Overview

Several accounts have been written recently of the attempt of Napoleon III. to establish an empire in Mexico during the civil war in the United States. The history of this episode could hardly have been written earlier, for we have only now reached a sufficient distance in time to view the events in their proper perspective. Mr. Taylor's narrative is concise and clear, and generally adequate. He follows the story from the Mexican convention at London in 1861 to the death of Maximilian, with no more than a reasonable prejudice against the designs of Napoleon, and with a just appreciation of the character of Maximilian and Carlotta. We think that he falls a little short of appreciation of the diplomacy of Mr. Seward, who never allowed the attitude of the United States toward the movement to be in any way equivocal, but who skillfully avoided any needless complication until the time came when he was able to assert the influence of the United States, and then did so with such force and effect as to bring the imperial experiment quickly to an end. The military demonstration made by Sheridan in Texas was doubtless of value as a support to the diplomatic attitude of the Department of State, but Mr. Taylor's own narrative discredits his implied belief that the military could have settled the matter sooner or better. The whole episode is one of very great interest in the political history of the generation now past, and one altogether honorable to the United States, while it brought various degrees of shame and chagrin to more than one of the great European powers. It contains also a romantic and personal interest, as dramatized in the story of Maximilian, and this aspect Mr. Taylor has well preserved in his attractive essay. -The Philadelphia Times [1894]

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