Twice the Taft régime attempted or threatened an invasion of Mexico and once they almost succeeded. The failure was due to the exposé of the little plot which resulted in the resignation of Dickinson, then Secretary of War.[8] It must be remembered that the Attorney General under Taft was a lawyer who had been a personal representative of Diaz in the United States, and among some of the lawyers who had been his partners was a brother of the President of the United States. All were interested in Mexico financially and politically. The threats of invasion by the Taft régime had a disastrous effect on the reorganization of the new government. Madero was surrounded by enemies at home and abroad. The army, the cientificos and the clericals were plotting at home. The Mexican Ambassador Calero had formed an alliance with the American Ambassador, hoping to step into the presidency as L. de la Barra had done. Calero went so far as to telegraph to some French bankers who were negotiating a loan to Madero, to stop until further orders; the further orders were supposed to come from the new government which Calero hoped to head. But meanwhile there should not come any financial assistance to Madero. In Congress men like F. Bulnes, Q. Moheno, J. M. Lozano headed the opposition which interfered with any plans of reform, by cutting off all financial help. Madero was just beginning to reap the fruit of his policy of conciliation. With few exceptions all the old Diaz appointments in the courts, in the States, in the consular and diplomatic service were kept in their places, and as a result the old methods were kept in vogue. All the army officers who had ruthlessly fought the revolutionists were left in their positions and the rebel chiefs were dismissed with thanks. With the new interests created by the Madero ascension to power there sprang up a hungry crowd of office seekers and a neo-cientifico régime headed by Ernesto Madero and Rafael Hernandez. It would not be supposed even as a fantastic flight of a poetical imagination that the neo-cientificos would sincerely attempt a reform of the government. E. Madero is reported as having said that the financial system left by Limantour worked like a Swiss watch. The only reform to men of great interests can be achieved in their favor, not against them. Zapata could only be induced to stop his rebellious activity by a solution of the agrarian problem in Morelos. The Cabinet Minister under Madero only incited the exasperation by sending men of Huerta’s stamp in their midst. It can be safely asserted that all the government officials in Mexico were inimical to reforms beginning with the Madero clan (excepting F. I. and Gustavo Madero), down to the lowest officials. The men who had fought for the revolution watched in disgust and dismay the disintegration of the revolutionary ideals. CHAPTER IV PLOTTING WHICH OVERTHREW MADERO