national anniversary. The law met with no demur save from Coahuila and Texas, in which state were about 1,000 slaves, whose manumission would cost heavily, as the owners held them at a high valuation.[1] It seems that the law was not fully enforced; for on the 5th of April, 1837, another was promulgated, declaring slavery abolished without exception and with compensation to the owners.[2]
President Guerrero organized his cabinet as follows: Lorenzo de Zavala, minister of the treasury, and president of the cabinet; José M. Herrera, of justice and ecclesiastical affairs; Francisco Moctezuma, of war and the navy; and José M. Bocanegra, of interior and foreign relations.
There was, as might be expected, violent opposi tion to the administration. Zavala had become a special object of the opposition's animosity, which was partly extended to the other ministers. On the 6th of August, 1829, the day after the assembling of the congress in extra session, Zavala was accused before that body of crimes against the nation. Charges were next preferred against Herrera and Moctezuna.[3]
At the time of the Spanish invasion in 1829 we have seen that Guerrero was invested with extraordinary powers by special act of the congress on the 25th of August.[4] These powers, though never abused, brought upon him and his cabinet a still more violent hatred. After the defeat of the Spaniards, and amidst
- ↑ The owners claimed having brought them there under the pledge of protection offered them. Mex. Dict. Comis. Justicia, 2 11.
- ↑ The revolted colonists of Texas were excluded from the benefit of the compensation.
- ↑ The press teemed with invectives against Guerrero, his ministers, and Santa Anna. At this disreputable work the most notorious were the Voz de la Patria, iv. nos 1-33, v. nos 1 and 7; El Torito, Eco de Yucatan, and El Sol, the writings of which were in the same spirit as those of the writers in Spanish pay at New Orleans and New York. Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 185; Suarez y Navarro, Hist. Méx., 141.
- ↑ The only restriction was that the president should not deprive any Mexican citizen of his life, or expel him from the republic. The powers were to cease in January 1830, on the meeting of the congress in ordinary session, to which he was to account for his acts. Mex. Col. Ley. y Dec., 1829-30, 55; Dispos. Var., ii. 69; Boletin Ofic., no. 12; Arrillaga, Recop., 1829, 365.
