We have seen that a hundred leagues of railroad from here to Vera Cruz have given such influence to the English company that many times this very influence has been sufficient to decide the votes of the chamber, and shall we be so insane as to consent to the establishment of an American company which will embrace the whole country. . . all our sections and all our roads?
Would you exchange your beautiful and poor liberty of the present for the rich subjection which the railroad could give you? Go and propose to the lion of the desert to exchange his cave of rocks for a golden cage, and the lion of the desert will reply to you with a roar of liberty.The fears as to the consequences of railway development were especially strong in reference to the northwestern territory of the republic, but the circumstances there could be turned in favor of a liberal policy quite as effectively as they could be used in opposition. A representative from that region argued that only by the development of the border states could they be saved to Mexico. Their growth would create an equilibrium with the United States, otherwise "we exist in such a manner as causes us to represent in the eyes of the other nations the role of a sickly, decrepit man, by the side of a hale, robust one. . . ." If development is not brought about in these states, "exasperation will drive them nearer our neighbors than anything alleged by those who fear that the influence. . . of the American union may produce another mutilation of our territory. . . . It is very dangerous to see just beyond a conventional
