Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/85

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MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
69

justify a short recapitulation of the violated pledges.

First. In the Plan of Guadalupe already set forth, in the letter of Mr. Arredondo to our Secretary of State, and in Carranza's Decree and Declaration dated, respectively, December 12, 1914, and June 11, 1915, appears the unqualified pledge that upon the success of the revolution begun by Carranza he would restore the constitution of 1857 to full force and effect. He violated this promise by assembling a constitutional convention as soon as he obtained control of a major portion of the national territory and causing the convention to enact an entirely new constitution which should take the place of the constitution of 1857.

Second. There appears in both the Decree and the Declaration of General Carranza an unqualified promise that when his revolutionary movement was successful he would first "issue the call for an election of congressmen, fixing, in the call, the day and terms in which the election shall be held." He violated this promise by issuing a call for the election of the members of a constitutional convention and did not call congress together until he had secured the enactment by that convention which, as we have seen, did not represent the Mexican people, of a new constitution which would govern and control the action of the congress.

Third. Both Mr. Arredondo in his letter to