Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/229

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FRANCE WITHDRAWS.
209

by this ready compliance, Seward required, further, that the proposed reënforcements to fill gaps should not be sent, and Austria was at the same time requested to stop the enrolment of volunteers for Mexico. Both governments promptly acquiesced.[1]

Unconscious of the impending blow, and recognizing only too well that to France alone must he look for safety, Maximilian made once more, in January 1866, an appeal for money and men[2] wherewith to check the growing republican movements. In the same month Baron Saillard was sent to communicate the resolution of Napoleon for a speedy withdrawal, and arrange for a convention to replace that of Miramare, which Mexico had been unable to carry out.[3] The emperor felt overwhelmed. Saillard could obtain no satisfactory proposals, and left the negotiations with Minister Dano;[4] but the result had been achieved of shifting the responsibility upon Maximilian, and permitting the announcement of the time of evacuation.

    like Detroyat, seek to avoid the subject, and others join Domenech in the futile effort to draw diplomatic victories for their country Instance: 'La forme dans laquelle l'empereur Napoléon annonça sa résolution lui [Seward] a enlevé ce triomphe' of acknowledging the effect of Seward's note. Hist. Mex., iii. 377; Doc. Hist. Mex., 1832-75, pt x. 86-90. It would have been more satisfactory to show that France merely carried out the convention of Miramare, in letter if not in spirit, by withdrawing the troops.

  1. The Austrian volunteers were ready to embark when the countermand was issued. This empire was at the time menaced by Prussia, and France began also to look to her frontiers. The respective protests of Motley and Bigelow were made in April and May 1866. For details concerning the relations of the U. S. with Mexico and her allies, see Mex. Affairs, i.-ii., 39th Cong. 1st Sess.; Congress. Globe, 1865-6, passim; U.S. H. Ex. Doc. 20, 31, 33, vii., 39th Cong. 1st Sess.; U.S. Sen. Doc. 6, 8, in Id.; U.S. Foreign Affairs, 206358, 39th Cong. 2d Sess.; Legac. Mex., Circ., i. 5-102, 169-87, passim. Imperialist consuls were not recognized. Iglesias, Interv., iii. 361, 602, et seq.; Domenech, Hist. Mex., iii. 339, etc.; Id., Le Mex., 297-348; Flint's Mex. under Max., 199–227; L'Interven. Française, 235, etc.; Kératry, Max., 103-14.
  2. If merely to replace the troops sent back to France. Toward the end of 1864 left: 'Outre la batterie de la garde... le ler et le 20 bataillons de chasseurs à pied; le 99% de ligne...el le 2e zouaves.' The last in March 1865. Niox, Expéd. du Mex., 484.
  3. The French minister at Mexico, Dano, was instructed to support the negotiations, to point out that France stood released from responsibillity, and that le plus dangereux pour un gouvernement qui se fonde est certainement celui [accusations de n'être soutenu que par des forces étrangères. Despatch of Jan. 15, 1866. Rather peculiar language from the foreign power that had forced the government upon the country.
  4. Returning to France within a fortnight after his arrival.