Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/304

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
268
MAXIMILIAN
MAXIMILIAN

senate, but never took his seat. He raised the 9th Texas infantry, and joined Gen. Albert Sid- ney Johnston in March, 1862, at Decatur, Ala., whence he was sent to Chattanooga to collect and reorganize troops. In the mean time he had been made a brigadier-general. Maxey now served under Bragg, and assailed the rear of Buell's army on its retreat, driving it from Bridgeport, Battle Creek, and Stevenson, and making valuable cap- tures. He was in the first siege of Port Hudson, when the National troops were repulsed, and was under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the defence of Jackson, Miss. In 1863 he was assigned to the command of Indian territory. He organized this military district, and put 8.0i30 or more men under arms. In 1864, with these troops, he assisted Gen. Sterling Price at Prairie Danne, and at Poison Springs, 18 April, 1864, he fought Gen. Frederick Steele, and captured his entire train of 227 wag- ons, thus compelling him to retreat. For these services he was made a major-general. He also acted as Indian agent during this period, and directed important military movements. After the war Gen. Maxey resumed the practice of law at his home, and was appointed a judge, but de- clined. In 1874 he was elected to the U. S. senate, took his seat, 5 March, 1875, and was re-elected on 25 Jan., 1881. He served on the committees on territories, military affairs, and on labor and edu- cation, and as chairman of that on post-offices. He endeavored to protect the frontier and secure its peace and safety, to grant liberal approjaria- tions for rivers and harbors and other internal improvements, to procure greater postal facilities, and to increase our foreign trade by generous sub- sidies to steamship-lines. His bills first asserted the right of way through the Indian territory, which was afterward obtained for the railroads through that region. Gen. Maxey strongly favored revenue reform, and regarded a pi'otective tariff as unconstitutional and oppressive.


MAXIMILIAN (Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph), archduke of Austria and emperor of Mexico, b. in Schonbrunn, 6 July, 1832 ; d. in Queretaro, Mexico, 19 June, 1867. He was the second son of the archduke Francis Charles and Sophia Frederica Dorothea, princess of Bavaria, and a brother of the emperor Francis Joseph. He was educated for the navy, which he entered at an eai'ly age. In 1854, while he was exploring the coast of Albania and Dalmatia on the corvette " Mi- nerva," he was called to Vienna to assume the chief command of the navy. In this olfice lie vis- ited the ports of Candia, Palestine, and Egypt, mak- ing excursions in- to the interior, be- gan the construc- tion of the arsenal

at Pola and the

rebuilding of that city, and sent the frigate " No- vara " on a voyage round the world, and the cor- vette " Caroline " to visit the ports of South Amer- ica. In 1857 he was appointed governor-general of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, which he ruled wisely during a period of great political ex- citement, and in the same year he married in Brus- sels the Princess Charlotte, daughter of King Leo- pold I., of Belgium. At the beginning of the war of 1859 he retired to Venice, and later to his castle of Miramar, near Trieste, where he led the life of a patron of art and literature, and wrote several works of merit. He also made a voyage of dis- covery to Brazil. In consequence of the French intervention in Mexico, and Napoleon III.'s reso- lution to put a European prince on the throne of the monarchy that he proposed to erect there, Maximilian's name was proposed by Gutierrez- Estrada {q. v.), and the archduke began early in 1863 assiduously to study the Spanish language. The assembly of notables of Mexico voted, on 8 July, 1863, for an empire under the rule of Maxi- milian, and a commission of that body appeared on 3 Oct. in Miramar to offer the throne to the archduke, who accepted privately, on condition that his election should be confirmed by popular vote. After obtaining the consent of his brother, renouncing his claim to the succession in Austria, and receiving the acts of adherence by many Mexi- can towns, he concluded a secret convention with Napoleon III. regarding the assistance of French troops till the consolidation of the empire, and officially announced on 10 April, 1864, his accept- ance of the Mexican crown under the name of Maximilian I. He paid farewell visits to the Eng- lish, Belgian, and French courts, went to Rome to receive the pope's blessing, and on 14 April sailed with his wife on the " Novara " for Mexico, land- ing on 28 May in Vera Cruz. The authorities had prepared great festivities for his reception, his journey toward the capital seemed a triumph. The new monarch received many deputations from the Indians of the interior, and naturally believed in the sincere acceptance of his rule by the people. On 12 June he made his solemn entry into the capital, and one of his measures, as he was childless, was to adopt a grandson of the em- peror, Iturbide, as presumptive successor to the throne. The French courts-martial had condemned thousands of patriots to death as bandits, and Maximilian published a decree of amnesty for po- litical crimes, thereby incurring the enmity of the French military authorities. To strengthen his position he gave orders for the organization in Austria and Belgium of an auxiliary corps, but financial straits forced him to raise a loan in Paris under ruinous conditions. He established com- mittees for the regulation of public affairs, and showed the best intentions for the faithful admin- istration of the government. He instituted public audiences, in which every Sunday he received all persons without distinction, who wished to make complaints or to present projects of public utility, and by his affable manners soon gained the co-opera- tion of the former moderate party and the submis- sion of some of the Juarist chiefs. His favorite resi- dence while at the capital was the castle of Chapul- tepec, represented in the accompanying engraving. He made a tour of inspection of the provinces that had fully submitted to the empire, and appointed the empress regent during his absence and in case of his death. On his return he recommended the obligatory public instruction, issued a decree rec- ognizing the Roman Catholic religion as that of the state, while granting full toleration to all other creeds, and by these and other liberal meas- ures, but principally by his failure to restore the sequestered church property, alienated the sup- port of the clergy and the conservative party, who had been hitherto his most zealous partisans. Meanwhile the progress of the empire in the inte-