which the unhappy Yucatec peninsula suffered. Political quarrels and intestine strife were endless. The rivalry between Campeche and Mérida was fierce and implacable, and for years a series of struggles had been carried on, each more sanguinary and deplorable than the last. It became obvious that the only means of terminating them was by separation. On February 5, 1858, Campeche, recognizing the constitution of 1857, and following the example of Vera Cruz, asserted its sovereignty; all the towns in the district having declared in favor of its separation from Yucatan, it proclaimed its elevation into a state, May 18, 1858.[1]
From this time more harmony prevailed between Campeche and Mérida, but political troubles did not cease; and during the decade 1861 to 1870 various local insurrections occurred. In 1873 one of a serious nature took place in Yucatan. The May elections had been conducted with much violence, the candidates for the vice-governorship being Francisco Canton and Miguel Castellanos Sanchez. Encounters in the streets of Mérida were frequent, attended with bloodshed, and on the day of the election the disorder was so great that the provisional governor, General Alatorre, with the federal troops, interfered. Sanchez having been elected, a general revolution broke out, which was aggravated by inroads of the ever-hostile Indians. Alatorre resigned in disgust. The state executive was powerless to restore order; and in view of the prevailing anarchy Colonel Cueto, in command of the union forces, proclaimed martial law, June 19th, to the indignation of the state government and
- ↑ A convention had been entered into with the government at Mérida, May 31, by which the territorial division was defined. The state of Campeche was to include the districts of El Cármen, Seibaplaya, Campeche, Hecelchacan, and Hopelchen. Copies of documents in Barbachano, Mem. Campeche, April, 120-42. In art. 2 of the state constitution, which was formed and published in 1861, the districts into which the territory was divided were given as El Cármen, Champoton, Campeche, Hecelchacan, and Bolonchenticul, together with the coast line comprising the salt lands known as El Real, La Herradura, and Las Desconocidas. Campeche, Constitut, Polit., pp. 14, 11.
