Part 26 (1/2)
The success of the centralist Pedraza over the federalist Guerrero, a man whose name and reputation were scarcely less dear to the genuine republicans than that of Guadalupe Victoria,--was not calculated to heal the animosities of the two factions, especially, as the scant majority of two votes had placed the _Escoces_ partizan in the presidential chair. The defeated candidate and his incensed companions of the liberal lodge, did not exhibit upon this occasion that loyal obedience to const.i.tutional law, which should have taught them that the first duty of a republican is to conceal his mortification at a political defeat and to bow reverentially to the lawful decision of a majority. It is a subject of deep regret that the first bold and successful attack upon the organic law of Mexico was made by the federalists. They may have deemed it their duty to prevent their unreliable compet.i.tors from controlling the destinies of Mexico even for a moment under the sanction of the const.i.tution; but there can be no doubt that they should have waited until acts, instead of suspicions or fears, ent.i.tled them to exercise their right of impeachment under the const.i.tution. In an unregulated, military nation, such as Mexico was at that period, men do not pause for the slow operations of law when there is a personal or a party quarrel in question. The hot blood of the impetuous, tropical region, combines with the active intellectual temperament of the people, and laws and const.i.tutions are equally disregarded under the impulse of pa.s.sion or interest. Such was the case in the present juncture. The Yorkinos had been outvoted lawfully, according to the solemn record of congress, yet they resolved not to submit; and, accordingly, Lorenzo de Zavala, the Grand Master of their lodge, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was then a professed _federalist_, in conjunction with the defeated candidate Guerrero and Generals Montezuma and Lobato, determined to prevent Pedraza from occupying the chair of state. Santa Anna, who now appeared prominently on the stage, was the chief agitator in the scheme, and being in garrison at Jalapa, in the autumn of 1828, p.r.o.nounced against the chief magistrate elect, and denounced his nomination as ”illegal, fraudulent and unconst.i.tutional.” The movement was popular, for the people were in fact friendly to Guerrero. The prejudices of the native or creole party against the Spaniards and their supposed defenders the Escocesses, were studiously fomented in the capital; and, on the 4th of December, the p.r.o.nunciamiento of the Accordada, in the capital, seconded the sedition of Santa Anna in the provinces. By this time the arch conspirator in this drama had reached the metropolis and labored to control the elements of disorder which were at hand to support his favorite Guerrero. The defenceless Spaniards were relentlessly a.s.sailed by the infuriate mob which was let loose upon them by the insurgent chiefs. Guerrero was in the field in person at the head of the Yorkinos. The Parian in the capital, and the dwellings of many of the noted Escocesses were attacked and pillaged, and for some time the city was given up to anarchy and bloodshed. Pedraza, who still fulfilled the functions of minister of war previous to his inauguration, fled from the official post which he abandoned to his rival Santa Anna; and on the 1st of January, 1829, congress,--reversing its former act,--declared Guerrero to have been duly elected president of the republic! General Bustamante was chosen vice president, and the government again resumed its operation under the federal system of 1824.
NOTE.--Although a masked Indian slavery or _peonage_, is permitted and encouraged in Mexico, African slavery is prohibited by positive enactments as well as by the const.i.tution itself. But as it may interest the reader to know the Mexican enactments relative to negroes, on this subject, the following doc.u.ments are subjoined for reference:--
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
_The President of the Mexican United States to the Inhabitants of the Republic._
BE IT KNOWN--That, being desirous to signalize the anniversary of independence, in the year 1829, by an act of national justice and beneficence, which may redound to the advantage and support of so inestimable a good; which may further insure the public tranquillity; which may tend to the aggrandis.e.m.e.nt of the republic, and may reinstate an unfortunate portion of its inhabitants in the sacred rights which nature gave to them, and the nation should protect by wise and just laws, conformably with the dispositions of the thirtieth article of the const.i.tuent act, employing the extrordinary faculties which have been conceded to me, I have resolved to decree--
1. Slavery is and shall remain abolished in the republic.
2. In consequence, those who have hitherto been regarded as slaves, are free.
3. Whensoever the condition of the treasury shall permit, the owners of the slaves shall be indemnified according to the terms which the law may dispose.
GUERRERO.
_Mexico, Sept. 15, 1829._
MEXICAN LAW FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE REPUBLIC.
ART. 1.--Slavery is abolished, without any exception, throughout the whole republic.
2. The owners of the slaves manumitted by the present law, or by the decree of September 15, 1829, shall be indemnified for their interests in them, to be estimated according to the proofs which may be presented of their personal qualities; to which effect, one appraiser shall be appointed by the commissary general, or the person performing his duties, and another by the owner; and, in case of disagreement, a third, who shall be appointed by the respective const.i.tutional alcalde; and from the decision thus made, there shall be no appeal. The indemnification mentioned in this article shall not be extended to the colonists of Texas, who may have taken part in the revolution in that department.
3. The owners to whom the original doc.u.ments drawn up with regard to the proofs mentioned in the preceding article, shall be delivered gratis--shall themselves present them to the supreme government, which will authorise the general treasury to issue to them the corresponding orders for the amount of their respective interests.
4. The payment of the said orders shall be made in the manner which may seem most equitable to the government, with the view of reconciling the rights of individuals with the actual state of the public finances.
_April 5, 1837._
The Const.i.tution of 1843, or _Bases organicas de la Republica Mejicana_, of that year, declares that: ”_No one is a slave in the territory of the nation_, and that any slave who may be introduced, shall be considered free and remain under the protection of the laws.”--_t.i.tle_ 2d.
The Const.i.tution of 1847--which, in fact, is the old Federal Const.i.tution of 1824--does not reenact this clause; but, in the _Acta de Reformas_ annexed to it in 1847, declares, ”that _every Mexican_, either by birth or naturalization, who has attained the age of twenty years, who possesses the means of an honest livelihood, and who has not been condemned by legal process to any infamous punishment, _is a citizen_ of the United Mexican States.”--_Acta de Reformas, Article 1._ ”In order to secure the _rights of man_ which the Const.i.tution recognizes, _a law_ shall fix the guaranties of _liberty_, security, property and _equality_, which _all the inhabitants of the republic enjoy_, and shall establish the means requisite to make them effective.”--_1d.
Article 5._ The third article provides that ”the exercise of the rights of citizens.h.i.+p _are suspended_ by habitual intemperance; by professional gambling or vagabondage; by religious orders; by legal interdict in virtue of trial for those crimes which forfeit citizens.h.i.+p, and by refusal to fulfil public duties imposed by popular nomination” (_nombramiento popular_.)
[Footnote 63: Zavala's Hist. Rev. of Mex. 2 vols.;--and Pazo's letters on the United Provinces of South America.]
CHAPTER VI.
1829-1843.
CONSPIRACY AGAINST GUERRERO BY BUSTAMANTE--GUERRERO BETRAYED AND SHOT.--ANECDOTE--REVOLT UNDER SANTA ANNA--HE RESTORES PEDRAZA AND BECOMES PRESIDENT.--GOMEZ FARIAS DEPOSED--CHURCH.--CENTRAL CONSt.i.tUTION OF 1836--SANTA ANNA--HIS TEXAN DISGRACE--MEXIA.-- BUSTAMANTE PRESIDENT.--FRENCH AT VERA CRUZ.--REVOLTS IN THE NORTH AND IN THE CAPITAL.--BUSTAMANTE DEPOSED--SANTA ANNA PRESIDENT.
Violent as was the conduct of the pretended liberals in overthrowing their rivals the Escocesses, and firmly as it may be supposed such a band was cemented in opposition to the machination of a bold monarchical party, we, nevertheless, find that treason existed in the hearts of the conspirators against the patriot hero whom they had used in their usurpation of the presidency. Scarcely had Guerrero been seated in the chair of state when it became known that there was a conspiracy to displace him. He had been induced by the condition of the country, and by the bad advice of his enemies to a.s.sume the authority of dictator. This power, he alleged, was exercised only for the suppression of the intriguing Escocesses; but its continued exercise served as a pretext at least, for the vice president, General Bustamante, to place himself at the head of a republican division and p.r.o.nounce against the president he had so recently contributed to place in power. The executive commanded Santa Anna to advance against the a.s.sailants; but this chief, at first, feebly opposed the insurgents, and, finally, fraternizing with Bustamante, marched on the capital whence they drove Guerrero and his partisans to Valladolid in Michoacan. Here the dethroned dictator organized a government, whilst the usurping vice president, Bustamante, a.s.sumed the reins in the capital. In Michoacan, Guerrero, who was well known and loved for his revolutionary enterprises in the west of Mexico, found no difficulty in recruiting a force with which he hoped to regain his executive post. Congress was divided in opinion between the rival factions of the liberalists, and the republic was shaken by the continual strife, until Bustamante despatched a powerful division against Guerrero, which defeated, and dispersed his army. This was the conclusion of that successful warrior's career. He was a good soldier but a miserable statesman. His private character and natural disposition are represented, by those who knew him best, to have been irreproachable; yet he was fitted alone for the early struggles of Mexico in the field, and was so ignorant of the administrative functions needed in his country at such a period, that it is not surprising to find he had been used as a tool, and cast aside when the service for which his intriguing coadjutors required him was performed. His historical popularity and character rendered him available for a reckless party in overthrowing a const.i.tutional election; and, even when beaten by the new usurper, and with scarcely the shadow of a party in the nation, it was still feared that his ancient usefulness in the wars of independence, might render him again the nucleus of political discontent. Accordingly, the pursuit of Guerrero was not abandoned when his army fled. The west coast was watched by the myrmidons of the usurpers, and the war-worn hero was finally betrayed on board a vessel by a spy, where he was arrested for bearing arms against the government of which he was the real head, according to the solemn decision of congress! In February, 1831, a court martial, ordered by General Montezuma tried him for this pretended crime. His sentence was, of course, known as soon as his judges were named; and, thus, another chief of the revolutionary war was rewarded by death for his patriotic services. We cannot regard this act of Bustamante and Santa Anna, except as a deliberate murder for which they richly deserve the condemnation of impartial history, even if they had no other crimes to answer at the bar of G.o.d and their country.
Whilst these internal contests were agitating the heart of Mexico, an expedition had been fitted out at Havana composed of four thousand troops commanded by Barradas, designed to invade the lost colony and restore it to the Spanish crown. The accounts given of this force and its condition when landed at Tampico, vary according to the partizans by whom they are written; but there is reason to believe that the Spanish troops were so weakened by disease and losses in the summer of 1830, that when Santa Anna and a French officer,--Colonel Woll--attacked them in the month of September, they fell an easy prey into the hands of the Mexicans. Santa Anna, however, with his usual talent for such composition, magnified the defeat into a magnificent conquest. He was hailed as the victor who broke the last link between Spain and her viceroyalty. Pompous bulletins and despatches were published in the papers; and the commander-in-chief returned to the capital, covered with honors, as the saviour of the republic.