welfare till she discarded the republican form of govment[1] and accepted the monarchial, with a foreign prince for the first occupant of the throne.
The publication of such a document — at a time of popular excitement, when the people wanted to do away with the central régime existing since 1835, and to restore the federal constitution of 1824 — may well be imagined. The government did not prevaricate on that occasion. The author was treated as a political heretic; his letter and pamphlet were condemned as scandalous, offensive to the nation, and in the highest degree unconstitutional.[2] During his subsequent residence of many years in Europe he did not lose sight of his pet scheme. Its introduction in Mexican politics was again tried during Herrera's administration in 1844, the remnants of the monarchists coming together and resolving to strike a blow at their federalist foes.[3] A revolution broke out, headed by General Paredes, which is fully detailed in the proper place. If we are to believe Gutierrez, Paredes was the active instrument of the monarchists.[4] Whatsoever their number — and it could not be large — they certainly had no strength to effect the transformation,
- ↑ He said it was unsuited to the manners, customs, and traditions of the Mexican people, for everything in the country was monarchic.
- ↑ The copies offered for sale were gathered in and submitted to the action of the criminal court, which had declared the production subversive and seditious. See order of the minister of the interior, Oct. 2l, 1840, to governors, etc., in Méx., Col. Ley. y Dec., 1839-40, 796-7. In a proclamation the president called Gutierrez a traitor and political transfuge, who had gone to Europe a republican and come back a monarchist. Several political leaders, among them Santa Anna and Almonte, published strong protests against the pamphlet. Indeed, its arguments were treated with scorn; and the author's countrymen heaped reprobation on his head, and he was obliged to quit the country as a public satisfaction. On the other hand, European monarchists highly commended his effort. But though his personal friends, relatives, and former political associates were often afterward in power, no administration dared to give him permission to return. He became an old man in exile.
- ↑ It was the most favorable opportunity they could have desired to carry out their views. Gutierrez de Estrada, Méx. y Europa, 33-4; Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 282-3.
- ↑ It will be remembered that Paredes' manifesto reminded the people of the benefits they had enjoyed during the Spanish domination.
picted the republican calamities of Mexico. Gutierrez de Estrada, Carta dirij. . . . Presid., 3-96. Gutierrez de Estrada really had cone to believe that a monarchy was the only remedy for Mexico's ills; he can scarcely be called a traitor. Diaz, Datos Biog., MS., 67.
