not a political quarrel. A brutal ferocity marks every headlong
movement, and deprives him of the control of reason. Besides this,
_life_, has not the same value to a Mexican as to an American warrior,
for the objects and hopes of their lives are incapable of comparison.
One lives for practical liberty and progress, the other's existence is a
mere strife for bread under military despotism. A Mahomedan
fatalism--derived, perhaps, from his Moorish kindred--tinges the nature
of a Mexican, and the impulsive blood of a tropical climate subjects him
almost exclusively to his instincts. Hence Spanish wars have been long
and sanguinary butcheries, while their civil dissensions are the feted
ferment of corruption.

The Mexican, hot and fretful in controversy, is ever quick and sometimes
secret, in ridding himself of his foe;--the American is equally prompt
with his pistol, but gives his insulting enemy an equal chance. A sudden
conflict with knives ends a Spanish rencontre or dispute; while periods
of deliberation and cool arrangements precede the fatal field between
our countrymen. The American officer is scientifically educated in
military schools and _leads_ his men to battle. The Mexican is ignorant
of all but ordinary drills, and either _follows_ his impulsive
squadrons, or, flies at the approach of personal danger. The one has
nerve and endurance, the other impulse and passion; hence, while the
Mexican strikes his blow and retreats to his lair if foiled, the
American, equally unchanged by victory or defeat, moves onward with
indomitable purpose until his object is successfully accomplished. The
one dwindles too often into the cruel assassin or relentless
persecutor,--the other, as frequently, attains the dignity of a clement
hero.

These general observations apply, of course, only to the masses, for
truly brave and patriotic men exist in all countries, and nowhere are
the examples of heroic qualities more conspicuous than among the Spanish
races. The fault lies more in temperament than in soul. An equipoise
between intellect and passion is alone deficient in the nature of the
Mexican people, for the savage has not been entirely extirpated from the
mingled blood of Indian and Spaniard.

When the remarkable energy of men, born in genial climates, is tempered
by self restraint, it produces that urbane and chivalrous character
which once made war the school of gentlemen. But the modern ideas of
liberty and patriotism have