Raousset de Boulbon sees his Southern followers fall under
machete and revolver in northern Mexico. The Southern filibusters
are superbly reckless. All are eager to repeat the glories of Texas
and Mexico. They find that the Spanish races of Central America
have learned bitter lessons from the loss of Texas. They know of the
brutal conquest of California. The cry of "Muerte los Americanos!"
rings from Tucson to Darien. The labors of conquest are harder now
for the self-elected generalissimos of these robber bands. "Extension
of territory" is a diplomatic euphemism for organized descents of
desperate murderers. The wholesome lessons of the slaughter in Sonora,
the piles of heads at Arispe, and the crowded graves of Rivas and
Castillo, with the executions in Cuba, prove to the ambitious
Southrons that they will receive from the Latins a "bloody welcome
to hospitable graves."
As the days glide into weeks and months, the thirst for blood of
the martial generation overcrowding the South is manifest. On the
threshold of grave events the leaders of Southern Rights restrain
further foreign attempts. The chivalry is now needed at home. Foiled
in Cuba and Central America, restrained by the general government
from a new aggressive movement on Mexico, they decide to turn
their faces to the North.
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