The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942 Page: 149
409 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Last "Crusade" of Mirabeau B. Lamar
Such, then, was this man of wide and varied experience,
eclectic of temperament, combining the manner and nature
of the patrician with the courage of the frontiersman-a "mix-
ture of cavalier and pioneer"" who, once he had undertaken a
task, sought for its accomplishment with the zeal, the daring,
and the idealism which characterized the medieval crusaders.
In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Lamar United
States Minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At the age of
fifty-nine, he had found himself, broken in health and finance,
forced to seek employment far from his family and home, in
a strange land of hostile, suspicious people, where he was
expected to play the role of a kind of Don Quixote by destroying
the bogie windmills of fear and distrust, and felling the
monsters of hate and prejudice that William Walker and his
filibusters had recently created in the minds of the Central
American people. And to do all of this he was obliged to put
on another veneer-that of diplomacy, which must often say
what it does not mean, and frequently act what it does not feel.
The special mission of Minister Lamar was to persuade the
Nicaraguan government to ratify a treaty of commerce, friend-
ship, and navigation which had recently been drawn up at
Washington by Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, and Antonio
Jos6 de Irisarri, Guatemalan, Salvadorean, and Nicaraguan
Minister in Washington. The proposed treaty takes the name
of Cass-Irisarri, its two authors. Its purpose was to effect
the reopening of the transit route across the Nicaraguan isth-
mus, which had been closed during the filibuster era (1855-
1857) because of a clash of interests between William Walker,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, and certain of that great financier's too
ambitious agents.
In seeking to accomplish his task Lamar had to cope with
a heritage of estrangement and misunderstanding resulting
from more than a quarter of a century of official indifference
in Washington to the affairs of Central America; and with a
more recent development of an unreasoning hatred, fear, and
distrust of the United States, her representatives, and her
citizens, which had grown out of the seizure and abuse of
power by William Walker and his associates. Though Walker's
exercise of power had been but temporary, and had terminated
somewhat ignominiously, the Nicaraguans could not forget
8Graham, Life and Poems of M. B. Lamar, 96.149
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 45, July 1941 - April, 1942, periodical, 1942; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146053/m1/163/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.