soon confirmed in office by election. The following years were comparatively peaceful and prosperous. A notable event of the administration was the completion of the first railroad in Mexico, connecting Vera Cruz and Mexico City. The railroad question was much discussed in political circles. Lerdo favored the ideas of Juarez, who had declared for government ownership, construction and operation of railroads and telegraphs, and also shared his fear of too intimate connection with the United States. "Between the weak and the strong there must be a desert," is credited to Lerdo. He was accused by his opponents of favoring English construction companies and of paying them too high subsidies. On the other hand, Diaz favored United States investors.[1]
Porfirio Diaz had been the most important general in the war against French intervention. He considered the constitutional methods of Juarez and Tejada inadequate and in all of the elections after the war was the opposition candidate, representing the disgruntled military and property-owning classes. After each defeat, his adherents arose in armed insurrection. After the second election of Juarez (1869) Diaz issued a revolutionary proclamation and the revolts were quite wide-spread. Under Lerdo he accepted terms of general amnesty and was restored to his rank in the army. He used his position for organization and probably for negotiations with foreign capitalists, who were increasingly active in Mexico. Early in 1876, he spent some weeks in Brownsville, Texas, in conference with United States business men. While he was still there, a revolutionary proclamation was
- ↑ Bancroft, Op. Cit., Vol. VI, pp, 399–404. Creelman, Diaz, Master of Mexico, pp. 328–35.
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