N THE 1860's when French troops invaded Mexico and Skk Maximilian von Hapsburg as emperor, Presi-dent Benito Juárez actively resisted the European aggression until eventually his republicans triumphed over the imperialists. Historians have usually given some credit for the success of the Juaristas to the United States, whose military and diplomatic leaders opposed the empire and favored the republic. Certainly President Juárez had a great advantage in being recognized as the legitimate head of Mexico by the United States government. During those critical years a brilliant young Mexican, Matías Romero, served in Washington as the official representative of the Juárez government. Romero's task of maintaining cordial relations between the two countries proved especially difficult because of the wars being waged on both sides of the Rio Grande–the Civil War on one side and the

French Intervention on the other. In addition to the usual diplomatic duties, Romero was involved with attempts to secure a fifty million dollar loan in the United States, the purchase of several million dollars worth of munitions, propaganda activities on behalf of the Mexican republic, and diplomatie maneuvering to thwart the agents of Napoleon III and his puppet Maximilian. Before considering the activities of Matías Romero a few biographical notes may be of interest, especially since there is no article about him in English nor any biography in Spanish or English. Such obscurity is undeserved for a man who was once postmaster-general of Mexico, three times minister of the treasury, senator and deputy in the Mexican legislature, a promoter and official of Mexicam railroads, editor of thousands of pages of documents, author of several books and more than twenty published articles in English and Spanish, an organizer of the Pan American Union, and envoy to the United States intermittently over a period of forty years."