court early in 1877. In this only the Diaz men voted. The other branches of the Liberal party and the Conservatives abstained. The election of Congress the following year showed no more vitality.
The new system of Mexican politics had been ushered in. It was a brave show of popular government but one in which the people had no real part and took no real interest. It was not even a true contest among the upper class. It was a procession only, not, in fact, a struggle in which high aspirations were announced by rival candidates for the approval of the multitude but a sham display in which decisions already taken were confirmed. From 1877 to the end of the Diaz régime elections in Mexico were not functions reflecting national opinion but ceremonies consecrating the established order.
It is wrong to suppose that the succeeding elections in Mexico all rested on active general display of force. They did not, nor was comment in the press at an end. The criticisms of the government in the opposition papers were often lurid. Mexican journalism is nothing if not colorful. But active repressive measures were unnecessary as a rule because there was no active opposition. Peace had come, a peace that, laying its strong hand upon the people, took away from them the right of self-government, which they had used only to abuse it. Peace had come to bring to the country the longed for economic development that might make Mexico one of the leading countries of the New World. Pity that the peace that came to Mexico had not also within the folds of its garments that uplift for the Mexican people
