from Veracruz and had commercial connections with the United States. Miguel Lerdo, Juárez's Minister of Finance, attempted to negotiate a loan with the United States He was reported to despair of Mexico's situation and saw some form of protection from the United States as the way forward and the way to prevent a resurgence of Spanish colonialism. Correspondence between Melchor Ocampo and Santos Degollado discussing Lerdo's attempt to negotiate a loan was captured and published by conservatives. Degollado was later to advocate mediation through the diplomatic corps in Mexico to end the conflict. Juárez flatly refused Degollado's call to resign, since Juárez saw that as turning over Mexico's future to European powers. Aftermath A French invasion and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire followed almost immediately after the end of the Reform War, and key figures of the Reform War would continue to play roles during the rise and fall of the Empire. While the main fighting in the Reform War was over by the end of 1860, guerilla conflict continued to be waged in the countryside. After the fall of the conservative government, General Leonardo Marquez remained at large, and in June, 1861, he succeeded in assassinating Melchor Ocampo. President Juarez sent the former head of his troops during the Reform War, Santos Degollado after Marquez, only for Marquez to succeed in killing Degollado as well. Having been influenced by Mexican monarchist exiles, and using Juarez' suspension of foreign debts as a pretext, and with the American Civil War preventing the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, Napoleon III invaded Mexico in 1862, and sought local help in setting up a monarchical client state. Former liberal president Ignacio Comonfort, who had played such a key role in the outbreak of the Reform War, was killed in action that year, having returned to the country to fight the French, and having been given a military command. Former conservative president during the Reform War Manuel Robles Pezuela was also executed in 1862 by the Juarez government for attempting to help the French. Seeing the intervention as an opportunity to undo the Reform, conservative generals and statesmen who had played a role during the War of the Reform joined the French and a conservative assembly voted in 1863 to invite Habsburg archduke Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico. The Emperor however proved to be of liberal inclination, and ended up ratifying the