Regaining Independence

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It is ironic that while the Confederate States were fighting to eject foreign imperial armies from their soil, the Mexican government was fighting to eject a French imperial army from its soil, and with the support of the United States government. Below, Benito Juarez lets his people know that succeeding generations may recover what they may lose to a conqueror.

Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
www.cfhi.net
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Regaining Independence:

“The enemy may come and rob us, if that is our destiny, but we do not have to legalize that crime, handing over voluntarily that which they demand by force. If France, the United States, or any other nation whatever should take possession of our territory, and if because of our weakness we should be unable to eject it therefrom, we should nevertheless leave alive the right of succeeding generations to recover it.

It would be a serious evil for us to be disarmed by a superior force, but it would be superlatively worse if we should disarm our sons by depriving them of an unquestionable right that some day men more brave, patriotic and enduring than ourselves would know how to value properly and to regain.”

(Letter of Mexican leader Benito Juarez to Matias Romero, January 26, 1865. Viva Juarez!, Charles Allen Smart, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1963, pp. 331-332)
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Regaining Independence