Upon the receipt in Mexico of the disastrous news from Puebla, President Juarez placed the federal district under stringent martial law, accepting Comonfort's resignation of his command. He demanded forces from the states; and believing the defence of the capital possible, stated in a proclamation his resolve to carry on the war to the last extremity, refusing to listen to any peace overtures from the French. But the defence of the capital was impossible, 14,000 men, which was all the force the government had, not being enough for the purpose. Congress understood it at once, and authorized the president to do everything possible to defend the country. His almost unlimited powers were to hold good till thirty days after the reassembling of the chamber. The only restrictions placed upon him were in regard to arrangements with the enemy.[1] It also ordered that the chief federal authorities should transfer themselves to San Luis Potosí. On the 31st of May congress closed its session. Pursuant to the decree, Juarez, accompanied by the greater part of the public officials, left the capital for San Luis Potosí,[2] where on arrival
- ↑ He was strictly forbidden to enter into treaties or diplomatic conventions admitting foreign interference in the country's affairs. Rivera, Gob. de Mex., ii. 636; 7d., Hist. Jalapa, v. 576.
- ↑ The departure, though rather precipitate, owing to a despatch from Gen. Diaz based on reports of his scouts that the French were on the march, was effected in good order, taking away artillery, money, archives, etc. Iglesias, Interv., ii. 5; Marquez de Leon, Mem. Póst., MS., 231; Méx., Col. Leyes, 1863-7, i. 9-13; La Voz de Aléj., July 16, 1863. Forey knew it the next day, but did not send a force in pursuit. Arrangoiz, Méj., iii. 115.
José M. Iglesias, Revistes Históricas sobre la Intervencion Francesa en México. Mexico, 1867, 1868, 1869. 12mo, 3 vol., pp. 540, 463, and 690. Iglesias, a minister under Juarez in 1866, etc., and later aspirant to the residency, began in April 1862, at the instance of the Juarez minister of relations and government, to write a series of articles for newspapers on the progress of the French intervention, and the consequent civil war between the republicans under Juarez and the Franco-Maximilian party. These articles at first were issued nearly every month, later at longer intervals, and ceased in Oct. 1866. At the request of the editor of the Diario Oficial they were published afterward in 1867-9 as a feuilleton — since the circumstances of their previous appearance had made them but little known — and then put into book form. In the preface Iglesias promised to fill the gap from the middle of 1866 to the triumph of the republicans, when leisure permitted. Written at the various headquarters of Juarez in his retreat northward before the French,
Ley. Imp., 11-36; Niox, Expéd. du Mex., 286-7; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xvi. 4,4-5.
