Part 27 (1/2)
After congress had been dissolved by Santa Anna, there was, of course, no further necessity of an appeal to the people. The nation had spoken, but its voice was disregarded. Nothing therefore remained, save to allow the dictator, himself, to frame the organic laws; and for this purpose he appointed a Junta of Notables, who proclaimed, on the 13th of June, 1843, an instrument which never took the name of a const.i.tution, but bore the mongrel t.i.tle of ”Bases of the Political Organization of the Mexican Republic.” It is essentially _central_, in its provisions; and whilst it is as intolerant upon the subject of religion, as the two former fundamental systems, it is even less popular in its general provisions than the const.i.tution of 1836.
[Footnote 64: Alaman Disertaciones, vol. i, p. 219.]
[Footnote 65: The following letter from Santa Anna to a distinguished foreigner, will afford the reader a specimen of his personal modesty and political humility. The individual to whom it was written, was afterwards expelled by Santa Anna from the republic during his presidency, after having been invited by him to the country:
”VERA CRUZ, October 11th, 1831.
”MY ESTEEMED FRIEND:--I have the pleasure to answer your favor of the 5th ultimo, by which I perceive that my letter of the 9th of April last, came to hand. I have received the prospectus of the ”Foreign College” you contemplate to establish, which not only meets with my entire approbation, but, considering your talents and uncommon acquirements, I congratulate you on employing them in a manner so generally useful, and personally honorable. I thank you cordially for the news and observations you have had the kindness to communicate to me, and both make me desire the continuation of your esteemed epistles. _Retired as I am, on my farm, and there exclusively devoted to the cultivation and improvement of my small estate, I cannot reply, as I desire, to the news with which you have favored me._ But, even in that retirement, and though separated from the arena of politics, I could never view with indifference any discredit thrown on my country, nor any thing which might, in the smallest degree, possess that tendency. We enjoy at present peace and tranquillity, and I do not know of any other question of public interest now in agitation, than the approaching _elections of President_ and Vice President. When that period shall arrive, should I obtain a majority of suffrages, I am _ready to accept_ the honor, and to sacrifice, for the benefit of the nation my repose and the charms of private life. _My fixed system is to be called_ (ser llamado), resembling in this a _modest maid_ (modesta doncella), _who rather expects to be desired, than to show herself to be desiring_. I think that my position justifies me in this respect. Nevertheless, as what is written in a foreign country has much influence at home, especially among us, in your city I think it proper to _make a great step on this subject_; and by fixing the true aspect, in which such or such services should be regarded, as respects the various candidates, one could undoubtedly contribute _to fix here public opinion, which is at present extremely wavering and uncertain_.
Of course, this is the peculiar province of the friends of Mexico; and as well by this t.i.tle, as on account of the acquirements and instruction you possess, _I know of no one better qualified than yourself to execute such a benevolent undertaking_.
”I hope you will favor me from time to time with information, which will always give satisfaction to your _true friend_ and servant, who kisses your hands.”
”ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA.”
[Footnote 66: See Gen. Waddy Thompson's Recollections of Mexico, p.
69, for Santa Anna's wretched vindication of these sanguinary deeds.]
CHAPTER VII.
1843-1846.
RECONQUEST OF TEXAS PROPOSED.--Ca.n.a.lIZO PRESIDENT AD INTERIM.--REVOLUTION UNDER PAREDES IN 1844.--SANTA ANNA FALLS--HERRERA PRESIDENT--TEXAN REVOLT.--ORIGIN OF WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES.--TEXAN WAR FOR THE CONSt.i.tUTION OF 1824--NATIONALITY RECOGNIZED--ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES.--PROPOSITION TO MEXICO.--HERRERA OVERTHROWN--PAREDES PRESIDENT--OUR MINISTER REJECTED.--CHARACTER OF GENERAL PAREDES.
After the foundation of the new system in 1843, the country continued quiet for a while, and when the Mexican Congress met, in January 1844, propositions were made by the executive department to carry out Santa Anna's favorite project of reconquering Texas. It is probable that there was not much sincerity in the president's desire to march his troops into a territory the recollection of which must have been, at least, distasteful to him. There is more reason to believe that the large sum which it was necessary to appropriate for the expenses of the campaign--the management of which would belong to the administration,--was the real object he had in view. Four millions were granted for the reconquest, but when Santa Anna demanded ten millions more while the first grant was still uncollected, the members refused to sustain the president's demand. The congressmen were convinced of that chieftain's rapacity, and resolved to afford him no further opportunity to plunder the people under the guise of patriotism.
Santa Anna's sagacious knowledge of his countrymen immediately apprised him of approaching danger, and having obtained permission from congress to retire to his estate at Mango de Clavo, near Vera Cruz, he departed from the capital, leaving his friend General Ca.n.a.lizo as president _ad interim_. Hardly had he reached his plantation in the midst of friends and faithful troops, when a revolt burst out in Jalisco, Agnas Calientes, Zacatecas, Sinaloa and Sonora, against his government, headed by General Paredes. Santa Anna rapidly crossed the country to suppress the rebellion, but as he disobeyed the const.i.tutional compact by taking actual command of the army whilst he was president, without the previous a.s.sent of congress, he became amenable to law for this violation of his oath. He was soon at enmity with the rebels and with the const.i.tutional congress, and thus a three fold contest was carried on, chiefly through correspondence, until the 4th of January, 1845, when Santa Anna finally fell. He fled from the insurgents and const.i.tutional authorities towards the eastern coast, but being captured at the village of Jico, was conducted to Perote, where he remained imprisoned under a charge and examination for treason, until an amnesty for the late political factionists permitted him to depart on the 29th of May, 1845, with his family, for Havana.
Upon Santa Anna's ejection from the executive chair, the president of the council of government, became under the laws of the country, provisional president of the republic. This person was General Jose Joaquim de Herrera, during whose administration the controversies rose which resulted in the war between Mexico and the United States.
The thread of policy and action in both countries is so closely interwoven during this pernicious contest, that the history of the war becomes, in reality, the history of Mexico for the epoch. We are therefore compelled to narrate, succinctly, the circ.u.mstances that led to that lamentable issue.
The first _empresario_, or contractor, for the colonization of Texas, was Moses Austin, a native citizen of the United States, who, as soon as the treaty of limits between Spain and our country was concluded in 1819, conceived the project of establis.h.i.+ng a settlement in that region. Accordingly, in 1821 he obtained from the Commandant General of the Provincias Internas, permission to introduce three hundred foreign families. In 1823, a national colonization law was approved by the Mexican Emperor Iturbide during his brief reign, and on the 18th of February, Stephen F. Austin, who had succeeded his father, after his death, in carrying out the project, was authorized to proceed with the founding of the colony. After the emperor's fall, this decree was confirmed by the first executive council in conformity to the express will of congress.
In 1824 the _federal_ const.i.tution of Mexico was, as we have narrated, adopted, by the republican representatives, upon principles a.n.a.logous to those of the const.i.tution of the United States; and by a decree of the 7th of May, Texas and Coahuila were united in a _state_. In this year another _general_ colonization law was enacted by congress, and foreigners were invited to the new domain by a special state colonization law of Coahuila and Texas.
Under these local laws and const.i.tutional guaranties, large numbers of foreigners flocked to this portion of Mexico, opened farms, founded towns and villages, re-occupied old Spanish settlements, introduced improvements in agriculture and manufactures, drove off the Indians, and formed, in fact, the nucleus of an enterprizing and progressive population. But there were jealousies between the race that invited the colonists, and the colonists who accepted the invitation. The central power in the distant capital did not estimate, at their just value, the independence of the remote pioneers, or the state-right sovereignty to which they had been accustomed at their former home in the United States. Mexico was convulsed by revolutions, but the lonely residents of Texas paid no attention to the turmoils of the factionists. At length, however, direct acts of interference upon the part of the national government, not only by its ministerial agents, but by its legislature, excited the mingled alarm and indignation of the colonists, who imagined that in sheltering themselves under a republic they were protected as amply as they would have been under the const.i.tution of the North American Union. In this they were disappointed; for, in 1830, an arbitrary enactment--based no doubt upon a jealous dread of the growing value and size of a colony which formed a link between the United States and Mexico by resting against Tamaulipas and Louisiana, on the north and south,--prohibited entirely the future immigration of American settlers into Coahuila and Texas.
To enforce this decree and to watch the loyalty of the actual inhabitants, military posts, composed of rude and ignorant Mexican soldiers, were sprinkled over the country. And, at last, the people of Texas found themselves entirely under military control.
This suited neither the principles nor tastes of the colonists, who, in 1832, took arms against this warlike interference with their munic.i.p.al liberty, and after capturing the fort at Velasco, reduced to submission the garrisons at Anahuac and Nacogdoches. The separate state const.i.tution which had been promised Texas in 1824, was never sanctioned by the Mexican Congress, though the colonists prepared the charter and were duly qualified for admission. But the crisis arrived when the centralists of 1835, overthrew the federal const.i.tution of 1824. Several Mexican states rose independently against the despotic act. Zacatecas fought bravely for her rights, and saw her people basely slain by the myrmidons of Santa Anna. The legislature of Coahuila and Texas was dispersed by the military; and, at last, the whole republic, save the pertinacious North Americans, yielded to the armed power of the resolute oppressor.
The alarmed settlers gathered together as quickly as they could and resolved to stand by their federative rights under the charter whose guaranties allured them into Mexico. Meetings were held in all the settlements, and a union was formed by means of correspondence. Arms were next resorted to and the Texans were victorious at Gonzales, Goliad, Bejar, Conception, Lepant.i.tlan, San Patricio and San Antonio.
In November they met in consultation, and in an able, resolute and dignified paper, declared that they had only taken up arms in defence of the const.i.tution of 1824; that their object was to continue loyal to the confederacy if laws were made for the guardians.h.i.+p of their political rights, and that they offered their lives and arms in aid of other members of the republic who would rightfully rise against the military despotism.