to return to the state of anarchy in which the intervention had found it. But the star of the federal government was in the ascendant; it successively met and defeated the rebels, dispersed the rank and file and shot the leaders, and within three months the disturbances were quelled, and Peace folded her wings for a while above the unhappy country. For the unprecedented period of seven months the country was unvexed by revolutions, but continued to be infested with criminals of every sort, notwithstanding numerous executions by the government. Peace was preserved, not so much by the exertions of those in power as by the people themselves, who were looking forward to the prospective presidential election, and holding themselves ready to act according to the emergency of the moment. It soon became evident that Juarez would not willingly yield the power he had obtained at so much risk and bloodshed, and would hold himself up for re-election. He had two formidable opponents in his own party—the conservative party not yet presuming to reassert itself. These were: Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and General Porfirio Diaz.
Señor Lerdo was one of the most remarkable men of the epoch in which he exerted an influence. He was born in Jalapa in 1825, and educated in Mexico. A lawyer by profession, he was elected, in 1855, a magistrate of the Supreme Court, and in 1861 a deputy to Congress. In 1863 he departed from the capital in company with Juarez, a member of that immortal cabinet that for four years followed the fortunes of their chief, and strove to uphold the principles of the constitution during that dark period of adversity. His firm character contributed more than anything else to the success of the plans of Juarez, and these two formed an invincible force that eventually overcame the machinations of the enemies of their country.
