second-french-empire

"Will make good soldiers, very devoted to the government of Emperor Maximilian."

"The enterprise that Archduke Maximilian will attempt remains what it was on the first day, an adventure where, besides a lot of energy, tact and resources, we must add a lot of happiness to succeed."

"Will you believe that I am not convinced that all the Mexican debt holders will be paid, that the Archduke will obtain from the Holy Father a concordat which satisfies the faith of the bishops and the population, that the silver mines will pay floods of this precious metal in the coffers of the emperor, that the Mexicans will become good and placid bourgeois like the Tyroleans of Brixen or Botrena."

"It is claimed that it was the Archduchess Charlotte who determined her husband's final acceptance. The princess is young, beautiful, lively, and the noble ambition to wear a crown and found a dynasty would have seduced her."

"Whatever opinion one forms of the enterprise to which Archduke Maximilian has just devoted his life, it is not possible for us Belgians to forget that the princess who shares the destinies of the new emperor is also the beloved daughter of our king, that she grew up among us, that our homeland is her own, and that she has the right to count on the sympathies and the wishes of her compatriots ."

"It is understandable that a colonial establishment organized under such conditions cannot fail to prosper. We are also convinced that the example of the Empress' s guards will be followed by a large number of our compatriots who, trusting with reason in the new situation in Mexico, will take advantage of all this set of circumstances so exceptionally advantageous, to to go bring the contribution of their arms and their intelligence to the beautiful work of civilization undertaken by the emperor Maximilian and the empress Charlotte, his august companion."

"It is not likely that such an important and energetic step could be taken without great results for his rule and his popularity. At the moment we are hardly in a position to judge the success and extent of it, but it certainly contains within itself the means to regenerate Mexico. The first problem that the new emperor will now have to solve will be that of satisfying the Liberal Party without alienating the affection of the Church."

"This is how the Mexican Empire will perish, a creation based on the assumption of a southern triumph and which today finds itself singularly compromised by the opposite result. Even with a president less democratic than Mr. Johnson, the United States would never have tolerated the establishment at its gates of an absolute monarchy under the rule of a foreign dynasty. The misfortunes of the civil war did not allow them to oppose it when the facts were unfolding. Perhaps in order to avoid a war with France they will not attack the new order of things directly, but certainly they would do nothing to support it, and the disbandment of their armies will provide them with all the desirable means to overthrow it indirectly."

"How did Emperor Maximilian spoil such a beautiful position in such a short time? He had been called in hatred of the Jewish liberals and acclaimed by the Catholics, who form the overwhelming majority of Mexicans, and he had nothing more in a hurry than to upset the Catholics and display sentiments of this false liberalism which can destroy, who cannot build anything."

"Sacrified, betrayed, sold, Maximilian, whatever mistakes he made, deserves pity on his fate."

"We can only judge the fact in itself and this fact is deplorable, even less for the man who was its victim than for the cause which made him a martyr. His life was shattered; to continue her existence with the remorse and humiliation with which she would have been filled was the most cruel punishment that could be inflicted on her. We cannot say that his execution is a crime, but it is undoubtedly a political fault, like all extreme and violent acts, and what Republican Mexico will believe to have gained in security, it will lose in sympathy and in consideration. Despite the precedent of the condemnable decree against the Juarists, the republic will hardly wash away this cold spilled blood more than a month after the capture of this unfortunate prince. This sad fact will be rightly invoked and unfortunately exploited against the government of Juarez and those who will succeed it."

"Maximilian fought like a hero, suffered like a hero and died a hero."