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THE FEDERAL SYSTEM AND ITS OVERTHROW.
of the reactionists, and by a coup d'état dissolved the national congress.[1] This act was consequent on the adoption of the plan de Cuernavaca,[2] the object of which was to proclaim religion, fueros, and Santa Anna, denouncing reform as impious, and condemning federation and Vice-President Gomez Farías.[3] The plan being adopted by a large portion of the republic in spite of the opposition on the part of Puebla, Querétaro, Michoacan, Jalisco, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Oajaca, and Yucatan, the clergy hastened to support the government with pecuniary means. The opposing states had to succumb, Puebla and her governor, Cosme Furlong, being the last to do so after sustaining a siege.[4]
- ↑ On the 31st of May. Méx., Col. Ley. Fund., 165.
- ↑ On the 23d of May. It contained five articles, pregnant with future troubles for Mexico, which epitomized are as follows: 1. The plan disapproves all proscriptive laws and decrees; all religious reform, including toleration of masonic sects; and all measures contravening the national and state constitutions. 2. All laws and measures passed in contravention of these constitutions are declared null and void. 3. The people respectfully call on President Santa Anna to uphold constitutional safeguards, he being the only existing authority able to do it. 4. The people declare that the deputies who passed those laws and decrees, together with the functionaries that have obstinately attempted to carry them out, no longer meriting public confidence, must leave their positions and remain passive till the nation represented anew shall be reorganized according to the constitution and in a manner conducive to her happiness. 5. President Santa Anna is assured of the aid of the military force stationed at Cuernavaca in carrying out those purposes. The resolutions thus adopted were forwarded to Santa Anna May 25th. Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, MS., ix. 54-6; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iii. 198; Id., Gob. de Méx., ii. 192.
- ↑ The apparent head man of the plot was General Ángel Perez Palacios; but the real leaders were José María Tornel, constituted as the executive sword, and Licenciado Manuel Diez Bonilla, the directing brain, both representing the reactionary party. Santa Anna was to be the scarecrow to the enemy when the case required it. Mora, Obras Sueltas, i. p. cclxvii.
- ↑ In San Luis Potosí, Gen. Moctezuma had to submit to the forces of Cortazar and Valencia. Generals Cortazar and Barragan subdued Jalisco and neighboring states. Santa Anna himself defeated the governor of Zacatecas. Cárlos García, at Guadalupe, and his soldiers committed the most scandalous robberies. Santa Anna seized the products of the mines of El Fresnillo, as well as the funds of the state. Mora, Obras Sueltas, i. p. cclxxviii. Further and full details of these disturbances, which preceded the establishment of centralism, may be found in Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, MS., viii. 283669, passim, ix. 1-176, x. 32-63, 76-9, 111-25; Id., Gabinete Mex., i. 103; Id., Hist. Iturbide, 211; La Sombra de Moctheuzoma, nos 1-12; Jal., Doc. Ofic., 1-11; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iii. 202-3, 214-16, 258-61; Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 863-5; Arrangoiz, Méj., ii. 224-6; Zac., Diario Exacto, 1-8; Dur., Gac. Sup. Gob., 792, 794; Tab., Pronunc., in Pinart Coll., no. 310; Amigo del Pueblo, 1845, 68; El Tiempo, 1834, July 5 to Oct. 26, passim; La Oposicion,
