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Oficial of February 23rd 1863. Juarez descended voluntarily from his lofty position as President, so that, as a simple citizen, he might say to the chief of the Spanish cabinet: "You are authorized to publish the proofs you may have upon this matter." The most absolute silence was the attitude assumed by O'Donnell, thereby demonstrating, once and for ever, the absurdity of the calumny with which it was attempted to blacken the brilliant reputation of the indefatigable defender of the independence of Mexico and the integrity of its territory.
It will not be out of place here to produce this letter of Benito Juarez, and the article which was written upon the subject by Don Manuel M. Zamacona, who was at that time editor of the Diario Oficial.
The following are the documents:
«The Diario of the Government of the Mexican Republic.—Volume I, number 16, February 23rd, 1863.
"A calumny against the President of the Republic.
«We have just received this letter:—National Palace, City of Mexico, February 22nd, 1863.—To the Editor of the Diario Oficial—My dear Sir:—I have just read in the Monitor Republicano of this date the speech which Señor O'Donell, President of the Spanish Cabinet, delivered in the discussion of the reply to the speech from the Throne, and I have seen with surprise, amongst other inaccurate statements, that Señor O'Donnell uses, in judging of the men and affairs of Mexico, the following remarkable words. . . . «Juarez, as a Mexican, has, in my opinion, a stain which can never be effaced: that of having desired
