principle to that of the tyrant so effectively overthrown.[1]
The draught of the new constitution had its first reading on the 16th of June, and the consideration of its clauses was begun at once. It embodied many principles borrowed from the organic code of the northern United States.[2] The declaration of the rights of man rested on the opinions of the most approved publicists, and on principles recognized in the codes of the most enlightened nations. Equality before the law was accepted as a fundamental right, and therefore all special privileges and prerogatives were rejected.
With the adoption of such principles, the idea of monarchical institutions for the country was out of the question, and the fueros hitherto claimed by the military and the ecclesiastics were effectually abolished.
- ↑ The point was warmly discussed in the chamber several days, but no final action seems to have been taken. Zarco, Hist. Cong. Constituy., i. 419-20, 425, 517-20, 543-5, 571-6, 617-35; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iv. 665-8, 6725, 687; Id., Gob. de Méx., ii. 501-4.
- ↑ The authors and others who subscribed to it, while recognizing the merits of the old one of 1824 for the time it was enacted, qualified it as incomplete and non-progressive, not such a one as the exigencies of the present and future generations required.
