any party.[1] Finally, on the morning of Monday, January 11, 1858, when Comonfort was on the point of departing for the interior, the troops quartered in Santo Domingo and La Ciudladela revolted, going over to the reaccionarios, who had ere this set aside the plan of Tacubaya. Comonfort's spirit was now aroused. Declining the proffers of protection to his person made by the diplomatic corps, he concentrated nearly 5,000 men that he still had in the lower part of the palace and other accessible points, showing much coolness, and resolved to hold the San Francisco, the headquarters of the constitutionalists, with whom he had come to an understanding. He thought then it would be a lesser evil to go back to the point of departure, and surrender the executive authority to the person designated by the constitution, as appears in the manifesto he published in July 1858, in New York.[2] He accordingly released Juarez[3], who forthwith repaired to Guanajuato, and the 19th of January established there his government, which was
- ↑ Being assured of every facility if he would give his preference to the conservative party, he refused; he would not become, he said, the destroyer of his former friends; could not banish Juarez or Olvera, ner fight against Doblado and Parrodi. He would modify all; 'yo no perseguiré ya, porque el brazo me duele de castigar; pero yo no puedo convertirme en reaccionario.' He was told to throw himself into the arms of the puros, as the out-and-out liberals were called, and they would forget and forgive; to nationalize the property of the clergy, to confine the nuns to fewer houses, do away with the friars, banish a few dozen men from the country, and perhaps shoot a number of others; to follow a straight progressive policy, call an assembly to make another constitution, and stop all temporizing with the clergy, high and low. No: he would not send away the archbishop, who might die on the journey, and the death would be laid at his door. How leave the towns without their curas? How expect the soldiers to fight with alacrity, knowing that dying they would not be absolved, and at death would not be buried in holy ground? He wanted time to think, and to introduce reforms slowly, without doing violence to the consciences of the peaceful and timid. Such was the dilly-dallying at a time when there was not a moment to spare. 'Revolucion que no marcha, muere'.' Payno, Mem. Revol. Dic., 95-7.
- ↑ 'Menos malo era volver al punto de partida;' the plan of Tacubaya havbeen destroyed by its own authors, and the reactionary tendencies of the pronanciamiento being clcar. Comonfort, Política, in Portilla, Méj. en 1856– -7, 391; Comonfort's Policy, 19; Méx., Rev. Filosóf. Hist. Polít., in Doc. Hist. Mex., 1832-7, nos 10, 55.
- ↑ Juarez is said to have been under the personal custody of Manuel Payno, to protect him from possible assassination. Payno, Mem. Revol. Dic., 95, 104-5.
