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MEXICO'S DILEMMA


CHAPTER I


A bird's-eye view


PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S words on Mexico, sent in the form of instructions to the United States Minister in Mexico City, true as they must have been more than fifty years ago, are just as true to-day. "For a few years past the condition of Mexico has been so unsettled as to raise the question on both sides of the Atlantic whether the time has not come when some foreign power ought, in the general interest of society, to intervene, to establish a protectorate or some other form of government in that country and guarantee its continuance there," wrote the President. He continued:

"You will not fail to assure the Government of Mexico that the President neither has, nor can ever have, any sympathy with such designs, in whatever quarter they may arise or whatever character they may take on …

"The President never for a moment doubts that

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