ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MEXICO. 315 to the advantage and support of so inestimable a good; which may further insure the public tranquillity; which may tend to the aggrandisement 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 constituent 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. Mexico, Sept. 15, 1829. GUERRERO. 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 constitutional 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 documents 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 Constitution 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."-Title 2d. The Constitution of 1847-which, in fact, is the old Federal Constitution 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 Constitution 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."-Id. Article 5. The third article provides that “the exercise of the rights of citizenship are suspended by habitual intemperance; by professional gambling or vagabondage; by religious or ders; by legal interdict in virtue of trial for those crimes which forfeit citizenship, and by refusal to fulfil public duties imposed by popular nomination” (nombramiente popular.) CHURCH. CENTRAL CONSTITUTION GOMEZ FARIAS DEPOSED 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 assume 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 pronounce against the president he had so recently contributed to place in power. The executive commanded Santa Anna to advance against the assailants; 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, assumed 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 GUERRERO BETRAYED AND SHOT. 317 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 constitutional 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, orderea 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 God 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 318 ANECDOTE REVOLT UNDER SANTA ANNA. 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. There is an anecdote connected with the final expulsion of the Spaniards from Mexico, which deserves to be recorded as it exhibits a fact which superstitious persons might conceive to be the avenging decree of retributive providence. Doña Isabel Montezuma, the eldest daughter of the unfortunate Emperor had been married to his successor on the Aztec throne, and, after his wretched death, was united to various distinguished Spaniards, the last of whom was Juan Andrade, ancestor of the Andrade Montezumas and Counts of Miravalle. General Miguel Barragan, who afterwards became president ad interim of Mexico, and to whom the castle of San Juan de Ulua was surrendered by the European forces -was married to Manuela Trebuesta y Casasola, daughter of the last Count of Miravalle, and it is thus a singular coincidence that the husband of a lady who was the legitimate descendant of Montezuma, should have been destined to receive the keys of the last stronghold on which the Spanish banner floated on this continent11 By intrigue and victories Santa Anna had acquired so much popular renown throughout the country and with the army that he found the time was arriving when he might safely avail himself of his old and recent services against Iturbide and Barradas. Under the influence of his machinations Bustamante began to fail in popular estimation. He was spoken of as a tyrant; his administration was characterized as inauspicious; and the public mind was gradually prepared for an outbreak in 1832. Santa Anna, who had, in fact, placed and sustained Bustamante in power, was, in reality, the instigator of this revolt. The ambitious chief, first of all issued his pronunciamiento against the ministry of the president, and then, shortly after, against that functionary himself. But Bustamante, a man of nerve and capacity, was not to be destroyed as easily as his victim, Guerrero. He threw himself at the head of his loyal troops and encountering the rebels at Tolomi routed them completely. Santa Anna, therefore, retired to Vera Cruz, and, strengthening his forces from some of the other states, declared himself in favor of the restoration of the constitutional president Pedraza, whom he had previously driven out of Mexico. As Bustamante advanced towards the coast his army melted away. 1 Alaman Disertaciones, vol. i, p. 219. HE RESTORES PEDRAZA AND BECOMES PRESIDENT. 319 The country was opposed to him. He was wise enough to perceive that his usurped power was lost; and prudently entered into a pacific convention with Santa Anna at Zavaleta in December, 1832. The successful insurgent immediately despatched a vessel for the banished Pedraza, and brought him back to the capital to serve out the remaining three months of his unexpired administration! The object of Santa Anna in restoring Pedraza was not to sustain any one of the old parties which had now become strangely mingled and confused by the factions or ambitions of all the leaders. His main design was to secure the services and influence of the centralists, as far as they were yet available, in controling his election to the presidency upon which he had fixed his heart. On the 16th of May, 1833, he reached the goal of his ambition.1 The following letter from Santa Anna to a distinguished foreigner, will afford the reader a specimen of his personal modesty and political humility. The individ ual 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 title, 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." |