeria, and between the British and Indian races, have been
characterized by ferocity and endurance. But, it will be recollected
these encounters took place between nations unequal alike in religion,
morals, law, and civilization. The temper or character of Mahomedans was
not to be measured by that of Christians nor had we just reason to hope
for a pacific or temporizing spirit in people whose savage habits have
ever rendered them prompt to return invasion by a blow, and make war the
precursor of negotiation. It was, thus, reserved for the Mexicans, whose
blood is mixed with that of an Arab ancestry, to exhibit the spectacle
of continual domestic broils, and, latterly of a positive warfare
against a nation whose friendly hand was the first to summon them into
the pale of national independence.

The disorganized condition of our neighbor for nearly thirty years, may,
partly account for and palliate this fault. With administrations
shifting like the scenes of a drama, and with a stage, at times dyed
with blood, and at others imitating the mimic passions and transports of
the real theatre, it may be confessed that much should be pardoned by a
forbearing nation whose aggregate intelligence and force are not to be
compared with the fragmentary and impulsive usurpations in Mexico. To
judge faithfully of the justice or injustice of this war, and to
comprehend this history in truth and fairness, we must not only narrate
in chronological order the simple events that occurred between the two
nations; but the student of this epoch must go back a step in order to
master the scope and motives of the war. He must study the preceding
Mexican history and character; and, it will speedily be discovered that
when he attempts to judge the Spanish republics by the ordinary
standards applied to free and enlightened governments, he will signally
fail in arriving at truth. He must neither imagine that when the name of
Republic was engrafted on the Mexican system, that it accommodated
itself at once to our ideal standard of political power, nor that the
dominant faction was willing to adopt the simple machinery which
operates so perfectly in the United States. There are many reasons why
this should not be the case. The Spanish race, although it has achieved
the most wonderful results in discovery, conquest, colonial settlement,
diplomacy, feats of