CHAPTER XVII
LERDO PRESIDENT.
1872-1874
Effect of Juarez' Death — Lerdo Retains the Ministers of Juarez — General Amnesty Proclaimed — Diaz Refuses to Accept It — Conflagration in the Palace — The Country Tranquilized — Diaz Submits — Lerdo Elected Constitutional President — His Popularity — He Persists in Retaining the Ministers — Disappointment — Closing of Congress — The Vera Cruz Railroad — The Tepic Rebellion — Guadalajara Threatened — Capture and Death of Lozada — End of the Rebellion — The District of Tepec — Congressional Acts — Expulsion of the Jesuits — Passage of the Reform Laws — Disturbances — Seventh Constitutional Congress
As the news of Juarez' death spread throughout the land, there was no little uneasiness felt by many. A change in the administration of affairs was now certain; but what it would be, or how it would affect the country, were beyond the power of man to foretell. At the time of his death the Juaristas were still powerful enough, and could not be disregarded. Indeed, as stated in the last preceding chapter, any change in the fortunes of war might give the upper hand to the revolutionists. So much as to the military situation. The political field was not more promising, for the reason that neither of the three parties struggling for supremacy had sufficient strength of its own to carry its measures in congress.[1]
The first matter to occupy the public mind was
- ↑ This was the sixth constitutional congress, and the elections of the members to it had been signalized by the interference of those in power. The governors of the different states were supporters of one or other of the three factions, and each had used every means to send deputies attached to the cause of his party. Riva Palacio, Hist. Admin. Lerdo, 15.
