with the 'rights of man,' and the spirit of modern civilization.
"The latter implied a complete reconstruction of society in all the domain of government, of religious institutions, and of the entire fabric of civil, social, and educational life. . . . From 1824 (when the first really National Congress met, and the first Constitution was published) to 1853, the country was rent and torn by a succession of conflicts, in which the distinctive principles of the two great parties were ever uppermost. The Church power was wielded with indefatigable and unscrupulous energy, to baffle the Republicans and stay the progress of constitutional freedom. But its march was irresistible!"
We may trace this determined opposition to the efforts for freedom through a period of over fifty years. It began, perhaps, with the excommunication of Hidalgo and Morelos; and throughout the whole long struggle, ecclesiastical artillery smoked and thundered on the side of oppression and against the defenders of liberty. The most bitter hatred of the Church was evoked in 1846, when the patriot, Gomez Farias, recommended that a loan of fourteen million dollars should be asked of that body, and if refused that it be raised by a sale of Church property. This was at a moment when the very existence of the nation was threatened by an external foe, and when the government was completely impoverished, though the Church possessed "three hundred millions of the most valuable property of the nation." The request was refused, and Farias driven in disgrace from power.
Thanks to this refusal of assistance to the Mexican nation in time of sore need, the victories of the Americans were rendered easier; thanks to them, also, are due for the subsequent civil strife, and the intervention of a foreign power and a foreign prince!
