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ESSAYS AND LECTURES
ON
i. THE EARLY HISTORY OF MARYLAND:
2. MEXICO AND MEXICAN AFFAIRS:
3. A MEXICAN CAMPAIGN:
4. HOMOEOPATHY:
5. ELEMENTS OF HYGIENE:
6. HEALTH AND HAPPINESS.

BY
RICHARD McSHERRY, M. D.
Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine, University of Maryland,
Member of tbe Maryland Historical Society, &c.

BALTIMORE:
KELLY, PIET & COMPANY.
1869.

PREFACE.

The following Essays were written for the most part as a diver
sion from the severer studies and labors attendant upon .the Profession of
Medicine. The article on Early Maryland, was written as a labor of love, con
amore, because of the author's deep and abiding interest in the subject.
Bossuet has said that a general history is like a chart of a country wherein
all the prominent outlines are shown, whereas a special history is like a
map which shows a country in detail, even to its hamlets and rivulets.
This article, it is believed, will be found to be a faithful chart of Colonial
Maryland. Of the two Essays on Mexico, the principal one was written at the
suggestion of the distinguished Senior Editor of the Southern Review, who
knew of the author's familiar acquaintance with the history and condition
of the Sister Eepublic. The Campaign Sketch is a companion piece to
Mexico and Mexican Affairs, and the two will probably give as much
information as the general reader may desire in regard to that country,
from the date of its independence down to the death of Maximilian.
The Epistle on Homceopathy, and the lectures on Hygiene, and Health
and Happiness, are on the border ground between medical and generalj
literature, which certainly will be intelligible, and probably will be interest
ing, to both professional and general readers. The two Lectures, it will be
observed, are upon kindred topics, and each one serves to illustrate and
sustain the other.
Baltimore, December, 1868.

TABLES OF CONTENTS.

I. The Early History op Maryland. - 1
George Calvert — resigns his offices on account of change of religion — page
1-4. Repelled from Virginia— 5. Obtains a Charter from Charles I.— 5.
Draws it up according to his own views— 6. The Clauses bearing upon
Religion— 6. Name of Maryland— 6. CeciliuB, Sd Lord Baltimore, carries
out his father's views— 8. The Ark and the Dime— 8. The Pilgrims take
possession— 8. The Cross, in good and evil repute— 8-9. *Cecilius aids his
Colony — 10. Missionary Priests among the Indians — 11. The Indians in
Massachusetts— 12. Harmony between Catholics and Protestants— 12.
Practical Toleration of Jews— 13. Toleration Act of 1649—13. Bancroft's
Testimony— 14. Case of Wm. Lewis— 15. Comparative Toleration in
Maryland and in Massachusetts— 16. Roger Williams colonizes Rhode
Island— 17. Gov. Calvert invites Colonists persecuted in Massachusetts
to Maryland— 17. Gov. Stone inviteB persecuted Puritans in Virginia to
Maryland — 17. Puritans accept land, but refuse to take oath annexed— 18.
Toleration Act of '49—18. William Clayborne, the evil genius of Mary
land— 19. Clayborne's agency in driving Lord Baltimore from Virginia
—20. He incites the Indians against the Maryland Colonists— 20. Clay
borne's claims ; he resorts to force and fraud ; conspires with the pirate
Ingle and other parties to overthrow the Proprietary Government— 21.
Puritan Assembly excludes Catholics and members of Church of England
from the protection of the Government— 22. Gov. Stone attempts to re
gain the lost rights of the Proprietary— 22. Mr. Coode's Association for
the defence of the Protestant religion— 23. Address of the ProteBtants of
Kent to the King— 23. Maryland a ' Royal Government '—25. Test Oaths
aud Disabilities— 25. Baltimore town— 25. The last Lord Baltimore— 25.
Laws against the Catholics— 26. The Portents of the Revolution— 26.
Tea-burning— 26. Conventions at Annapolis— 27. Resolutions in aid of
Massachusetts— 27. The Old Maryland Line— 28. The Revolution restored
lost rights to the people of Maryland— 28. The magnanimity of Lord Bal
timore's government— 29. Marylanders justly proud of his name, of his
character, of his Charter.
II. Mexico and Mexican Affairs. - - 30
Prescott ; Alaman— page 32. Whitening colored races— 32. Rio-del-desa-
giie— 33. Brazen Age— 33. Empire of Iturbide— 33. Forty years of An
archy— 34. Intervention of United States desired— 34. Maximilian at
Vera Cruz— 34. Invited to Mexico by assembly of Notables— 34. Maxi
milian executed — 35. The Viceroy Revillagigedo — 36. Outlawry of
Juarez's soldiers, by decree of Maximilian— 36. A like decree issued by
Gen'l Scott— 37. Dictatorship offered to Scott— 37. 240 Revolutions— 38.
Claim of Juarez to Presidency— 38. The United StateB held responsible
for execution of Maximilian— 38. Two Presidents— 39. Mr. McLane's
election— 39. United States Ship Saratoga aids Juarez— 39. United States
not to interfere in Mexican affairs— 40. United States agents sustain
Juarez— 41. Mexican Bonds— 41. Liberal ways and means of raising
funds— 42. Cosas de Mejico— 43. Black Mail— 43. Intervention of United
States-^44. Maximilian prepares to leave Mexico— 45. His cause betrayed
—45. N. Y. Tribune on his execution— 46. Mr. Seward's efforts to save

IV TABLES OF CONTENTS.
him — 47. Factitious public opinion in United States — 48. Liberals destruc
tive — 49. Conservatism inducing prosperity— 50. Incessant Revolutions
—61. The Liberals perturbators— 52. Mexico nQt a Republic— 63. Lepe-
ros — 56. Mexican popular government and free institutions illustrated —
57. No Mexican people ; preponderance of Indians — 59. Rancheros the
yeomanry — 60. Mixed races incapable of forming a stable government —
61 Mexican ladies— 62. Kindness to Texan prisoners— 63. Need of im
migration— 63.
HI. Mexican Campaign Sketch.
Camp Vergara, near Vera Ciuz— page 64. A Storm on the beach — 65
Peak of Orizaba— 65. Santa Anna's wild beef— 66, Mexican Escopetas—
66. ElVomito— 66. March in Tierras Calieutes— 66. Guerrillas— 66. Ja
lapa— 67. Prolific Vegetation — 68. The Banana— 68. Scott's Army at
Puebla — 68. Division Commanders — 68. Popocatapetl— 68. Istaccihuatl
—68. Tierras Templadas to Tierras Frias— 69. First glimpses of valley of
Mexico — 69. Physical Geography — 70. Products and Resources — 70. El
Peiion — 70. 'Phe war god ; his wife — 72. Battles of Contreras, &c— 73.
General demoralization of the people — 73. Influence of fair dealing — 74.
Battle of Molino del Rey— 74. Capture of Chapultepec— 74. Taking pos
session of the City of Mexico— 75. Winfield Scott ; Robert E. Lee— 76.
Withdrawal of the army deplored by the Mexicans — 77. Reign of Terror
—77. Memorial crosses— 77. The lessons derived from bad government—
77.
IV. Epistle on Homoeopathy.
Homoeopathic Essays — 78. Infinitesimal doses — 79. Revelations of philo
sophy— 80. Contagious matter in scarlet fever — 82. The millionth of a
grain of belladonna remedial — 82. Cure of Croup— 84. Of Erysipelas — 85.
Of Warts— 86. Contradictions among regular physicians — 87. Unanimity
among Homoeopaths — 88. Hahnemann's fictions — 88. Large doses in
small bulk— 89. Definition of Homoeopathy— 89. Gregory the Great on
Practice of Medicine— 89. Infinitesimal doses have no marked effect— 90.
Homoeopaths versus Homoeopathy — 91. Ignorance of Allopathy — 91. Com
mon sense of Homoeopathy— 91. Successful practice in Tartary and Thi
bet— 92. Allopathy sectarian and objectionable— 93. Homoeopathic poi
sons in our daily bread — 94.
V. Lecture on Hygiene.
Health— page 97. Disease— 97. Ease, and dis-ease— 98. Predisposing and
exciting causes— 98. Cognizable causes— 99. Non-cognizable— 99. Requi
sites for preservation of Health— 100. Deleterious influences of impure
air— 101. Black Hole of Calcutta— 101. Air of cities— 102. Affects chil
dren— 103. Disinfectants— 103. Air of mines, shops, &c— 103. Slaves of
Civilization— 103. Ventilation— 104. Food and Drink— 104. Milk the pro
totype of food— 105. Good and had bread— 105. Boiled wheat— 106. FreBh
and salt meat— 106. Water in cities— 106. Wines and liquors— 107. Drunk
ard's disease— 107. Alcohol— 108. Clothing— 109. Woollen, silk, cotton,
linen fabrics— 109. Protection of feet— 109. Of head— 109. Habits of life
—109. A good stomach— 110. Cleanliness— 111. Labor and reBt, of mind
and body— 111.
VI. Health and Happiness.
Health— 113. Happiness— 114. True Science— 115. Virtues and Vices—
116. Excesses in eating— 117. History of Cornaro — 118. Excesses in
drink— 119. Alcohol pernicious in the Tropics— 120. Alcohol pernicious
in Arctic regions— 120. A proper beverage in Utopia— 121. Tobacco— 121.
Bulwer and the gods— 121. Mrs. Abstinence— 122. A monk of the desert
of Cordova— 122. Dan Cupid— 123. Repression of the passions— 124. Di
vorces— 124. Habit of early self-control— 125.

feln Ubiorjr of Ufarglanb.

[Southern Review, January, 1869.]
Art. VI. — 1. An Historical View ofthe Government of Mary
land from its Colonization to the Present Day. By John V.
L. McMahon. Baltimore : F. Lucas, Jr. & Co. 1831.
2. The History of Maryland, from its first Settlement in 1633
to the Kestoration in 1660. By John Leeds Bozman. Bal
timore: Lucas & Deaver. 1837.
3. The Landholder's Assistant. By John Kilty, Register of the
Land Office, &c. Baltimore* S. Dobbin & Murphy. 1808.
4. A History of Maryland, from its Settlement in the year 1634
to the year 1848. By James McSherry. Baltimore: Jno.
Murphy & Co. 1850.
5. The Day-Star of American Freedom, or the Birth and Early
Growth of Toleration in the Province of Maryland. By
George Lynn-Lachlan Davis. New York : Scriijner. Bal
timore : Murphy. 1855.
6. Terra Marice, or Threads of Maryland Colonial History.
By Edward D. Neill. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott & Co.
1867.
It is, and it ought to be, a genuine refreshment to the way
farer over the rugged road of life, to find among our fellow men,
whether living or dead, examples of the combination in one per
son of the two rare qualities of greatness and goodness. There
are, indeed, ingenuous thinkers who deem these qualities, to a
certain extent, inseparable; or, at least, who imagine there is no
true greatness without that aggregation of virtues recognized as
1

2 The Early History of Maryland.
goodness; but this is a mistake which may be disproved by
nearly every page of general history. We have seen it some
where asserted, by an over-zealous champion of Christianity, that
there was no true eloquence but that inspired by Christianity,
in utter ignorance or oblivion of the fact that Demosthenes and
Cicero have now, and have ever had, more admirers than Paul
and Chrysostom; and those champions of goodness, who deem
it necessary to greatness, must likewise ignore or forget that
Alexander, Cajsar, Cromwell, and Napoleon, are conspicuous
among the great men of tlie earth. We fear that, in point of
fact, greatness and goodness are as little akin as Petruchio's stir
rups ; and yet they are, happily, sometimes combined. To say
nothing of the great and good of the Christian ministry, living
lights, or shining through all Christian ages and nations, we
may offer as familiar examples or representative men, an Alfred
the Great, a Sir Thomas More, a Christopher Columbus, and
last, not least, the great American — no, let us give him his local
habitation, — the great Virginian, whose name towers above
all others, sprung from this new and vigorous western world of
ours. The seventeenth century abounded in men of mark, in every
line of human distinction; and prominent among them were the
founders of the various American colonies, which were the
sources or fountain heads of states already great and powerful ; but
which are, as yet, but slightly developed in comparison with their
future destinies. All of these founders are more or less objects
of the world's admiration ; all were cast more or less in the same
heroic mould; all were brave, resolute, and self-reliant; men
of bold emprise, who won, without exception, the ' bubble repu
tation ', while seeking, for the most part, much more substantial
rewards. For ourselves, we believe that among the colonial founders
there are none more worthy of love, of praise, of admiration, or
iu like circumstances, of imitation, than George Calvert. In the
seventeenth century, knowledge was making immense strides • and
men's minds were expanding with what may be considered the
world's expansion. And yet, in some respects, and those the most
interesting as well as the most important to the happiness of the

The Early History of Maryland. 3
human race, the darkest shadows were lowering over the face of
Christendom ; and that faith which in intelligent minds must
needs be free to be real, was subject, in the mother country es
pecially, to civil or military power, or to the caprice of any
reigning tyrant.
Under the reign of James I., religious persecution Was very
active, and Catholics and Protestants had to bear penalties
that were sometimes almost beyond human endurance, for
adhering to the faith of their fathers, on the one hand, or,
on the other, for diverging from the tenets approved by the Brit
ish Solomon. This king himself, born of a Catholic mother,
and bred a Presbyterian; ' half Pope and half Puritan', gave to
both Catholics and Calvinists a foretaste in this world of what
he supposed they were to endure in the world to come. With
out dwelling upon these matters, we may say briefly, that numbers
of the sufferers were driven to seek homes beyond the seas. The
virgin soil of America offered the highest inducements to the
persecuted, of whatever denomination. The Puritan emigrants
made a lodgment, first in Holland, where they were free from
persecution, but where they found no prospect of material
advancement ; and then they wisely determined that their pro
mised land was in the new world, whither many of them di
rected their steps, to build up a new nation in the wilderness.
The Catholics, sorely beset in their native land, knew not where
nor how to find a place of peace and safety. Fortunately for
them, in the last year of the reign of King James, a courtier, a
gentleman, a scholar, a man of unquestioned ability in wielding
either the sword or the pen, publicly announced his attachment to
the Catholic faith. This was in 1624. It has been a matter of
keen controversy as to whether this conversion, or perversion,
as it was respectively considered, took place in 1624, or at an
earlier date. From the data furnished by the various disputants,
as well as by the most trustworthy authorities, we infer that the
gentleman in question adopted the Catholic faith positively in
the year 1624, although his inclination had been tending that
way for some years. Be this as it may, the able, accomplished,
and favorite courtier, Sir George Calvert, made his public pro
fession in the year above mentioned ; and, with this public pro-

4 The Early History of Maryland.
fession, he resigned the offices with which the King had hon
ored him. He held the office at that time, inter alia, of Chief
Secretary of State. ' This place he discharged ', says Fuller, in
his Worthies of England, ' above five years ; until he willingly
resigned the same, 1624, on this occasion. He freely confessed
himself to the king that he was then become a Roman Catholic,
so that he must either be wanting in his trust, or violate his
conscience, in discharging his office. This, his ingenuity, so
highly affected King James, that he continued him privy coun
cillor all his reign, (as appeareth in the council book), and soon
after created him Lord Baltimore, of Baltimore, iu Ireland.'
The courtier knew full well that his religious principles would
be of no worldly advantage to him; but, being stout of heart
and strong in faith, he declared them frankly, and prepared to
abide the consequences. In the words of Bancroft, ' preferring
the avowal of his opinions to the emoluments of office, he re
signed his place and openly professed his conversion.' Being
a personal favorite of the king, whom he had served with
fidelity and zeal, he retained position at court in spite ofthe
clamor of a rising party in the State, whose influence became
much more potent in subsequent years.
The privy councillor was not a man to rely exclusively and
devotedly upon royal favor. He was too sagacious to place all
his trust in princes. And even if the king should be always
friendly, there were other parties willing and ready to mar the
peace of his life. He was not exempt, notwithstanding the
king's favor, as McMahon remarks, from those difficulties and
mortifications which always attend the profession and exercise of
a proscribed religion. 'It was natural ', says this author, 'that
thus situated, he should desire to establish himself in some more
happy land, where, in every event, he might be free from the
persecutions of the Established Church. Men are not content
with the enjoyment, by mere sufferance, of either political or
religious liberty. The insecurity of the tenure robs them of half
their enjoyment.' He went to Avalon, J in Newfoundland, to
find a peaceful home, but left it on account of the rigor of the
'He called his first province Avalon, from the place where it is said Christianity
was first planted in England.

The Early History of Maryland. 5
climate ; 2 he went thence to Virginia, but was repelled from that
province by the local government on account of his religious
tenets. 'Then it was', continues McMahon, 'that his eyes
were cast upon the territory along the Chesapeake Bay, as yet
unsettled ; and by the amenity of its situation, and the fertility
of its resources, inviting him to its retreat. Here, if he could
but obtain a grant of it from the crown, he might dwell in his
own territory and under his own government ; and build up in
the wilderness a home for religious freedom. These were the
leading views which seem to have operated upon him, in apply
ing for the charter of Maryland ; and but for his untimely death ;
at the moment of accomplishing his wishes, it is probable he
would have removed to the province, and would have here per
manently established his family. Hence it may be truly said,
from the consideration of the views of its founder, and of the
character and objects of its first colonists, that the State of Mary
land, as well as the New England States, originated in the search
for civil and religious freedom ;«and the character of the former is
still further consecrated by the fact, that her government, for a
long period after the colonisation, was true to the principles which
laid the foundations of his colony. Her colonists, in escaping
from the proscriptions and persecutions of the mother country,
unlike those of some of the Puritan settlements of the North, did
not catch the contagion of the spirit which had driven them from
their homes.' 8
The buffetings which Calvert received on account of his reli-
gion, probably opened his eyes to the enormity of persecuting
men for their religious tenets. He had felt the wrong in
his own person, and he had witnessed the sufferings of others,
both of his own faith and of divers dissenting creeds, for
their religious opinions. It seemed to be sent to him, a just
and a wise man, like an inspiration, that this great evil, this
perennial scourge of Christendom, could and should be redress
ed at once and forever. Returning to England from Virginia,
he made a successful application to "King Charles I. for a grant
2 A French author complacently observes that he (Calvert) was ' oblige de' V aban-
donner & cause des excursions des Franfais ;' but in point of fact, in his engagements
with the French, he bore off the laurels, and they the cypress.
'McMahon's History of Maryland.

6 The Early History of Maryland.
of land within certain limits bordering upon the Chesapeake
Bay. He drew up the charter with his own hand, and he took
care to keep out of it anything which might trench upon liberty of
conscience. His own plans were already made. Except a couple
of phrases, one merely conventional, which declared that nothing
should be done in the colony to the detriment of God's holy reli
gion, and another that all ecclesiastical benefices were to be within
the gift of the proprietary, there was nothing in the charter bear
ing upon the subject of religion. It is to be presumed that the
king did not mean that the members of his own church should
be in any way molested on account of their creed ; but, at the
same time, there was a careful avoidance of making the Estab
lished Church of England the established church of the new
colony. King Charles meant to act gracefully and gratefully
by his father's old and trusted friend. He probably wished that
Calvert and his followers should have, in the wilderness beyond
the seas, as happy and as peaceful a home as possible. If the
Catholics could find an asylum iivc away from England, where
the king was often obliged to persecute, bongre malgre, his
majesty who, though selfish, was not cruel, by nature, would
rather favor than hinder the enterprise. Accordingly, he allow
ed Lord Baltimore to shape the charter to suit himself, reserving
only a nominal tribute, besides an interest in the precious metals
to be discovered in the province. So far, the provincial posses
sions had been the source of about' as much trouble as profit to
the crown ; and the king set very little store by the then nameless
territory asked by the petitioner. He gave it a name, however,
and happily hit upon the beautiful name of Mary, or Maria, the
second name of the queen, Henrietta Maria. And thenceforth
the brightest gem in the American cluster of provinces or states
was known as Terra Marioz, or Maryland, otherwise called with
reason, the Land of the Sanctuary.
At this stage of the proceedings, the great and good George
Calvert was gathered to his fathers ; but his works have survived
him. He had projected a scheme for the happiness of his fellow
men, which was carried into execution by his son and successor,
Cecilius, with results with which the world is familiar. ' Sir
George Calvert died,' says Bancroft, ' leaving a name against

The Early History of Maryland. 7
which the breath of calumny has hardly dared whisper a
reproach.' We should like to dwell upon his fame and memory if our
space permitted ; for calumny has dared to touch his name —
only to recoil, and to plague the inventors. Detraction has
been busy, and, since the facts are all in favor of Calvert, his
motives have been assailed; but empty assertion, and conjectures,
or surmises, have fortunately exerted very little influence over
the minds of men capable of thinking and judging for them
selves. We pass on rapidly to the actual settlement of Maryland.
George Calvert dying, the charter was made out in favor of
the second Lord Baltimore, Cecilius Calvert. In the words
of the instrument, the son and heir, 'treading in the steps of his
father, and being animated with a laudable and pious zeal for ex
tending the Christian religion, and also the territories of our
empire, hath humbly besought leave of Us, that he may trans
port by his own industry and expense, a numerous colony of the
English nation to a certain region, hereinafter described, in a
country hitherto uncultivated, in the parts of America, and
partly occupied by savages, having no knowledge of the Divine
Being, and that all that region, &c, may by our royal highness
be given, granted, and confirmed unto him and his heirs.
'Know ye therefore, that We, encouraging with our royal
favor the pious and noble purpose of the aforesaid barons of
Baltimore, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere
motion, have given, granted, and confirmed, and by this
our present charter, for US, our heirs and successors, do give,
grant, and confirm unto the aforesaid Cecilius, now baron of Balti
more, his heirs and assigns, all that part of the Peninsula or
Chersonese, lying in the parts of America between the ocean on
the East, and the bay of Chesapeake on the West,'4 &c, &c.
'Treading in the steps of his father', in the words ofthe king,
is not, in this instance, the language of empty compliment. The
great soul of George Calvert designed to establish a government
wherein liberty of conscience should be the crowning glory of a just,
liberal, and generous rule. But George Calvert did not establish
' See Charter in Bozman's History of Maryland.

8 The Early History of Maryland.
his government. This work was left for his son and successor,
and it often happens that the son and heir has widely different
views from those of his progenitor. In this case, however, the
son was fully imbued with the sentiments of the father, and it
devolved upon him to reduce theory to practice. It was a grand
experiment at that day, but a successful one, for a time at least,
as we shall see; and though interrupted for a time, it was, we
may hope, the harbinger of better and brighter days for all Christ
endom, to the end.
In the month of November, 1633, two vessels of significant
and memorable names — the Ark and the Love — sailed from
England with the first pilgrims destined for Maryland. These
pilgrims were, for the most part, gentlemen of means and con
dition, who, with their families, — wives, children, and servants, —
were in search of the most desirable of earthly blessings —
peaceful and happy homes. After various adventures and per
ils, the pilgrims landed on the banks of the Potomac in March,
1634. They were met by large bodies of armed natives, who
swarmed upon the shores, who sent messengers inland, and who,
by night, illumined earth and sky with their alarm fires, to invite
the neighboring savages from far and near to repel the invaders.
The hostility of these simple children of nature was soon dis
armed by the conciliatory policy of the immigrants. At the
head of these was Leonard Calvert, brother to the proprietary,
and now governor of the new commonwealth, another worthy
son of a worthy sire. The governor immediately entered into
friendly relations with the Indians, and ' Maryland ', as Mc-
Sherry remarks, ' was almost the only State whose early settle
ment was not stained with the blood ofthe unfortunate natives.'
This is another crown of glory for the lovely princess of the
Chesapeake. On the 25th of March, the colonists ' took solemn possession
of Maryland, and their priests performed divine service for the
first time within its borders. After mass was ended, the pilgrims
formed in procession, led by the governor, Leonard Calvert, the
secretary and other officers, carrying on their shoulders a huo-e
cross, hewn from a tree, and erected it upon the island, as the
emblem of Christianity and civilization, which they were about

The Early History of Maryland. 9
to plant upon those shores. Under these auspices was begun the
founding of Maryland.'5
The cross was not, in those days, considered by all American
colonists, as a Christian emblem. A curious illustration of hos
tility to this ancient and venerable symbol, may be found in the
life of Sir Henry Vane, when governor of Massachusetts. The
Bostonians and some English captains had certain compromises
to make to get on satisfactorily, and inter alia, the captains
desired that the royal ensign should be displayed on the fort in
the harbor. ' Fair and reasonable as this request seems,'
says Mr. Upham, Vane's biographer, 'it would have been
impossible for the captains to contrive a more effectual dilem
ma for the poor Puritans.' They did not want to appear disloyal
to the crown from which they held their charter, but to hoist the
ensign was to hoist the cross also in the chosen centre of Puri
tanism. With the ingenuity, which was already a New England
trait, they avoided both horns of the dilemma for a time, by
declaring there was no royal ensign in the colony. The captains
offered to lend or give colors for the occasion. 'All chance of
escape being thus shut out, the magistrates met the question
fairly, and returned this reasonable answer to the request of the
ship-masters, that, although they were fully persuaded that the
cross in the colors was idolatrous, yet as the fort belonged to the
king, they were willing that his own flag should fly there.'
The clergy took the matter in hand the same evening, and
caused the magistrates to reconsider, and finally to refuse the
request of the captains. The governor remained firm, however,
and displayed the flag without the authority of the clergy and
magistrates; after which act his official relations with the colo
nial government became more and more discordant, until the
opposition finally brought his administration to a close.6
Our colonists soon set to work manfully as tillers of the soil;
and by dint of industry and good management, they enjoyed a
modest prosperity from the first clays of their occupation. They
soon learned the virtues of Indian corn, among other good
things, and improved upon the hominy and pone of the natives;
jMcSherry's History of Maryland.
6 Sparks's American Biography.

10 The Early History of Maryland.
though no culinary art has made the roasting ear, from that day
to this, any better than it was when the colonists first received it
from the hands of their rude but hospitable entertainers.
The colony throve by its own exertions, and also in conse
quence of the foresight of its founder. ' It was supplied', says
McMahon, ' for its establishment by the kind providence of the
proprietary, not only with the necessaries, but even with many
ofthe conveniences adapted to an infant settlement. Although
many of the first emigrants were gentlemen of fortune, he did
not therefore throw the colony on its resources, and leave it
dependent for its subsistence upon the casual supplies of an unre
claimed country, and a savage people. At the embarkation of
the colony, it was provided at his expense with stores of pro
visions and clothing, implements of husbandry, and the means
of erecting habitations ; and for the first two or three years after
its establishment, he spared no expense which was necessary to
promote its interests. It appears, not only from the petition
preferred in 1715, to the English Parliament, by Charles Lord
Baltimore; but also from the concurring testimony of all the
historians who treat ofthe settlement of this colony, that, during
the first two or three years of its establishment, Cecilius, the
proprietary, expended upon it upwards of £40,000. Nor did
his care stop there. He governed it with a policy more effica
cious than his means would justify, in giving strength and confi
dence to the colony, and happiness to the settlers. The lands of
the province were held up as a premium to emigrants. The
freemen were convened in Assembly, and thus made to feel that
they were dwelling under their own government. Religious
liberty was subject only to the restraints of conscience ; courts of
justice were established ; and the laws of the mother country,
securative of the rights of person and property, were introduced
in their full operation. The laws of justice and humanity were
observed towards the natives. The results of so sagacious a
policy were soon perceived. During the first seven years of the
colony, its prosperity was wholly uninterrupted; and when the
interruption came, it proceeded from causes which no policy
could have averted.'
While the colonists were attending to their material interests,

The Early History of Maryland. 11
planting, trading with the Indians, &c, their missionary priests
were exerting themselves to bring the pagan natives into the
Christian fold. Mr. Neill, in his Terra Maria;, assures us that
the Quakers were the first people to arouse religious sentiment
in Maryland. 'The fair-minded historian', he says, 'cannot
disguise the fact, that under the influence of these despised peo
ple, the first great religious awakening in Maryland occurred.'
George Fox, ' one day in 1672', appeared upon the banks of
the Patuxent to diffuse Christian truth. Before George Fox
commenced his work in America, however, historians, fair-
minded or otherwise, agree that Fathers White and Altham, of
the Society of Jesus, first, and subsequently others of their faith
and order, had not only attended to the spiritual wants of the
English settlers, but had made numerous conversions among
native princes and people. At a very early day, ' the two priests
obtained, by the consent of its owner, one of the Indian huts or
wigwams, for their own use; and having fitted it up in the most
becoming manner their circumstances allowed, they called it the
"first chapel in Maryland." Here they immediately applied
themselves to the study of the Indian language, in which they
found the difficulties much increased by the number of dialects
used among the different tribes.' 7 The colonies were often spoken
of as plantations, and Father Roger Rigbie, catching the word?
writes to his superior in 1640, to allow him to go to work in that
1 new spiritual plantation' , with others, 'farr better deserving',
already in the field. In various quarters, conversions were made
of entire towns or tribes. At the Indian town of Potopaco,
for example, nearly all the native inhabitants embraced Christ
ianity, to the number of 130, including the young queen, and the
wife and two children of the former principal chief. We believe
that there is at this day a Christian population at Potopaco, now
Port Tobacco, not less in numbers than at the day of the conver
sion of the young queen and her adherents.
The missions, considering the paucity of the missionaries, were
quite extensive. ' We have seen that up to 1642, the Gospel
had been preached to the Indians with success,' continues Camp-
¦ Early Missions in Maryland. Read before the Maryland Historical Society by
B. U. Campbell, Esq.

12 The Early History of Maryland.
bell, ' not only at the capital of the province, but at Kent Island
in the Chesapeake Bay, at Piscataway and Port Tobacco, on the
Maryland side of the Potomac ; aud at Patowmech town on the
Virginia side of that river; at Mattapany and Pawtuxent town,
on the Patuxentriver ; besides in many other places which were
visited by the missionaries in their aquatic excursions.'
The just and generous treatment of the Indians in Maryland
forms a striking contrast with their treatment in Massachusetts;
where, as Bancroft testifies, 'the first planters assumed to them
selves a right to treat the Indians on the footing of Canaanites
and Amalekites.' The children of the first planters placed
them in a still worse condition; for, according to Mr. Upham,
they were held to be the devil's own children and agents, whom
the saints were in duty bound to exterminate, and send back to
the powers of darkness whence they came. {Salem Witchcraft,
&c, by Charles W. Upham.)
In these primitive days of the colony, most of the colonists
were of the faith of the proprietary, but there were also among
-them some Protestants. The relations between Catholics and
Protestants were, for the most part, unusually harmonious; and
it seemed to be a prime wish of the proprietary that all should
live together, notwithstanding differences in faith or opinion, as
one happy family. He exacted an oath of the governor, which
bound that official, and the privy councillors also, not to trouble,
molest, or discountenance any person whatever, directly or indi
rectly, professing to believe in Jesus Christ. Every form of
Christian faith was perfectly free. At this time, in the words of
Bancroft, ' every other country in the world had persecuting
laws.' And, pursues this author : ' Under the mild institutions
and munificence of Baltimore, the dreary wilderness soon bloomed
with the swarming life and activity ofprosperous settlements ; the
Roman Catholics, oppressed by the laws of England, were sure
to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet harbors ofthe Chesapeake,
and there, too, Protestants were sheltered from Protestant intol
erance.' It is to be regretted that Lord Baltimore had not taken one
step further, and admitted Jews and all other honest worshippers
of God to equal rights in his province. It does not appear

The Early History of Maryland. 13
however, that even Jews were molested unless they became ag
gressive. 'A Jew, without peril to his life,' says Mr. Davis,
'could not call the Saviour ofthe world a " magician "^>r a
" necromancer." ' In a foot-note, this author goes on to sayw In
the text I have referred to Dr. Lumbrozo, tliJBfcll-known Jew,
(for he seems to have observed no secrecy,) wnwfived some time
in Maryland, in the usual exercise of his calling, and of the
right to institute actions in the civil court. We can not doubt
he was also allowed the quiet enjoyment of his religion. But
he was accused of blaspheming', &c. He said.the Saviour was
a ' man ' who performed his miracles ' by ye art magic' He
was ordered to remain iu. ' y* Sheriff's custody to make answer
at y' next Provincial court', 8 but in consequence of remote po
litical events, he fortunately escaped a trial.
It was an object with the authorities to tolerate difference of
religious opinion, and to promote social harmony. Religious
toleration was maintained by the proprietary and the governor
from the beginning. Says Mr. Davis, speaking of the first gov
ernor : ' His policy included the humblest, as well as the most
exalted; and his maxim was, Peace to all — Proscription
ok none. Religious liberty was a vital part of the earliest
common law of the province.' It was deemed advisable to
make toleration more than a mere matter of personal benevo
lence. It may be that the colonists were quickened in their ac
tion, as Bancroft and others allege, by the state of affairs in
England ; but whether so or not, the fact remains as he says
'in April, 1649, the Roman Catholics of Maryland, with the
earnest concurrence of the governor and of the proprietary, de
termined to place upon their statute-book an act for the religious
freedom which has ever been sacred on their soil. " And, where
as the enforcing of conscience in matters of religion" — such
was the sublime tenor of a part ofthe statute — " hath frequently
fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those common
wealths where it has been practiced, a^nd for the more quiet and
peaceable government of this province, and the better to pre
serve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person
within this province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall
8 Davis' Day-Star of American Freedom.

14 The Early History of Maryland.
be in any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his
or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof." Thus did the
early star of religious freedom appear as the harbinger of day.
. . fh . But the design of the law of Maryland was undoubt
edly to protect frjflkom of conscience ; and the apologist of Lord
Baltimore coulcflffilert that his government, in conformity with
his strict and repeated injunctions, had never given disturbance
to any person iu Maryland for matter of religion; that the
colonists enjoyed freedom of conscience, not less than freedom of
person and estate, as amply as ever any people in any place in
the world. The disfranchised friends of prelacy from Massa
chusetts, and the Puritans from Virginia, were welcomed to
equal liberty of conscience and political rights in the Roman
Catholic province of Maryland.' 9
The Calverts were at all times so anxious to keep the peace
between members of the different religious denominations, that
they decreed penalties long before the famous act of 1649, for
offensive disputations. Mr. Neill narrates the instance of AVm.
Lewis, as a case in point, but he seems to have taken a very
limited view of the facts. He tells us that ' Thomas Cornwallis,
a councillor of the province, had a number of white servants
under the care of an overseer, named William Lewis. One day,
in the year 1638, these servants were listening to the reading of
sermons written by the eloquent Puritan divine, known in Eng
land as the " silver-tongued Smith," when the overseer, in a rage,
said that the book came from the devil, as all lies did, and that
he that wrote it was an instrument of the devil, and that they
should not keep nor read such books. Christopher Carroll, and
others of the aggrieved, complained of this abuse to the civil
authorities, and to the credit of the governor and council, Lewis
was found guilty of an offensive and indiscreet speech, and was
fined 500 pounds of tobacco.' 10
The sermons of the silver-tongued divine were scarcely such as
were suitable for reading aloud in a Catholic dwelling, and in
the ears of the proprietor, intended as he believed for his hear
ing, when such passages as — ' that the Pope was anti-Christ, and
the Jesuits anti-Christian ministers ', &c, were specimens of the
9 Bancroft's History U. S. I0 Terra Mariae.

The Early History of Maryland. 15
pious reading. Lewis ordered the servants to stop ; and certainly
he was not choice in his phrases, nor would a Calvinist probably
be, if Calvin were held up to scorn in his hearing under hia^wn
roof; so that mutual charges were the result, yet it seems tnm he
alone was punished. Pie asserted that the servants were getting
up a petition, to call in the intervention in their behalf of the
authorities of Virginia. ' If the charge was true/ says Bozman,
' that they intended to prefer their petition to the governor of
Virginia, it is certain that such conduct wore very much the
aspect of the political crime called sedition.' u
Notwithstanding all the obvious facts in favor of the early
proprietary govtrnment, aud especially in the matter of that
kind of liberty which is most important to the happiness of
mankind, — liberty of conscience, — there are parties who give most
grudgingly and reluctantly any meed of praise to the founders
of Maryland, and its civil and religious liberty ; while they make
most extraordinary claims for the liberty-loving and liberty-dif
fusing sentiment of the eastern colonies. This is illustrated in
a paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, in May,
1852, entitled, Maryland Two Hundred Years Ago, by a resi
dent of Baltimore, then recently from New England. The au
thor appears to make it his aim to give Lord Baltimore and his
colonists the least credit possible, without denying the plainest
facts of colonial history. Lord Baltimore's representative, Gov.
Calvert, issued a proclamation substantially against religious
quarrels, rather than arguments; leaving every man at the same
time to the enjoyment of his own opinions, provided he did not
interfere with those of others.
' If the enforcement of Governor Calvert's proclamation proves
toleration, it will be easy to show that the Massachusetts author
ities were tolerant in the same way, and on the same principle.
Hubbard, an old writer, says, " It was on that account [the dis
turbance of the civil peace] that men suffered, [in New Eng
land] under authority and not for their opinions ; for if men
that have drunk in any erroneous principles, would also make
use of so much prudence as not to publish them in a tumultuous
manner, and to the reproach of the worship established in the
11 Bozman, v. 2, p. 85.

16 The Early History of Maryland.
place where they live, they would not have occasion to complain
of the severity of the civil laws."' (Note p. 39.)
The force of this insinuating defence will scarcely convince
the/jMder that the authorities of Massachusetts were as generous
as the authorities of Maryland. The former actually passed a
law to prevent *ny but approved members of their own sect
from coming into their colony ; no colonist could harbor one of
dubious theological opinions, nor let to such a one a lot or habi
tation, 'and a large fine was also to be levied upon any town
which should, without such permission, allow a stranger a resi
dence.' (Upham.) 'It has often been remarked', says Mr.
Upham, 'that oar fathers were guilty of great inconsistency in
persecuting the followers of Mrs. Hutchinson, the Quakers, and
others, inasmuch as they settled the country in order to secure
themselves from persecution. They are often reproached as
having contended manfully for the rights of conscience when
they were themselves sufferers, and as then turning against
others, and violating their rights of conscience, so soon as they
had the power and the opportunity to do it. But the remark
and the reproach are equally founded in error. It was for reli
gious liberty, in a pecidiar sense, that our fathers contended,
and they were faithful to the cause, as they understood it. The
true principle of religious liberty, in its wide and full compre
hension, had never dawned upon their minds, and was never
maintained by them.' '2 This, be it remembered, is from an ad
mirer and apologist of the Puritan pilgrims.
Was Roger Williams, — 'godly, zealous, and having precious
gifts', — a tumultuous disturber of the civil peace? To us, he ap
pears to have had an opinion, for which he was duly or unduly
punished. He maintained that the civil magistrate should re
strain crime, but should not control opinion ; should punish
guilt, but should not violate the freedom of the soul. Massa
chusetts toleration found such heretical doctrine intolerable.
' No one ', said Williams, ' should be bound to worship, or to
maintain a worship, against his own consent.' 'What,' ex
claimed his antagonists, 'is not the laborer worthy of his hire?'
' Yes,' replied he, 'from them that hire him.' It was, in his
12 Sparks's American Biography.

The Early History of Maryland. 17
view, a 'yoke of soul -oppression ', that magistrates should exer
cise spiritual powers over the people. ' The evils inseparable
on a religious establishment ', says Bancroft, ' soon began to be
displayed. The ministers got together, and declared any one
worthy of banishment who should obstinately assert that the
civjl magistrate might not intermeddle, even to stop a church
from apostasy and heresy.'
Mr. Williams was accordingly driven forth, living sometimes
among the Indians, sometimes in midwinter without any shel
ter but a hollow tree, until he got beyond the reach of his per
secutors, settling at Rhode Island, A. D., 1636, and getting an
Indian deed for a tract there in 1638, whence his colony grew
into life and prosperity under his liberal guidance.
The author oi Maryland Two Hundred Years Ago, endeavors to
give Williams precedence over Lord Baltimore, in making Rhode
Island the first dwelling-place of religious liberty in America.
Maryland, he informs us, was the second, but was very near
being only the third ; as the Plymouth Company would have been
the first, but for the timidity of the governor, who acted in op
position to the wishes of the people ; so that the bill for religious
liberty in the Plymouth settlement, instead of being passed, was,
unfortunately, never acted upon !
Meantime, what was going on in Maryland? Gov. Calvert,
in 1637, wrote a letter to Boston, inviting colonists who were per
secuted for conscience' sake, to come to Maryland, assuring to
them not only religious freedom, but perfect equality with his
>wn colonists in all civil rights. 13 The harassed Puritans in
Virginia were also invited to find refuge, asylum, and freedom,
in Maryland. ' Mankind then ', says a distinguished authority,
' beheld a scene new, and uncommon, exhibited on colonial thea
tres ; they saw in Massachusetts the Independents persecuting
every different sect; the Church retaliating on them in Virginia;
the Roman Catholics of Maryland alone, actuated by the gen
erous spirit of Christianity, tolerating and protecting all.' "
When Gov. Stone, succeeding Calvert, invited persecuted
Puritans from Virginia to come to Maryland, making them very
liberal offers, they objected to the quantity of lands offered as
13 Winthrop's Journal. u Chalmers' Political Annals.
2

18 The Early History of Maryland.
insufficient. Lord Baltimore being appealed to, he changed the
grant ' to three thousand acres for every thirty persons ; but re
quiring from each settler, as before, the oath of fidelity, as a con
dition (precedent to taking possession of his land.'
They gratefully and promptly accepted this offer. ' Here they
sat down, and joyfully and cheerfully followed their vocations;
so that it might be appositely said of them and the proprietary,
in the words of Cowper :
"Ample was the boon
He gave them ; in its distribution, fair
And equal ; and he bade them dwell in peace.
Peace was awhile their care ; they ploughed, and sowed,
And reaped their plenty without grudge or strife." ' w
The quotation is not entirely apposite ; for, as the same author
ity tells us : ' The Puritans brought the old hatred of Popery,
and looked with distrust upon the oath, because it required them
to obey a government that was bound to respect the religious
convictions of the Roman Catholics in the province. This, in
the eyes of the more zealous, was no better than upholding anti-
Christ ; and although they at first submitted, yet as they gained
strength, aud their friends in England consolidated their power,
they more openly manifested their repugnance, and finally re
fused to take the oath as it had been prescribed.' I6
They took the ample boon readily enough, but ungraciously
enough ; showing their teeth, as it were, and yet not by way of
smile, to the proprietary government, as they accepted its bounty.
They soon, indeed, reaped their plenty in peace, but they did not
desire that their generous hosts should long enjoy the same
blessings. The author of Maryland Two Hundred Years Ago wrongfully
claims that the Assembly, which passed the famous Toleration
Act of 1649, was composed principally of Protestants; a mis
take most amply corrected by various writers, and especially by
Mr. Davis, in the Lay-Star of American Freedom. The author
shows his animus still further, by asserting that Lord Baltimore
had procured the charter of Avalon in almost the same terms as
that of Maryland, when he was a Protestant ; so that there is no
reason in making any claims for Catholic toleration in the foun-
15 Maryland Two Hundred Years Ago. 16 Ibid.

The Early History of Maryland. 19
dation of Maryland. In reply to this, it may be said that when
Lord Baltimore obtained his charter for Avalon, he was already
a Catholic, or on the eve of becoming one. He was then cast
ing about for, or projecting, a home to be consecrated to religion
in the New World, as the very name of his province indicates.
It appears to us, that in the tone of Maryland Two Hundred
Years Ago, may be detected a modicum, or more, of that ' old
hatred of Popery', which the author speaks of as characterizing
a class of persons who evidently enjoyed his sympathies. If
Lord Baltimore had been of the New England orthodoxy, there
would have been no limits to his praise. He would have been
the greatest and best man of his age, if not of all ages. But
as a Catholic, he and his works may only be commended with
'faint praise', or, at most, within the limits of a very prudent
reserve. Now, the simple fact is, that Lord Baltimore, a Cath
olic, ' animated', we may say, as Columbus said of himself, 'as
by a heavenly fire ', decreed toleration in matters of religion, in
advance of all the lawgivers of his day. We may readily be
lieve that the same man, with his innate magnanimity, would
have done the same thing had he remained a Protestant. Some
men are constitutionally bigots, be their religious profession
what it may; while others, cast in a nobler mould, are incapable
of bigotry. Lord Baltimore was one of the latter class. Per
haps Roger Williams was another. We should certainly class
him with such as Baltimore, but for the fact that the first As
sembly in his province passed an act discriminating against
Catholics. It tolerated them in some sense ; that is, it allowed
them to dwell in Providence, but it forbade their holding office,
or voting at elections. Thus, Mr. Williams's settlement, at least,
was not on a footing, in liberality, with Lord Baltimore's.
The early peace of Maryland was much troubled by William
Clayborne, commonly called the evil genius of the colony.
Clayborne had licenses from the king and from the governor of
Virginia, to trade with the Indians on the Chesapeake; and
under these licenses he established a trading-post on Kent Island,
which came within the limits of Lord Baltimore's charter. He
took a decided stand against the Marylanders from the first;
indeed, he was prominent in driving Lord Baltimore from Vir-

20 The Early History of Maryland.
ginia, when that nobleman was desirous of establishing himself
in that colony. ' Governor John Pott, Samuel Mathews, Roger
Smyth, and William Clayborne, remonstrated with the privy
council in behalf of the colony of Virginia, relative to Balti
more's visit. In a communication of November 13, they state :
" That about the beginning of October last, Lord Baltimore
arrived in Virginia, from his plantation in Newfoundland, with
intention, as they are informed, to plant to the southward, but
has since seemed willing with his family to reside at this place.
He, and some of his followers, being of the Romish religion,
utterly refused to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance,
tendered to them according to instructions received from King
James. As they have been made happy in the freedom of their
religion, they implore that, as heretofore, no Papists may be suf
fered to settle among them." ' [Terra Maries p. 47). In these
few lines, Mr. Clayborne shows a capacity for both malice and
falsehood. When Lord Baltimore's people took possession of Maryland,
Clayborne was what would now be called a squatter on Kent
Island. He was promptly notified, that if he remained, he would
be deemed a subject of the colony. He as promptly refused to
submit, and he made an appeal to his friends in Virginia to
sustain him, which they were disposed to do; they urged him
to resist the Maryland authorities. He needed no urging, but
immediately prepared for action. His first scheme was one very
likely to bring destruction upon the colony. He began to poison
the minds of the Indians against the colonists, telling them that
the Maryland settlers were Spaniards, and his and their secret
enemies. The natives at first took his counsels, and began to
manifest hostility to the settlers. These last were obliged to
suspend the works of peace, and to give their energies to finish
ing a fortification for protection in case of necessity. Meantime,
however, they treated the Indians with the uniform justice and
kindness Avhich had marked their course from the beginning,
until at length it became clear to these children of the forest
that Clayborne was using them for his own ends, and not at all
for their good or welfare. As soon as this was clear to them,
they resumed and perpetuated their friendly relations with the
colonists. (McSherry.)

The Early History of Maryland. 21
It is needless for us to follow any arguments about Clayborne's
' rights ' or his ' wrongs', though these arguments abound in the
various authorities. The main force of his claim was, that he
established himself in Kent Island as a part of Virginia, and
that therefore he was not subject to Lord Baltimore; as he had
established himself there before the Maryland charter was issued-
Some writers justify this claim, but they set aside the most
prominent fact against it, to wit : that the charters granted to
Virginia had been annulled, and the rights conferred by them
re-vested in the crown. ' From that' period, (1623), Virginia
became what was termed "a royal government", and as such
there was an inherent right in the crown to alter and contract
its boundaries, or to carve new and distinct territories or govern
ments out of it at its pleasure; yet, incontestible as this right
was, it will be seen that the exercise of it in granting the pro
vince of Maryland, was the source of much dissatisfaction
among the colonists of Virginia ; and that at one period, at
tempts were made to assert and maintain the existence of the
charter government, notwithstanding the judgment on the quo
warranto, for the sole purpose of reclaiming the territory of
Maiyland as lying within the old charter limits.' (McMahon).
Clayborne spared neither force nor fraud to obtain the ascen
dancy, and he intrigued with divers disaffected parties, (Ingle
among others), to override the proprietary government; in which
he had successes and reverses, alternately, until, after about a
quarter of a century of turbulence, he was finally and effectively
defeated. During the ascendancy of the Parliament17 in England,
Clayborne was in active, co-operation with the Puritans, who
were always ready to repay the benefits received from the pro
prietary government in a way peculiar to, themselves. They
were ready to do battle in any form for its overthrow, but were
reluctant to enter the lists for its preservation, even against the
17 'The Puritans artfully connected political grievances which were real and nu
merous, with religious principles and ceremonies ; and having the main body of
the people with them, as to the former, while these were, iu consequence of the
endless change of creeds, become indifferent as to the latter, they soon' became,
under the name of " The Parliament" , the sole rulers of the country ; they abol
ished the Church and the House of Lords, and finally brought, in 1649, during the
progress of their " thorough godly reformation ", the unfortunate king himself to
trial and to the block.' — Wm. Cobbet.

22 The Early History of Maryland.
Indians, where themselves were not exposed. Thus, when the
Nanticoke Indians assailed the settlers upon the Eastern Shore,
burning, ravaging, and slaughtering, and people were filled with
terror, an earnest effort was made by the governor to raise a
force to protect the frontiers. Every seventh man capable of
bearing arms, was ordered to muster into service ; boats were
prepared, &c. But the Puritans of Anne Arundel refused to
make their levies; selfishly alleging as the reason, the hardships
of the season, December and January, and the danger to their
health from exposure on the bay and rivers in open boats. (Boz-
nian.) In 1654, by virtue of the condition of affairs in the mother
country, the Puritans were the ruling powers in Maryland.
Their guiding spirits were ' Commissioners ' Clayborne and Ben
nett. An assembly was called, which excluded Catholics ex
plicitly. This body passed a law excluding Catholics and the
members of the Church of England from the protection of the
government. The same assembly also passed an act to prevent
the taking of the oath of fidelity to the Lord Proprietary.
They were willing to take nothing of or from the proprietary but
his lands, and these they hoped to get and keep without grants
or rents. 18 His lordship, upon receiving tidings of these pro
ceedings, rebuked Gov. Stone for want of vigor, and directed
him to regain his lost rights. Stone made the effort, and at first
was successful. He then went with 130 men to reduce
the refractory parties at Providence, (now Annapolis), but
these having superior numbers, and the aid of an armed ship,
the Golden Lyon, in the harbor, turned the tables upon him, and
nearly annihilated his little force. The governor, wounded and
a prisoner, and several of his council, were condemned to be shot,
although they had surrendered themselves upon the pledge of
quarter ; several actually were shot in cold blood while prisoners.
' After the skirmish ', says Doctor Barber, ' the governor, upon
quarter being given him and all his company in the field, yielded
to be taken prisoners ; but two or three days after, the victors
co ndemned ten to death, and executed foure, and had executed
all, had not the incessant petitioning and begging of some good
18 See Proclamations, &c., in Kilty's Landholder's Assistant.

The Early History qf Maryland. 23
women saved some, and the souldiers others ; the governor him-
selfe being condemned by them, and since beg'd by the souldiers ;
some being saved, just as they were leading out to execution.'
(Bozman.) We have now seen the origin of religious toleration and of re
ligious intolerance in Maryland. After six years of struggle
the proprietary regained his rights, (1658), and appointed Fen
dall his governor, who soon in turn proved rebellious. He was
displaced in favor of Philip Calvert, the proprietary's brother,
and to him succeeded Charles Calvert, a son of the proprietary;
both wise and just men, under whom the colony throve apace,
both in numbers and in resources.
Things went on peacefully enough until 1689, just after Wil
liam and Mary were enthroned in England. An opportunity
was now offered for neglected politicians to rise in the province,
which they did not neglect to use. Mr. John Coode, a proto
type 'know-nothing' Christian, got up ' An Association inarms
for the defence of the Protestant religion, and for asserting the
rights of King William and Queen Mary to the Province of Mary
land, and to all the English dominions.' Coode was a man of
thoroughly bad habits and character; though calling himself a
clergyman, he was presented by the grand jury, under the gov
ernment which he was foremost in establishing, for atheism and
blasphemy. He expressed his determination to overthrow the
government in Maryland. He was tried and convicted, but
pardoned in consideration of servicesrendered during the revo
lution of '89. (MoMahon.) Mr. Coode's association called a
convention, which denounced Lord Baltimore to the king, lay
ing accusations against him, and requesting the King to take the
province in his own hands, which he did. It availed nothing
that people of high character, Catholic and Protestant, mae'e
counter representations to the King. Upon this point the testi
mony from the Protestant county of Kent, is equally interesting
and valuable. The reader will pardon our reproducing a por
tion of iii
' Address of Protestants of Kent County, November, 1689.
' To the King's most Excellent Majestie :
' We, your Majestie's most loyall and dutyfull subjects, the

24 The Early History of Maryland.
ancient Protestant Inhabitants of Kent county, in yr Majestie's
Province of Maryland, who have here enjoyed many halcyon
dayes under the immediate government of Charles Lord Baron
Baltemore, and his honourable father,' assure his Majesty that
they have always enjoyed, to the fullest extent, all rights and
privileges, civil and religious, under the proprietary government,
and, 'Doe, in prostrate and humble manner testify to your Maj-
estie that we abhorr and detest ye falsehood and unfaithfullness
of John Coode, and others his associates and agents, who first
by dispersing untrue reports of prodigious armies of Indians
and French Papists invading us, did stirr up unjust jealousies
and dismall apprehensions in ye less cautious sort of people in
this Province, and then having thereby created unnecessary
feares, and disposed ye people to mutiny and tumult, made fur
ther insurrection, and extorted the lawfull government from the
Lord Proprietary, who was always as ready to redress our griev
ances as wee to complaine.' Coode's ' Delegates ' had given the
command of the militia to ' unworthy and infamous persons',
and ' many of them have procured themselves to be putt in judi
cial! places to the terror of your Majestie's more peaceable sub
jects.' Wherefore the petitioners requested that the government
be again restored to Lord Baltimore, ' which will make him and
us happy, and give us new occasion to bless God, and to pray
for your Majestie's life, and happy reign.'19
' (Signed,) Wm. Frisby, Henry Coursey,
Griffith Jo%es, Josh. Wickes,
Robert Burman, Jno. Hynson,
Philemon Hemsley, George Sturton,
Simon Wilmer, Lambert Wilmer,
William Peckett, Gerrardus Wessels,
Josias Lanham, Richard Jones,
Thomas Ringgold, Philip Conner.
Tho. Smyth,
' Indorsed. ' Kent County in the Province of Maryland.
' Address to His Majty-'
But the ' halcyon days ' of the colony had fled forever. The
is Day-Star of Freedom, p. 95.

The Early History of Maryland. 25
king appointed a royal governor, Sir Lionel Copley ; who
called a General Assembly in May, 1692. The first act of
this body was the recognition of William and Mary ; the next,
the abolition of religious equality. The Church of England
became the established church of Maryland. The proprietary
was reduced to the condition of a mere landlord, entitled to his
rents only, which indeed were often collected with difficulty.
Catholics, and dissenters of all kinds, were made the subjects of
oppressive laws, which endured for the most part until the greater
Revolution of 1776. At the expiration of twenty-five years,
Benedict Leonard Calvert having become a Protestant, was re
stored to his proprietary rights, and the colony again prosjjered
more than under the royal government. The legislature passed
beneficial laws, but ungenerously enough, 'introduced into Mary
land all the test oaths and disabilities which were enforced
against conscience in England.' (McSherry.)
The affairs of Maryland henceforth are not very interesting,
until we approach the days of that revolution which separated
this and the other provinces from the mother country. The
trivial Indian wars, the French wfirs, the boundary disputes
with the neighboring provinces, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware, are parts of Maryland history of more or less import
ance, but of no great interest to the general reader. The cities
of Baltimore and Annapolis have respectively their special
annals. Baltimore was laid out in 1729 on the lands of
Charles Carroll, in sixty lots, by commissioners appointed by
the legislature; and in 1732 it was increased by the addition of
ten acres, east of Jones' Falls, on the lands of Edward Fell,
whose name is transmitted in that part of the city known as
Fell's Point. Elkridge Landing was for a time a spirited rival
of Baltimore, but Elkridge yielded gracefully at length, and
may yet one day become a suburb of the successful rival.
In 1771, Frederick, the last of the Lords Baltimore, died
without legitimate descendants. The role of this house was
accomplished. He transmitted his estates to an illegitimate son,
Henry Harfordj Esq., whose name is preserved in Harford
county. Frederick was not an honorable scion of a noble house.
In the words of Mr. Neill, ' As George was the first, wisest, and

26 The Early History of Maryland.
best, so Frederick was the last, weakest, and worst of the Barons
of Baltimore.'
We are now approaching the great event of American history,
the Revolution of 1776. The colony of Maryland had thriven
apace; and, indeed, it had all natural advantages independently
of those conferred by kings, lords, or laws. In one respect it had
retrograded, and that is, in religious liberty. After the estab
lishment of the Church of England, Catholics and all dissenters
were under the ban of proscription. In 1702, the provisions of
the English toleration Act were extended to Protestant dissent"
ers, but laws equally cruel and unjust were passed and enforced
against the Catholics until the dawn of the new era in '76.
' And thus,' says McMahon, ' in a colony which was established
by Catholics, and grew up to power and happiness under the
government of a Catholic, the Catholic inhabitant was the only
victim of religious intolerance.'
The English government was beginning to bear very heavily
upon the American colonies, and the colonists proved refractory.
They thought their own burdens enough for their own shoulders,
without carrying besides those of the mother country. They re
sented the introduction of stamped paper, and the tax upon tea,
as infringements upon their rights, and the initiation of further
wrongs. The people of Maryland acted boldly and without dis
guise. They drove the stamp agent from the colony in terror
and disgrace. And when various articles, as tea, glass, paper,
&c, were only allowed^o enter the colonies when taxed for the
benefit of Great Britain, the people formed ' non-importation
societies', and astonished the London merchants by refusing to
receive their goods, and sending back vessel and cargo as they
came. The taxes were then repealed, except upon tea. This
placebo was not sufficient for the now aroused colonists. The
people destroyed, or caused to be destroyed, 'the detestable
weed ', wherever it was found. In one case they obliged Mr.
Steward, the owner of a brig laden with tea, which came to An
napolis, (October, 1774,) to burn his brig with her cargo, which
he did with his own hand. Of course, things were coming to a
crisis. War between the colonists and the mother country be
came inevitable. Maryland, with the other colonies, began to
make preparations.

The Early History of Maryland. 27
Conventions were held, and acts and resolutions were passed,
plainly indicating the popular will. At a meeting of the con
vention at Annapolis, we find, inter alia, the following resolu
tions. (December 8, 1774.) 'Resolved unanimously, That if the
late acts of Parliament, relative to the Massachusetts Bay, shall
be attempted to be carried into execution by force in that colony,
or if the assumed power of Parliament to tax the colonies shall
be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in that or any
other colony, that in such case this province will support such
colony to the utmost of their power.
1 Resolved unanimously, That a well regulated militia, com
posed of the gentlemen, freeholders, and other freemen, is the
natural strength and only stable support of a free government,
and that such militia will relieve our mother country from any
expense in our protection and defence ; 20 will obviate the pre
tense of a necessity for taxing us on that account, and render it
unnecessary to keep any standing army (ever dangerous to lib
erty) in this province; and therefore it is recommended, that
such of the said inhabitants as are from sixteen to fifty years of
age, should form military companies, &c.
' Resolved unanimously, That contributions from the several
counties of this province, for supplying the necessities and alle
viating the distress of our brethren at Boston, (whose distressed
inhabitants were "cruelly deprived of the means of procuring sub
sistence for themselves and families, by the operation of the act
for blocking up their harbor," as stated in a previous resolution,)
ought to be continued in such manner and so long as their occa
sions may require, &c.
' Resolved unanimously, That it is recommended to the several
colonies and provinces to enter into such or the like resolutions
for mutual defence and protection, as are entered into by this
province. ' As our opposition to the settled plan of the British adminis
tration to enslave America, will be strengthened by an union of
all ranks of men in this province, we do most earnestly recom
mend that all former differences about religion or politics, [italics
20 Italics ours : This filial regard for the expenses of the mother country must
not be overlooked.

28 The Early History of Maryland.
ours] and all private animosities and quarrels of every kind,
from henceforth cease and be buried forever in oblivion ; and we
entreat, we conjure every man, by his duty to God, his. country,
and his posterity, cordially to unite in defence of our common
rights and liberties.' 21 The general reader is apt to go upon
the presumption, that resolutions of conventions in times past
are naturally dry and uninteresting; these we have cited pre
sent several points of decided interest, however, on which the
reader will make his own comments and reflections.
The history of Maryland from the initiation of the State gov
ernments until a very recent period, presents nothing of general,
though much of special, interest. Mr. McSherry brings his his
tory down to 1848 ; the other State historians stop at much ear
lier periods. We will not undertake now to describe the glorious
part taken by this State, either in the council, or in the field,
during the revolutionary war; though we may say that no troops
earned more well merited distinction, in those days of trial, than
the famous old Maryland line. The names of Smallwood,
Howard, Williams, and many others, will recur to the reader as
among the most distinguished of the sons of Maryland on the
field of battle ; while the names of Samuel Chase and Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, will be held in perpetual honor for their
vigorous championship of American freedom in the field of pol
itics. As a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Car
roll brought the heaviest oblation of all his compeers to offer
upon the altar of their country.
Civil and religious liberty, prosperity and peace, were the fruits,
in Maryland, of the war of Independence. In other words/ the
resplendent light of the ' halcyon days' of the early proprietary
government beamed forth again with an effulgence that spread,
not over one little colony alone, but over a large portion of a
new continent. The post-revolutionary liberties of America
had been nowhere so fully foreshadowed, as in Lord Baltimore's
colony. The Revolution restored lost liberties to the people of
Maryland. All former differences about religion and politics
were thenceforth honestly buried in oblivion ; and in no part
31 Proceedings of the Conventions ofthe Province of Maryland, held at the City
of Annapolis, in 1774, 1775, and 1776.

The Early History of Maryland. 29
of the world, perhaps, have people of different religious views
lived among each other in greater harmony, or with more mutual
kindness and good will ; some trivial outbursts of a contrary
character notwithstanding. Until 1824, the Jews labored under
some political disabilities, which were then happily and wisely
removed forever.
The act for their relief is the only step in advance of Lord
Baltimore's toleration. We do not for a moment believe that
his noble soul would have stooped to the persecution of the
Jews; and history shows that, practically, his government only
required of them not. to agitate the differences between them
selves and the Christians with whom they were dwelling.
The word toleration, by the way, scarcely expresses Lord Bal
timore's design in its fulness. Toleration implies inequality :
thus Catholics were tolerated in Rhode Island, but they were not
upon an equal footing with Protestants. In Maryland, all
Christians, so far as religion is concerned, were absolutely free
and equal. Lord Baltimore had abundant means of making
unfavorable discriminations if he had been so disposed, but he
was not. The whole evidence goes to show that he was deter
mined to give religious equality a fair trial; or, in short, to
initiate it upon a new field, where alone its success in those days
could be possible. He might have excluded dissenters with the
full approbation of the king who gave the charter ; and as to
members of the Church of England, if he could not have passed
acts against them, he could have kept them (as urged in a letter
published on this subject, by Mr. W. M. Addison, of Baltimore,)
out of his colony, by refusing to sell them land, ' every inch of
which was vested in the proprietary.'
The unquestionable facts of history show that he cordially
invited all Christians oppressed for conscience' sake, to come to
Maryland as a home, where they should enjoy all the rights and
privileges, civil and religious, that his charter and laws enabled
him to offer to those of his own faith, and his immediate friends
and followers. He invited these strangers into his political
household, and never, in any instance, did he violate his pledges
or promises. Neither party spirit, nor odium theologicum, can
change established facts.

30 The Early History of Maryland.
A writer who is enlisted in the ranks of Lord Baltimore's de
tractors, says in a late number of the London Athenceum, with
the most empty self-eomplacency, that ' the good people of Bal
timore pique themselves on being planted by a lord, while the
neighboring States were planted by commoners like Walter
Raleigh or William Penn.' To take down the inflation of the
Baltimoreans, this writer informs them that Baltimore's title was
derived from a mere honorary Irish barony, which gave him no
place in the British House of Lords. Upon this an eminent ju
rist22 of this city justly observes : 'We presume that no man
or woman in Maryland ever thought for an instant of any dif
ference between Lord Baltimore and plain George Calvert. . . .
. . . Whether Calvert was lord or commoner, or commoner
made lord, is to us a matter of profound indifference. AVe are
proud of his name, and of him, only because we are proud ofthe
immortal principles on which his colony was founded, and which
place the landing of the pilgrims from the Love and the Ark,
among the grandest incidents of human history. We are proud
of his great charter, as one of the noblest of the works that
human hands have ever reared, — the most glorious proclama
tion ever made of the liberty of thought and worship. Had he
been an Irish peasant instead of an Irish baron, we should rev
erence him perhaps the more, and certainly feel none the less
honor of descending from the good, brave men, who made the
precepts he bequeathed them a practical and living truth.'
In the last decade of years, Maryland has had, as in the be
ginning, a peculiar history, which has not yet, however, been
subjected to the methodical treatment of the historian. As it is
equally curious and interesting, we hope to see it fairly and fully
presented, at an early day, by some one competent, both by sen
timent and ability, to do justice to the subject.
TiS. T. Wallis.

jjtxitoj aittr Ifekan Affairs.

[Southern Review, October, 1887.]
1. Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico.
By G. F. Lyon, R. N., F. R. S. London : 1828.
2. The Rambler in Mtxico. By Charles Joseph Latrohe. Lon
don: 1836.
3. Life in Mexico, During a Two Years' Residence in that
Country. By Madame C  de la B  . (Calderon de
la Barca.) Boston : 1842.
4. Recollections of Mexico. By Waddy Thompson, Esq., late
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the
United States at Mexico. New York : 1846.
5. El Puchero, or a Mixed Dish from Mexico. By Richard
McSherry, M. D., U. S. N., late Surgeon U. S. Marine Bat
talion. Philadelphia: 1850.
6. Mitla : A Narrative of a Journey in Mexico, Guatemala,
and San Salvador, in the Years 1853 to 1855. By G. F. von
Tempsky. London : 1858.
7. Archives de la Commission Scientifique du Mexique. Pub-
liees sous les Auspices du Ministere de I' Instruction Publique.
Paris: 1865.
8. Across Mexico, in 1864-5. By W. H. Bullock. London:
1866.
9. Le Mexique, Tel Qu'il Est. Par Emmanuel Domenech.
Paris: 1867.

32 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
Tangled indeed is the web of Mexican History. We shall
not attempt to consider it in detail, nor shall we consider the
natural history of this country, which is, however, in itself full
of interest. The variety of soil, climate, and productions, never
ceases to strike the investigator with amazement.
It is our present purpose to deal with the social and political
condition ofthe people of Mexico, and especially since the estab
lishment of their independent government. The glowing but
bloody romance of the Conquest is sufficiently and beautifully
told by Mr. Prescott, and equally well by Don Lucas Alaman,
one of the most distinguished literary characters of Mexico. It
may be remarked here, by the way, that the most striking pas
sages in their respective works, are either mere transcripts, or
direct translations, of original documents now, or recently, pre
served in the Hospital de Jesus, in the City of Mexico, perpetu
ally endowed by Cortes. Don Lucas Alaman, when the writer
had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, was the Apoderado
of the Cortes estate, and had the documents just mentioned
under his charge. He very properly gave the substance of
them to the public of his own country, besides sending authentic
copies to Mr. Prescott.
After the Conquest, Mexico or New Spain enjoyed a reasona
bly prosperous career, considering the times and the inevitable
disadvantages of the colonial condition. To say nothing of the
Indians and the mixed population, all offices of honor and trust
were in the hands of native Spaniards, or Gachupinos, to the
exclusion ofthe Criollos, or the children of Europeans born upon
the soil. The Indians and the Mestizos or mixed breeds, after
the abolition of Indian slavery, were treated with more leniency
than were their brethren at the North. Many Indians rose in
deed considerably in the social scale, often intermarrying with
the whites. It was a part of the colonial policy to keep up a
rivalry of castes among the various mixed races which occupied
the soil; but the King had the extraordinary power of whitening,
or perhaps we should say of whitewashing, with all the honors
of whiteness, any of his subjects of any color. ' Que se tenga por
bianco,' by a decree of the Audiencia, was an official announce
ment that such a person, though Mestizo or Sambo or what not,

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 33
by the decree of nature, should be held and recognized as a white
man. The Spanish government of Mexico was not remarkable for
gentleness, nor yet for steady firmness; it permitted an abun
dance of evils, but upon the whole, the progress of civilization
was very well maintained. Churches and schools and hospitals
were distributed over the land ; good roads were made, and,
without going into detail, industrial pursuits were generally in
honor, and were rewarded with success. The great work of the
Rio del Desagiie remains as a perpetual memorial of Spanish
energy. This is an artificial river made by the Spaniards to
divert the waters of the several lakes of the Valley of Mexico
from the city, which was frequently inundated to the great loss
of life and property. By this artificial river the redundant wa
ter of the lakes is taken through a mountain pass, to be carried
finally by the way of the Rio Tampico to the sea.
Withal there was so much both of good and of evil in the
days of colonial dependence, that we may consider that period as
the Brazen Age of Mexico.
In the early part of this century, the people of Mexico, in
spired by two great and then recent political revolutions, began
to make an earnest struggle for independence. The short-lived
empire of Iturbide was the first effort of independent existence.
In a little while, the Republic was inaugurated. In 1824, the
Republic was an established fact. The Mexicans believed the
Golden Age to be at hand, forgetting that this would be a rever
sal of things in chronological order ; involving, in fact, a retro
grade movement, which all liberal minds hold in detestation.
They had no great need to fear that retrogression, as the sequel
will show.
The Mexican Republic, being fairly launched, had no external
enemies to prevent the realization of the most sanguine hopes of
the people. It stood side by side with a much greater Republic,
which cordially welcomed it to a place among free nations, and
which offered it for years an unrivalled example of peace and
prosperity under Republican government. For forty years its
Congresses, Presidents, and Courts had all opportunities of en
joying and displaying the merits of such government. Their
3

34 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
success, as the world knows, was worse than indifferent. The
rulers of Mexico kept no faith with their own people ; none with
foreigners, or foreign nations. They gave abundant cause for
the declaration of war made against them by England, France,
and Spain, and for the prosecution of the war by France, when
the other powers withdrew.
Never were a people more incompetent for self-government
than the Mexicans. All were aware of the fact; such as were
honest, did not hesitate to avow it. At the expiration of forty
years of war, turmoil, and anarchy, without respite, they looked
abroad in their despair for protection. We are told by an emi
nent member of the Senate of the United States, that leading
men and high officials in Mexico sought through Mr. McLane,
our minister, the interposition of the United States, and desired
this government to establish order and erect a permanent repub
lic, and failing in this, the same parties invited Maximilian to
come to Mexico, and establish an empire, assuring him that they
represented the voice of the people as expressed by vote. x ' Mr.
Johnson ', says the reporter, ' paid a high tribute to the character
of Maximilian, and called attention to his noble and honorable
traits; especially referring to the fact that Maximilian could
have left Mexico under the protection of the French troops, but
refused to do so because he felt it to be his duty to remain and
share the fate of his followers.'
On the 28th of May, 1864, Maximilian arrived at Vera Cruz,
whence he proceeded to the City of Mexico to assume the reins
of government as emperor, in accordance with the expressed
wish and solicitation of the Mexican people. He had not sought
the imperial crown, but it was tendered to him and urged upon
him by a deputation of Mexicans, representing the best people
of their native land.
The Mexican assembly of notables had expresse'd the desire
of the people for a limited monarchy by a vote of 231 against
19. The popular vote throughout the country was also largely
in favor of the monarchy. This was indeed during the occupa
tion of a French army, and it is alleged that the vote was there
fore not free. As a matter of fact, the vote was more free dur-
1 Speech of Hon. Reverdy Johnson, July 12th, 1867.

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 35
ing the French occupation than it would have been under the
domination of either the liberal or the conservative'party ; for it
is certain that neither party ever allowed the free expression of
opinion. Maximilian hesitated, nay even declined to accept the
proffered throne ; but it was pressed upon him again after both
himself and the Mexicans had had due time for reflection, and
after he had consulted the most learned jurists of Europe and
of England, who concurred in urging his acceptance. It was
an inauspicious day for himself, when he abandoned his home
and his inheritance in Europe, to build up a new empire upon
the American continent. Royal titles are unpopular in Ame
rica ; and there were people in Mexico who despised kings and
emperors, though they had a pious regard for dictators with un
limited authority, perhaps because the last are known to be
among the legitimate progeny of republics. The new Emperor,
however, entered upon his duties with a large share of popular
favor. He had a splendid reception at Guadalupe when about
entering his capital, being met by the chief dignitaries of the
realm, civil, military, and ecclesiastical; in addressing whom
he said: 'I thank you for your felicitations, and salute you
with the warmth of one who loves you and who has identified
his fate with yours.' This was prophetic. His fate, like theirs,
was a melancholy one. He was undertaking a great work in
good faith at the summons of the Mexican people, but he little
knew what he had to contend with. He endeavored to con
ciliate the various factious leaders opposed to him. He wrote a
letter with this view to his arch-enemy, Benito Juarez. In the
reply of the latter there is a passage equally striking and truth
ful. 'You are a man', says Juarez, 'whose safety reposes in
the hands of Mexican traitors.' Juarez knew his countrymen
better than did Maximilian. This was in 1864. In 1867, the
Empire, the imperialists, and the Emperor, fell in one common
ruin ; and the Emperor owed his fall at last to Mexican treach
ery. On the 19th of June he was shot by sentence of a court-
martial, in company with two of his bravest and most patriotic
generals, Miramon and Mejia. He died like a hero. He had
done his best to redeem a fallen country, but had failed. His
good qualities as a man and as a ruler are generally recognized ;

36 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
his good intentions are beyond question. Among his last words
was the expressed wish that the shedding of his blood might
stop the effusion of blood in his well beloved Mexico. This
was a prayer, but not a prophecy. One stronger than he, or
than his successful opponent, Juarez, must rise up to redeem
that fated land. It can only be done by the strong arm of re
sistless power, guided withal, by political wisdom. Maximilian
was generous, confiding and brave, but he was not the man for
Mexico; Juarez is probably brave, but being savage and vin
dictive, he is still less the man. The old Mexicans look back
with pride to the days of Revillagigedo, a viceroy who entered
upon authority at a time when monarchical New Spain was in
its worst condition; almost as bad as the republic in its best.
This functionary restored order in less than a year, so that
Mexico was, for the time being:, regenerated. Revillao-isredo
was a severe ruler who made no compromises with criminals of
high or low degree. He could neither be bribed nor intimidated.
He dealt out stern justice, little tempered with mercy. He knew
his men, and they soon learned to know him; and the result
was that apparently impossible thing, the restoration of order
among the incongruous masses of Mexico. Maximilian took
one step in the same direction. For this he has been censured
as if he had been guilty of a crime against the spirit of the age.
We refer, of course, to his decree of Nov. 3d, 1865, in which,
with a preamble asserting that Juarez had left the country, he
directs that any of his partisan soldiers roaming at large with
arms in their hands, should be put to death by their captors.
At the same time an invitation was extended to these guerrilla-
men to surrender and receive pardon, which many of them
thankfully accepted. The Emperor was deceived as to the fact of
Jaurez having left the country, which is a matter of importance,
as there were parties who recognized the validity of Juarez's
always doubtful claim to the presidency. His presence might
have given his followers some claims to be recognized as prison
ers of war. Maximilian was disposed to be generous to his
political opponents, and he was always ready to pardon his ene
mies. When he issued that decree, he had just been making a
tour through the country, and he found the people, or the im-

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 37
mense majority of them, as he says in good faith in his letter to
Velasquez de Leon, Minister of State, ' looking to the empire for
the preservation of peace, tranquillity and justice.' There could
be none of these while roving bands of liberals were pillaging
the country ; and these he determined to suppress. ' If our gov
ernment', he says, 'does respect all political opinions, it can not
tolerate criminals who destroy the first liberties it is called on to
guarantee — those of person and property.' These bands,
whether considered regular soldiers or not, were living by plun
der and by plunder only, and they were perfectly reckless or
ignorant of all the rules of civilized war. It was the duty of
the head of the State to exterminate them, if -possible. The
greatest capital has been made against Maximilian on account of
this ' sanguinary ', ' atrocious ', ' butchering ', ' Haynau-like ', ' Aus
trian ', decree. Mexican leaders had, however, given abundant
precedents for it ; and the Emperor, when it was issued, was
surrounded by Mexican counsellors, some of whom were pro
fessedly liberals.
When General Scott had been in possession of the City of
Mexico for some months, he found it necessary to issue a simi
lar order: that 'No quarter will be given to murderers or
robbers, whether guerrillas or rancheros, and whether serving
under (obsolete) commissions or not.' For this he was severely
censured by Mr. Jay, in a review of the Mexican war, but the
American general justified himself by saying, that these were
men who were roaming about, ' under the instructions of the late
Mexican authorities, violating all rules of war, putting to death
every American that fell into their hands ', &c, &c. 2 In fact,
General Scott convicted Mr. Jay of ignorance of the premises,
when he demanded that these robber soldiers should be treated
as honorable prisoners of war. General Scott soon made Mex
ico a peaceful and comparatively secure and happy country ; so
much so, that when our army was recalled, Mexican leaders in
vited him to take the country into his own hands, as dictator,
and to transfer it, not by piece-meal, but entirely, as soon as
practicable, to the United States. 3 It is not unreasonable to
a Memoirs of Lieut. Gen. Scott, written hy himself.
3 Ibid, Vol. II, p. 581=-2.

38 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
believe that Maximilian, too, would have restored order in like
manner, and have brought tranquillity to that distracted coun
try, but for the ' aid and comfort ' given to the internal enemies
of the empire, by external enemies of the empire.
Forty years of experiment had proved the Mexican Republic
to be a hopeless failure. It was forty years of an ' iron age ', in
which the people knew no peace nor security ; in which neither
life, nor property, nor labor, had any assured protection. There
were ' Revolutions ' without number, [two hundred and forty,
since 1821,) 4 and from 1824 to 1864, there were forty-six
changes in the presidential chair ! There were at times several
contestants for the chief magistracy, each claiming to be the
choice of the people. Each one indeed did his share in fleecing
the people, aided as he was, by a rabble of bandit soldiery at
his heels. They attempted to rise by deeds which would have
been justly rewarded by elevation — upon the gallows, or by
transportation for life. Honorable exceptions must be admitted,
but only as exceptions.
Among other claimants for the presidential office, at the time
of the French invasion, was Benito Juarez, a full-blood Indian.
His claim, whether valid or invalid, extended with some pre
tensions of legality to November, 1864, when the time expired
by the terms of the Constitution from which he professed to
hold his authority. The name of Benito Jaurez would not
have been remembered among the Mexican presidents, but for
the intervention of the United States through the ministry of
Mr. McLane. The idea is abroad that upon the United States
rests the entire responsibility of the downfall of the empire, of
the murder of the Emperor, and, of course, of the success of
Juarez and his bloody ' liberals.' Speaking prospectively of the
execution of the Emperor, M. Le Baron Dupin said in the
French Senate on the 18th of June: ' II faut esperer que la voix
de l'humanite sera assez puissante pour le prevenir. Esperons
que les Etats-Unis feront les derniers efforts pour conjurer un
semblable malheur; car c'est sur eux suitout qu'en retomberait
la responsabilite.' This is a very grave charge : is it a just one ?
We shall see. In 1860 the Mexican Republic was blessed with
* Domenech.

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 39
two president^ Miramon, conservative, at the capital, and
Juarez, liberal, or radical, at Vera Cruz. The latter based his
claim upon a clause in the Constitution of 1857, by which he
became provisional president in case of the resignation of that
functionary. But the Constitution of '57 was abrogated in '58,
and few people, in or out of Mexico, knew who was the legiti
mate president, if any existed. The foreign legations in Mexi
co acknowledged Miramon, but the United States acknowledged
Juarez. The United States Minister, Mr. Forsyth, had been
trying his hand with the conservative government for the
purchase of territories lying upon our borders for the purpose of
' rectifying the frontiers ', and for some other trifling matters not
necessary to be mentioned here. Not succeeding, Mr. Forsyth
was recalled, and Mr. McLane was sent to take his place. It
was left to the discretion of Mr. McLane which government he
should recognize; and as a discreet diplomate, he was not slow
to recognize the government most ready to come to terms with
him. As Juarez consented to the ' rectification of the frontiers ',
&c, &c, in consideration of a loan of $4,000,000 from the United
States, Mr. McLane discovered in him the real Simon Pure of
the Mexican presidency. For certain reasons, the treaty between
the high contracting parties did not reach a consummation, but
from that day to this, Juarez has been the Americo-Mexican
president. The people of the country were not pleased at this
bartering away of Mexican territory, and Miramon determined,
straitened as he was, to drive Juarez from Vera Cruz, which,
with its custom-house, was the very fountain of Mexican rev
enue — setting aside of course any derived from the sale of ter
ritory. Miramon captured Alvarado, and was engaged in be
sieging Vera Cruz. He despatched two vessels with supplies
for his army, but these two vessels were seized by the U. S. S.
Saratoga, whereupon Miramon returned to the capital, making
proposals to Juarez at the same time to have all difficulties set
tled by peaceful arbitration. His overtures were rejected.
Our great domestic war turned attention from Mexico, and
Americans scarcely gave that country a thought until the gal
lant legions of France were following the footsteps of our army
to the ' Halls of the Montezumas.' The Emperor of the French

&

40 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
was supposed to want a colony where he could raise cotton, &c,
without depending upon the blockaded and devastated States of
this country. Now few Americans care in the least as to the
ruling party in Mexico, whether it be a red Indian like Juarez
— que se tenga por bianco — or a French marshal, or an Ameri
can filibuster, or a triumvirate of constitutional citizen presi
dents, resembling Cerberus except in this, that every presiden
tial head wants to bite off the other two heads; but our politi
cians try to make us believe that we are all deeply interested,
in person, purse, and honor, in the welfare, perpetuity, and
glory, of the Mexican Republic. No such republic ever existed
except in name : upon this point we join issue with American
politicians at large. But to continue. When the Gallican bar
barians invaded bur dear sister Republic, and threatened to de
stroy her peace, her liberties, and all her glorious institutions,
our republican governors took the alarm, and called all our
people to witness their zeal in the cause of freedom, — in Mexico.
Mr. Seward's 'little bell' was rung with such violence that its
tinklings reached even the astonished ears ofthe third Napoleon.
There is no evidence that this potentate ever contemplated
exchanging Fontainebleau for the Halls of the Montezumas ;
but he found an apparent substitute at the palace of Mira-
mar. The Mexican people did not object to the new-comer, but
the American people — that is, their self-constituted spokesmen,
did. Mr. Seward was horrified beyond measure. It is not for
us to say that in a state of mental alienation caused by his grief,
he compromised with the French Emperor to recognize the new
Mexican Emperor, provided the Frenchman would prevent his
subjects from furnishing ships to Southern rebels. The South
ern rebels did not get the ships. We do not know who inspired
Mr. Bigelow, United States Minister to France, when he sug
gested (Oct. 1865) that the United States would recognize Max
imilian so soon as the French troops should be withdrawn.
President Johnson did not support Mr. Bigelow's suggestion,
' but France was informed that she might rely on our friendship
and neutrality, and on April 5th, 1866, M. Drouyn de L'Huys,
referring to Mr. Seward's pledge of non-intervention, informed
the Marquis de Montholon, Napoleon's representative in Mexico,

'Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 41
that the Emperor had decided to withdraw his troops', &c.5
Mr. Seward had previously announced that the ' United States
wishes to leave the destinies of the people of Mexico in their
own keeping', determining not to interfere with their claim of
sovereignty and indpendence.0
It would certainly appear that our government should havo
abstained from any interference between the parties contending
for supremacy, to wit: the Emperor Maximilian, conservative,
and the dubious President, Juarez, liberal, or more properly,
destructive. But while throwing dust in the eyes of the French
Emperor, the American government recognized Juarez as Presi
dent, even after his term of service had expired, and directly and
indirectly denounced Maximilian. Men of position in the Uni
ted States were sent to keep up the failing spirits and forces of
the Juarists. Thus Major-General Lewis Wallace, (the hero
of the Monocacy,) was sent to the Rio Grande, and carried let
ters to General Carvajal, whom he invited to a conference at Point
Isabel to assure him that he had only to come to the United
States to get money, and arms, and all the needful resources for
carrying on the war. Wallace brought Carvajal to New York
and introduced him to a Mr. Woodhouse, a financier of appar
ently great credit and capital. Woodhouse was, it seems, a
sort of small counterpart of M. John Law, the famous projector
of the ' Mississippi Scheme ', and was to be the factor of the
famous Mexican bonds, by which the liberal government, and
American bondholders, were to be mutually enriched thenceforth
and forever. We do not know whether Mr. Woodhouse expected
to make any thing by the transaction, but in some way his good
intentions came to naught. While General Carvajal was 'rais
ing the wind', General Ochoa was similarly engaged at San
Francisco, and with like result, though he dealt principally with
General Fremont. But these loans and bonds, 'airy nothings '
as they were, served to keep up the spirits of the disheartened
liberals. In the meantime, the military chest ofthe Juarists was empty,
and the Commissariat never took heed ofthe morrow; but what
5 American Annual Cyclopaedia, I860.
6 Letter to Mr. Dayton, American Minister to Paris, Oct., 1863.

42 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
of that? There were real or suspected conservatives all over
the country, who had some means; indeed this very fact was
enough to throw suspicion upon any one. Why should the de
fenders of their country want for any thing, while people who
were no doubt imperialists at heart, had houses, and money, and
corn, and cattle ? The liberals adopt
1 The simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.'
If the reader wants illustrations of their means of getting sup
plies, we may refer him to the impartial testimony of Mr. Bul
lock's ' Across Mexico in 1864-5.' One or two citations may
answer the immediate purpose:
'Although the hacienda of Zipimeo must bring the proprietor
an income of at least $25,000 per annum, his (resident) son was
living in a style of which a small farmer in England would have
been ashamed. For the air of general neglect and discomfort
which characterized the place, and for the miserable deficiency
of its resources, our host apologized by explaining that, being
constantly exposed to the visits ofthe "Chinacos", — one of the
various names for liberals or Juarists, — who invariably made a
clean sweep of every thing found on the premises, it was not worth
his while to surround himself by comforts, which would only
serve to attract marauders.' (p. 216.) We have italicised a pas-
sago which shows the ordinary habits of these soldiers of the
Republic. At the hacienda of Guaracha, Mr. Bullock luckily
found the occupants at home. The mansion was a splendid one,
but in a ' naked condition ', which is not surprising, as the larger
portion of the time of the occupants was taken up ' in flying
backwards and forwards from the Juarists.' The ladies of the
family dare not visit the haciendas ; the proprietors visit them
by stealth. ' In the absence ofthe proprietor, the estate is man
aged by the administrador, who has a pretty hard time of it,
being periodically carried off by the Chinacos, and dragged about
until he is ransomed. This vicarious suffering on the part of
his administrador is a great saving to the proprietor ; for where
they would ask $10,000 for the ransom of the owner, they will
let the administrador free for $1,000.' (p. 229.)

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 43
At Jiquilpam, on the 23d of November, 1864, a force of 300
Zouaves (French) under Col. Clinchant, routed the united forces
of Arteaga and Echiaggaray, numbering at least 3000 strong.
'The immediate result of thk victory was most disastrous to the
neighborhood. For thenceforth, instead of having an organized
force to deal with, the peaceful inhabitants were preyed upon
by the numerous smaller bands, into which the Juaristarmy was
broken up.' (p. 231.)
It was a common thing for proprietors to agree to give the
Chinacos hovering about, a specified sum to be left undisturbed;
but when these robbers were driven off from the neighborhood,
they would send bands to collect their 'dues', or seize the pro
prietors. The administrador received the following note while
Mr. Bullock was at the hacienda : 'To Senor don Jose Guerrero,
wherever he may happen to be.' (Don Jose was often a fugitive
— from liberal justice). ' My very good Sir, and dear friend:
As quickly as you can, and with the least delay possible, con
trive to send me three thousand dollars. For if the hacienda
refuses to pay this sum for my ransom, I am to be shot, as lam
informed by his excellency, Colonel Don Magdaleno Martinez.
I pray you to do your utmost for me. Your affectionate friend,
who kisses your hand, " Juan J. Gonsalez." ' There was not,
so much money on the estate, and Don Juan might have been'
now in his ' mansion in the skies', but for assistance from a su
perior functionary of the Juarist party.
These are but instances of the ordinary courses of the liberals,
and they serve to show how the army lived and throve while
awaiting material aid from the United States. The poor devils
of soldiers can scarcely be blamed for lives of thieving, plunder,
and murder, as they had no other means of subsistence while
Juarez was perpetuating anarchy. The sympathy of ' the
people ', as our politicians insisted, was with the liberal soldiers.
This is perhaps true of a certain portion of the people. In all
countries where bandits thrive, there is a portion of the com
munity in sympathy with them. One more quotation from Bul
lock, though a little out of place in this connexion, will tend to
illustrate the remarkable Cosas de Mejico :
In the plains of Appam there was a gang of brigands led by

44 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
a most ferocious murderer, known as Juan Osorio. He was
caught in a trap by a German resident, ' Don Nestor', who know
ing the difficulty of holding so artful a villain, had him shot at
once. 'As soon as the life was out of his body, Don Nestor,
having seen to its being hung on a"ee in a conspicuous place by
the roadside pour encourager les autres, went his way to get some
refreshment in the nearest village.
' On his return in the evening to the place of execution, he
was surprised to find the body carefully laid out at the foot of
the tree, in an extempore chapelle ardente, and an old woman
sobbing her heart out over it. Observing Don Nestor approach
ing, the old woman pointed to the corpse, and exclaimed through
her sobs, "This was my son. I know he was a bad one, but he
was still my son."'
To come back to the rival parties, and to the non-interven
tion policy ofthe United States: Juarez being recognized Chief
of State ever since Mr. McLane gave his vote for him, and Max
imilian with the assembly of notables and all the honest people
of Mexico being held to be mere negations, (although all the
nations of Europe acknowledged the de facto government of
Maximilian,) it was deemed necessary that proper diplomatic
relations should be kept up with the Indian Chief. In Nov., 1866
(about a year after the expiration of Juarez's legitimate term,
if any there was) — Mr. Campbell and General Sherman were
sent by our government to offer the moral support and sympa
thy of the United States to Juarez, under the belief that juaxi-
milian would soon retire, and that Juarez would require such
support and sympathy in bringing order out of chaos ; and also
to offer the military forces of the United States to Juarez,7 if
necessary, to aid him in the restoration of law, provided they
were offered and accepted in such a manner as not to interfere
with ' the jurisdiction of Mexico', or 'violate the laws of neu
trality'. The plenipotentiaries met the accredited emissaries of
Juarez at Tampico, and held a council, the result of which was,
7 Was this the first offer of arms ? We take the following from one of our daily
papers : ' President Lincoln and Juarez — The Revue des Deux ilondes, of Paris,
publishes an article on Mexico, by M. de Heratry, containing a letter said to be
addressed by the late Mr. Lincoln to Juarez, in which the President of ihe United
States promises to supply him with arms, money, and men, to combat the French
intervention.'

I

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 45
that a definite and joint plan of action was determined on between
the United States and Mexico.8
President's messages, resolutions in Congress, diplomatic rela
tions, special attentions to Seiior Romero, Juarez's Minister, pub
lic meetings, and all other signs of the times, informed Juarez
and his followers that the United States were taking care of the
liberal in opposition to the imperial cause.
Maximilian, who had endeavored to establish a stable govern
ment in the land whose destinies had been entrusted to his keep
ing by her best citizens, finding himself after the departure of
the French, surrounded by insuperable difficulties, prepared to
leave the country, and abandon the thankless office of trying to
redeem it.
He was on the eve of departure — on the way, in fact — when
his ministers besought him, (at Orizaba and at Cuernavaea) to
remain, as the Mexican people looked to him for the restoration
(or rather for the institution) of peace and order. This deter
mined him to stand by his friends and faithful people to the last.
A passage in his trial furnishes a point worthy of record. He
was called upon to acknowledge that he was responsible for all
the inflictions upon Mexico since the departure of the French.
His reply was : ' No; the responsibility rests loith Juarez. After
the departure of the French I sent a message to Juarez and pro
posed to him to proclaim, a general amnesty, and to grant a full
, pardon to all persons attached to me and to the imperial cause.
Juarez refused, and there was nothing left for me, but to remain
and. to do all in my power for the protection of a large portion
of the Mexican people.'
Noblesse oblige, says the French proverb; and Maximilian il
lustrated it in his life and in his death. In the month of May,
while manfully and successfully defending the city of Queretaro,
he was betrayed by a trusted Mexican officer, Lopez, who re
ceived for his base crime twenty thousand dollars. If we may
believe a newspaper report, his end was a fitting one for such an
Iscariot. He is said to have fallen by lawless violence. Could
mortal man, or woman, weep over his fate ? And what was the
scene at the official murder of him whom he had betrayed ? The
8American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1866.

46 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
people were overwhelmed with grief, expressions of disaffection
and convulsive sobs were heard throughout the city ; and after
the deed was done, large numbers of the ladies of Queretaro and
San Luis Potosi dressed themselves in mourning ! Was this for
an abhorred tyrant? No ; it was but a sign that the truest and
best hearts in the land were attached to the Emperor, and to his
cause. Could the United States government have prevented this foul
murder ? This is a question not easily answered. The secrets
of the conferences held between the agents of the United States
and the emissaries of Juarez may perhaps never be unfolded to
the public. At the request of all civilization, Mr. Seward sent
despatches to Juarez asking him to spare the life of his captive.
Mr. Seward had a right to speak in other language than that of
supplication to an official who held his power by the aid of the
United States government. We beg the reader to give a mo
ment's attention to the following remarks from the N. Y. Trib
une, July 1 :
' We trust we do not speak offensively of Mexico when we
say that but for the United States, this (liberal) triumph might
have been doubtful. America was always with Juarez. Reso
lutions of sympathy were popular in our legislative assemblies.'
 ' To America, therefore, more than any other
agency, Mexico owes her freedom. As allies we ventured to
implore Mexico to be generous in her triumphs. This voice has
not been heeded. Perhaps owing to Mr. Seward's circumlocu
tion, it was never heard. Certain it is, that in spite of the pray
ers of the American nation for the life of Maximiliau, he has
been executed.
' We regard this execution as a disaster to Mexico. Whatever
may be said of his imperial enterprise, Maximilian was a liber
al and enlightened prince. When Austria made him Viceroy
of her Italian provinces, he was so generous toward conquered
Lombardy and Venice that he was recalled. In Mexico, such
a rule as was permitted to him showed a progressive statesman
ship. He was an accomplished gentleman. The end of his life
shows that he was a brave and self-denying soldier. To take
such a man a prisoner in broad day and shoot him, merely be-

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 47
cause he had been unfortunate in war, is a blunder. To do so
in defiance of the civilized world, is a crime. To America, it is
an insult. We merely ask the poor boon of this helpless, un
fortunate young man's life, and it is denied. We gave Mexico
national triumph, and in return, she spurns even our counsels
of mercy.'
The Tribune is right in attributing the success of the Juarists
to aid from this country ' more than to any other agency.' It
is an error, however, to call the triumph of a vicious, blood
thirsty, ignorant, and brutal party, a national triumph. Never
did success bring a nation more nearly to its final extinction.
It is clear that Mr. Seward had no need to stand upon diplo
matic delicacy in treating with Juarez; but did the Secretary
urge him to mercy with honest, earnest purpose? Here again
a doubtful answer must be given. It is plainly asserted by a
Washington correspondent of a highly respectable paper pub
lished in the city of Baltimore, that while Mr. Seward was send
ing his petition to Juarez for the preservation of the life of Max
imilian, he was at the same time assuring Mr. Romero, the Mex
ican minister, that the fate of the prince was a matter of indif
ference to this government. It is also asserted by the same wri
ter, that the despatches sent by Mr. Romero were sent in time
to neutralize the request made by Seward ! We know not
whether this charge be trite or not, but most of those who have
read it, consider it to be in keeping with the habitually tortuous
policy of the American Secretary of State. That the execution
made no unpleasant impression upon him, may be inferred from
a passage in his Memorandum upon relations with our Sister
Republic ! of July 14 : ' Only some great national injury, wrong
or offense,' he says, ' would justify this government in suddenly
assuming a hostile, or even an unfriendly attitude towards the
Republic of Mexico.' We have italicised two words to show
how forgiving Mr. Seward is when his prayers are rejected.
While upon this special part of our subject, an article taken
from the Esperanza, a paper published at Queretaro, of the date
of June 20th, fell under our observation, from which we take
the following passage :
' It is known that the President (Juarez) all along was inclined

48 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
to clemency, but our minister at Washington, Senor Romero,
had carried the day, and secured the order for his (Maximilian's)
execution, although full stress was laid upon the fact of the
small majority that had voted in favor of the prisoner's guilt.'
From this it would appear that Juarez was waiting for coun
sel from Washington, which he got from Minister Romero.
Would this individual have urged the execution of Maximilian
in the face of an earnest protest from the American Secretary of
State ?
It does not seem that M. Le Baron Dupin spoke unadvisedly
when he implicated the United States with the recent horrors. in
Mexico. We have not thought it necessary to adduce any of the pro
ceedings of Congress in regard to Mexican affairs, because there
is a want of 'sober second thought' in that body which detracts
greatly from the weight of its proceedings. Perhaps its future
deliberations may be more respectable. A famous and authentic
Roman historian assures us that the ancient Goths of Germany
had a wise custom of debating everything of importance to their
State twice; that is, once drunk and once sober; drunk, that
their councils might not want vigor, and sober that they might
not want discretion. Oar law-makers of late years seem to be
very slow in getting to the second tenni of their deliberations.
At public meetings, called in New York and elsewhere, for
the purpose of getting up a factitious public opinion, it was cus
tomary to introduce some Mexican orators, who depicted most
graphically the woes of their country under the rule of Maxi
milian, and its happiness under the rule of Juarez and politi
cians of his school. These Mexican demagogues, being, if pos
sible, yet worse than our own, find in Juarez the incarnation of
enlightened progress, while Maximilian was a demon of destruc
tion. Juarez is another Washington, God save the mark ! and
another Lincoln ! Perhaps it would be right to say that Juarez
is a representative Mexican, as Washington was a representative
American in his day, and as Lincoln was, also, more recently.
Juarez is undoubtedly a representative Mexican. One or two
citations from Mr. Bullock's work, the latest in our language
upon Mexico, from personal observation, will show Juarez in

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 49
his representative character. El Seminario de Tepic was a very
flourishing school visited by our author, who was astonished at
the proficiency of the pupils. ' During Juarez's tenure of office,
this school, like many others throughout the country, was closed.'
(p. 285.) Juarez was not more favorable to the churches. ' From.
an American eye-witness, I learnt that during the early part of
the year 1861, it was quite common to see President Juarez
making his round of the churches, and superintending the work
of destruction.' (p. 82.)
He sold the ruins and sites to the highest bidders, and as his
liberal friends had no money, and as -the conservatives refused to
bid, he sold to foreign adventurers, and squandered the proceeds.
' Little of the purchase money found its way into the public
treasury.' His apologists asserted that he only wanted to take
the property from the priests to put it in better hands, for the
greater advantage of the State. 'This', says our author, verv
justlyT, ' I could not but consider as an exceedingly lame apology;
for the needy adventurers, without capital, to whom much of the
property fell, were hardly likely to make a use of it which would
be profitable to the country at large.' (p. 84.) The liberals
were very willing to speculate in church property, but needed
the funds. ' Those who had nothing, belonged to the liberal
party, which was really only liberal in the sense of wishing to
make free with other people's property.' (p. 83.)
In the Mexican Republic, before it was trodden by the soldiers
of France, or by Maximilian, there was a general air of desola
tion and ruin due to such Mexicans as Juarez, which gives this
hero the right to be considered a representative man.
Were things made worse in this happy republic by Maxi
milian? Our author visited a model charitable establishment
at Guadalajara, presided over by French Sisters of Charity,
where infants were taken care of, and industrial trades taught
to the growing boys and girls. He found a flourishing cotton
factory at the same place, but the owner who, in common with
the majority of men of substance in the country, had espoused
the clerical, reactionary or conservative party, had been driven
from the country by the Juarists in 1860. Taking advantage
of the French occupation and 'the comparative security of life
4

50 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
and property consequent thereon ', this gentleman had returned,
and Mr. Bullock found his works in renewed prosperity.
Spending a social evening with a respectable family in the
same city, he found ' that, in common with nine-tenths of the
well-to-do people throughout Mexico, Senor Gil Romero and
his friends were generally favorable to the imperial cause, al
though the line of conduct which the Emperor was at that
moment pursuing towards the clerical party had given them
temporary umbrage. Hitherto — unhappily for the general
well-being of the country — the landed and moneyed aristocracy
has held itself almost entirely aloof from politics, which have
been a monopoly of lawyers and unscrupulous adventurers 
However, now that a respectable government has been estab
lished, it is to be hoped that they (merchants, manufacturers,
land-owners) will come forward and lend it an active support.'
(p. 276.)
The British Consul-General in Mexico called upon the va
rious vice-consuls in regard to the growth, &c, of cotton.
From the return of the vice-consul at Mazatlan, ' it will be seen
there was more than eight times as much land under cotton in that
district in the year 1864, as in 1863. This increase is, no doubt,
mainly to be attributed to the increased feeling of security occa
sioned throughout the country by the establishment of what the
Americans speak of as " the so-called empire." ' (p. 320.)
The evidence borne by this author corresponds with the pas
sages cited throughout his entire work, and there is no indica
tion from beginning to end of any partialities or prejudices for
or against the rival claimants to authority. The conclusion
then is inevitable that Maximilian was in the way of restoring
order and civilization in Mexico, while Juarez was but per
petuating anarchy and disorder. Schools, churches, agriculture,
manufactures and commerce, were reviving and prospering
wherever the Emperor had sway ; and each and all of them
were brought to ruin, whenever and wherever Juarez and his
Chinacos were masters.
We may now recur to the Republic before the days of Napo
leon III. and Maximilian ; to the time when Mexico was inde
pendent and free, and making progress, as the demagogues tell

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 51
us, in the glorious way of modern civilization. We will take
the reader to the Elysian fields so vaunted by the liberal ora
tors of Mexico. In 1824 the Republic was fairly established,
and in 1864, as has been said, the records showed forty-six
changes in the presidential chair ! If the reader has any famil
iarity with the newspaper publications of the age, he will remem
ber that he scarcely ever saw a record of foreign affairs without
a notice of a pending or a progressing 'revolution in Mexico.'
Let him look over an article on Mexico iu any journal at hand,
British, French, Spanish, or American, and he will always find
the old story repeated. The war was for the most part between
the conservatives and the radicals under various appellations,
the conservatives being otherwise clericals, Atrasados, &c,
while the radicals were liberals, Progresistas, &c.
Some very respectable periodicals charge all the wars upon
the conservative, or church party. The amount of it seems to
be that this party generally held a large portion of the property
ofthe country, and would not voluntarily share with the liber
als. It can not be denied that the church property should be at
least as sacred as any other. This seems to be admitted among
all civilized nations. The radicals may think they could make
better use of such property if it were in their hands, but this
does not exactly justify their appropriating it by force. It is a
most important question at the present day how far there should
be any union between Church and State : for ourselves we prefer
to see them respectively upon an independent footing, but there
are great difficulties in the way of violent severance. It is ac
cording to the custom of nations, ancient and modern, Christian
and Pagan, Catholic and Protestant, to keep up a close associa
tion or union. Nations infinitely more enlightened and pros
perous than Mexico, do now maintain and always have main
tained it. The radicals wish to break up this connexion, and
they care not with what violence, nor at what cost. We have
seen Juarez zealously demolishing churches with this intention.
The liberals, in fact, have drawn their inspirations from the
French philosophers ofthe last century, who were by no means
safe guides in such matters. But even if Church and State dis
solve all connexion, which in Mexico they must do if that coun-

52

Mexico and Mexican Affairs.

try ever comes into the possession ofthe United States — an
event maxime deflendus for us, — church property, as all other
property, must remain sacred ; that is, must remain in the hands
of those who possess the proper titles.
If the clergy have any undue privileges, these privileges may
be curtailed without depriving the individuals themselves of
life, liberty, or property. No one can blame them for not throw
ing themselves and their possessions into the arms of their lib
eral enemies, whatever other causes of blame may rest upon
them. It is much more rational to believe that the radicals are the
perpetual agitators and disturbers of the peace, than that the
clergy and their political friends are. Men of property are
always pacifically inclined in the very nature of things, and the
conservative party, which includes, with the higher clergy,
nearly all the men of capital, land-owners, merchants and manu
facturers in the country, can not be revolutionary.
The liberals, having as a rule nothing to lose, are very willing
to perpetuate war and discord upon any pretext, that they may
rise to the surface, and float thereupon as they often do tempo
rarily, to the destruction of all honest and stable interests.
We are far from asserting that the conservative party has
been always blameless : we mean to assert nothing more than
that it is infinitely more favorable to the preservation of order
than is the liberal party.
It must be evident to the reader, and to all acquainted with
Mexican affairs, that the Church has lost its influence over a
large portion of the most active spirits of Mexico — many of
whom, erroneously enough, identify the Church with the Church
party. The esprits forts on the liberal side have drawn their
inspirations, as we have already said, from the French philo
sophers. They are therefore hostile to the Church, in the very
broadest sense ; that is, to the whole theory and practice of
Christianity. It might be supposed that as the Church cannot unite the
Mexican leaders in any bond of unity, some more progressive
body, as a powerful secret society, might have a better influence.
This too has been duly tried. Two ofthe most violent parties that

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 53
ever ravaged the land were rival masonic bodies, known respective
ly as the Escoceses, and the Yorkinos. ' The prospect of tranquil
ity which was held out by the complete liberation of the coun
try (from Spain) and organization of the government, (A. D.
1824—5) was soon interrupted by the violence of parties. The
animosities of the Escoceses and Yorkinos resulted in acts of
outrage and bloodshed, and the land has been distracted with
civil war. 9
Now if neither the Church, nor the Church party, nor the
liberals or progresistas, nor secret associations, nor presidents,
nor armies, can keep the peace in Mexico for two or three con
secutive years under any circumstanoes, — it is a clear case of
' something rotten ' in that country. It is surely not the rotten
ness of age, bat pour riture avant malurite. Some of our news
papers have suggested that an enlightened Protestantism was the
one thing necessary for the successful construction and preserva
tion of the Mexican republic. The suggestion does not find its
support in historical facts. Catholicity, freemasonry, free think
ing aud its political philosophy, have failed, indeed, in making
a Republic out of the materials in Mexico, where eight or nine-
tenths of the population are of pure or mixed Indian blood ;
but it is not apparent in what country Protestantism, with all
its vast resources, has reared a fabric of Christian civilization,
of a republican or any other form of government, from the base
of a barbarous or savage people. Some other factor is yet re
quired. The republic is undoubtedly rotten : was it ever ripe? Is it
worthy of American intelligence to be keeping up a perpetual
outcry about the preservation of the Mexican Republic f The
writer ventures the assertion that he can adduce, from the va
rious works mentioned at the head of this article, a thousand
instances, from authors of all shades of political proclivities, to
show that Mexico never was a Republic except in name. Mr.
Waddy Thompson found among the people a devoted attach
ment to the word ' Republic ', ' but I greatly fear ', he says
' they. are not altogether capable of laying wisely the broad and
deep foundations of such a government as would be suited for
9 Encyclopaedia Americana. Art. Mexico.

54 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
their peculiar circumstances.10 ' Public opinion in Mexico to all
practical purposes, means the opinion of the army .... the
army has never done anything else than to make revolutions.'
It required reduction : ' Let the army be reduced to not more
than 5000 men (then 40,000 strong) ; the privates would be re
joiced to be released from a service into which they were carried
by force, and let the officers be disbanded, and go to work of
some sort, and for the first insurrectionary word or act, be gar-
roted, not shot, that would be too good for them. The army of
the vice-regal government did not exceed 10,000 men ; can it
be that a despotism is less a government of force than a repub
lic?' 'The destiny of Mexico is in her own hands; the pres
ent state of things can not last much longer. No people can
endure such misrule, tumult, and anarchy.' In those days, too,
the church was robbed for the good of the state: ' The large
estates and possessions of the banished Jesuits have supplied the
government with very large sums, but these with the mine of
Fresnillo, have all been sold, and the money wasted.' Large es
tates had been plundered with the same patriotic motives under
the pretext that the proprietors were usually favorable to the
old monarchical government. ' The maxim of Juvenal,' says
Mr. Thompson, ' Quantum quisquis habet in urbe, tantum
habet et fidei,' is as true now as when the line was written. A
new ruler, or prince, according to Machiavel, ought to advance
the poor and impoverish the rich, and what is said of David
may be said of him, ' he filled the hungry with good things and
the rich he sent away empty." u The Mexican revolutionists
resembled David in one half of what is said of him — but only
in that half.
Other instances may be cited to prove that Mexico did not
take her first lessons in grief and desolation when Maximilian
transformed the Republic into an empire.
The following passages present facts derived from personal
observation: 'The Mexican government sits like an incubus
upon the people, doing nothing for their welfare, and the elders
10 Recollections of Mexico.
11 We must correct the derivation of the quotation which is taken from the
Magnificat: 'Esurientes implevit bonis; et divites dimisit inanes.' (St. Luke
I, 53 ) The application, however, as Mr. Thompson makes it, can not be cor
rected.)

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 55
of the people look back with regret to the old regime. They
say it is a mockery to speak of the Mexican Republic ; that
they have the burdens of monarchy without its stability. That
abuses abounded during the time of the vice-regal sway is ad
mitted, yet in those days it appears there was greater security
for life and property. The scientific establishments planted and
fostered then, have now dwindled into insignificance; the great
highways and bridges are in the state in which the Republic
found them, except for the ravages of time and war. It mat
ters little what a government is called, the spirit of a Republic
exists not here  Mexico to become a Republic wants re
generation, wants a People, for there is nothing in the land de
serving that appellation. The middle classes (that body politic
that gives strength and stability to States) are but fragmentary ;
great land-holders and princely merchants represent the aristoc
racy. The army, the church, shopkeepers, artisans, &c., and
adventurers, and place-seekers of all kinds, fill up the space be
tween the ricos hombres, and the peons of the soil.'12 And again :
' The better classes of this city are by no means very desirous of
peace. They dread the day of the evacuation by the American
troops. They would gladly pay the expenses of our army to
keep it among them. They have no respect for their own gov
ernment, declaring they only know it by its extortions, and not
by any protection it gives them. The rulers are but too com
monly unprincipled adventurers, pushing their own fortunes at
the expense of the honor and welfare of the nation. Many of the
best citizens decline all connexion with the government rather
than sanction evils they could not control. Demagogues fill the
high places, and fatten on the suffering State. To drive them
off is to invite another swarm yet more hungry. " We all feel
and know this," said an intelligent gentleman to me, " and we
devise remedies simple enough in design, but difficult of execu
tion. Like the rats who agreed to protect themselves from the
stealthy incursions of puss by putting a bell around her neck,
the plans are unexceptionable, but g Quien va poner el cascabel
algatof Who is to bell the cat?" There is the difficulty.
The army belongs to the government or faction iu power ; the
12 El Puchero. By Richard McSherry, M. D., &c.

56 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
people can do nothing but bear the fleece for the shearers. Thus
industry is paralyzed and honest labor contemned ; for who will
go to the pains to accumulate, to be marked for plunder by pro
fessional robbers, or robbers by virtue of their government com
missions ? Misrule enjoys a perpetual ascendancy, with rare ex
ceptions, from the highest to the lowest functionaries.' Special
instances then follow, showing the ascendancy of robbers over
the police ; violations of common honesty on the part of jus
tices of the Supreme Court ; defrauding of proprietors by over
seers ; plundering estates by military companies, &c, &c.
' Many good, nay, the best, citizens desire annexation, or con
nexion with our government on any terms. They declare they
see no prospect, near or remote, of peace, law, and order under
their own rulers. The instances I have given of bad laws and
the worse administrations of them are precisely as I have them
from the most reliable sources among this unhappy people.'13
Prescott, iu a critical review of Mad. Calderon's Life in Mex
ico, which he considered the most entertaining work ever written
upon that country, in speaking of its many peculiarities, says:
' Its swarms of Leper os, the lazzaroni of the land ; its hordes of
almost legalized banditti who stalk openly in the streets and ren
der the presence of. an armed escort necessary to secure a safe
drive into the environs of the capital ; its whole structure of so
ciety, in which a Republican form is thrown over institutions as
aristocratic, and castes as nicely defined, as in any monarchy in
Europe ; in short its marvellous inconsistencies and contrasts in
climate, character of the people and face of the land, undoubted
ly make modern Mexico one of the most prolific, original, and
difficult themes for the study of the traveler.' Thus we hear of
banditti — legalized or not — from all quarters. Mad. Calde
ron informs us that a veteran administrador, who had had divers
conflicts with the robbers, sent a special message to the govern
ment authorities that he, too, intended to join a band of rob
bers, as they were the only class of people whom the govern
ment protected !
While writing this portion of this article, and observing, day
by day, what is said in our most respectable papers upon Mex-
13 El Puchero.

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 57
ican affairs, we fell upon an interview between Mr. Romero, the
Mexican Minister, and certain other persons, from the report of
which we cite the following : ' Washington, July 29. A com
mittee of "Post No. 1, of the Grand Army of the Republic"
Association this afternoon presented Senor Romero with a set of
resolutions congratulatory of Mexican Liberal successes. The
Mexican Minister replied at some length, coinciding with the
committee in the sentiment that French intervention in Mexico
was but one incident in the attempt to overthrow popular gov
ernment and free institutions on this continent.' If the Mexican
government illustrates to these gentlemen, the Minister and the
committee of 'Post No. 1,' the workings of 'popular govern
ment and free institutions', we can only say that we would leave
them in the full enjoyment of such content as they might derive
from them, but we would, ourselves, beg to be excused from any
participation therein. Any book of travels in Mexico will
give ample illustrations ofthe results of such so-called popular
government and free institutions. Let us take instances from the
work of Mr. Latrobe, an English traveler.
Parties are always warring over the Constitution, altering,
amending, abolishing, revising, &c. 'The instant that the strug
gle is at an end by the defeat of one party, the other takes advan
tage of its victory to crush their humbled adversary by confisca
tion, exile, and domestic oppression.
' Unhappy Mexico ! No sooner has a government seemed
to be fairly seated and felt itself called to exercise authority, and
to enforce the laws, but some discontented partizan runs off to a
distance from the capital, gets a band of malcontents together,
sets up a "grito", or bark, to give warning that something is
brewing; follows it up in due time by a pronunciamento against
the existing rulers; proposes a modification of the constitution,
and collecting an army, makes a dash at the metropolis 
It would fill a volume, and be a perfect jest-book, to give a his
tory of all the changes experienced by this country since the ex
pulsion ofthe Spaniards, and the real intentions, ends, and char
acters of those by whom they have been brought about.'11
A jest-book ! Caramba! The 'changes' are no jest to the
" Rambler in Mexico.

58 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
capitalists and to the working classes, whatever they may be to the
factious leaders. As to the state of the country during Mr. La-
trobe's sojourn, the President and Vice-President were at couteau
tire with each other, and several generals were issuing 'indepen
dent pronunciamentos against the government in general, and
each other in particular, all, to be sure, in the interest of popu
lar government and free institutions !
'Among other signs ofthe weakness of the existing govern
ment, the neglect and decay of many of the public institutions
is not to be overlooked.
' The importance of the mint to the revenues of the country,
renders its maintenance an object of state policy, but the univer
sity, the museum, the public library, the splendid mineria, or
schools of the mines ; many of the noble hospitals of Spanish
foundation, and the academy of arts, were at the time of our
visit in a state of general neglect shameful to the government
and people  To go into the details of these matters
would be to write a book instead of a letter.' 15
The Mexicans love music. An Italian opera troupe had
been invited to entertain the people of the capital, with an as
surance of a certain sum from the government, if the receipts
from the regular patronage fell short of that sum. They did
fall short, and the government was called upon to fulfil its con
tract. It sent only passports to every member of the company,
with advice to move off immediately. 'This was poor satisfac
tion ; but singers are proverbially unfortunate in Mexico. There
was, for example, Garcia, who, while travelling, was set upon
by banditti and pillaged, even to his snuff box, diamond ring,
and pantaloons; after which, the robbers insisted that he should
sing for them. He did so — and was hissed most obstreperous
ly by his lawless auditory ! It is said that he had borne the
pillaging with becoming temper, but the hissing he never for
got or forgave.' 16
Shall we bring forward more witnesses? They all give the
same kind of evidence of the glories ofthe Mexican republic.
Robbers are always the head men. Mr. Robertson was about
leaving Perote for the capital, when ' a tall, dirty, assassin-look-
13 Rambler in Mexico. is Ibid.

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 59
ing fellow' offered the services of self and squad as a guard for
tue diligencia in its dangerous course. The offer was accepted
by an intelligent foreigner who was conversant with the cosas
de Mejico. ' I have engaged these men, you see, Mr. Robert
son', said he, en route, 'for although they take the title of na
tional guards, they are, in reality, gentlemen ofthe road, and I
think on the whole it is best to pay them in their former ca
pacity', (p. 309.) A Mexican general, travelling in company
with his wife and family, could not disguise his terrors. 1T
Capt. Lyon, whose visit was made in the earliest days of the
republic, found less general demoralization perhaps than subse
quent travelers, though his accounts are far from flattering. He
calls the Rancheros the ' honest yeomen of the country ' ; and
he always found the arrieros, or muleteers, obliging, honest and
brave. These two classes seem yet to maintain their good char
acter. Otherwise, Captain Lyon tells us, that during the wars
of independence, ' law and justice gave place to the dictates of
the various leaders of the prevailing parties, and almost all trace
of that distributive justice which was strictly attended to by the
Spaniards had disappeared when Mexico found herself free '. 18
The Mexican congress made efforts to effect reforms, but, as the
world knows, without success.
Yet, while we maintain that the government is but a carica
ture of a republic, we freely admit that there are many people
in that country, of high and low degree, worthy of our respect
and sympathy. But in the general demoralization which has
attended the 'triumph' of the republic from the first day of its
history to this hour, these people, that is, the honest and meri
torious, have been excluded, as the rule, from all places of po
litical power and influence. There are good people in Mexico,
— but there is no Mexican People ; there is no Mexican
Nation; there is no Mexican Republic. The component
elements are too heterogeneous for a republican form of govern
ment. Let it be remembered that a vast majority of the popu
lation is composed of Indians; Indios mansos, civilized, and
Indios bravos, savage, the best of whom are as unfit to form a
civilized government as the negroes of our Southern States; and
"Visit to Mexico. 18 Journal, &c.

60 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
the fact will explain itself, why Mexico is not, and can not be,
a prosperous and orderly republic. The mixed races there re
quire a strong arm over them, not to crush, but to protect them.
If the most enlightened people, as the French, can not maintain
and live under a republican government, how can it be expected
of semi-barbarous Mexico ? Our own republic started into ex
istence under the most favorable circumstances known iii his
tory, but while not yet as old as some of its citizens, it seems as
unstable as the house built upon the sand. It amounts then
to a pure absurdity to make an American outcry about the pres
ervation of the Mexican republic, which is, and ever has been,
a political fiction. It is of importance to the welfare of the
United States that so near a neighbor as Mexico should have a
stable and orderly government ; the name by which it may be
known is a matter of no importance to us whatever.
A strong government in Mexico which would punish revolu
tionists, traitors, and robbers, commissioned or non-commission
ed, not in a spirit of vengeance, but in a spirit of even-handed
justice, for the protection of the weak against the strong, of the
industrious against the plundering, of the peaceful against the
violent, would with a very small but well disciplined military
force, be able to restore, or institute order there in less than five
years. There is much good material among the people of that
country if rightly developed. Travelers too frequently are led
to superficial and erroneous judgments, as if all Mexicans were
represented by the most lawless and ignorant portions of them.
These last only represent the evils resulting from a wrong form,
or if the reader prefer, misapplied form, of government.
There are large bodies of men in Mexico who would give in
their adhesion to any form of government having a commanding
show of power and stability. The Rancheros, whom Capt..
Lyon calls the ' honest yeomanry ', might be made immediate
supporters of any good government. We know not what Jua
rez has made of them, but up to his term of anarchy, they made
the most favorable impression upon travelers. When M. Von
Tempsky was wounded in an encounter with robbers, he found
refuge at a 'cluster of houses inhabited by rancheros with their
families. We were most kindly received, as is always the case

Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 61
when the traveller goes to ask the hospitality of the real ran
cheros V9 He thought them the most honest and most estima
ble people in Mexico. These men with the capitalists of the
country, the higher clergy, and all the intelligent and indus
trious classes, would rally upon any strong government that
would preserve order and protect life and property.
All the hombres de Men want a strong-handed and firm gov
ernment. It has been fully shown that the republic has brought
and perpetuated nothing but anarchy. Until the whole mass of
the population is changed, there is no possibility of its bringing
any thing better. Maximilian, if let alone, would have im
proved matters; he could not have made them worse. It was
a cruel thing on the part of the United States to deprive the
Mexicans of their only hope. What had they to fear from the
success of the Emperor ? Nothing. If their superior govern
ment by its humane and enlightened policy binds its people to
gether in the bonds of a true and cordial union, they could easi
ly afford to defy not only imperial Mexico but imperial France,
and imperial Austria, for that matter, all combined. But the
fact is, not one American had the least apprehension of any ag
gression from that quarter. The only apprehension was, that
with good strong government on the borders (which is what the
United States should chiefly desire) the whole boundless conti
nent ' might not be ours.' The design of successful filibustering
in a neighboring country, which is to be kept in a state of dis
organization for the accomplishment of their purposes, is nei
ther creditable to the United States, nor is it promising for the
welfare of their citizens.
Wc may say withal, that while the mixed races of Mexico are
incapable of forming any stable government, they might easily
be formed into an orderly and well governed people. Can
mixed races ever thrive with an equal division of political power
in the same state? It is very doubtful. The negroes of Li
beria have not unwisely made it a part of their organic law, that
no whites shall have political power among them. There was
order in New Spain while the European Spaniard had exclusive
domination ; there has been no order since. It may be said that
19 Mitla.

62 Mexico and Mexican Affairs.
the Spaniard was a tyrant ; but the intelligence of the world
admits that the tyranny of one is better than the tyranny of
the many, and that the most tyrannical government is better
than anarchy.
An able chief of state, under any title, with twenty thousand
well disciplined and well paid troops at his command, could
bring order out of chaos. The robbers could be suppressed, and
thus the landed proprietors could return in peace and security
to their haciendas, forming a body of respectable and influential
rural gentry, with the greatest advantage to themselves and to
the state. Industry would spring up every where, under pro
tection, for it would meet with a ready reward. The dilapidated
churches, and the closed schools, would be again open for wor
ship and instruction. The clergy are probably as ready as the
other best citizens to enter upon reforms. It may be observed
that while the priests are spoken of, in general, in terms of de
preciation by travelers, yet wherever there is acquaintance
made and personal intercourse established, the impression made
by the higher clergy, at least, is almost uniformly favorable.
All classes have their good points. Waddy Thompson, in
speaking of the ladies, says they are not remarkable for beauty,
but ' their manners are perfect ; and in the great attributes of
the heart, affection, kindness, aud benevoleme, they have no su
periors  I think that in another, and the most important
point in the character of woman, they are much slandered. I
am quite sure there is no city in Europe of the same size where
there is less immorality.' (p. 162.)
Among the lower orders, however, there is a large amount of
marrying, detras de la Iglesia, without the sanction ofthe church.
Mr. Thompson testifies to honest dealing generally on the
part of shopkeepers, &c, and to a more diffused education than
he expected to find among the common people. He often saw
the ragged Leperos reading in the streets — and 'I had not a
servant during my residence in Mexico who did not read and
write — neither very well, it is true, but quite as well, or better
than the same class in this country.' (p. 182.) Although a very
partial friend to the Texan prisoners in Mexico at the time of
his mission, Mr. T. bears spontaneous testimony to the kindness

• Mexico and Mexican Affairs. 63
with which they were treated by the Mexican people — not by
their government. When the prisoners were released, the peo
ple gave them money, clothes, food, and words of kindness ' in
stead of jeers and insults  I could not refrain from ask
ing myself whether if the people of any other country had in
vaded ours and been made prisoners, they would under like cir
cumstances have passed through such a crowd, not only without
insult, but with such demonstrations of kindness and sympa
thy.' (p. 93.)
¦ Have we not said enough to show that the Mexican Republic
is i\caput mortuum, which may be galvanized into making hid
eous features, indeed, but which can never be brought to life ?
And have we not also shown that there is good material in
Mexico, if well handled ? To such a neighbor every honest
man in America should wish the United States to be generous,
even to letting the better classes invite some potent stranger in
to rule all, and to give order to all.
Beyond foreign intervention of a direct kind, there may be
one other hope for Mexico, also from foreign intervention indi
rectly ; and that is, in a gradual immigration from the world
abroad, so that the immigrants, or their children, may take the
governing power in their own hands. This desirable result may
occur in a life-time, or in the lapse of ages, or never; and specu
lation upon it we may leave now among the many other misty,
dubious, indicible, cosas de Mejico I

% SJmtan Campaign jSkelc{j.

[ THB New Eclectic, November, 1S6S.]
My practical acquaintance with Mexico began with the Mex
ican war, — that is, with our war upon that distracted and miser
able country. Like most Americans, I had a general acquaint
ance with the romance of the Conquest, and I had some idea of
the splendor ofthe 'Halls ofthe Montezumas ' ; as well de
fined, at least, as that of a home-bred youth who, in migrating
Westward, came to a town called Jericho, which amazed him
greatly, as he said he always thought that was one of the old
fabulous places of the Bible. In fact, in my mind, Mexican
history was in a kind of hazy twilight, occupying a middle place
between dream-land and reality. From hard service, however,
during the war, at first on the Pacific Coast, and afterwards from
Vera Cruz to the Capital, stern reality made familiar and endur
ing impressions. Some reminiscences of a stirring campaign,
taken principally from my daily records, may prove interesting,
it is hoped, to the general reader.
On the 3d of July, 1847, I landed with a body of some four
hundred U. S. marines at Camp Vergara, on the beach near
Vera Cruz, where the gallant Franklin Pierce, since President
of the United States, was forming a brigade for service with
General "Scott's army, then awaiting reinforcements at the city
of Puebla. Our first night on the shore was not propitious.
The camp was on a narrow sand-beach, between a low range of
sandhills and the sea. During the night a furious Norther
vented its wrath upon us, attended with a deluge of rain. Our
canvas city, which looked so bright with the setting sun, was

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 65
soon reduced to a wide-spread ruin. It was typical of saucy
and prosperous America under the light of day, and equally of
ruined and devastated Mexico in the gloom of another noche
triste, whose darkness was a fit mantle for that unhappy land.
The sea, the wind, and the rain made a wild revel upon the
sloping beach; and men and horses, wading and plunging amid
floating canvas and poles, and the various disjecta membra of
the wreck, might reasonably have expected an encounter with
monsters of the deep, on this now common ground, or common
water. Chaos ruled the night; but when the morning sun shone upon
us, and sent its sheen over the deep blue sea, there was no sign
of commotion in the elements, and nothing but our fallen can
vas and water-soaked bedding and clothes bore witness to the
work of the storm.
Northers are not common on the coast during the summer,
but we had a presage of this from one of Nature's barometers.
As we were nearing the coast, the famous peak of Orizaba was
descried in its glory. Its lofty snow-crowned head is eighteen
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and it appeared not un
like a huge liberty cap of frosted silver, glittering in the sun
beams and dazzling with its radiance. There was no visible
base or pedestal, but towering aloft from a girdle of clouds it
seemed suspended in the middle air, like Michael Angelo's con
ception in regard to the Pantheon. The spectacle was altogether
surpassingly sublime and beautiful. This magnificent sight is
not pleasing to the mariner; for its full exhibition always fore
tells a storm, as we, indeed, experienced. Among the original
inhabitants, Orizaba was known as Citlaltepetl, or the starry
mountain, from luminous exhalations which formerly played
over its summit.
After a brief sojourn on the beach, our extemporized brigade
started for the interior. The first night on the march was an
other noche triste. We slept in the mud, without tente and
almost without food. This was due to confusion in the immense
wagon train with which we were encumbered — for we were
escorting to Scott's army a renovating supply of the munitions
of war. On the following day we were regaled with fresh beef,
5 .

66 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
shot by our marksmen, and skinned and cooked and eaten while
the beef was almost quivering with the last vibrations of Hfe. The
cattle, though running wild, were said to belong to Santa Anna.
When our cooks were consigning this nearly living beef to the
flesh pots, we might have expected the omens which startled the
hungry crew of Ulysses when they slaughtered the sacred beeves
ofthe Island of the Sun. 'The skins crept on the ground, and
the joints of meat lowed on the spits while' roasting.' No won
der the crew all perished; whereas of our men, a half, a third,
or a fourth at least, returned to their homes in due time to fight
their battles 'o'er again,' to, or with, Penelope and the children.
We made strenuous efforts to get out of the low and hot re
gion known as the tierras calientes, a region of death, indepen
dently of the attentions of mounted guerrilla rangers, who poured
volleys into our column at all hours of the day, concealing them
selves in the dense chaparral on the sides of the highroad.
Every day some of our men were stricken down by the heavy
balls of the Mexican escopetas, but many more fell from heat,
weariness, and disease, dysentery principally. We fortunately
escaped the Vomito, (yellow fever,) though it was raging in the
walled town of Vera Cruz while we were in camp on the beach
at Vergara, three miles distant.
The Vomito was a recognized ally of the Mexicans, and they
expected furthermore, that the lethal heats of the terras calientes
would be as fatal to our troops as the cold of Russia was to the
troops of Napoleon.
We made such haste as we could, (not exceeding the maxim,
feslina lente !) to get to the salubrious and picturesque highlands
of the interior. The first night among the hills inspired a new
life into our sick, foot-sore, and weary brigade. Just think of
twenty-four hundred men suffering each twenty-four times a
day, at least, with the pangs of tormina and tenesmus, with too lit
tle to eat, and too much to wear or to carry, bug-bitten all night,
and shot, or shot at, every day by invisible guerrillamen, as we
marched in midsummer under a tropical sun, and the reader
may suppose, upon reflection, that we were not a very cheer
ful party. Some of us, without knowing the amount of indebt
edness due from Mexico to the United States, would willingly

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 67
have given up any individual interest in it to be at inglorious
ease at home.
And yet the first night in the pure air of the hills seemed to
vitalize the whole command. We were at the poor hamlet of
Tolome, which looked quite beautiful under the cozening rays
of the moon, nestling, as it does, in the midst of a beautiful
landscape. Tents were pitched, fires were lighted, there was
music by a band, with a sort of anvil chorus kept up cheerily
by smiths mending tires and traces, and from the long line of
transparent dwellings, catches of song, very unlike the lamen
tations of the prophet, and peals of laughter, resounded. I be
gan to think my interest in Mexico worth looking after.
From this time we moved slowly on, dragging our wagon
train and heavy artillery up the long ascent towards the tierras
templadas, the temperate zone of Mexico, a healthy and fertile
region. Mules and horses had been stricken doWn as well as
men in the lowlands, aud we had no small difficulty in ascend
ing the hills. Sometimes the mountain road would be skirting
along by a deep ravine, looking like a bottomless abyss, while
adjacent mountain tops would be towering toward the regions
of perpetual snow. We could realize Virgil's lines,
' O'er us perpetual glows the exalted pole,
There gloomy Styx, and Hell's deep shadows roll.'
In the mountain gorges of Cerro Gordo we expected something
worse than the daily skirmishes to which we were now accus
tomed. A few hundred good men could make another Ther
mopylae at more passes than one in these mountains. But we
had only the usual fire and run from the guerrillas, who com
monly welcomed the van of our little army with a volley when
we came to a halt for the night, and sent a parting shot after the
rear as we marched away in the light of the early morning.
When we reached the picturesque city of Jalapa, it seemed as if
we had found another paradise. It was on a Sunday, and the
Jalapenos turned out in full costume, to see and be seen. The
people came into the camp to trade with us, bringing the fruits
and vegetables of the torrid and temperate zones, to say nothing
of hogskins full oi pulque} They brought apples, pears, peaches,
1 The famous and favorite national beverage.

68 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
bananas, plantains, zapotes, the aguacate or alligator pears, cac
tus berries, and many other fruits, gathered by one person in
one vicinity. Of these fruits, the aguacate (Laurus Persea) is
to me the most grateful, but the banana is the most useful. It
is to the inhabitants of the torrid zone what the cereal grasses,
wheat, barley and rye, are to our country, and to Europe. There
is no other plant which can produce an equal amount pf nutri
ment on the same space of ground. Humboldt says that the
produce is to that of wheat as 133 to 1, and to that of potatoes
as 44 to 1. 'It is calculated,' he says, 'that the same extent of
ground in Mexico on which the banana is raised, is capable of
maintaining fifty individuals; whereas in Europe, under wheat,
it would not furnish subsistence for two.'
The Jalaperios were probably not averse to us. At all events,
they sold us supplies, and were honestly paid for them. Our
army thus made a strong contrast with their own, for the guer
rilla men levy upon them at will, and take what they please,
without compensation. One man who came to my tent to trade,
offered more than its value for a piece of sperm candle, and de
sired to have more. When he found I was a Medico, he
explained to me that he wanted spermaceti for its remedial vir
tues in pulmonary affections. These virtues, as the reader will
remember, are commemorated in Shakspeare, and my new friend
certainly concurred in the belief that,
1 The sovereignest thing on earth,
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise.'
After minor adventures, day by day, we reached at length the
city of Puebla, then occupied by Gen. Scott and his army. The
Commander-in-Chief was awaiting us, and he soon distributed
our brigade among the four divisions of his army, commanded
respectively by Generals Twiggs, Pillow, Worth, and Quitman.
The marines, constituting a very soldierly and well disciplined
body, were assigned to the' last named. Our forces were soon
set in motion for the capital. We passed through a fine country
beyond Puebla, having constantly in sight the great volcano Po-
pocatapetl, the smoke mountain, and Istacihuatl, a colossal neigh
bor, whose name signifies the white woman, from some fancied
resemblance to a reclining female figure, its rugged spine rising

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 69
high in the region of perpetual snow. Popocatapetl is almost
a rival of Orizaba. Some of my companions had no difficulty
in discerning a wreath of circling vapor arising from its sum
mit, but I must admit to seeing only spotless snow at the sum
mit, which, sparkling and glittering in the sunbeams, extended
for 3000 feet down its mighty sides.
From San Martin, an antiquated village, we began the ascent
of the porphyritic mountain wall, which stood between us and
' the happy valley.' We soon rose fairly into the tierras frias, the
frozen zone, or literally, the cold lands of this remarkable country.
High on the mountain side we encamped at Rio Frio (cold
stream). Before dawn, I was forced by the cold to leave my
simple camp bed to seek the early camp fires. On the march of
the day, we crossed the highest point of the mountain road, at
an elevation of about 11,000 feet above the level ofthe sea. In
making the descent, the valley of Mexico was exposed to us by
glimpses, or bird's-eye views, of entrancing beauty. In the lan
guage of my notes : 'The valley or basin of Mexico lay spread
out like a panorama of fairy-land, opening, closing, and shift
ing, according to the changing positions of the observers. At
times, nothing would be visible but dark recesses in the moun
tain, or the grim forest that shaded the road ; when in a moment
a sudden turn would unfold, as if by magic, a scene that looked
too lovely to be real. It was an enchantment in nature ; for
knowing as we did that we beheld bona fide lakes and moun
tains, plains and villages, chapels and hamlets, all so bright, so
clear, and so beautiful, it still seemed an illusion ofthe senses, a
dream, or a perfection of art, — nay, in the mountain circle we
could see the very picture frame.' There is a peculiar clearness
in this rare and elevated atmosphere which gives to remote ob
jects a delusive idea of their proximity. I cannot at all descrihe
the beauty of a snow storm we saw above us in the mountains,
while the sun was shining brightly over the surrounding coun
try below.
We are now about to pass from marching and skirmishing, to
conflicts which have become memorable in history. Before pro
ceeding to speak of them, however, I may be excused for repro
ducing a passage from Humboldt on the physical geography to

70 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
which I have already called attention, uuder the names of the
tierras calientes, or hot regions, the tierras templadas, or temper
ate regions, and the tierras frias, or cold regions. These three
regions lying together in the same latitude, are capable of pro
ducing, he says, all that commerce brings together from every
part ofthe globe, — sugar, cochineal, cacao, cotton, coffee, wheat,
hemp, flax, silk, oil, and wine. They furnish every metal, not
even excepting mercury, and are supplied with the finest timber.
' The western part of the State of Vera Cruz forms the de
clivity of the Cordilleras of Anahuac, from whence, amid the
regions of perpetual snow, the inhabitants descend in a day to
the burning plains of the coast. In this district are displayed
in a remarkable manner the gradations of vegetation, from the
level of the sea to those elevated summits which are visited with
perennial frost. In ascending, the traveler sees the physiog
nomy of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of the
plants, the figures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants,
and the kind of cultivation followed by them, assuming a differ
ent appearance at every step. Leaving the lower districts cov
ered with a beautiful and luxuriant vegetation, he first enters
that in which the oak appears, where he has no longer cause to
dread the yellow fever, so fatal on the coast. Forests of liquid-
amber, near Jalapa, announce by their freshness the elevation at
which the strata of clouds, suspended over the ocean, come in
contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordilleras. A little
higher, the banana ceases to yield fruit. At the height of San
Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which continue as
far as the plains of Perote, where the cereal vegetation of Europe
is seen. Beyond this, the former alone cover the rocks, the tops
of which enter the region of perpetual frigidity.' (Humboldtfs
'Travels, &c.)
A single passage like the above gives some idea of the re
sources of Mexico, if in good hands.
As we fairly entered the valley, we expected to face ' grim-vis-
aged war ' in earnest, and we were not disappointed. The Mex
ican commander, Santa Anna, was awaiting us with a heavy
force at El Penon, a rugged hill, or rock, a sort of Gibraltar,
ten miles from the capital city, on the main road thereto. Guns

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 71
were planted in tiers on the hill-side, and breast-works were
carefully constructed to protect the Mexican troops. The road
is but a causeway through a swampy country. Ditches and barri
cades made the road impassable, except as they were captured
and leveled under the fire from the hill ; so that our army, under
a raking fire, was likely to be cut to pieces before reaching the
principal point of defence. It was generally agreed in the army
that the capture of this fortification would be at the cost of at
least half of our force. As we were nearly three hundred miles
from the coast, the survivors in possession would have innumer
able difficulties in holding their position until reinforced. The
attack seemed inevitable, however, and every man was prepared
to do his duty.
The troops with whom I was serving moved steadily on, in
full expectation of a bloody day's work, when au order came to
halt as we stood on the road. It seemed like a moment of rest
to prepare for action. But shortly an order for a counter-march
took us by surprise. We retraced our steps, and turned to take
a fork in the road which led by a rough and narrow causeway
to the town of Chalco. We were, in short, traveling by a road
supposed by the Mexicans to be impassable for wagons and ar
tillery, so as to turn El PeiTon. This was a part of General
Scott's strategy, which rendered that stronghold entirely useless.
Following slowly and painfully our winding course, removing
obstructions, as trees hastily thrown over the road by guerrillas,
&c., to say nothing of skirmishing and guerrilla battles, we
reached the very pretty town of San Augustin. During a skir
mish, 2 I joined a party of officers on one of the numerous voir
canic knolls around whose base we had to wind, for observation.
There are many of these knolls or mounds in the valley, of va
rious heights, which are extinct craters. They remind the ob
server that the whole of this placid and beautiful valley or basin
was once a huge eauldron, boiling over in all directions. Ima
gination can scarcely depict the awful sight of hundreds of these
Cyclopean chimneys belching forth fire and smoke, and sending
2 In this action, in which we could only distinguish the positions of the contend
ing parties by the rising smoke, Capt. Thornton, of the 2nd Dragoons, a highly
meritorious and gallant young officer, was killed by a cannon ball while making a
bold reconnaissance.

72 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
down torrents of liquid lava to deluge the trembling plains be
low. I made some endeavor to compare, or contrast, in thought,
the roar of artillery then ringing in my ears with the bellowings
of this raging Gehenna when these huge mountains were up
heaved to their present wondrous height. How utterly insig
nificant appeared the work of war by contrast !
Our great fights began from San Augustin. The old war
god of the valley, Huitzlipochtli, must have been fairly aroused
by the battle of Contreras on the 19th and 20th of August,
which was the first of the great battles in the valley. It may
prove interesting to lady readers, by the way, to know that
Huitzlipochtli had a help-meet. The goddess of war is not
often seen by mortal eyes, at least of our race, but her well-pre
served image cut in stone shows her as a being of composite
order. She surpasses the well known Mississippi ideal, being
composed of a deformed female figure, a tiger and a rattlesnake;
not an attractive personage, certainly, though not an unfit type
of her vocation.
On the evening of the 19th, the fortune of war was against us
at Contreras. The Mexicans were in their entrenched camp
with an abundance of artillery, well served, which they used
effectively upon our men, who had to toil over the Pedregal, a
great field of broken volcanic stone and lava, rent in chasms and
fissures, which was with difficulty traversed even by light infan
try. The Americans were severely handled, while the Mexicans
were as yet unscathed and intangible. Our spent and hungry
men lay upon the rocks in the night under a pelting storm of
rain, which chilled them to the marrow, after the heat and the
fruitless exposure of a hard-fought day. On their rough and
cold beds, they could hear the vivas of the Mexicans at their
unwonted success, and the stirring strains of their martial music.
The U. S. Marines, with a few other troops, had been left in
San Augustin as a reserve, to protect the military stores, &c,
which it was supposed would be attacked ; but at dawn, as the
times were critical, the whole army was put in motion. As we
joined our main body, however, their roaring huzzas informed
us that the tide had already turned. The engineers, Lee, and
Beauregard, and Tower, and others, had been reconnoitering

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 73
and the last named had found a difficult pass in the rear of Con
treras, which was made use of by General Persifer Smith, aided
by General Cadwalader and Colonel Riley, to attack the Mexi
cans in the rear of their works, the troops being led by Lieuten
ant Tower, by way of a rough and obscure ravine, in the dark
ness of the night. The astonished Mexicans, lately so jubilant,
fled in the utmost confusion before the ' cold iron ' of this storm
ing party, and left their stronghold in possession of the victors.
The taking of Contreras was but the beginning of a series of
victories won by our troops on the same day ; or there was one
great victory divided into five brilliant parts, the acts ofthe dra
ma being performed at Contreras, San Antonio, Churubusco,
Tetedu Pont, and San Pablo, names rendered historical by the
successes of American arms.
The Commander-in-Chief summed up the general results of
the day as follows : ' Our army has,tin a single day, in many
battles defeated 32,000 men, made about 3,000 prisoners, includ
ing eight generals, (two of them ex-presidents,) and 205 other
officers ; killed or wounded 4,000 of all ranks — besides entire
corps dispersed and dissolved ; captured 37 pieces of ordnance
— more than trebling our field train and siege batteries, with a
large number of small arms, a full supply of ammunition, &c.
These great results have overwhelmed the enemy. Our loss
amounts to 1,053, killed and wounded. Those under treatment,
thanks to our very able medical officers, are generally doing
well.' (General Scott's Report.) Our whole army consisted of
about 10,000 men, of all arms.
These marvellous results admit of some explanation. The mon
grel races of Mexico have no sense of honor, no pride of char
acter. Their generals are not wanting in ability, but their ma
teriel for armies is hopelessly bad. Protracted civil wars have
disorganized and demoralized the people to such an extent, that
they care very little what general or party is in the ascendant,
and they are little more concerned at foreign invasion, provided
the invaders treat them with leniency. My subsequent intercourse
with various classes made me perfectly familiar with their senti
ments and their hopes, or rather I should say, their despair.
What we would call the people, is a body unknown in Mexico.

74 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
There is an aristocracy of wealth and family, of sangre azul,
possessed of fair intelligence ; and there are the poor Indian and
the Mestizo, or hybrid man, who is for the most part an unpro
mising subject in all countries. The two last mentioned form
the masses, and they are always overridden and degraded, either
by oppressors from the highest class, or by upstarts and adven
turers arising among themselves. None of them have a valid
idea of the blessings resulting from the combined influences of
peace, industry and prosperity. Every government or party in
power, and every army, engage in the one common cause of
plundering the people, if such they may be called. These last
were astonished to find that our army did not live among them
by plunder. Supplies taken from them were paid for at a full
valuation. We reaped the benefit of this policy ; for droves of
cattle, for example, would be driven out of reach of Santa An
na's foraging parties to be .sold to ours. But for this, our army
would have been in danger of perishing for want of supplies.
From my knowledge of Mexico, I will assert that there will
be no improvement there until it is effected by some bold and
resolute foreign power.
After the battles mentioned, we had an armistice which lasted
to Sept. 7, when it was manifest that the enemy was engaged in
violating its terms. Our next work then was to capture the
city. The army was again put in motion ; skirmishing was re
sumed, and in a few days the bloody battle of Molino del Rey
was fought, which gave us a dearly bought victory. Shortly
after that we made a night march, and when the morning dawned
we saw the formidable castle of Chapultepec, the key to the city,
frowning down upon us from the rugged hill which it crowns.
One day was given to bombarding the castle. This was slow
work ; and the Mexicans bore artillery fighting very creditably.
The next day the castle was taken by storm after a desperate
fight, in the early part of which the gallant Major Twiggs, of
the Marines, was killed while leading a storming party, under
his command. From a temporary hospital arranged for the oc
casion, I could see distinctly every movement made on the side
of the hill facing towards us. Many Americans, not engaged,
though we were all fully under the range of the castle guns, were

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 75
perched in trees, and on house tops, gazing intently upon the fearful
spectacle. There were untold thousands of Mexican spectators. I
looked at the city, where the domes and towers of the Cathedral,
the churches and convents, were blackened with myriads of peo
ple ; — on the house-tops, and upon every elevation were dense
clusters of human beings. We surgeons were soon overwhelmed
with the wounded, who required all of our attention ; but some of
us were shortly summoned to the castle, which was now in the
hands of our successful warriors. Heaps of dead and wounded
blocked the approaches to the castle as we entered. The woun
ded were carried in as fast as possible for attention, Mexicans as
well as Americans. The losses on the part of the former largely
preponderated. Their mangled bodies lay heaped in masses;
some among them indeed were not yet dead, but were gasping in
the last agonies, with their dark faces upturned to the sun,
writhing and struggling in death, like fish thrown on shore by
the angler. Crushed heads, shattered limbs, torn up bodies,
with brains, hearts, and lungs exposed, and eyes torn from their
sockets, were among the horrible visions that first arrested atten
tion. Meantime, the army pushed on for the city, and after some
hours, I followed along the causeway, which was then strewed
with the dead. The Mexicans had made another stand, and
were raking the causeway with their artillery. I was advised to
dismount, and take my course on foot under the shelter of the
arches of the aqueduct, which extended along the road. Its pro
jecting abutments gave no little protection to our soldiers on foot,
who took advantage of them to save themselves, to a great ex
tent, from the sweeping fire of the Mexicans. I took the advice,
and succeeded in joining our brigade near the city gates. Dur
ing the night, (Sep. 13,) preparations were made for bombarding
the city. On the morning of the 14th, however, it was ascer
tained that the ' Mexican troops had vacated, so that our army
entered in triumph, but not without a final skirmish, for Santa
Anna had opened the prisons, and hosts of liberated felons fired
upon our troops as they entered, from the house-tops. These, it
will be remembered, are flat, and are protected by parapets. It
required a couple of days to reduce this army of villains, but
our riflemen also went to the house-tops, and Worth's Division

76 A Mexican Campaign Sketch.
surprised them as at Monterey, by perforating the walls of the
houses and ascending upon them from below. Mountain how
itzers were also placed in lofty towers, which dismayed and dis
persed the felon army.
The war was now practically ended. We had nothing more
to do than to garrison the city, and to take care of the sick and
wounded. The brigade to which I was attached had lost all its
superior officers; so that Lieutenant-Colonel Watson, of the
Marines, came into command. General Shields, the brigadier,
was laid up, disabled by a formidable wound in the arm ; Col
onel Burnett, of the New York regiment, was disabled by a
desperate wound in the foot, which nearly proved fatal by
tetanus, and Colonel Butler, of the South Carolina regiment,
(Palmettos,) had been killed in action. These two regiments,
with which the Marines had been constantly associated, had been
eminently and equally conspicuous for their gallantry upon many
a hard-fought field ; and surely neither thought then that their
successors would ever imbrue their hands in each other's blood.
Many of the gallant men who there fought shoulder to shoulder,
afterwards unhappily turned their well-tested prowess against
each other. From the highest to the lowest places in the army,
this unhappy fact was realized. At head-quarters, the two prb-
minent figures were Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee, the lat
ter the confidential friend and adviser of the' former. As it
stood with them, the subsequent commanders-in-chief of the
respective Federal and Confederate forces, so with many others,
the differences being only matters of degree.
Our army, during the eight or nine months of occupation of
the city, gave the people a sense of security and protection hith
erto, and since, unknown to them. Their greatest happiness
would have been in a permanent occupation. The army inter
fered with none of the industrial pursuits of the people, but it
afforded a market for their supplies, and encouraged their law
ful employments. It is said that when Belisarius invaded Af
rica, his army made friends among the people by traffic con
ducted with fairness and honesty, and that ' no outrage was com
mitted on private property, but the people and the very land re
joiced in the sense of full protection.' With a single conspicu-

A Mexican Campaign Sketch. 11
ous exception, the same could be truly said of our army. The
lawless spirits of the country were awed into complete submis
sion, and the better classes, who live in a perennial reign of ter
ror, enjbyed a respite from their terrors. They could sleep in
peace before going to that long sleep which, hitherto, was alone
exempted from ruthless violence.
Instead of being a day of rejoicing, it was a time of mourn
ing, when our departing army left the people once more to
their former rulers, their presidents, dictators, soldiers and rob
bers. On our homeward march, as on going inland, we ob
served numerous wayside crosses, erected by the country people
over spots where travelers had been murdered : sad memorials
of life and death in a land, which as a true Aceldama, is purple
with the blood of its children. The lines of the poet, though
applied to another country, are in Mexico, words of literal truth :
'For whereso'er the shrieking victim hath
Poured forth his blood beneath the assassin's knife,
Some hand erects a cross of mouldering lathe ;
And grove and glen with thousand such are rife,
Throughout this purple land where law secures not life.'
Returning from Mexico to a well ordered and well governed
Country seemed like returning to a happier and a better world.
Would to God all Americans could appreciate the blessings of a
good government, now so Sadly imperiled ! With them, if life
has many cares and sorrows it has its compensations also ; but
without them it may indeed be said :
'That Life protracted is protracted woe.'

%\x <%istle an Ifomcenpi))]).

[The Richmond Medical Journal, August, 1S67.]
A highly intelligent gentleman recently handed to me for
perusal, a series of Essays on Homoeopathy, by a Dr. Sharp, an
Englishman, alleging that they were in the highest repute
among the partisans of that system. Acknowledging the sound
ness of the maxim, audi alteram partem, I engaged at once to
read them.
Medicine, in theory and practice, is full of intricacies and
obscurities, and this must be so while life and death are ineffable
, mysteries ; but now and then we get a gleam of light that helps
us in our labors, and enables us to work more intelligently and
more beneficially iu the service of suffering humanity, j Every
such gleam we must accept with grateful hearts from whatever
source it may come. No true physician can disdain or reject
any item, or even an atom, of useful professional knowledge.
If Hahnemann had more lights than his predecessors, let us
have the benefit of them. If Dr. Sharp has yet more lights
than his master, let us profit by them also. Imbued with this
spirit, I read Dr. Sharp's essays with the fair design of acquir
ing useful knowledge. If your readers will bear with me, I
will lay the results before them, somewhat at length.
There are now in my possession eight of twelve 'Tracts on
Homoeopathy,' written by William Sharp, M. D., F. R. S., an
experienced practitioner of the old school, as he informs us,
before his conversion. The tracts are entitled, ' The Small Dose
of Homoeopathy,' Tract No. 4 ; ' The Advantages of Homoe
opathy,' Tract No. 6 ; ' The Principle of Homoeopathy,' Tract

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 79
No. 7 ; ' The Controversy on Homoeopathy,' Tract No. 8 ; ' The
Remedies of Homoeopathy,' Tract No. 9; 'The Trovings of
Homoeopathy,' Tract No. 10; 'The Single Medicine of Homoe
opathy,' Tract No. 11 ; and finally, ' The Common Sense of
Homoeopathy,' Tract No. 12.
In Tract No. 4, three leading questions are proposed and
answered. The questions are, ' 1. Are we acquainted with any
facts which render it probable that infinitesimal quantities of pon
derable matter may act upon the living animal body ? In other
words, what does analogy teach us ? 2. Are there any facts
which show the action of infinitesimal quantities of ponderable
matter on the healthy body ? 3. What are the actual proofs in
support of the assertion that such minute quantities of ponder
able matter act remedially on the diseased body ?'
These pertinent questions are followed by several pages of
facts or assertions from the domains of chemical and mechanical
philosophy; a dissertation upon the minutias of sound and sight,
&c. ; upon oxygen and hydrogen, &c. ; with divers questions as
to ultimate facts, which so far admit of no answers from philo
sophers of any school.
. In the midst of this array of learning, we find the following
paragraph :
' The small dose of the Homceopathist, viewed in the light of
this double limit, may be thus considered : .Chemical tests fol-
. low the grain of medicinal substance to the third trituration, that
J is, till if has been divided into a million of parts; and a good
assisted by a powerful microscope, can follow it to the fourth

I

or fifth trituration ; beyond this it is absolutely lost to the per
ception of our sight. _y The sense of smell can detect musk to the
fifth or sixth dilution. Everything that we know, forbids us to
conclude that the division of matter stops here, but our senses
cannot follow it further. On the other hand, our power of ob
serving the effects produced by these" doses, lias no limit but the
sliding scale. AxTmitting for the moment, which I think I shall
afterwards prove, that effects are produced, it is evidently as easy
for us to observe them after a dose of the thirtieth as after one
of the third, or of the first trituration. The same cautions are
necessary, but nothing more.'

u

80 An Epistle on Homaiopathy.
It may be remarked, en passant, that the first trituration
gives the 1-100 part of a grain, which is an appreciable and
admissible dose with sonie_jne^icnies^r_jpjDi;sojis, according to
¦vj-egular or old practice, as e.g. aconitia ; while the third tritura
tion gives the 1-1,000,000 part of a grain, and the thirtieth a
decillionth, it is said, which cannot be conveniently expressed
in figures, and of which, indeed, the mind can scarcely take
cognizance. CThe sons of iEsculapius, of other descents than
through Hahnemann, do not believe that a grain, or drop of
any known medicine, has any remedial power in the third tritu
ration or dilution, and consequently, still less do they believe it
te- be effective in the thirtieth trituration or dilution./
This point of difference may pass for the present.
Our author then propounds again, question No. 1, and opens
his reply in the following magniloquent terms : ' Look at that
bright star ! so remote that the astronomer, with his telescope,
cannot calculate its distance, and yet its brilliant beams of light
strike upon the eye and convince the merest child of its exist
ence. What a vivid flash that was, and how loud the thunder!
see yonder oak riven to its centre — what an irresistible force,
and yet the chemist, with his most delicate balance, cannot per
ceive its weight. . . . What is light ? . . . For our present
purpose it is unimportant which theory (of the nature or phe
nomena of light) is regarded as the true one, inasmuch as both
assume that matter, in some form, is concerned in producing the
various impressions of light and color upon the living animal
body. The effects are produced by imponderable, but not by
immaterial agents. To convey some faint notion of excessive
minuteness, it may be mentioned that the length of an undula
tion of the extreme violet ray of light is 0.0000167 of an inch ;
the number of undulations in an inch is 59,750 ; and the num
ber of undulations in a second, is 727,000,000,000,000, (727
trillions) ; while the corresponding numbers for the indigo ray
are, length, 0.0000185 of an inch ; 54,070 undulations in an
inch, and 658,000,000,000,000 (658 trillions) in a second. The
other rays differ in similar proportions.'
What plausible or valid objection can Allopathy make to all
this? I know of none.

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 81
' That space is occupied by minute particles of matter, admits
of being proved in another manner, quite independent of these
observations on light  Thus, by another series of obser
vations, we arrive at the same conclusion, that there exists a
rare, subtle and imponderable form of minutely divided matter.
Infinitesimal quantities of this imponderable matter, are capable
of acting energetically, and they do so act habitually, producing
such impressions as those of light, as upon the living animal
body.' It would be difficult to find a disputant to argue that
light and heat, &c, do not act appreciably upon the animal
organism ; though it is rather where they ' cover it all over as
with a mantle,' than when admitted in invisible and insensible
proportions. It would not be surprising if the reader were impressed like
honest Dr. Primrose at the fair, when his learned friend and
admirer — the same who bought his horse- — treated him to a
brief discourse on cosmogony, until, suddenly interrupting him
self, he had to admit he was straying from the question. ' That
he actually was ; nor could I for my life,' says the Vicar, ' see
how the creation of the world had any thing to do with the
business I was talking of, but it was sufficient to show me that
he was a man of learning, and I reverenced him the more.'
Our author, however, has no difficulty in finding the applica
tion ofthe philosophical facts stated, and from them he answers
question No. 1 summarily as follows:
' Reasoning then from analogy, we may conclude it to be pro
bable that other forms of matter, even though reduced by the
successive triturations into similarly small dimensions, may also
act, and act powerfully, upon the living body.'
Question No. 2 is again propounded. We are then told of
the mechanical division of gold, which ' in gilding,' may be
divided into particles, at least one thousand four hundred mil
lions of a square inch in size, and yet possess the color and all
the other characters of the largest mass  The perfection
of modern chemistry is such, that a quantity of silver equal to
the billionth of a cubic line, can be readily detected. That
particles become divided into less proportions than is shown in
these examples, is evident from the daily observations of the
6

82 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
sense of smell. ^ The violet^fills even a royal apartment with its
sweet odor, which is thus readily perceived, but which abso
lutely evades every other mode of observation. How inconceiv
ably small must be the particles of all odors ! And yet how
^obviously material they are.'
' These are instances of infinitesimal quantities of matter act
ing upon the healthy body.'
There appears to be some little confusion in these instances.
An infinitesimal particle of gold may, indeed, cover an infini
tesimal particle of wood, under the unconscious hand ofthe gilder,
but if one of the same particles gets into his mouth or stomach,
he is not appreciably any the better or any the worse for its mis
application. The odor of a violet may fill no doubt ' even a
royal apartment,' and royal lungs and royal nostrils at the same
time, but as in the case of light there is an infinitesimal applica
tion to infinitesimal surface, or a wide-spread application to a
great area, as one may please to consider it. vWe cannot explain
how the air is perfumed with imponderable matter, but we
know, as a matter of fact, that odors do not become more po
tent, like homoeopathic remedies, in proportion to their greater
dilution. They are clearly more potent according to their con-
\centration, as every man, woman and child knows from experi-
, ence. The following ingenious proposition by our author, though
not new, is confessedly plausible:
' A clergyman visits a patient in scarlet fever, but does not
touch him ; he afterwards calls upon a friend and shakes the
hand of one of the children as he passes her on the staircase.
The next day this child sickens with the scarlet fever, and her
brothers and sisters take it from her ; no other connection can be
traced. This is no uncommon occurrence, and no one doubts
"Vthe communication of infection in such a manner, neither is it
' doubted that the infection itself is something material. What is
the weight of the particle of matter thus conveyed ? Isjtjieayier
\than the millionth of a grain of belladonna, which, it is asserted
by homceopathists, is sufficient, when given at short intervals, to
arrest the progress of such a case ? '
Notwithstanding a degree of looseness and inaccuracy in the

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 83
above paragraph, (as, e. g., 'the next day, after contact with the
clergyman, the child sickens,' &c, a proof in itself, to the old
scAooZjjhysicjan, that the child tools the disease not from the
^Lerg^roa,rii_but from some other source,) there is not in all of/
Dr. Sharp's essays a more ingenious point made for his favorite
system.) But when the matter is brought to the crucible, what
is the result? (There is something about the nature and work-
lings of contagious diseases that has sorely tried the medical
] philosophy of all ages, "j No medical GDdipus has yet come for
ward to solve the riddle. But there is a well sustained theory
that contagious diseases for the most part, as some others, are
spread by certain germs which are wafted or carried in various
ways so as to find admission into the animal system, where,
finding material to act upon, they act as leaven, and we have it
upon older authority than Hahnemann, that ' a little leaven
\leaveneth the whole mass.' \ There is nothing better than this
theory broached or known. ! Now to find a parallel between the
minute germ which spreads disease by a process akin to fermen-
, tation, and the action of an infinitesimal remedy, it should be
I shown that a millionth of a grain of belladouna has some power
• of self-multiplication and propagation.
The emanation from powdered ipecacuanha is very distressing
yto some subjects, producing asthmatic or other suffering. The
author finds in this fact a proof of the efficiency of the small
dose of homoeopathy. Here, however, as in the case of the odor
of the violet, the floating particles, infinitesimal as each may be,
find their way to a large surface of sensitive mucous membrane,
and by their acrimony they occasionally cause dyspnoea. Many
impurities in the air have a similar influence, but they all im
pinge at once upon a very large surface. Withal, but few per
sons, comparatively, are so affected by ipecacuanha, and no more
inference can be drawn from an exceptional fact of this kind,
than from the fact that some one person, from idiosyncrasy, is
vmade sick by the smell of a cat in a room, which smell is not
{appreciated by ninety-nine out of one hundred persons in the
• same room. Many persons are made sick by the mere recollec
tion of an offensive taste or odor. I have known a gentleman
to be made sick from the swinging of a lantern aboard ship,

84 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
I which he took to be due to the pitching of the vessel, and to be
j cured upon learning that the lantern was swinging from an acci
dental collision, while the ship was riding quietly at anchor.
An infinitude of such facts is familiar in the records of medical
1 experience. Our author having answered questions No. 1 and No. 2, to
his own entire satisfaction, and having adduced ' undeniable
proofs,' the chief of which have just been brought forward,
proceeds to the consideration of question No. 3, which is almost
conclusively answered by the findings in Nos. 1 and 2. ' It
now, therefore, only remains, that by the evidence of facts I
prove, generally, that they (infinitesimal doses) do act, and par
ticularly that their action is beneficial in disease.' The same
proofs, it is asserted, show the efficacy of infinitesimal doses that
show the efficacy of large doses of medicine, "i ' A patient is cured
of a violent headache by a dozen leeches,' (not a very happy il
lustration, by the way, of doses of medicine.) 'Another has a
similarly violent headache; the millionth, or the billionth of a
drop of the juice ofthe deadly night-shade is given ; relief quickly
follows,' therefore the millionth or billionth of a drop of this
medicine is equal to the influence of a dozen leeches upon the
system. The author then gives us, very briefly, accounts of his tri
umphs over various formidable diseases, including, inter alia,
croup, and erysipelas, as follows :
' Croup. — I have stated in another of these tracts, that several
cases of croup have been treated after the new method. I have
only to add here, that the medicines were given in infinitesimal
doses, and to assure my readers that the relief afforded, without
any other treatment, not even a warm bath, or a mustard poul
tice was in every instance, most obvious, rapid and complete.'
Here is then the expevimentum crucis : one of the most dan
gerous of our ordinary diseases is cured always, rapidly and
completely, by infinitesimal doses — the jniHionth or billionth^
' of a grain or drop, while the mortality is confessedly large, ac-
f cord iii o- to the records of regular practice. ) But did ever regular
practitioner, in support of his arguments, use such summary as
sertions with the hope of carrying conviction to the minds of his

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 85
professional brethren ? If put through a course of cross-ques
tioning by members of the profession, he would probably have
to make some damaging admissions. In short, the statement
above, resting merely upon the ipse dixit of a special advocate,
which makes no distinctions as to the various forms of disease
spoken of under the common name of croup, which ignores ex
act diagnosis aud pathology, and gives not one word as to the
detail of treatment, is not one whit better than tinkling cymbals
and sounding brass.
' Erysipelas. — This is always a serious, and often a fatal com
plaint ; it affords a good example of the confusion and inconsis
tency of allopathic medicine.' Our author then quotes Mr.
Nunnelly as a witness concerning the contradictory modes of
practice used by regular physicians.
It is not so with- the homoeopathic treatment of erysipelas.
' With minute doses of belladonna, rhus and lachesis, the usual
remedies for this peculiar inflammation, I have succeeded in all
the cases I have met with — among them were four severe ones
— beyond my expectations. In one case, on the second day of
the attack, the inflammation had spread over the face, ears, and
most of the scalp, and part of the neck, with a large blister on
each cheek, very severe headache, and a pulse of 150; this was
entirely well at the end of a week.'
Wc may admit the truthfulness of this statement, without
giving any more credit to the infinitesimal doses of the medi-<
cjnes, than tojthe water or the sugar of milk with which they /
Hwere administered. ) Erysipelas is not ordinarily a fatal, or even
a dangerous disease. Like most other diseases, it may be treated
\advantageously by, opposite measures — by depletion or stimula
tion, according to the character of the attack, or the condition of
v. the subject. But very many cases require nothing in the way of
i medicine. ' On going around the wards of the Hotel Dieu, in
\ May, 1851, with M. Louis,' says Prof. Bennett, 'I saw several
cases of erysipelas of the scalp, which, I was told, were under
no treatment whatever ; because, as M. Louis informed me, ac-
i cording to his experience, erysipelas of the scalp was never fatal,
) unless it occurred in individuals of bad .constitutions, or was as-
/ sociated with some complication.' If M. Louis, one of the

86 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
greatest physieians in the world, had been a homoeopath, he
would have given the billionth of a grain of belladonna, or a
granule of sugar of milk, which would have answered quite as
| well under some other name, with the same result, and he would
jhave cried out with a loud voice, ' Behold the efficacy of infini-
\ tesimal doses!' But M. Louis, though deep in the science of
! medicine, is not an adept in the art of homoeopathy.
The illustrations of successful treatment by infinitesimal doses
above cited, are as striking as any adduced by Dr. Sharp, and
may pass for what they are worth. While they are intended to
show the value of the treatment in acute disease, there are others
equally convincing as to the treatment of chronic disease. But
one example is cited in this paper, and it is selected only for the
merit of its brevity.
' Warts. — In three cases out of four,T have succeeded in clear
ing the hands of ugly warts. In all by internal treatment alone,
and with infinitesimal doses of the medicines employed*' We
are not enlightened as to the nature of the remedies, nor as to
the time required; a matter of some importance in medical in
vestigations, particularly as other physicians have often observed
warts to appear unbidden, and disappear suddenly, without any
treatment whatever.
I have now given your readers a fair summary of one of the
cleverest tracts of one of the cleverest professional advocates of
Homoeopathy. Dr. Sharp considers his proofs conclusive as to
the efficacy of infinitesimal medication. ' It is credible that the
small dose can effect a "safe, speedy and permanent cure" when
ever a cure is possible, ivhen it is found practicable to do so.' The
Doctor's small dose most frequently used, is the third dilution,
'in which the grain or the drop is divided into a million of
parts.' This is rather a large dose in his school of practice ; but
it may be as efficacious quite as the thirtieth dilution — the decil-
lionth of a grain or drop — which he has seen to have beneficial
effects ! \ The Doctor invites physicians to try these doses before
; they declare them to be worthless. There is something in this
! which seems fair, and any reader of the Journal can very readily,
and with little pains, pour  gallons of water upon a drop of
v tincture of belladonna in a large tub or barrel, and try one drop

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 87
of this third dilution upon any of his patients whom he desires
to bring under belladonna influence. But he must not content
himself with purchasing the medicine already diluted, for fear of
some slight error in quantity. I urge this the more particularly,
as very large doses, thanks to modern chemistry, may now be
condensed into very small bulks. To say nothing of aconitia, ;
digijalin^jitrqpia, &c, whereof the regular dose ranges from the
1-20 to the 1-100 of a grain, there are many remedies in com
mon use, in what the homoeopaths are pleased to call the allo
pathic school, in which ordinary doses vary from 1-4 grain to
1-20 grain, as morphia, arsenious acid, strychnia, &c. Now if
the millionth, or billionth, or decillionth of a grain of any of
these drugs will suffice to cure disease, it is singular that homoeo
paths should ever resort to what regular physicians consider full
\ doses. **-- There is abundant evidence that they do so. Full doses
/ of morphia (1-4 grain and more) have been found in medicines
, used by them for the cure of dysentery in this city. Full doses
¦ of strychnia, and even very large doses, have been detected by
: analysis in packets given, (not prescribed,) by homoeopaths.
I had intended to give a passing notice to each of Dr. Sharp's
tracts, but such notice would require more space than they merit.
Sophistry and bold assertion are, throughout, made to bolster up
experiences that are, at best, very equivocal ; that in short, have
nothing of the true tone of science about them.
I will now only make a few discursive remarks upon various
points urged in these tracts, supposed to be among the best ex
ponents of infinitesimal medicine. Our author, in divers places,
rejoices greatly over the contradictions which are unfortunately
somewhat common, both in theory and practice, among regular
physicians ; but he seems to be often quite opposed in both to
many of his own brethren, and even to his Magnus Apollo
t Hahnemann. VWhen John Chinaman thinks his idol Josh has
\ done him a good turn, he falls down and worships him ; but when
Josh has allowed trouble, evil instead of good, to fall upon his
' worshipper, John does not hesitate to recompense him with a
; drubbing. Dr. Sharp pursues a not dissimilar course with Hah-
l nemann. Hahnemann's formal definition of this law of Homoeopathy
(like cures like) in the organism, is as follows:

88 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
'A weaker dynamic affection is permanently extinguished in the
living organism by a stronger one, if the latter (whilst differing
in kind) is similar to the former in its manifestations.'
This paragraph, instead of announcing a natural fact, which
he had discovered, says Dr. Sharp, states a fiction which he had
imagined. He gives us no sufficient evidence to prove that the
artificial disease induced by the remedy, is a stronger one than
the previously existing natural disease. Analogy does not make
it probable that this should be the case, especially with an in
finitesimal dose of the remedy ; and if it were so, it would be
still less probable that such a mode of proceeding could restore
any one to health. ' I am constrained, therefore, to reject this
definition, and venture io propose the following as a substi
tute :
' Every material poison gaining admission into the healthy body,
\ has a tendency to produce a diseased condition, induced by symp
toms or physical signs, more or less peculiar to itself ; and every
' K such poison is the most appropriate remedy for a similar diseased
condition which has arisen from other causes.' ( Vide Homoeo
pathic Action of Drugs, Tract 9, page 20, 21.)
Here we find a law, based upon observation (!) in place of
Hahnemann's ' fictions,' which teaches that in a case, e. g., of
acute gastritis, the true remedy would be arsenic or corrosive
sublimate. An allopathic remedy in such case would be ice,
and there is probably none in nature or art which would be
equal to this, judiciously administered.
Our author frequently speaks of the unwarranted assump
tions and assertions of his master. ' For example, he assumes
that "spiritual power is hid in the inner nature of medicines ;"
that " homoeopathic dynamizations " (rubbing the solid in a mor-
¦ tar, and shaking the liquid in a vial) " are real awakenings " of
this power, and hence, he at one time asserts that there must be
Men shakes; at another, only two."' (Tract 8, p. 21.) Our au
thor then proceeds to castigate his Josh with something very
like ridicule, and not without good reason. Indeed, it would be
difficult ever to settle the right number of shakes, according to
the Hahnemann theory, that increased dilution adds to the po
tency of medicines, and that every shake adds to the ' dynanii-

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 89
Vzation' or ' spiritualization ' of the remedy, j According to com
mon report, several cases of dangerous narcotism have occurred
in this city from' the use of some remedy given by homoeopaths,
which acted like excessive doses of morphia. The question theu
occurs, did the danger arise from the excessive 'dynamization '
of an infinitesimal dose, or from the injudicious or fraudulent
use of a really large dose? If medicines have their potency/
magnified in proportion to their attenuation, and again increased
]by shakes or trituration, it would seem to be much safer for phy-
1 sicians to adhere to some standard dose, whose potency is under-
' stood and uniform. But does not every dose, great or small,
undergo the shakes of peristaltic action ?
The fact is, there is abundant reason to believe, that when
homoeopaths give efficacious doses, they give those remedies
which may be given in large dose and in small bulk at the same
time. ' Modern chemistry, by separating active principles from
! inert matter, gives facilities for a kind of practice which is legiti
mate in the hands of the regular practitioner, but fraudulent in the
hands of one who pretends to give the billionth of a grain, when
he gives the 1-4 or 1-2 of a grain, as of morphia, or the 1-50 of
\ a grain, as of digitalin.
The infinitesimal dose then, so far from being proved to be
efficacious, is a mere mockery. Hahnemann's theory about it
and the 'dynamization,' &c, is treated with contempt by many
of the» homoeopaths ; but they profess to adhere to the cardinal
rule, similia similibus curantur. This is the prime distinction of
V Homoeopathy, as the very name implies. Allow me to present
the definition from a standard authority, with the brief comment
which follows :
' Homoeopathy. A fanciful doctrine, which maintains that
disordered actions in the human body are to be cured by indu
cing other disordered actions of the same kind, and this to be
accomplished by infinitesimally small doses, often of apparently
inert agents; the decillionth part of a grain of charcoal, for ex
ample, is an authorized dose.
' So long ago as in the writings of Gregory the Great, there is
the following remark : " Mos medicinae est ut aliquando similia
similibus, aliquando contraria contrariis curet, nam ssepe calida

90 An Ejjistle on Homoeopathy.
calidis, frigida frigidis, ssepe autem frigida calidis, calida frigidis
sanare consuevit."' (Dunglison's Dictionary.)
The reader will please notice particularly the sagacious sum
mary of practice as stated by the great Pontiff, as I mean to re
cur to it.
How do homoeopaths come at the true remedies in accordance
with this one-sided theory of theirs, upon which their whole
system rests, similia similibus curantur f
By observations based, as they tell us, on the action of drugs,
or poisons, upon the healthy organism. This seems to be pretty
fair, but the results are not free from perplexity, when we come
to find that such a medicine as the carbonate of lime, in such a
dose as the decillionth of a grain, produces 1,090 symptoms,
among which are itching on the border of the eyelids (after five
days), and great heat at the extremity of the big toe (after twenty-
, one days.) i It required the genius of Hahnemann to trace cause
' and effect between the dose and the symptoms'. No old school
physician, from Hippocrates to Sydenham or Louis, could have
done as much.
The first principle, however, as well as the infinitesimal dose
of Homoeopathy, is being assailed by the doctors of this school.
M. Rapon, historian of the Homoeopathic doctrine, who seems
to treaf Hahnemann, as does Dr. Sharp, with alternate blows
and caresses, uses the following language :
' The law of similars is positive, but it does not constitute the
general law of therapeutics. Medicamental substances may
operate by the law of contraries; enantiopathy is as often in play
as homoeopathy — both are secondary and accessory modes. The
great principle is the specificity, and the most important problem
is not to seek the similarity between the remedy and the disease,
but to find directly the specific appropriate to each morbid state.
Dynamization does not exist even where by many its importance
has been greatly exaggerated  Infinitesimal doses have no
marked acticn ; .... our medicines may be administered with
out inconvenience in the ordinary pharmaceutical preparations,
and the various allopathic remedies may be employed conve
niently with them.' (Histoire de la Doctrine Homoeopathique
— quoted from Renouard's History of Medicine.)

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 91
So far as this gentleman's views are concerned, it may be said
there is not a physician in the world who would not be glad to
have and to use specifics for all diseases; the one great difficulty
is to find them. But it will be observed that this distiijjjjuished
Homoeopath fairly abandons Homoeopathy !
'The ignorance of allopathy is darkness which may be felt —
and it is felt, witness the confessions of its most eminent pro
fessors.' (Dr. Sharp, Tract No. 6.) What must we think of
the confessions of his professors? His own statements, as well
as those of M. Rapon and many others, go to show that the
founder of Homoeopathy was either a conscious impostor, or a self-
V-deluded visionary and dupe! ' Like master, like man,' is not ;
' unlike the great maxim of Homoeopathy; and it seems to find
! abundant application among professors of Homoeopathic art.
I find this article growing upon my hands beyond reasonable
proportions. The only apology is, that I am but giving the re
sult of a search for light, where none is to be found, in a series
of essays said to be of high character, upon one ofthe most im
portant subjects that can occupy the mind of man, i. e., the
treatment of his maladies. I have found but sophistry, bold
assertions, and puerilities, set off with philosophic platitudes,
which, for the most part, have no bearing whatever upon the
matter under discussion. These last seemed merely intended
to dazzle ignorant readers, who had never learned, or had for
gotten, the elementary lessons of the natural sciences.
The cases given ih illustration prove nothing, even if stated
in good faith. How utterly trivial, for instance, is the fol
lowing example : A daughter of the doctor's complained of
feeling sick one morning, whereupon he gave her some glob
ules of ipecacuanha. Before breakfast was finished by the fam
ily, she came forward and ate heartiby, saying, 'I feel quite
well.' Her mamma asked her what she thought cured her.
Her reply was this : ' If I thought that such medicine could
do me good, I should think it was the medicine; but I suppose
it was the breakfast,' having forgotten that before she had taken
the medicine, she was not able to take the breakfast. This is
the opening of Tract No. 12, on The Common Sense of Homeo
pathy. Other kinds of common sense have known children, in

92 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
instances beyond number, to complain of feeling sick and to eat
a hearty meal immediately after, without the aid of medicine —
homoeopathic or allopathic.
Butjipough of this. Let me say in conclusion, that by the
broad pwiciples of medicine, in its fulness, there is nothing to
prevent any physician from using remedies upon the homoeo
pathic principle, or in infinitesimal doses, when and where these
may be proved to be of proper application and utility. If the
billionth of a grain of quinine will cure intermittent fever, let
all the doctors rejoice and be glad, for then there will be no
danger, as at present, of exhaustion of the supply. That such
a dose ever has cured such a disease, remains to be proved. But
there are very wonderful things in nature and in art ; as e. g., in
procuring a speedy action upon a man's bowels by poking a piece
of iron at him. x. Speaking of the magnet, the touch of which pro-
j duces 900 symptoms according to Hahnemann, Dr. Sharp, in op
position to his master, makes the following statement : ' I have
1 tried them (magnets) upon my own person, and on that of oth-
I ers. It is true that in one instance, in an individual of a highly
nervous and susceptible temperament, I did get some symptoms,
such as rumbling of the abdomen, a feeling of faintness, and a
. speedy action of the bowels ; but then, on repeating the experi
ment with the same person a few days afterwards, with a simi
lar bar of unmagnetised steel, I got precisely the same effects;
clearly proving that the results of the previous trial were due
to the force of imagination, and not to that of magnetism.'
i (Tract 9, p. 18.)
It is not improbable that patients in Tartary and Thibet are
"foften cured by swallowing a piece of paper with the name ofthe
-iproper medicine written thereon, which, as we are informed by
j the Abbe Hue, is in accordance with the practice in those re
gions ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose, that ' a billionth of
a grain of charcoal,' inscribed upon a piece of paper and swal
lowed, would prove, in any case, asj^med]al_ as the dose itself.
A billionth of a grain of quinine might arrest a chill, if given
with due form and gravity, but a billionth of a drop of aqua
fontana, would probably, upon the same, or a like individual,
have the same or a like effect, and yet aqua fontana, notwith-

An Epistle on Homoeopathy. 93
standing the distrust of some very cautious people, who will not
take it without the addition of certain adjuvantia and corrigen-
tia, may be taken in large doses, say a half pint or more, several
times a day, without any danger whatever, except under extra
ordinary conditions or circumstances.
I have but recently, withal, heard a homoeopathic patient com
plain of the bitterness of the medicine given him by his doctor
to cure chills. Is quinine bitter to the third or thirtieth dilu
tion, or, in practice, does the doctor adopt the allopathic heresy
of giving ponderable and sensible doses?
\ Now a word on allopathy. Physicians should reject this term,-'
Vwhich homoeopathy affects to confer upon regular practice.; Do
--they admit any uniform or universal rule by which they, too,
are bound to a one-sided theory ? Who has the right to pledge
us to the one axiom, contraria contrariis curantur ? No one.
The true physician endeavors to know tJie essential nature of
disease, its various characters, and the best mode and remedies for
the treatment of disease. It is no leading consideration with him
as to whether remedies act by any rule of similars or contraries,
such things being very often mere empty speculation. The ap
ophthegm of Gregory was just -when expressed 1200 years ago,
is now, and will be to the end of time. Homoeopathy expresses
a sectarian limitation, which governs, or is supposed *o govern,
its followers ; there is no rival sect of allopathy, although phy-
/ sicians may, and do upon proper occasions, use remedies upon
that principle, as when they oppose ice or cold water to inflam
mation. But does this application of ice ever prevent a physi
cian from applying hot fomentations, for example, to such forms
of inflammation as may be benefited by them ? Certainly not.
Away then with allopathy ! If there be exclusive allopathists,
^•Vthey are not much better than exclusive homoeopathists.
Please allow me still the privilege of one or two more obser
vations. Homoeopathic science rather avoids giving name to diseases,
but sometimes condescends to name them, to show the advantage
of homoeopathy over what is ignorantly, or impertinently, called
allopathy. I had a case in point some time ago. A gentleman
called upon me to attend his wife who was ill, he informed me,

94 An Epistle on Homoeopathy.
with peritonitis. The lady, he said, preferred a homoeopathic
practitioner, as one of them had cured her of this formidable
disease upon two separate occasions previously, by the infinitesi
mal doses. The husband, however, prevailed upon her to see
me, as a personal friend of his, &c. I went accordingly, and
fouud upon examination, that in the first place there was not a
trace of fever, and in the second place, that the lady flinched
and cried out with a nervous shriek as soon as the abdomen was
touched, and before any pressure was made whatever. I soon
had the pleasure of assuring the husband that his wife was as
free from peritonitis as himself, and that she would shortly be
/relieved, as indeed she was. ^vThus we see, that false names, as
Well as false doses, are used to bolster up false science.
Finally, I have only to say that every man living is always
taking what, according to the homoeopaths, are medicines, or poi-
-yC,sons, in the form of phosphorus, sulphur, iron, lime, aud many
other elements or compounds, every day during the whole term
of life, from birth to death ; and the constant reception of these
things in infinitesimal or considerable doses, is utterly unavoid
able. If homoeopathy were anything like the expression of a
universal truth, we would be constantly charging our systems
with potential poisons, and their reactions among each other,
as we take them in our daily food and drink, would be fearful
to contemplate ; but happily nature, or nature's God, is wiser
than Hahnemann and his followers, so that these alleged poisons,
in infinite dilutions and triturations, are but innocent, and for
the most part, essential elements of nutrition.
It may be said of the system of homoeopathy, that ' whatever
is in it that is true is not new, and that whatever is new is not
true,' with perfect justice.

jSngtcnc :

A RECAPITULATORY LECTURE ON HYGIENE, DELIVERED BE
FORE THE MEDIJAL CLASS OP THE UNIVERSITY OF
MARYLAND.

Gentlemen :
Having in preceding lectures passed over the principal sub
jects, pertaining to Hygiene in some detail/ we may now take a
summary view of the laws of health in general. There is no
overrating the importance of these laws ; and happily, they are
for the most part readily intelligible, and, under favorable cir
cumstances, easy of application.
I have already asserted that human maladies result to a great
extent from violations of hygienic laws, and that, on the other
hand, a just observance of these laws would either prevent
nearly all of our ailments, or modify and mitigate them most
advantageously. Men are frequently urged by necessity to violate the laws of
health; they also violate them frequently through ignorance;
and not unconlmonly through wilful disregard of them, taking
present pleasure at tlie risk of future suffering. But no small
part of the value of life depends upon the enjoyment of health.
Now even under the most untoward circumstances, well informed
men may secure to themselves a certain amount of protection
which would be lost to the ignorant. For example, a man ex
posed to malaria may protect himself by spending a night to
wind ward rather than to leeward ofthe source of the poison ; other
wise, he may interpose some screen which will make him com
paratively safe, though it be but the canvas wall of a tent ; or
in a dwelling house, he may close windows and doors, and other

96 Hygiene.
avenues on the exposed side of the house, while he admits a
sufficiency of pure air on the safer side of the house. In a ma
larious region, it becomes known as the result of common expe
rience that the poison is most active at night, or perhaps in the
early part of the night, and in the early morning; and people
who are wise, at such times seek shelter. But if necessarily ex
posed, something may yet be done by way of prevention; thus
the cinchona barks and their preparations may, to a greater or
less extent, neutralize the influence of malaria ; though medi
cines taken under such circumstances belong rather to prophy
laxis than to hygiene.
In winter, the poor suffer from cold and vicissitudes of weather
from want of warm clothing; this is their necessity; but during
the same inclement season many of the rich expose themselves
through ignorance, or a most unwise devotion to fashion and ap
pearances. A fine lady, for example, will load herself with silk
and furs about the person, while her feet are incased in shoes so
thin that habit alone saves her from immediate illness; but
meantime, if she be not taken ill with inflammatory disease, she
at least prepares the way for remote and probably fatal disease.
Gluttons, wine-bibbers, and sensualists of every class, lay up
for themselves a store of evils with wilful recklessness. Every
man of common intelligence knows that excesses bring penalties,
but many are not restrained by this knowledge. ' Eat, drink,
and be merry, for to-morrow ye die,' is a maxim which was only
uttered to be reprobated.
A man may, indeed, eat, and drink, and be merry, in bounds,
with a good stomach and a good conscience ; but that merriment
which comes of revelling will bring sorrow with interest; that
is to say, it will, if habitual, break down a man's health and en
ergies; it will make him old before his time, and probably
bring him to a premature grave.
It has been satirically said, 'Immortal man is but a shuttle
cock, and wine and women the battle-doors that keep him
moving.' This is, unfortunately, too nearly true of at least vast num
bers of our race, aud such are the sources whence they willingly
or wilfully derive a large proportion of their numerous destruc
tive maladies.

Hygiene. 97
Thus necessity, ignorance, and wilfulness conspire, as it were,
against human health, operating sometimes singly, and some
times in combination. It is the duty of the physician to seek
out all the perturbating sources which make man, with all his
higher gifts and faculties, so much more liable to disease and un
timely death than the lower animals, governed as they are only
by the simple instincts of nature. The poet, you may remem
ber, says that these are always true, because they are always
directed by the great Creator.
Gentlemen :
In the summary yiew which we are now about to take of Hy
giene, we will consider first what is health, and then, the causes
which disturb it, with the means of correcting these causes, or
at least, of diminishing their influence to the minimum.
Health consists in a proper adjustment of all the organs and
functions of the living body; disease results from a disturbance
of this adjustment. The equilibrium is rarely kept with perfect
precision in our artificial condition of society; consequently,
there are but few men in the enjoyment ofthe highest attainable
degree of health. Large numbers of men have but a valetudi
narian existence, while they are not considered to be diseased.
Some persistent functional disorder clings to the majority of peo
ple, especially in cities, evincing itself perhaps rather by languor,
occasional attacks of" indigestion, or more or less fugitive pains,
than by that obvious degree of disease which brings a patient
to bed, or otherwise arrests his ordinary pursuits in life.
' Health ', says Dr. Williams, ' consists in a natural and pro
per condition and proportion in the functions and structures of
the several parts of which the body is composed. From phy
siology, we learn that there are certain relations of these functions
and structures to each other, and to external agents, which are
most conducive to their well-being and permanency; these con
stitute the condition of health. ! But this knowledge implies
that function and structure may be in states not conducive to
permanency and well-being : states which are deviations from
the due balance between the several properties or parts of the
animal frame; these states constitute disease. For example,
7

98 Hygiene.
physiology as well as experience teaches us, that in health, the
digestion of food is easily performed, and attended by sensations
of comfort. But when, after food is taken, there is pain, uneasi
ness, sickness, eructation, flatulence, or the like, we know that
the function of digestion is changed from the healthy standard,
— is diseased; and if this diseased function continue long in
spite of the employment of remedies which usually serve to cor
rect it, and if on examining the abdomen we find at or near the
epigastrium a hard tumor, which anatomy teaches us is not there
in health, we know that there is also diseased structure.'
According to Dr. Chambers, health is ease, and the want of it
is disease, arid with these general ideas of health, or ease, and the
want of it, or dis-ease, we may pass on to consider the ordinary
causes which impair the one and promote the other. We may
consider the causes of disease as prediposing and exciting ; and
with the causes, we must bring forward the means of preven
tion, rather than of cure ; as curative measures belong to thera
peutics, rather than to hygiene. The laws of the latter are often,
however, truly curative ; and the physician necessarily endeav
ors to enforce them in the treatment of disease.
Among predisposing causes may be enumerated all of those
which impair the vital forces. Thus a man may spend his days
in a close workshop, and his nights in a close bedroom ; he may
be overworked in mind or body, or he may not sufficiently exert
the faculties of mind or body ; he may be tried' by undue excite
ment, or by the depressing passions ; he may live too luxurious
ly, or he may live too poorly; he may fire his blood with wine
or spirits, or he may suffer from their sudden abstraction ; he may
inherit infirmities, or the tendency thereto, or he may invite
them by his habits of life ; his age may and does give predisposi
tions, thus infancy has its proper maladies, as advanced life has
also its own ; and man rises in vigor from childhood to a certain
meridian, perhaps to just half the term allotted in the Scrip
tures, whence he begins unconsciously, it may be, but not less
surely, to travel down the hill of life, and to feel the pressure of
years and the want of his former vigor to bear it. Sex predis
poses also; thus woman during her child-bearing term, especial
ly, is liable to many and peculiar inflictions which are unknown

Hygiene. 99
to her stronger companion, who, for the most part, has but few
maladies in which she does not also participate.
Of the exciting causes of disease, there are some which are
readily appreciable, and others which are in their nature very
obscure ; in other words, some of the agents producing disease
are said to be cognizable, and others non-cognizable. We may
understand how mechanical or chemical irritants disturb the bal
ance of health and" excite disease; we may understand how bad
food, or strong liquors, or retained secretions or excretions, or
vitiated air, or draughts, or excessive cold, or heat, or rapid
transitions from one to the other, may light up disease, for all of
these and many more are cognizable agents, appreciable to the
senses. But there are more subtle causes of disease always in
action, which we only recognize by their effects. Medical au
thorities now extensively, perhaps generally, recognize a laro-e
class of diseases as zymotic,' or if preferred, as diseases arising
from some ferment in the blood. It may be that some day the
term and the theory will be rejected together. The diseases
however, will not change their nature, whatever theory or term
may be applied to them. Suffice it to say here, that epidemic,
endemic, and contagious disorders generally, are supposed to be
due to some morbific principle acting on the organism in the
manner of a ferment, and that such are now commonly recog
nized as zymotic diseases. But the exciting causes of these dis
eases are so obscure as to justify their being called non-cogniz
able agents.
When a man has an attack of ague, we infer previous expo
sure to malaria, but we do not understand how malaria pro
duces this disease, whatever may be said ofthe influence of cryp-
togamic vegetation, although we may know very well from expe
rience where malaria has its abiding place.
Such diseases as cholera and influenza travel over the world.
We may understand that certain agents predispose individuals to
the attacks of these diseases, or give them increased activity, but
we do not understand the nature of the absolute cause of these
diseases. We do not know how emanations from a patient suffering
with small-pox, or measles, or scarlet fever, for example, trans-

100 Hygiene.
mit or communicate the same disease to a person in health.
The exciting cause in such cases is non-cognizable. What we
may know, in the premises, is some method of preventing the
cause from having access to those under our care, or of removing
all of those cognizable causes which so often give to zymotic
diseases an increased dangerous or fatal tendency.
I have spoken of predisposing and of exciting causes of dis
ease as distinct, but they are not always so; being sometimes
absolutely identical, and frequently co-operative. This will ex
plain how in treating of them hygienically, they may often be
considered together in the common capacity of causes of dis
ease. What are the great requisites for the preservation of health ?
We may say briefly, pure air; good food, including water; good
clothing; and well-regulated habits of life. The man who can
command these in their •combination may expect rationally to
live through the allotted term, accidents of course excepted, and
to enjoy the blessing of health during his long career.
Now these are all more or less attainable by all men, and all
classes of men. They are not the perquisites of any favored
few ; they are at the command of the rich, and they are quite
within the reach of the industrious poor.
Pure Air.
Atmospheric air is, as you know, a mixture of oxygen and
nitrogen, in the proportions of about one part of the former
to four of the latter. The air always contains a small por
tion of carbonic acid, more or less watery vapor, and various
emanations from the earth, or the various animals and plants
on the face of the earth.
When these additions exist in. very limited quantity, as is
usual under favorable circumstances, they do not act unfavor
ably upon human health ; but exceeding certain limits, they be
come sources of disease. Carbonic acid gas may afford an illus
tration. It exists uniformly, to a small extent, in the atmo
sphere, and we then derive no harm from it whatever. But car
bonic acid gas, when largely inhaled, will speedily induce disease
or death. It is exhaled by animals during expiration, and it is
absorbed from the air by vegetables. Thus a balance is preserved

Hygiene. 101
mutually advantageous to animal and vegetable life. In the
open air, or in an airy chamber, the carbonic acid exhaled from
the lungs is speedily removed, and the animal will not be trou
bled by inspiring it. But if shut up in a close apartment, it is
again inspired by the animal, to the serious detriment of his
blood and the organs which it supplies. It is estimated that in
a sleeping apartment, the least allowance of air should be a
thousand cubic feet for each occupant; that is, there should be
a clear space of ten fiet in every direction for each individual.
This is no extraordinary allowance. On the contrary, it is a
small allowance, supposing the room to be moderately close. Now
if there be two sleepers in a close room having ten feet in all
directions, both of those sleepers will probably find a state of
decided malaise interfering with their physical condition.
Headache, indigestion, or other disturbance will manifest itself.
Each sleeper will throw off during the night into the air of the
room, ten or twelve ounces of carbonic acid, and by the loss
from the two, the air is rendered sufficiently tainted to produce
pernicious influences. There are indeed other exhalations pro
ceeding from the animal body, which contaminate the air also,
but the carbonic acid is the principal contaminating agent.
More sleepers in the same apartment would greatly aggravate
the evil, and the effects upon them would be proportionately
more injurious. About the middle of the last century, an East
ern nabob had 146 British prisoners shut up in a small prison
in Calcutta, which had only two little windows for the admission
of fresh air. Of these prisoners, 123 perished during the night.
They perished, from the want of oxygen on the one hand, and
the excess of carbonic acid and animal exhalations which they
were forced to inspire, on the other. The Black Hole of Calcutta,
as the prison is commonly called, is now famous in history; but
unfortunately, it does not stand alone. Passengers have died on
emigrant ships in a similar manner, from having been confined
below in large numbers, when fresh air had been shut off by the
orders of ignorant officers on deck.
A brazier of burning coals introduced into a close bed-room
for the purpose of warming it, has often proved fatal to the in
mates. In these cases, the irrespirable carbonic acid gas has been
almost the sole cause of death.

1 02 Hygiene.
Now, in every close room with living tenants, this gas is
thrown out to be inspired and re-inspired, so that some great de
terioration of health will be a necessary consequence. In every
dwelling-house, but especially in the sick-room and in hospitals,
this gas accumulates, and proves more or less pernicious. If the
physician does not then direct a well-regulated system of ventila
tion, he will be doing injustice both to himself and to those un
der his care.
Wherever crowds assemble, in churches, theatres, or other
places of business, duty, or amusement, the air becomes more or
less contaminated with the exhaled carbonic acid gas, as well as
with many other emanations from the living mass, and from the
artificial sources of light and heat so commonly in use at the
same time.
The air of cities is always more or less tainted with numerous
impurities. It is loaded necessarily with the effluvium of or
ganic decay. If we do not constantly observe it, it is because
habit has blunted our senses. Dr. Barker, of London, exposed
dogs -and other animals to the emanations from cess-pools in that
city, and the inhalations poisoned them. ' The dogs subjected to
the cess-pool air,' -he says, ' were all more or less affected. The
symptoms were those of intestinal derangement, followed by
prostration, heat of the surface of the body, distaste for food,
and those general signs which mark the milder forms of con
tinued fever, common to the dirty and ill-ventilated homes of
the lower orders of men.'
The emanations from these sinks are largely impregnated with
sulphuretted hydrogen, and this gas becomes generally diffused,
though diluted of course, and less innoxious in proportion to
the distance from its sources.
' The symptoms arising from sulphuretted hydrogen ', says
Dr. Barker, ' are well marked, and may be considered specific.
Vomiting and diarrhoea are the first and most prominent symp
toms. The latter is painful, the vomiting is difficult and ex
hausting, and eventually there is insensibility and entire pros
tration.' The inhalation of sulphuretted hydrogen then produces as a
direct result, the symptoms of a malady exceedingly common

Hygiene. 103
among children in our cities; i. e., cholera infantum, or sum
mer complaint. There is no doubt in my mind that the sensi
tive organism of infantile life is affected by these inhalations so
as to produce a disease which is exceedingly intractable, even
with the best of diet and the best of medicinal remedies. Thus
it is that frequently relief for children so affected during the
summer season, when these emanations are most rife, can only be
obtained by sending them to breathe the purer air of the country.
As a matter of hygiene, the importance of keeping all sinks,
sewers, &c, as clean as possible, is strikingly obvious. In addi
tion to cleanliness, disinfectants should be liberally used ; such,
for example, as charcoal and chloride of lime. The Parisian
Council of Health recommends especially those disinfectants
which have as their bases the sulphates of iron, copper, or zinc.
(Hygiene Publique, p. 24.) In the absence of more effective
chemicals, wood and coal-ashes may be used as disinfectants..
Many artisans are subject to poisonous inhalations in pursuing
their occupations. Speaking of men working under ground in
mines, a British writer says, that in the low galleries, ' the
collier lives his life of toilsome constraint, knotting himself until
an erect position is toilsome to him. Foul air surrounds him ;
fire-damp blasts him to a cinder, or choke-damp noiselessly blots
out his life. A single blow of the pick may let in upon the col
lier an invasion of either of these damps, and the pit-mouth
may be crowded with a " wailing multitude of newly made wid
ows and orphans." Thus 1500 lives and 10,000 accidents an
nually attest the dangerous nature of their occupation.' (Edin
burgh Review, Jan., 1860.)
The same writer, after treating ofthe influence of trades upon
the health of the millions, called properly enough ' the slaves of
civilization,' showing, inter alia, how the inhalations of dust,
flour, smoke, gases, &c, carry untold hecatombs to premature
graves, says in a brief but expressive paragraph, ' A large con
tingent to the army of death is furnished by tailors, bakers, and
milliners, in large cities. They are mostly killed by want of
fresh air, which does not reach them in their constrained posi
tion, or in their confined or heated rooms. The story of sewing
women need not be told here. Their sufferings are elements of

104 Hygiene.
our advanced civilization, as well as that of England. And
from the very nature of the case, their wants and perils are most
familiarly known, but known only to be pitied or disregarded.'
(Ibid.) Even' in these lamentable cases, the physician can do some
thing for the common good, by recommending at least some im
provement in the way of ventilation. Several persons crowded
into one room or workshop may often be benefited by changing,
for example, a close stove for an open fire-place. Or otherwise,
some other beneficial changes may be readily suggested by the
hygiest, or any person moderately well informed upoa the sub
ject of the laws of health.
I need not again treat of certain subtle but wide-spread im
purities in the air, which make themselves felt by their effects
as malaria. You know that this ancient source of disease is
often engendered by swamps and low grounds, from which it
may frequently be removed by a system of drainage and culti
vation. Otherwise, people may protect themselves from its
influence by removal from the source ; or by interposing some
natural or artificial screen to intercept its invasions ; or by heat,
as by fires ; or finally, by prophylactics, as by the use of Peru
vian bark.
Briefly, upon the subject of air, we want it for health in its
purity. This is obtained in dwelling-houses, in the sick-room,
&c., by well-directed ventilation, so that the air of the apart
ments will be frequently changed while the inmates will not be
subjected at the same time to rapid and partial draughts. Ex
posure to a gale of wind, out of doors, may be safe and is often
beneficial ; but small rapid draughts passing through a room and
striking the occupants unequally and partially, are generally
dangerous; and to the sick or infirm, they are sometimes fatal.
In malarious regions, or when the air is loaded with moisture,
or perhaps with ozone, or often when pure though simply raw,
or even apparently refreshing, it is well to recall to mind the Ital
ian proverb, which says, ' the air of a window is the stroke of a
cross-bow.'
Food and Drink. '
It is the common experience that our race thrives most on a

Hygiene. 105
diversity of food. A man may indeed live on meat, or on
bread and water, but he has an instinctive craving for com
bining or alternating these substances; and by comparative anat-*
omy, we find that this craving is in accordance with his natural
constitution. It has been already shown that certain elements
necessarily enter into our food in combination. We have seen
that milk represents five great types of food, viz : 1st, the
aqueous; 2d, the albuminous; 3d, the saccharine; 4th, the
oleaginous; and 5th, the saline. Nature has in this combination
taught us an instructive lesson. The young animal lives upon
milk alone, which suffices for all its nutritive wants ; but if any
element were stricken out, it would be at the expense of the
health, if not of the life, of the animal. Various experiments
have been made, indeed, upon animals with the various elements,
singly, or in partial combinations, but with this invariable re
sult, viz: the animals wasted away so as to die of starvation.
In our ordinary food, bread contains gluten which is of the
albuminous type, and starch ofthe saccharine, besides inorganic
matters, as phosphate of lime. Meat contains albumen, and
oil or fat, also with organic ingredients, and thus bread and meat
contain all the essentials of nutrition. Bread and butter, in their
perfection, contain all the elements. As I have repeatedly said
before, however, we do not always get bread possessing its pro
per nutritive qualities. When too fine, there is a loss of gluten,
and a loss of inorganic matters, while starch is comparatively
in excess. A dog fed on pure white bread lived only fifty days,
while another fed with the coarsest brown bread was adequately
nourished without any appearance of suffering from want of ad
ditional food. (Williams' Principles of Medicine, p. 59.) Boiled
wheat, allow me to remind you, is a most nutritious article of
food. We need not here again consider the numerous meats and
vegetables used by man as food. I may repeat, however, that
the white meat of chicken is considered to be about the mildest
form of animal nourishment, and therefore often best adapted
to the use of the invalid ; while beef and pork are best for the
robust. Veal is generally indigestible, but may be improved by
being stewed with rice. Beef essence, beef extract, and such

106 Hygiene.
preparations, contain a large amount of nutriment in a form
which is sometimes best adapted to nourish a patient prostrate
from fever. Salt meat is usually less wholesome and nutritious
than fresh meat. When long used, in the absence of acids or
fresh vegetables, salt meat produces scurvy.
Water is the first drink demanding our consideration. Like
air, it should be pure, or rather it should be free from impuri
ties, for it usually contains elements besides the necessary hydro
gen and oxygen, which in small quantities are not harmful.
The water, as the air, of cities is apt to be contaminated with
many impurities. But the cities are improving their water sup
plies, which improvement has been rendered necessary both in
regard to quantity and quality. The pump-water of large
towns is little fit for use, for obvious reasons. It must contain
organic impurities, which may be only offensive, but which may
also be deleterious or even poisonous. During cholera-epidem
ics in London, people using water from neighboring pumps
have been especially stricken as victims. Dr. Snow reported to
the Epidemiological Society, seventy-three deaths in two days
of cholera among persons near a certain pumj). It was after
wards ascertained that the water from this pump was contami
nated by a neighboring cess-pool. The people of London were
formerly supplied with water from the river, where it was pol
luted with the sewerage ofthe city. A water company changed
its source of supply to a higher point, when there was speedily
observed a difference between the sanitary condition of persons
using water from the old and the new source. A rival company
then, also, took its supply from a point above the city, and in
that very quarter the mortality in that part of London fell lower
than it had ever been ; and the good effect was permanent. The
mortality from diarrhoea and typhus was especially diminished.
Water may be contaminated with the miasm which produces
intermittent or remittent fevers. The fact has been illustrated
on board of ships, where a portion of the passengers drank
water from marshy regions, and others from better sources of
supply. The drinkers of the marsh-water have suffered with
fever, while their fellow-passengers have been entirely free from
it.

Hygiene. 107
I do not deem it necessary here to consider in how many
ways, or by how many agents, water may be contaminated; suf
fice it to say, that no contaminated water should be used for ¦
drinking purposes, or in cookery. The most common delete
rious impurity in drinking water is a portion of lead, derived
from the leaden tubes or cisterns still in common use, notwith
standing the known risk which their use involves. The mode
of correcting this evil is obvious.
A few remarks only will be made on the use of wines and
liquors. In health, they are but luxuries, or superfluities; in
disease, they are useful as remedies. A man may take wine
moderately at dinner for years, without perceptible bad or good
effect; but a slight excess, sooner or later, deranges all the
functions, and ends in producing organic disease. Of wines,
good sherry is considered to be the safest we have in use ; that
is, it is more free from excess either of acid or of saccharine
matter than are most other wines, in which one or the other pre
dominates. It is this peculiarity which causes sherry to be con
sidered eminently a dry wine. It is the sack — or sherries-
sack — of old English writers.
Wines and liquors are apt to stimulate a fictitious appetite ;
but the natural results, secondarily, are loss of appetite and im
paired digestion. Strong liquors, especially, tend to .produce
organic diseases of the liver and kidneys. Disease of the heart
and apoplexy are among the usual results of the habitual use, or
abuse of strong liquors. Other afflictions are a general poison
ing of the blood, attended upon depraved digestion and assimi
lation ; various nervous diseases; gout, &c, &c. A man of ac
tive habits, who takes much exercise in the open air, bears ex
cesses with greater impunity than one of sedentary habits.
' The most disastrous consequences of intemperance,' says Dr.
Williams, 'are exhibited in the habitual drunkard, who, in pro
portion as he indulges in liquor, loses his appetite for food, and
his power of digesting it. He thus drinks and starves at the
same time; and the disease which ensues comprises the exhaus
tion of inanition together with the more direct effects of the al
coholic poison. Thus in delirium tremens, the drunkard's dis
ease, besides the permanent restless excitement of the irritated

108 Hygiene.
nervous system, which adds more and more to the exhaustion,
there is fearful weakness of mind and body, and in bad cases
even the organic functions are affected, so that the pulse is very
weak and frequent, the excretions are scanty and depraved, and
the respiration is so imperfectly performed by the involuntary
muscles that sleep cannot ensue. This exhaustion soon termi
nates in death, unless the result is prevented by appropriate treat
ment ; and this must comprise, besides opium, (the common
remedy,) ammonia and other stimulants to the circulation and
respiration, purgatives and diuretics to free the blood from the
excrementitious matter that has accumulated in it, and fluid
nourishment to repair its waste. Without these adjuncts, opium
will not only fail to procure sleep, but if given in large doses,
may even paralyze the remaining powers of life.'
It is a question how far alcohol may be considered as food.
What seems certain is, that in moderate quantities, like tea and
coffee, it restrains waste of tissues, and thence it is inferred that
a person may live on a smaller amount of solid food by the use
of such ingesta. This theory does not command my confidence,
for reasons given in a preceding lecture.
I may, once more, remark that alcoholic drinks are not pro
tective, as they are supposed to be, against the effects of cold.
I have adduced facts from Arctic explorers, and from French
trappers who go almost to the poles in search of furs, which are
conclusive. You all remember how Napoleon's army was
destroyed by cold on the famous retreat from Moscow. One of
the incidents of that disastrous retreat is worthy of record in
this connection. 'After the pillage of Kowno, eight hundred
intoxicated men slept in the snow, and never woke again.' (Stille
I. 270 fr. Moricheau Beaupre — Effets du Froid.)
The man who has to undergo fatigue or exposure, should
never attempt to fortify himself by alcoholic drink. The error
is often ignorantly committed, but in point of fact, premature
fatigue and exhaustion are the usual result.
We may briefly re?ur to the subject of clothes. Wool, cot
ton, silk, and linen, are the fabrics of which our garments are
usually made, and their value is in the order just stated. Wool

Hygiene. 109
may be used at all seasons, fine for summer, and coarse for winter.
It has great hygienic advantages over the other materials. It
protects the person remarkably from vicissitudes of weather. It
absorbs a certain portion of moisture from the bpdy, and renders
it latent, or hygrometric, so that the body is protected from sud
den change and sudden chill. Linen, on the contrary, abstracts
heat and moisture, aud transmit^ them rapidly to the surround
ing air; so that, except in midsummer, it is not an eligible mate
rial for dress; or at least for so much of the dress as comes in
contact with the person. Cotton and silk are intermediate in
value, hygienically ; they are safer than linen, but give less
protection than wool.
There is nothing more important in dress, than giving due
protection to the feet. Stout leather shoes, and woolen or cotton
stockings, are necessary in winter. To keep the feet dry, many
persons use gum shoes, but these are objectionable except for
transient purposes, as they retain the natural moisture exhaled
from the foot, and thus cause the very evil which the wearer
is seeking to avoid. Gum sqles, fastened to the sole of the shoe
or boot, give admirable protection. I have often broken up a
tendency to cold with ladies by inducing them to wear false, or
cork soles, inside of their gaiter boots. These soles may be
inserted into any loose-fitting boot, and removed at pleasure.
Withal, the shoe should be longer than the foot, as there is an
elongation of not less than one half-inch at every step that a
man takes in the foot that bears the pressure.
In summer, the head must be protected from the rays of the
sun, otherwise there is danger of sun-stroke, which is akin to
apoplexy. A silk handkerchief, worn in the straw or other
hat, gives sufficient protection. In winter, the head requires
moderate protection from cold. The head bears cold for the
most part better than the feet and lower extremities, on account
of the great quantity of blood which it receives.
The General Habits of Life.
The enjoyment of the perfection of health demands an active
life largely pursued in the open air; labor without exhaustion,
alternated with rest, or sleep, and wholesome recreations. Too

110 Hygiene.
much labor and too much rest are both great evils. Good and
abundant food and drink are necessary to health ; while excess
ive eating, and insufficient food, are almost equally destructive.
The stomach requires very careful treatment, and it will not
bear wrongs with impunity. Don Quixote counselled the gov
ernor-elect of Barataria to ' eat little at dinner, and less at sup
per,' for, said he, 'the health of the whole body is tempered in
the laboratory of the stomach.' If the stomach be overloaded,
it will break down ; and this is the more common form of ruin
ing it in our country, especially among the easy classes. Our
refined and elegant dishes tempt men to excess, and the excess
certainly brings on disorder or disease, to such an extent as to
interfere, not only with health and comfort, but with longevity.
' By a simpler course of life and diet', says the learned Freder
ick Schlegel, 'than the very artificial, unnatural, and over-refined
modes we follow, there are even at the present day numerous
examples of a longevity far beyond the ordinary duration of
human life.' (Philosophy of History.) He goes on to prove
this statement by showing how some of the Brahmins in India,
and peasants in Russia, enjoy not only life, but health and
vigor when over 100 years of age.
Intemperance in eating is at the bottom of a large proportion
of the diseases ever prevailing among us. It is a fashion now
to recommend full living as protective against, or curative of,
many chronic ailments, as anemia, scrofulosis, and tuberculosis.
Certainly, insufficient supplies are conducive to these disorders ;
but just as certainly, excessive use or abuse of food will bring
them on also, or other disturbances not less pernicious. Thus
excessive eating brings on indigestion and mal-assimilation ;
these in their turn prepare the way for other and more formid
able chronic maladies.
Intemperance in strong drinks is yet more disastrous. The
alcoholic beverages seem competent, when abused, to bring func
tional or organic disease, or both, upon nearly all parts of the
animal frame.
Good clothing and proper shelter are among the demands for
the preservation of health. Clothing should be adapted to the
climate or season. As to shelter, we want houses to protect us

Hygiene. Ill
from the inclemencies of the weather, but not so close as to shut
out the pure air of heaveu. Thus iu winter arid summer, our
dwellings must be suitably aired, while we see that the occupants
are not subjected to powerful or partial draughts during the
airing. Cleanliness is a necessity, whether in regard to clothes, to
dwelling, or to the person. There is a constant decay of organic
matter going on about us, and its removal is necessary for health.
Well regulated bathing' keeps the skin clean and the emunctories
free. Like everything else, this hygienic measure is subject to
much abuse. Thus delicate persons are often injured by cold
baths in winter, or even on cold days in the summer season.
The mind, as the body, wants labor alternated with rest. It
is invigorated by proper exercise, impaired by excessive labor,
especially if this be confined to some one absorbing object.
In short, in all the relations of life we should cultivate that
juste milieu which keeps all the faculties of body and mind in
full action, without admitting excesses in any direction. A
sound physical frame and well balanced mind are in the reach of
nearly all men, who will use the proper measures to secure them.
The laws of Hygiene, which I have to some extent brought be
fore you, indicate the means of obtaining these inestimable bles
sings.

COEBESPOj^DEITCjS.

Dr. Richard McSherry, Jr.
Dear -Sir : — In compliance with a resolution adopted at the
last meeting of the Catholic Institute, held Monday evening,
February 13th, I have to request the favor of you to furnish a
cojj-y of the Lecture delivered by you on that occasion.
I wish to state also, that the gratification which your Lecture
afforded to all the members present has induced them, with your
consent, to have it published in pamphlet form for the use ofthe
Institute. Very respectfully yours,
AMBROSE A. WHITE.
Baltimore, February Ylth, 1860.

Ambrose A. White, Esq., President Catholic Institute.
My dear Sir : — My Lecture was prepared for the gratification
of the members of the Institute, and is therefore subject to their
disposal. I am sincerely pleased that it met with their approba
tion ; and I can but regret that circumstances did not allow me
to make it fuller, more methodical, and more worthy of their
kind reception. Yours, with sincere esteem,
RICHARD McSHERRY, Ju.
Baltimore, February 18th, 1860.

% Iftrtuxt an IMtjj una gappmess.

Gentlemen :
Amid many interruptions I have gathered up some little ma
terial, which, in its nature, is interesting to all of us ; if presented
somewhat indifferently, the fault will be mine, for the field is
wide and varied enough to gratify minds and tastes of every
degree. I speak of Health and Happiness, and I might well
adopt for my text, the following lines of Pope :
' Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence
But health consists with temperance alone ;
And peace, 0, virtue 1 peace is all thy own.' (Essay on Man.)
Let us pass at once in medias res. We will go upon the pre
sumption that all want health and peace, and doubtless, many
agreeing with the poet, would admit competence among desirable
objects.. We will not gainsay it; peace and competence are ele
ments of happiness, if indeed they do not fully constitute it. I
want to show this evening how health and happiness are inter
twined together, and to point out certain measures useful for ob
taining and maintaining them, and I shall concur very much
with the general terms of the poet except in this, that I shall
use virtue in a more absolute sense than he does.
What is health ? It is that admirable balance preserved by
sound organs among all the functions of life, without excess here
or deficiency there ; without any plus or minus. This perfect
balance, as we all know but too well, is not long preserved. The
beautiful mechanism that goes to make up the mortal part of
man, is easily disturbed. With this disturbance the charm of
perfect health is broken. One feels morbidly excited or depres
sed, and if he has ever heard of Brown's Scale of Life, he be-

114 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
gins to measure himself by it. Brown, a clever but visionary
Scotch pathologist, the founder of the famous Brunonian System,
' traced a scale of life like that of a thermometer, — health in the
centre, death at each extremity ; one scale ascending from health
was graduated according to stimulating agency, the other to de
bilitating causes.' Now in passing through this world's vicissi
tudes, it is no easy matter to keep to the happy centre, and some
times we will be jostled off in spite of our best endeavors.
From this definition of health, we will turn for a moment to
happiness. What is it — and where ? Unlike health, in perfec
tion and fulness, it has no existence, unless sometimes perhaps
for one fleeting moment. Bonaparte was-able from his sea-prison
to indicate which was the happiest day of his life, yet the mighty
conqueror could not claim one whole day of happiness. He
spoke by comparison. There are glimpses of happiness allowed
to man, which fall like heavenly rays upon his course, and tell
him of something better hereafter; but for these he would be
worse off than the Prisoner of Chillon, who ' learned to love
despair.' The best of our terrestrial happiness is a modicum of
mental peace, nourished by a little present blessing and enlivened
by hope for the future. We can never command nor touch it
as we will, but it seems to hover around us as a guardian angel,
sometimes throwing a halo over us, and sometimes departing,
never quite subject to us, and yet never, except as a merited pun
ishment, departing from us wholly.
Now these twa delicate elements of human existence, health
and happiness, respond more or less to our treatment of them.
We are not masters, nor they slaves, but to a very great extent
it lies within us to secure their ministry. How ? — let us exam
ine. Of late years the science of Physiology has made great pro
gress ; and that kindred science called Hygiene has moved with
it, pari passu. The laws of these sciences are wonderfully con
servative of health, aud consequently of so much happiness as
belongs to health. Strict and true science is not the fiction that
many clever men suppose it to be ; it is something as certain as
nature, as certain as God. We must distinguish between science
and its votaries. The one in its elements is immutable, the other

A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 115
variable as the winds. But the investigation of science is the
investigation of the works of God. The philosopher studies
laws and facts, and puts them in order, but when he comes to the
final cause his wisdom fails him. The astronomer, the chem
ist, the physiologist, studies the facts of his proper science, and
then deduces the laws which govern it. In this he does well.
Observation expands his mind, and he favors the world by com
municating his observations. Taking advantage of the works
of his predecessors, he obtains many facts u/tknown to them •
his successors will do likewise by him. Sometimes it happens
however, that a great scientific fabric, reared upon too slight a
foundation, topples over like an inverted pyramid. Then the
world exclaims against the folly of science. But the world is
mistaken in this as in other cases ; there is not, there can not be
folly in science, in true science, although there may be much in
its votaries. You will all agree with me that it is great folly to
try, as some scientific men do, to make the works of God falsify
the word of God ; where there is any apparent discrepancy, we
may depend it is owing to our finite knowledge only.
In that profession devoted to the preservation and restoration
of human health — a profession which I reverence beyond all
that is not divine — we have an affiliation of many sciences, and
among them much of truth and much of fiction. This will be
so undoubtedly to the end, though the labors of many great
minds are constantly engaged, with more or less success, in elim
inating truth from error. We have enough of truth to help us
in our practical duties, and enough of error to make us walk
warily. The responsibility of life and death is very onerous
and very fearful ; and no thinking man should venture upon it
without the trust that he will have sufficient lights to mitigate
human sufferings, and that he will be protected from the folly,
presumption, and ignorance, so ready to rush in, and so powerful
for evil only.
We have our sciences, and what is true in them always con
curs with the laws of God. And it is remarkable how much
there is in the laws of God, conservative of the temporal bles
sings now under discussion. Our children are taught among
their first lessons, that Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Tern-

116 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
perance, are cardinal virtues. They are taught that Pride,
Covetousness, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth; are
deadly sins ; and that the contrary virtues are, Humility, Lib
erality, Chastity, Meekness, Temperance, Brotherly Love, and
Diligence. I have enumerated these things in full, because they are per
tinent to my subject. A code of health-laws might be made out
from them. The poet has told us that there is no health with
out temperance ; no peace without virtue. This is truth, not
poetic fiction. The Apostle says, ' Be temperate in all things.'
So says the physician, and so the modern physiologist. In an
cient times, when people were more robust than they are now,
there were some who broke themselves down by immoderate
vigils and fasting. Nature requires for her functions a proper
amount of food and rest, for some individuals more, for some,
less, but there is so much necessary for each person. Insuffi
ciency of food has its evils, as well as perpetual sameness of diet,
for each is competent to act injuriously on both body and mind,
a fact abundantly attested by subsequent manifestations of dis
ease, including even insanity. And yet rigid diet is less de
structive than gluttony. An English medical writer judiciously
observes, ' that the habit of comparative starvation is less inju
rious to health than gross indulgence, appears from the ages to
which many fasting enthusiasts have attained. St. Anthony
lived to the age of one hundred and five years, and St. Paphi-
nus to ninety, on dry bread and water ; St. Paul, the hermit, ar
rived at the extreme age of one hundred and nine, on dates
alone.' (Body and Mind, by G. Moore, M. D.) No drunkard,
nor glutton, nor grossly sensual man can attain to an age bear
ing any comparison with the above.
I am not advocating, as you understand, rigid and excessive
fasts, yet I freely concur with the views of the English physi
cian. Such violations of the law as gluttony and sloth, ' have
destroyed more than the sword ; ' — you know the proverb :
Plures ocaidit gula quam gladius — but they have destroyed a
hundred to ten more than voluntary and involuntary fasting
put together.
Your immoderate eater — a glutton let us call him, is building

A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 117
for himself the foundation walls of future disease with every ex
cessive meal ; he is impairing the vital fluid by which he lives ;
he is undermining the tripod of life, — the brain, the heart, and
the lungs ; he is damaging the stomach ; and though you cau
tion him, he heeds you not, until some fine day a slight attack
of disease, remedial enough under other circumstances, runs
soon to a fatal issue with him. Before it comes to this he has
been keeping his rebellious stomach in subjection by the aid of
wines, cordials and spices, which he firmly believes are indispen
sable to his health. The danger of excessive voluntary fasting
is nothing compared to his. The man who eats habitually more
than nature requires, will certainly become a valetudinarian ; or
perhaps, instead of prolonged bad health, he will be cut off sud
denly by apoplexy or disease of the heart. Sudden deaths from
seizures like these, take ^place most commonly after excessive
meals. The free liver, however, may frequently save himself
from premature infirmity by following certain simple laws, whieh
are in strict accordance at once with the teachings of hygiene,
of physiology, and with the more certain teachings of Christian
morality. In confirmation of this, I will adduce the most fa
mous instance in history.
Some three centuries ago there lived at Venice, a nobleman,
named Louis Cornaro. He was what now would be called a
a very fast man, so fast, that at the age of thirty-five he was a
confirmed invalid, suffering complicated evils from gout and dys
pepsia. For five years, by the aid of the doctors, he managed
to live along wretchedly enough, indeed, passing his time be
tween sensual enjoyment and sensual suffering. Getting steadily
worse, life became a prolonged torture, a living but profitless
martvrdom. ' Finally, his physician told him that there was
only one resource left, and that was to renounce his habits of
intemperance, and adopt a course of life extremely sober, from
which he must never vary. Cornaro took a firm. resolution and
held it. In the first place he studied the various species of ali
ment which suited his stomach, and the quantity to take in or
der not to be incommoded. After some experiments, he fixed
on twelve ounces of solid food, composed of bread, yolk of egg,
meat, fish, &c,, and fourteen ounces of liquid. Every morning

118 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
he weighed out his rations for the day.. This regimen suited
him so well, that at the end of a year he was freed from all his
afflictions. At the same time his appetite returned ; he recov
ered his former gaiety, equanimity of humor, aptitude for men
tal efforts, and bodily exercises. In short, he lived without in
firmities to the age of one hundred years.'
Here you see an illustration not only of the laws of Hygiene,
but the effects of reducing to practice three of the four cardinal
virtues, to wit: Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance.
A French physician commenting on the life of Cornaro, ex
pressed himself in a paragraph worthy of your attention :
' The whole life of Cornaro offers a striking example of the
salutary effects of sobriety ; but there is one trait in it which
shows the power of habit. At the age of seventy-eight, over
come by the solicitations of his friends and kinsfolk, who pressed
him to relax a little the severity of his diet, he consented to add
to it two ounces of solids and two ounces of liquid each day.
His stomach was very soon deranged ; he lost gradually his ap
petite, and his manner became taciturn ; in fine, he soon fell
.into a severe fever, which lasted thirty days, and nearly destroyed
him. He was not re-established until he resumed his former
way of living. He states that he composed in his eightieth
year a comedy, characterised by refined and pointed wit, and
written in a lively style. At this age, he mounted his horse
easily, and climbed the steepest hills, and was always in a good
humor. On one occasion, he was obliged to sustain a severe
law-suit, which caused the death of his brother from chagrin ;
but though the suit concerned himself especially, his health was
not altered, nor his courage shaken, and he came out of it vic
torious in every respect. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of the
old man did not go so far as to believe that the same diet would
suit everybody ; he only asserted that if men never went beyond
the limit of need in eating and drinking, they would avoid a
great many infirmities, and prolong their days much beyond the
period usually attained.' (Renouard's History of Medicine,
translated by Dr. Comegys, p. 301-2.)
Please to observe this old gentleman's steady good humor, the
fruit of his temperance. Bad health makes people oftentimes

A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 119
peevish, fretful, and unhappy, and a depraved digestion some
times not only sets a man against his neighbors and his neigh
bors against him, but nation against nation. ' The Prime Min
ister has declared war because of an indigestion/ has been as
serted with probable truth.
If people would take Cornaro as a model, not rigidly, but
approximately, we would hear very little of dyspepsia, disease
of the heart, or apoplexy.
Excesses at table are disastrous enough, and in this they are
worse than over devotion to Bacchus ; namely, that they under
mine more slowly and more insidiously ; but otherwise, strong
drinks are vastly worse. There are persons who think wines
and liquors essential to health, but as the rule, they are useless
at best; and at worst, destructive to soul, and body, and mind.
Strict total abstinence is generally, I might say universally, safe,
while even temperate indulgence is rarely safe or salutary. We
all know of a venerable couple who lived much longer than
Cornaro, in perfect health, imbibing nothing stronger than the
innocent fluid, popularly known as Adam's ale.
It is not for me to tell you of the moral degradation brought
on by the immoderate use of strong potations; of the ruin of
individuals and of families; nor will I dwell even upon the de
struction of health this vice induces, but I may point out a fact
derived from a local illustration. In the last report from the
Mount Hope Asylum, by the attending physician, Dr. Stokes,
it is stated that of three hundred patients treated during the
year, twenty-three (23) labored under mania-a-potu, and nine
teen (19) under oinomania; or in all, forty-two insane individ
uals were treated, whose insanity sprang directly from the im
moderate use of wine and spirits. Now this excellent Asylum
rather excludes than seeks such cases, so that even this large
number falls short of an average per centage. Every intoxicated
man is insane for the time being, but worse than this, his habits
often predispose to or induce insanity, and beyond that trans
mits a hereditary tendency to both drunkenness and insanity
among his children.
Real drunkards happily are few, but men who drink more
than is salutary are very abundant. The old excuses for drink-

120 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
ing are always ready ; the weather is sure to be very hot or very
cold, or an indigestion requires a corrective, as in fact very
often it does. As to the last, I can only say, take your remedy,
but remember hereafter that prevention is better than cure.
Strong drinks afford very indifferent protection against great heat.
I have served, myself, for years in the tropics, in peace and in
war, in the East and West Indies, in Florida, and in Mexico,
and according to my personal experience, and observations upon
others, the strictly temperate always bore the climate best. But
this matter has been brought in the East Indies to the experi-
mentum crucis. Whole regiments in the British service have
adopted the total abstinence principle, have taken coffee in the
morning as an antidote to morning fogs instead of the spirit
ration, while other regiments have adhered to the ancient cus
tom. It is scarcely necessary to add that the temperance regi
ments have uniformly surpassed, by great odds, the others an
health and efficiency. I would have predicated this upon my
own experience.
But great cold is different. A glass of brandy may burn a
man already suffering with heat ; but it only warms one up com
fortably who is suffering with cold. I have entertained some
such idea myself, but Dr. Hayes, surgeon to Kane's Arctic Ex
pedition, dispels this illusion. I will quote him:
' In Arctic countries, alcohol is in almost any shape not only
completely useless, but positively injurious; and in this view I
am fully sustained by the well qualified judgment and experi
ence of our enterprising and indefatigable friend, Dr. Ray, R. N.,
whom we had the pleasure not long since of welcoming to
the Academy. So well am I convinced of this fact, that in the
expedition now organizing to the Arctic seas, I shall not only
not give it habitually, but will carefully guard against taking
any one with me who is addicted to its use. Circumstances may
occur under which its administration seems necessary ; such for
instance, as great prostration from long continued exposure and
exertion, or from getting wet, but then it should be avoided if
possible; for the succeeding reaction is always to be dreaded;
and if a place of safety is not near at hand, the immediate dan
ger is only temporarily guarded against, and becomes finally

, A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 121
greatly augmented by reason of decreased vitality. If given at
all, it should be in very small quantities, frequently repeated,
and continued until a place of safety is reached. I have known
most unpleasant consequences to result from the injudicious use
of whiskey, for the purpose of temporary stimulation, and have
also known strong able-bodied men to have become utterly inca
pable of resisting cold, in consequence of the long continued
use of alcoholic drinks. I do not believe that it has a single
useful property, not possessed in a ten-fold degree by other stim
ulants, and under this head I rank tea and coffee.' (Am. Jour.
Med. Sc, July, 1859.)
This is taking a feather out of the cap of king Whiskey, and
goes to show that his field for usefulness is almost confined to
Utopia, a word which literally interpreted, means no place.
Having taken our grog together, we may now pass to other
things. Tobacco deserves the next place. It is most marvel
lous how this nauseous weed has taken hold upon the affections
of man. It surely is of no benefit to health, but I dare not
say it conduces nothing to happiness. When I see an old friend
take his pipe, or cigar, after the labors of the day, and the even
ing meal ; when his good honest face beams beneath the fragrant
smoke which rises like incense, making a wreath around his
gray hairs ; when his heart expands, and he becomes genially
social and confidential, I can hardly ask Hygeia to rob him of
his simple pleasure. A good cigar is almost akin to the 'cup
that cheers, yet not inebriates.' But honestly, tobacco is perni
cious in all its forms ; not like whiskey indeed, but still perni
cious. Bulwer somewhere goes off in a rhapsody on tobacco,
saying, whoever loves it not, hath not known great sorrows ; and
oh ! Jupiter, he says, by way of apostrophe, if ever Juno break-
eth the peace of thy empyrean home, turn to the weed ! Bul
wer and Jupiter would doubtless get the thanks of every terres
trial Juno, of every mistress of a family, if they would take
the weed between them for tha exclusive solace of their own do
mestic troubles.
I have now dealt with three of the greatest enemies to human
health and happiness against which we mortal pilgrims have to
contend. With the Apostle, I urge temperance in all things.

122 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
\
Perhaps you think I have gone too far, and wish to oppose law
ful gratifications. But gentlemen will please remember that
while I contend for the absolute right of my positions, I do not
contend that every man is morally bound by them. There is
no criminality in eating a piece of plum pudding after dinner,
nor in taking a glass of egg-nogg at Christmas, nor in smoking
a cigar after your meals. But it is better aud safer to let these
luxuries alone, and I say that you will actually enjoy more of
health by abstaining from them.
Those who become well acquainted with Abstinence, as Cor
naro did, learn to love her, and she is by no means hard featured
or unsocial. The good Pastor, who visited the science of salva
tion, was extremely pleased with the sweet countenances of Pen
ance and Mortification, and to use his own words : ' I desired to
be informed what sustenance these holy persons had taken for
some preceding days. Abstinence, who was the provider of
that house, a woman of good health, sound, strong, of a fresh
and sanguine complexion, told me that they had lived upon
some herbs, with a little bread and water, and found them
selves as well satisfied as if they had feasted upon the most del
icate food the whole earth was able to afford.' (Christmas
Nights' Entertainment.) A more just conception than this of
Abstinence, would be difficult to find. The habits which she
encourages are certainly favorable to personal comeliness. How
is it on the other hand? You know very well that a 'jolly
red nose,' though emblematic of profusion, is no ornament to
the human physiognomy.
The author of ' A Year in Spain,' gives a very graphic picture
of the influence of abstemious habits on the members of a reli
gious community he visited in that country. After describing
their costume, he says, speaking of the principal, or hermano
mayor, ' as he now stood before me, in addition to the effect of his
apostolic garment, his complexion and his eye had a clearness
that no one can conceive, who is not familiar with the aspect of
those who have practiced a long and rigid abstinence from ani
mal food, and every exciting aliment. It gives a lustre, a spir
itual intelligence to the countenance that has something saint
like and divine; and the adventurous artist, who would essay to

A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 123
trace the lineaments of his Saviour, should seek a model in some
convent of Trappists or Carthusians, or .in the ethereal region of
the desert of Cordova.'
The facts and illustrations above adduced, go to prove the
truth of the Latin motto: ''Non miser e vivit, qui par ce vivit.' —
Not wretchedly does he live, who lives sparingly.
And to approve the lines of Horace, thus rendered by the
translator : ' To frugal treats and humble cells,
With grateful change the wealthy fly ;
Where health preserving plainness dwells,
Far from the carpet's gaudy dye.
Such scenes have charmed the pangs of care,
And smoothed the clouded forehead of despair.'
We will pay our respects briefly to Dan Cupid, and then I
shall try your patience no longer. I would willingly let him
pass, but he makes and mars the affairs of health and happi
ness to no small extent ; he meddles at times with everybody,
assails everybody, and he used to boast in ancient times, it is
said, that he conquered all, gods and mortals, excepting only
Minerva and the Muses. He is one of those meddling busy-
bodies of whom sailors would say, as of a pet monkey, or other
restless and unprofitable shipmate, he is in everybody's mess and
in nobody's watch. Theologians tell us to run from him, and
even Ovid says : ' I procul et longas carpere perge vias,
 Sed fuge, tutus eris.'
Take a long journey, your only safety is in flight. You may
fly, but he sends his arrows after you, and you will have to
travel far to get out of their reach. .
I -will not dwell on the dangers of a consuming passion,
which in its irregularities brings so much affliction upon the
human race, being fruitful among other evils of mental disease,
ending often, very often, in total insanity and premature death.
Here again the physician must proclaim that the laws of God
are man's best protection. Allow me to quote a few words
from an eminent theologian, appropriate in this place :
' What plan ', says Balmes, ' should be adopted to restrain this
passion, to confine it within just limits, and prevent its bringing

124 A Lecture on Health and Happiness.
misfortune to individuals, disorder to families, and confusion to
society ? The invariable rule of Catholicity, the morality which
she teaches, as well as in the institutions she establishes, is re
pression. The Church does not allow a desire she declares to
be culpable in the eyes of God : even a look, when accompanied
by an impure thought.'
There is a growing tendency in this country to relax the mar
riage tie, and as a people, we are threatened, by the facility of
obtaining divorces, with a degree of social disorganization, which
would most materially impair public health and happiness, with
all other sound interests. Upon this subject, I will introduce
another paragraph from the same author :
' Give then ', he says, ' the reins to the passions of man ; allow
him in any way to entertain the illusion that he can make him
self any new ties; permit him to believe that he is not attached
forever, and without recall, to the companion of his life; and
you will see that disgust will soon take possession of him ; that
discord will be more violent and striking ; that the ties will
begin to wear out before they are contracted, and will break at
the first shock. Proclaim, on the contrary, a law which makes
no exception of poor or rich, weak or powerful, vassals or kings;
which makes no allowance for difference of situation, of charac
ter, health, or any of those numberless motives, which, in the
hands of passions, and especially those of powerful men, are
easily changed into pretexts; proclaim that this law is from
heaven, show a divine seal on the marriage tie, tell the murmur
ing passions that if they will gratify themselves, they must do
so by immorality ; tell them that the power which is charged
with the preservation of this divine law will never make crim
inal compliances, that it will never consent to the infraction of
the divine law, and that the crime will never be without re
morse ; you will then see the passions become, calm and resigned ;
the law will be diffused and strengthened, will take root in cus
toms ; you will have secured the good order and tranquility of
families forever, and society will be indebted to you for an im
mense benefit.' (Palmes' European Civilization, p. 144-5.)
This author has thus given us, in a few words, something wor
thy of the spirit of religion, and applicable to the condition of

A Lecture on Health and Happiness. 125
the married and unmarried. The physician must endorse what
he says, viewed simply in reference to its application to the
health and happiness of man.
In short, and finally, gentlemen, for the enjoyment of these
common and transient blessings, it is encumbent on us all to ex
ercise a masterly self-control over those impulses, wants, desires,
and passions, which beset us in some form or other, at almost
every moment of our existence. I would say summarily, in
eating, exceed not the limit of need; take no strong drink, un
less as a medical prescription ; make a great bonfire of your to
bacco, — in honor of Jupiter if you please, — and as to the most
seductive of the passions, keep it in strict subjection to the di
vine precepts. The observance of these things will not only add
to the length of your days, but it will give you additional hap
piness, peace, and competence. The earlier you begin the better,
and bear in mind the saying : he who would live to be old
must begin early.
I have recommended to you in all things touched upon the
highest standard; perhaps you may think I have urged too
much. Even an approximation to the standard will do you a
service ; and at all events, I can say to each and every one of
you, Qui monet, amat, ave et cave —
which is expressively, if not elegantly translated :
' He who addresses you is your friend.
Farewell, and to your health attend.'