Chapter IV: The Birth of the Republic

The Spanish _cortes_ on the 16th of February, 1822, annulled the Plan de Iguala as modified by the Treaty of Córdoba. On the assembling of the first congress of Mexico, February 22d, at the capital, elected according to the provisions made by a committee of the regency, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Córdoba, it was seen that the members were aligned in two factions, the “Bourbonistas” and the “Republicans.” Perez, Barcena and De Leon were displaced and Nicolás Bravo, the Conde de Heras Soto and Miguel Valentin were substituted. But the purpose of Iturbide to secure the crown as emperor was soon manifest. On May 18th, Pio Marcha, a non-commissioned infantry officer launched a movement in favor of Iturbide, and a public demonstration resulted in his election next day by the congress by a vote of seventy-seven to fifteen and on July 21st, he was crowned in the cathedral with his wife as Emperor and Empress of Mexico. The Emperor took the title of Augustin I. Energetic as he was, he was nevertheless a weak ruler and abandoned himself to the display of royal pomp and power rather than to the initiation of measures for the welfare of the people and the establishment of the nation, and he soon found himself at odds with the Congress, which he dissolved on October 31st and established a _junta_. A revolutionary movement was set on foot by Guerrero, Nicolás Bravo and Guadalupe Victoria. The old revolutionists joined Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and on February 1, 1823, the “Plan de Casa Mata” was promulgated, according to which a new Congress was to be elected and a republican form of government guaranteed. Meantime, in December, a republic had been proclaimed at Vera Cruz and only the capital remained as the empire. In vain did Iturbide recall the Congress he had dissolved. The opposition was determined; he shrank from retaining power through a civil war and accordingly tendered his abdication March 19th, but the Congress refused to accept it, declaring instead that Iturbide’s crown had been obtained by force and therefore his acts as Emperor were illegal. He was banished from Mexico and set sail on April 11th, from La Antigua. Congress however voted him an annual pension of 25,000 pesos as a reward for his great services to his country.

The government was now vested in a _Poder Ejecutivo_, composed of Pedro Celestino Negrete, Nicolás Bravo and Guadalupe Victoria, all of whom were absent from the capital at the time of their nomination. The second Congress, it may be called the first of the republic, met on November 7, 1823. Nevertheless the independence of Mexico was largely assured by the United States, whose Congress received the message of President Monroe on December 2, 1823, in which he formulated the doctrine known by his name which secured the governments of the Continent of America from interference by any European power. The course pursued by the government was little calculated to inspire confidence in its wisdom, financially or politically. In the early part of 1824, Iturbide addressed the Congress from London intimating that the clergy was plotting the restoration of Spanish rule in Mexico and offering his services in defense of the republic, but instead it was believed that an insurrection in favor of the banished emperor himself was on foot and a decree was issued declaring him a traitor and condemning him to death should he return to Mexico. Not knowing of this decree, Iturbide started from Southampton on May 11th, and on landing at the little port of Soto la Marina, north of Tampico, he was arrested, taken before the legislature of Tamaulipas, which was in session, and condemned and shot at Padilla on July 19, 1824. His dying advice was intensely patriotic and he manifested remarkable courage. But his execution was a vengeful act, unwise, nay ungrateful, and a blot on the page of Mexican history which the honors paid later to his family and to his own remains, when on August 6, 1838, they were buried with great ceremony in the Cathedral of Mexico, can never erase; while the title of the “Liberator” which was graved on his sarcophagus but emphasizes the self-reproach of his countrymen.

Two parties, or factions, emerged in the Congress, the Bourbonistas, or Centralists, and the Federalists. The leaders of the former were Negrete, Bravo, Bustamante and Mier y Teran; of the latter, Victoria and Guerrero, whose adherents were more numerous, and they were successful in framing the Republican Constitution that was proclaimed on October 4, 1824. It declared the Roman Catholic religion to be perpetually the religion of the Mexican people. The Republic thus established consisted of the States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas, Durango, Guanajúato, Mexico, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sonora and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco, Yucatán and Zacatécas and the territories of Upper and Lower California, Colima, Santa Fé and Tlascala--nineteen states and five territories. On the 10th of October the first president, Nicolás Bravo, took the oath of office. Congress was dissolved on December 24th and the first Constitutional Congress convened on January 1, 1825. In the same year, the last position held by the Spaniards, Fort San Juan de Ulua, was evacuated and the republic was recognized by the United States and Great Britain.

During this administration the question of secret societies became urgent in consequence of the influence of the freemasons in political matters. The insurgent force was led by Vice-president Bravo who was of the Scottish lodge faction, but Guerrero defeated him and took him prisoner.

The election in 1828 resulted in favor of General Manuel Gomez Pedraza, who was supported by the Scottish (Escoseses) masons, who defeated Vicente Guerrero, whose candidacy was espoused by the Yorkinos; but a _pronunciamiento_ was made by the liberals in favor of Guerrero, who resorted to arms under the leadership of Santa Anna. The government forces defeated him, when he was given command of the army at whose hands he had suffered defeat. Pedraza, in view of the extreme excitement, resigned and Congress declared his election null and void and elected Guerrero president and Anastasio Bustamante vice-president on January 12, 1829. Among the measures of Guerrero’s administration is to be noted the abolition of slavery. Bustamante was then elected president and Congress declared Guerrero “morally incapacitated to govern the nation.”

The government of Bustamante began on January 1, 1830. His principal adviser was the former historian, Lucas Alamán, who was minister of foreign and domestic relations and who had filled the same office under the _Poder ejecutivo_ in 1823. The country was, however, agitated by dissensions and revolts instigated by Guerrero and his partisans and he was driven to Acapulco where he was trapped on the _Colombo_, a Sardinian ship whose captain had been bribed to invite Guerrero aboard and who delivered him to his enemies, by whom he was courtmartialed and shot on February 14, 1831.

Bustamante’s power did not last long, for in 1832 he was overthrown by the turbulent Santa Anna, who secured the elevation of Pedraza as the legitimate president by virtue of his election in 1828, although he had opposed him then in favor of Guerrero. In the election that followed, Bravo was chosen president, but Congress declared his election void and the way to the supreme magistracy was then open to Santa Anna who succeeded on April 1, 1833, Valentin Gomez Farias becoming vice-president. In 1836 the complete overthrow of the federal system was effected and centralized government established under a new constitution, the effect of which set at a greater distance the freedom of democratic government and the blessings of peace, thereby retarding the real development of the nation.

One of the fruits of the rule of Santa Anna was the loss of Texas to Mexico. On November 27, 1838, war was declared against France. Santa Anna, who had come forth from his retirement at Manga de Clavo was given command at Vera Cruz. The French captured the forts Santiago and Concepcion, but failed in their attempt to capture Santa Anna in Vera Cruz and retreat to the ships was ordered by the French admiral. In following up the French to the shore Santa Anna acquired the laurels of a popular hero at the cost of his left leg, which was so badly wounded that amputation was necessary. Vera Cruz was then shelled by the French and evacuated, but this trivial war ended by a treaty in which Mexico agreed to pay the French demand of six hundred thousand dollars within six months.

A revolt broke out in Tampico during the troubles with France and President Bustamante took the field, leaving the again popular Santa Anna provisional president, on March 9, 1839. The movement spread and soon became a federalist revolution, involving the capital itself, in 1840. General Urrea and Gomez Farias were its successful leaders and Bustamante was taken prisoner. Once more the retirement at Manga de Clavo was abandoned and Santa Anna emerged to overthrow the federalists, to whom Bustamante, however, granted favorable conditions and the revolution ended. So unsettled were affairs that Gutierrez de Estrada, a former minister, publicly advocated a monarchy under a foreign prince. His plan however, merely resulted in his fleeing the country. Whatever the troubles of the people, they were not ready to seek relief in a monarchy.

In 1841, General Paredes made a _pronunciamiento_ against Bustamante’s government. On this occasion General Valencia and Santa Anna, who had been successful in 1840, against the federalists, now joined the new insurrection, and the government troops having abandoned the president in favor of the insurgents, Bustamante was forced to retire from the presidency in 1842, notwithstanding his efforts at conciliation by the proclamation of federation. The proposals of Santa Anna had won; he offered his “Bases of Tacubaya” proposing that the legislative and executive functions of the government should cease and that pending a congress, within eight months, to frame a new constitution, a _junta_ should name a provisional president. As a result, Santa Anna became such provisional president, but the Congress elected showing a federalist majority a _pronunciamiento_ of the army was issued naming a council of notables and opposing the Congress, which was dissolved by the executive, as a matter of course, and the proposed council installed in January, 1843. In June, _Las Basas Organicas_, the new constitution, was adopted and its terms were less liberal than the _Leyes_ of 1836, instigated by Santa Anna. The dictator under this new constitution did not assume direction at the capital till June 3d, Bravo and Canalizo governing as acting presidents. Shortly after, Santa Anna’s wife died and he was married by proxy to a girl of fifteen. His government was truly despotic and he affected the pomp of a monarch. In fact, the general sentiment was well expressed when, on one of his many retirements to his estate, it was said: “The president is going in order to return crowned.”

The autocratic, costly, and inefficient rule of Santa Anna was at length challenged by a combination of opponents. In October 1844, the Guadalajara assembly declared against him and this was followed by a _pronunciamiento_ made by General Paredes, who had previously supported Santa Anna, on November 2d, at that place, which declared for the suspension of the president pending investigation of his conduct. Puebla shortly joined Guadalajara, and then immediately followed the capital, where José Joaquin de Herrera was installed president of the council. Santa Anna met this condition by emerging from retirement and led an army to Querétaro. So great was the indignation at the capital that the precious leg lost by the dictator in his attack on the French was taken from the tomb and dragged in the streets, while the destruction of his statue was averted only by its removal to a hiding place. This outbreak in the capital changed Santa Anna’s plans and he turned his army of fourteen thousand to the revolutionaries there. His deposition had been secured and his arrest ordered by the Congress and finding the resistance to him to be so formidable he marched to Puebla, which he attacked on January 2, 1845. A few days later the troops under Paredes and Bravo arrived on the scene and Santa Anna was compelled to withdraw on January 12th. After vain proposals to make terms with Herrera, he took flight but was captured and taken prisoner to Perote. His impeachment followed and he was banished perpetually, while Canalizo and four of his ministers were banished for ten years. A general amnesty was proclaimed otherwise. Santa Anna took ship to Havana on June 3, 1845.

Herrera now became constitutional president, September 16, 1845. His first serious trouble was the Texan; he endeavored to compromise the situation; but, because of opposition, he resorted to warlike measures and sent six thousand men under Paredes to the frontier. Paredes, however, issued a _pronunciamiento_ against the president on December 14th, at San Luis Potosí, and on January 2, 1846, turned to the capital and overthrew Herrera.

Reverting to Texan affairs, as being so largely the basis of the next great event to be described in Mexican history, it will be sufficient to notice that on several occasions since the independent government was established, a number of conflicts had occurred in which Mexican officers were employed. In 1839, a movement of federalists in Mexico was effected having as its object the establishment of the Rio Grande Republic, of which Texas was to be a member.

In 1844, an armistice was accepted between Mexico and Texas, proposed by Great Britain, but Texas refused to ratify it in consequence of its conditions declaring that the independent republic still constituted a part of the republic of Mexico. Hence, Santa Anna declared that a state of war existed. After this act by Great Britain, suspicion became widespread in the United States that the purpose of the British was to suppress slavery in Texas. Great Britain’s course arose out of a request made by Texas in 1842, to Great Britain, France and the United States to intervene and put an end to Mexico’s hostilities, but this appeal was not fruitful. The situation was further complicated in 1843, when the Congress of Mexico declared that if the Congress of the United States should pass an act to incorporate Texas with the United States such legislation would be deemed equivalent to a declaration of war.

On April 12, 1844, a secret annexation treaty was signed by the United States and Texas, but the United States Senate failed to ratify it. The popular sentiment in America had, however, appeared to demand incorporation and accordingly on March 1, 1845, a resolution was passed by Congress enabling Texas to frame a constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union. Neither the purpose of the measure nor its form could be acceptable to Mexico; nevertheless, on December 29th, after Texas had adopted an ordinance of annexation to the United States and the State constitution, Congress enacted its admission as a State into the Union. The resultant conflict, however inevitably the logic of events pointed to this absorption of the independent republic, was almost a foregone conclusion.

There was ground of dispute enough to afford pretext for war. The claims of American citizens due since 1839, were still in large part unpaid. The boundary question, based on the claim of Texas of all territory between the United States and the Rio Grande from source to mouth was another. Trouble had occurred as to Upper California, when Commodore Jones had temporarily seized Monterey. The United States had sent a force under General Taylor to Fort Jesup with instructions to proceed to the Sabine in case of Texas being endangered, and a naval force was sent to the Gulf of Mexico. Such was the situation when Congress adopted the annexation resolution.

It was inevitable that the Mexican minister to Washington should demand his passports; that the United States Envoy should be graciously dismissed from Mexico, and that preparations for war should be actively pressed. Before the storm broke, futile efforts were made to avert it, the United States sending Slidell as commissioner, but the essential condition of Mexico that the United States fleet off Vera Cruz should be withdrawn not having been complied with on his arrival in Vera Cruz on December 3, 1845, he was not recognized and his mission completely failed, and he withdrew from Mexico on March 21, 1846. This closed the diplomatic procedure.

Meanwhile, General Taylor had taken Point Isabel and erected a fort opposite Matamoros. Here he was attacked by General Arista, who superseded Ampudia on April 24, 1846, and a formal declaration of war by the United States followed on May 13th, on the ground that “Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil,” as President Polk stated.

The second event was the attack on May 8th, at Palo Alto, which resulted in Arista’s falling back next day to a position at Resaca de la Palma, from which he was driven with considerable loss, the same day, his artillery and supplies being captured. As a consequence of this defeat, Arista, whose forces greatly outnumbered the Americans, was deprived of command, being replaced by Ampudia. On May 18th, General Taylor occupied Matamoros. The turn of affairs in Mexico now brought the ubiquitous Santa Anna to the head, he following the now familiar course of a congress, called in pursuance of a _pronunciamiento_ issued by General Mariano Salas, and the election of Santa Anna took place in December. He had returned to Mexico in August, and was passed through the American fleet off Vera Cruz in the hope that he would be a source of weakness at home rather than of strength. In addition to the _pronunciamiento_, General José Maria Gomez declared against President Paredes at Guadalajara and he was sent into exile.

The new president took command of the army, leaving the government in the hands of vice-president Fariás. On the 5th of that month he began his march against Monterey with a force of regulars and volunteers numbering in all about six thousand men. On the 19th, he was before Monterey, which was held by Ampudia, who had put this city in a good defensive state. The assault was made on the 21st, the defenders exhibiting the utmost bravery as they defended street by street. Three days passed when Ampudia capitulated with honors, after which an armistice of two months was agreed upon. During this time, General Patterson was sent to Tampico with a strong force and General Winfield Scott led a third force against Vera Cruz, previous to a march on the capital. To effect these movements, General Taylor’s force was largely drawn upon and Santa Anna having learned of the proposed attack on Vera Cruz left San Luis Potosí on January 28, 1847, with twenty thousand troops to encounter Taylor at La Angostura (Buena Vista) where he hoped to surprise the Americans. On the 22d of February, Santa Anna demanded the surrender in terms that indicated his certainty of success. The following day he was repulsed, suffering great loss and retreating to San Luis Potosí. This victory was almost decisive, the defeated Santa Anna reaching his destination with his force reduced by one-half. The engagement was a terrible blow to the prestige of the man who had seemed “to hold Mexico in his despot grasp, strange as it may seem.” Taylor’s great success gained him only the task of defending the territory acquired and the Rio Grande frontier.

The further operations in Mexico were concluded by the American commander-in-chief, General Scott. He landed his force of twelve thousand men near Vera Cruz on February 15th, and invested the city, the port being blockaded by Commodore Perry’s squadron. Siege operations were prepared and on March 22d, the artillery and guns of the ships opened fire. The defence, under General Morales was worthy of a less bitter experience than that of the surrender, even with the honors of war, which was forced on the 26th. On April 12th, in view of the season, the American general withdrew his troops from Vera Cruz.

Santa Anna, defeated by Taylor, had resumed his duties as President but his spirit was aroused on hearing of the defeat of Morales and the surrender of Vera Cruz. He hurried from the capital “to wash out that disaster.” With ten thousand men he fortified himself stoutly at Cerro Gordo, about eighteen miles from Jalapa. Here he was attacked by General Scott on April 18th, and utterly defeated. Then fell, successively, Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla, and at the last named city Scott received instructions from the State Department to arrange a peace treaty, if the occasion served. Secret emissaries of the Mexican president visited the American commander as to this matter and Santa Anna has been charged with treason on account of it.

On August 9th, General Scott entered the Valley of Mexico, tracing the route followed by the Spanish _Conquistadores_ nearly three and a half centuries earlier, and arrived before the capital on the 20th, defeated Santa Anna at Padierna and Churubusco where a most gallant stand was made by General Anaya. In these last efforts, all credit is due to Santa Anna; his operations were marked with ability, courage and resourcefulness.

Negotiations now followed for peace. On the 22d, hostilities were suspended and Nicholas P. Trist, chief clerk of the State Department of the United States, who had arrived at Puebla as peace commissioner, now proposed terms of peace on the basis of the cession of Texas, New Mexico and Upper California, and the right of free transit across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the payment to Mexico of a money consideration. These terms were rejected by Mexico and active hostilities were resumed on the night of September 7th, by an attack on Molino de Rey, which after stubborn fighting was taken the next day, but so strong was the position of the Mexican army that General Scott abandoned the field. Though success was not theirs, if valor and conspicuous ability merited it, General Antonio León and his brave aides deserved it, as well as the splendid rank and file. Not until the 12th, did General Scott move against the Castle of Chapultepec which was magnificently defended by General Bravo and the military cadets of the Academy, to their imperishable honor and glory. The capture of the stronghold was effected on the 13th. The death roll of the Mexicans bears the names of many noble sons, among whom conspicuous merit signalizes Colonel Felipe Xicotencatl, the descendant of a famous Tlascaltec chief. The way to the city was now assured, and after securing causeways and the fortified gates of Belem and San Cosme, General Scott entered the city fighting his way step by step, valiantly opposed by soldiers and citizens. Santa Anna did not await the final issue but deserted both the government and the city on the successful forcing of the gates of Belem and San Cosme and turned the residue of his brave army over to General Reyes, having been deposed and summoned to appear before a council of war, but he left Mexico and fled to New Granada. In his place, Manuel Peña y Peña was elected temporary president and he made Querétaro the seat of government.

Such was the condition of affairs when the Mexican capital fell to the Americans. New Mexico and California were conquered. Texas was irrevocably severed. To the task of restoring peace in the face of such disaster the new president resolutely directed his efforts. Commissioner Trist, though no longer officially authorized, succeeded in arranging a treaty, known as the Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which was signed on February 2, 1848, by the terms of which Texas, the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, New Mexico and Upper California were to pass to the United States, the latter country agreeing to pay Mexico fifteen million dollars and to assume and discharge all claims of American citizens against Mexico. Thus was Mexico stripped, as a consequence of a war which President Lincoln severely criticized and which General Grant characterized as “the most unholy and unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker one;” nor do the vast material advantages that have followed to the territories reach back to palliate this view of the quarrel or justify the bitter suffering that it brought.

The American army was soon withdrawn and on June 12th, José Joaquín de Herrera was elected constitutional president and the government was re-established at the capital. Its chief labor was to heal the wounds caused by the war, to ameliorate the general condition. The spirit of insurrection was not subdued, however, for General Paredes effected a temporary revolt which was soon subdued, and Herrera was successful in the difficult task of reducing the army establishment and encouraging the building of railroads and telegraphs, the first of such latter undertakings being that of making communication between the capital and Puebla. With troubles also in Yucatán owing to the serious Indian uprisings in August, 1848, the president found his entire energies occupied, but he succeeded in establishing a union of the Province with Mexico, and relinquished the government to his successor with a record of great improvement accomplished.

General Mariano Arista, who had commanded the Mexican Army at Palo Alto was elected to succeed Herrera and he assumed the presidency in January, 1851. But neither his high sense of honor nor his patriotic purposes could stay the revolutionary spirit which broke out at Guadalajara in July, 1852, and, in consequence of the “Plan of Jalisco,” intended to overthrow him, and of the _pronunciamientos_ in its favor, Arista resigned on January 3, 1853. The true purpose of the revolution was the installation of Santa Anna as dictator, and after a brief direction of the government by Ceballos and Lombardini, he was elected and assumed office on April 20th, after Ceballos had failed in an effort to call a national convention. The government during the next two years was one of persecution and arbitrary use of power. The dictator relied on the army to support his despotism and increase the military strength. He was, however, re-elected in December, 1853, and his power was greatly augmented. He was empowered to appoint his successor in office and virtually became dictator for life. Pomp and ceremonial befitting his supreme power was assumed and he obtained the title of “serene highness.” In the same month he effected the sale to the United States of the territory known as “La Mesilla,” in Southern Arizona, for ten million dollars.

Such rule as that of Santa Anna could not be endured and the fabric of perpetual power which the dictator had assiduously striven to weave was rudely shattered in 1854, by the “Plan de Ayutla,” which was proclaimed by Colonel Villareal on March 1st. A _junta_ of notables was to appoint a provisional president and call a constituent Congress. This plan gained powerful support, among others who acceded to it being Colonel Ignacio Comonfort. The president marched against the insurgents, but failing to subdue the movement, he returned to the capital. Simultaneously, a force under Count de Boulbon entered Sonora from Upper California with the object of establishing there an independent dominion.

Comonfort having equipped a powerful army, Santa Anna abandoned his government and went to Vera Cruz, giving the executive power into the hands of a triumvirate. Then he left Mexico, fleeing to Havana. The provisional president, appointed in pursuance of the revolutionary “plan,” was Carrera but his nomination was not agreeable to Comonfort and General Juan Alvarez received the office at the hands of the _junta_. Among the ministers he selected were Benito Juarez and Comonfort, the latter of whom was elected as president on December 11, 1855.

Early in 1856, Comonfort faced fresh insurrections that seemed to spring from their like as it were so many hydra-headed evils. He adopted drastic measures against the church and the clergy, enforced the Lerdo law, abolishing civil and ecclesiastical mortmain and establishing individual ownership of lands. On June 5th, he suppressed the Jesuits and on September 17th, the Franciscans, in consequence of a conspiracy which was hatched in the convent of the latter to overthrow the government on Independence Day, the 15th, and secure the supremacy of the church in the nation. Comonfort took possession of the church of San Francisco and all its appurtenances early in the morning and the next day decreed the opening of a street, to be called Independencia, east and west through the grounds. The following day came the suppression of the monastic order.

Again Puebla revolted, and for the second time in nine months it was retaken by the government troops on December 3d. This was followed by a _pronunciamiento_ at San Luis Potosí, which was quickly put down. The bird of peace now hovered over stricken Mexico for a short time under the vigorous and enlightened rule of Comonfort. On February 5, 1857, a new constitution was adopted, liberal in character and establishing a republican federal form of government. The executive power was vested in a president elected for four years; a single house was to constitute the legislature, the members of which were to be elected for three years; a judicial branch was to comprise a supreme and inferior courts. The important question of presidential succession was regulated, so that in case of vacancy the president of the Supreme Court was to succeed temporarily pending a regular election.

This constitution furnished safeguards against the abuses of power which had been possible under the Ayutla plan. The election of Comonfort to succeed himself followed, yet, inconsistently, a few days after entering office on December 1st, he overthrew the constitution he had sworn to maintain and adopted the “Plan de Tacubaya,” announced by General Felix Zuloaga on December 17th, on the pretext that the constitution was not adapted to the usages of the people. Under Zuloaga’s “plan,” Comonfort was to remain in power and convoke a congress to frame a more suitable constitution, to be submitted to the electorate. Benito Juarez had been chosen president of the supreme court and it seemed necessary to the success of the new plan that he should be imprisoned and Congress dissolved, which was done in December. But Comonfort’s plans failed, for on January 11, 1858, a _pronunciamiento_ issued by the conservatives substituted General Zuloaga as president. The opposition was too strong and Comonfort, unable to defend the capital, abandoned it on the 21st of January and proceeded to Vera Cruz, whence he went into exile. The reactionaries now annulled the reform measures of the constitutionalists, who had organized a government at Guanajuato under Juárez, who had been obliged to abandon the capital, and began war on their opponents, but suffered defeat at Salamanca. Later, the president was seized at Guadalajara by the garrison there, who had mutinied, but escaping he made his way to Panama and thence to New Orleans, and returning to Vera Cruz administered the government from there.

Benito Juarez was born in Oaxaca, on March 21, 1806. He was imbued with the loftiest sentiments for the public weal and his counsel and direction had proved the greatest strength of the liberal party. He had been one of the professors at the Institute of Science and Art at Oaxaca, and one of his students was Porfirio Diaz, who doubtless owed much of his political bent to the training of Juarez, the full-blooded Indian, to whose patriotic labors Mexico owes her successful entry on a path of liberal policies which have led to so wonderful a development of national progress and prosperity. The keynote of his life was devotion to the public welfare and the highest ideals of manhood. But the time was not yet ripe for the possible accomplishment of his great purposes. The people had yet to learn, through long years of suffering and struggles, the true principles of republican government and the rights of men.

During this period of legitimate or constitutional government, under Juarez, the reactionaries maintained a government at the City of Mexico, under Zuloaga, and hostilities were bitterly waged against the reform party throughout the republic. Important successes were won by them, notably in the capture of Guanajúato, in July, by General Miguel Miramon and in Ahualulco in September, and as a result Miramon was named his substitute by Zuloaga after _pronunciamientos_ in his favor by Generals Echeagaray, at Ayutla, and Robles Pezuela, at the capital. A _junta_ having elected him president, he took office on February 2, 1859. The chief object he sought was to overthrow Juarez at Vera Cruz, but after a vigorous siege he abandoned the vain effort.

On July 12, 1859, Juárez proclaimed the Laws of Reform, by which the issues of the conflict were clearly manifested. The United States recognized the legitimacy of the Juarez government and ministers were respectively appointed in Washington and Mexico. As a sequence of this constitutional proclamation, the Juarez government greatly abridged the influence of the clergy; severance of church and state was aimed at; civil marriages and civil rights were defined.

The two governments were in conflict in foreign relations as well as domestic and their acts were on one side or the other protested against and repudiated. Juarez made a treaty with the United States giving the latter the right to protect its citizens in Mexico by force of arms. Miramon, on the other hand, gave treaty rights to Spain in regard to indemnity to Spanish subjects in Mexico.

Miramon abandoned the field after his defeat on August 10, 1860, at the Silao Hills and repaired to the capital. Zuloaga having withdrawn the power conferred on Miramon as his substitute, the latter procured his own election as president by a _junta_. The resistance of the reactionaries was fast weakening, and their party rapidly diminishing; nevertheless, on December 20th, Miramon left the capital to meet the liberal forces and at Calpulalpam encountered General Gonzalez Ortega, by whom he was defeated. The capitulation of the capital followed on January 11, 1861. Juarez entered it in triumph with the liberal army of twenty-five thousand. Miramon escaped to Jalapa and finally reached France on a French war vessel.

With the return of Juarez to the capital he began the active administration of the Reform Laws. One of his earliest acts was the dismissal of the Spanish minister and the papal legate. The half-century strife between Federalists and Centralists had triumphed finally in the success of the Liberals, though a guerrilla warfare was continued for some little time. Zuloaga joined the reactionaries, declaring himself to be president in virtue of his “Plan de Tacubaya.” Melchor Ocampo, one of the great leaders of the Reform, was seized at his hacienda and shot by order of General Marquez; Degollado who pursued the executioners was caught by bandits and was shot. These outrages aroused extreme indignation and a price was put on the heads of Marquez, Mejia and other rebel leaders. Marquez attacked the capital in June, 1861, and was repulsed only after heavy fighting. It was in this defence that Porfirio Diaz, who had returned to his native state and later was elected to Congress to represent Iztlan district, leaving his seat in the legislative chamber took a distinguished part. A little later, in August, Marquez was totally defeated by Diaz at Jalatlaco which brilliant event earned for the victor the rank of brigadier-general; a month later he was again disastrously defeated at Pachuca. The three years of war was over, and the way to domestic peace, progress and prosperity might seem clear.

Juarez was elected constitutional president and assumed office in June. On July 17th, the Congress, in view of the severe drain on the resources of the people caused by the protracted war, found it necessary to enact suspension of the sinking fund provision and the payment of interest on the foreign-held debt, for two years. Thereupon, France and England closed diplomatic relations and these nations together with Spain made a treaty on October 31st, under the terms of which they were to seize the principal ports and collect and distribute the customs receipts among the several foreign creditors of Mexico. The condition was also agreed that no Mexican territory should be acquired or any interference be assumed as to the form of the Mexican government by either of the powers. The United States refused to join in this intervention. The French claim against Mexico was for six hundred thousand dollars, which had been collected by Juarez and seized by Miramon from the British legation where it was deposited for British bondholders. There was, besides, an old debt of about eighty million dollars contracted in the early days of the Republic. The claims of Spain and France were together about eighteen millions, all Mexican money.

It was soon evident that political motives were involved in the intervention, at least on the part of France. When the allied fleet arrived at Vera Cruz in December, 1861, bearing the commissioners of the European powers, General Prim for Spain, Monsieur Dubois de Saligny for France, and Admiral Wyke for Great Britain, they issued a proclamation according to which their purpose was merely to secure settlement of the financial questions. On December 14, 1861, the Spaniards, whose fleet reached there earlier than its allies, occupied Vera Cruz, which aroused the energetic resistance of the Mexicans, especially on the arrival of the French and British fleets on January 8, 1862. The united forces numbered nearly ten thousand men.

Juarez issued a decree on January 25th calling on Mexicans to resist the invaders and imposing the penalty of death on all who should fail in this or who should aid or abet the invaders. This course seemed inevitable, inasmuch as the partisans of Almonte, Miramon and Gutierrez de Estrada, who in their exile had actively plotted in favor of a monarchy for Mexico, were prepared to give aid to the invaders.

Juarez was anxious to avoid serious complications, if this could be honorably done, and he invited the commissioners to a conference at La Soledad, which resulted in a treaty on February 19th, by the terms of which the Spanish troops were to advance as far as Orizaba and the French to Tehuacán, and were to occupy those places until the treaty was confirmed. The Mexican government was to be recognized as constitutional. The ulterior aim of France was so insistent that the British and Spanish support was soon withdrawn. Meantime, large reinforcements had arrived from France and with them came Almonte, Miranda, Haro y Tamaris and Miramon; the latter, however, to avoid arrest by the British, went to Havana.