1. Legislative poicers. 2. Senators sentatives. ANALYSIS. Mexican Provinces were united in a Federal Republic. 'The legislative power was vested in a Congress, con sisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The and repre Senate was to be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the Legislature thereof, for a term of four years. The House of Representatives was to be composed of members elected, for a term of two years, by the citizens of the States. Representatives were to be at least twenty-five years of age, and Senators thirty, and each must have resided two years in the State from which he was chosen. 8. The executive. ciary. 19. The supreme executive authority was vested in one individual, styled the "President of the United Mexi can States," who was to be a Mexican born, thirty-five years of age, and to be elected, for a term of four years, 4. The judi by the Legislatures of the several States. The judicial power was lodged in a Supreme Court, composed of eleven judges and an attorney-general, who were to be Mexican born, thirty-five years of age, and to be elected by the Legislatures of the States in the same manner and with the same formalities as the President of the Republic, and who were not to be removed, unless in cases specified by law. 5 The state governments. 20. The several States composing the confederacy, were "to organize their governments in conformity to the Federal Act; to observe and enforce the general laws of the Union; to transmit annually to the Congress a statement of the receipts and expenditures of their respective treasuries, and a description of the agricultural and manufacturing industry of each State; together with the new branches of industry that might be introduced, 6. Freedom of and the best mode of doing so." "Each was to protect its inhabitants "in the full enjoyment of the liberty of writing, printing, and publishing their political opinions, without the necessity of any previous license, revision, or 7. Law suits. approbation.” 'No individual was to commence a suit at law, without having previously attempted in vain to settle the cause by arbitration. speech, and of the press. 8. Laudable provisions of 1824. 21. The Mexican constitution displayed a laudable the Federal anxiety for the general improvement of the country, by Congrition disseminating the blessings of education, hitherto almost totally neglected; by opening roads; granting copy-rights and patents; establishing the liberty of the press; promoting naturalization; and throwing open the ports to foreign trade; and by abolishing many abuses of arbi9. The objec- trary power, which had grown up under the tyranny of tionable fea the colonial government. "Yet some omissions are to be Constitution. regretted. The trial by jury was not introduced, nor was tures of that the requsite publicity given to the administration of jus- 1824. tice. Moreover, on the subject of religion, a degree of intolerance was exhibited, hardly.to be expected from men who had long struggled to be free, and who even then bore fresh upon them the traces of their bondage. As if to bind down the consciences of posterity to all fu- Religious ture generations, the third article in the constitution declared that "The Religion of the Mexican nation is, and will be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by WISE AND JUST LAWS, and prohibit the exercise of any other whatever.” intolerance. 1. The fate emperor Itur of the ex bide. 22. The fate of the ex-emperor, Iturbide, remains to be noticed in this chapter. From Italy he proceeded to London, and made preparations for returning to Mexico; in consequence of which, Congress, on the 28th of April 1824, passed a decree of outlawry against him. He landed in disguise at Sōtō la Marína, July 14th, 1824; was arrested by General Garza; and shot at Padillo* by order of the provincial congress of Tamaulipas, on the 19th of that month. The severity of this measure, after 2 Severity of the services which Iturbide had rendered to the country, in effectually casting off the Spanish yoke, can be excused only on the ground of the supposed impossibility of avoiding, in any other way, the horrors of a civil war. 'During the year 1824, the tranquillity of the country was 3. Petty inotherwise disturbed by a few petty insurrections, which were easily suppressed by the government troops. this measure. surrections. CHAPTER V. MEXICO, FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL 1. 'On the first of January, 1825, the first congress under the federal constitution assembled in the city of Mexico; and, at the same time, General Guadalupe Victoria was installed as president of the republic, and General Nicholas Bravo as vice-president. "The years 1825 and 1826 passed with few disturbances; the administration of Victoria was generally popular; and the country enjoyed a higher degree of prosperity than at any former or subsequent • Padillo is about thirty-five miles southwest from Soto la Marina. Subject of 1825. Jan. 1. Meeting of ral Congress. the first Fede Victoria president. 5. Adminis tration of Victoria. 1826. ANALYSIS. period. 'But towards the close of the year 1826, two rival factions, which had already absorbed the entire po litical influence of the country, began seriously to threaten, not only the peace of society, but the stability of the government itself. 1. Rival fac tions. 2. Character of the tino divbled the country. 2. The masonic societies, then numerous in the cour parties that try, were divided into two parties, known as the Escoca and the Yorkinos, or the Scotch and the York lodges. The former, of Scotch origin, were composed of large proprie tors, aristocratic in opinion, in favor of the establishment of a strong government, and supposed to be secretly in clined to a constitutional monarchy, with a king chosen from the Bourbon family. The Yorkinos, whose lodge was founded by the New York masons, through the agency of Mr. Poinsett, the envoy of the United States, supported democracy, and opposed a royal or central government, and were generally in favor of the expulsion of the Span ish residents. 3. Mutual recrimina tions. tions of 18:26. 3. Each party, however, mutually criminated the other, and each was charged with the design of overturn4 The elec- ing the established institutions of the country. In the elections which took place in the autumn of 1826, bribery, corruption, and calumnies of all kinds were resorted to by both parties, and some of the elections were declared null in consequence of the illegality of the proceedings by 5 Supposed which they had been effected. Many supposed con spiracies of the Spaniards and their abettors were de nounced by the Yorkinos; and projects for the expulsion Charges of the Spaniards were openly proclaimed. The prest president dent himself was repeatedly charged by each party with favoring the other, and with secretly designing the over throw of that system which he had spent a life of toil and danger in establishing. conspiracies. against the 7 The first open viola laws. 4. The first open breach of the law of the land, and tion of the treason to the government, which led the way to scenes of violence and bloodshed, and the final prostration of the hopes of the country, proceeded from the Scotch party; and was designed to counteract the growing influence of the Yorkinos. On the 23d of December 1827, Dọn 8. The plan of Manuel Montaño" proclaimed, at Otumba,* a plan for the a (Pronoun- forcible reform of the government. He demanded the abolition of all secret societies; the dismissal of the 1827. Montano ced Mon tan yo.) ministers of government, who were charged as wanting • Otumba is a small town about forty miles N.E. from the city of Mexico. A short distance B.W. from the town, on the road to San Juan de Teotihuacan, are the ruins of two extensive pyramids of unknown origin, but which are usually ascribed to the Toltecs. One of the pyra mids, called the "House of the Sun," is still 180 feet high; the other, called the House of the Moon," is 144 feet high. (See Map, p. 559.) in probity, virtue, and merit; the dismissal of Mr. Poin- 1827. sett, the minister accredited from the United States, who was held to be the chief director of the Yorkiros; and a more rigorous enforcement of the constitution and the existing laws. by the 5. The plan of Montaño was immediately declared by 1. Denounced the Yorkinos to have for its object, 'to prevent the banish- Yurkings. ment of the Spaniards, to avert the chastisement then impending over the conspirators against independence, to destroy republican institutions, and place the country once more under the execrable yoke of a Bourbon.' "General Bravo, the vice president, and the leader of the Scotch party, who had hitherto been the advocate of law and order, left the capital, and making common cause with the insurgents, issued a manifesto in favor of Montaño, in which he denounced the president himself as connected with the Yorkinos. 2 Defection of General Bravo. 1828. 3. Course taken by the The insur quelled, and of Bravo. rection danishment a. April 15. tion of 18.8. 6. By this rash and ill-advised movement of General Bravo, the president was compelled to throw himself into president. the arms of the Yorkinos, and to give to their chief, General Guerrero, the command of the government troops that were detached to put down the rebellion. "The insurrection was speedily quelled; and Bravo, whose object was an amicable arrangement, and who would allow no blood to be shed in the quarrel which he had imprudently provoked, surrendered at Tulancingo,* and was banished by a decree of congress, with a number of his adherents. 7. "The leader of the Scotch party being thus removed, 5. The elec it was thought that in the ensuing presidential election, (September, 1828,) the success of General Guerrero, the Yorkino candidate, was rendered certain; but unexpectedly a new candidate was brought forward by the Scote party, in the person of General Pedraza, the minister of war; who, after an arduous contest, was elected president by a majority of only two votes over his competitor. "The successful party now looked forward to the enjoyment 6. Conduct of of a long period of tranquillity under the firm and vigorous party after administration of Pedraza; but their opponents were unwilling to bow with submission to the will of the people, expressed according to the forms of the constitution; and asserting that the elections had been carried by fraud and bribery, and that Pedraza was an enemy to the liberties of the country, they determined to redress, by an appeal to arms, the injustice sustained by their chief, upon whose elevation to the presidency the ascendancy of the Yorkino party naturally depended. the Yorking their defeat. Tulancingo is at the southeastern extremity of the state of Querétaro, about sixty-five miles N.E. from the city of Mexico. 600 ANALYSIS. of Santa Anna (Per-o-tă.) HISTORY OF MEXICO. 8. 'At this moment Santa Anna, whose name had 1. Rebellion figured in the most turbulent periods of the Revolution since 1821, appeared on the political stage. Under the plea that the result of the late election did not show the real will of a majority of the people, at the head of 500 men he took possession of the castle of Perote, where he a Sept 10. published an address declaring that the success of Pedraza had been produced by fraud, and that he had taken it upon himself to rectify the error, by proclaiming Guer rero president, as the only effectual mode of maintaining the character and asserting the dignity of the country. 2. President's proclamation.. b. Sept. 17. 3. Santa An 9. These dangerous principles were met by an ener getic proclamation" of the president, which called upon the States and the people to aid in arresting the wild schemes of this traitor to the laws and the constitution. Santa Anna was besieged at Perote* by the government forces, and an action was fought under the walls of the castle; but he finally succeeded in effecting his escape, 4. State of with a portion of his original adherents. So little dispo feeling in the sition was shown in the neighboring provinces to espouse na besieged, but escapes. na taken 800n restored to liberty. country. the cause of the insurgents, that many fondly imagined 5. Santa An- that the danger was past. Santa Anna, being pursued, prisoner, but surrendered at discretion to General Calderon, on the 14th of December; but before that time important events had transpired in the capital; and the captive general, in the course of twenty-four hours, was enabled to assume the command of the very army by which he had been taken prisoner. 6 Affairs in 10. About the time of the flight of Santa Anna from Perote, the capital had become the rendezvous of a number of the more ultra of the Yorkino chiefs, ambitious and estless spirits, most of whom had been previously engaged in some petty insurrections, but whose lives had 'On the Revolt of a been spared by the lenity of the government. body of the militia. night of the 30th of November, 1828, a battalion of mi1828. litia, headed by the ex-Marquis of Cadena, and assisted by a regiment under Colonel Garcia, surprised the gov. ernment guard, took possession of the artillery barracks, seized the guns and ammunition, and signified to the pres ident their determination either to compel the congress to issue a decree for the banishment of the Spanish residents within twenty-four hours, or themselves to massacre all those who should fall into their hands. *Peráte, about ninety miles in a direct line (120 by the travelled road,) from Vera Cruz, is s small, irregularly built town, situated at the eastern extremity of the table-land, about 8000 feet above the level of the sea. About half a mile from the town is the castle of Peróte, one of the four fortresses erected in Mexico by the Spanish government. The other three fortresses were those of San Juan de Ulloa, Acapulco, and San Blas. |