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BOOK III.
SECTION I.
PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT.—HOW COMPOSED.
The form of government adopted by the Representatives of Mexico, when left by the resignation of Iturbide, at liberty to make a free and unbiassed choice, was that of a Federal Republic, each member of which manages its own internal concerns, while the whole are cemented into one body politic, by certain general obligations, and laws, contained in the Federal Constitution of the 4th October, 1824.
This instrument, after declaring the absolute Independence of the country, (Article 1) adopting the Roman Catholic religion, (Article 3) and recognizing, as component parts of the Federation, (given alphabetically,) the nineteen States of Chĭāpăs, Chĭ-
