The Story of Mexico/Chapter 35
XXXV.
BENITO JUAREZ.
Peace was restored, and with it revived commerce and industry; the coffers of government were full, thanks to the fifteen millions of pesos received from the United States to heal the wounds of war.
General Herrera took possession of the presidential chair, and Mexico, after twenty years of warfare, civil and foreign, took a respite of as many months.
Herrera became President on the 3d of June, 1848, and fulfilled the appointed time of office until January, 1851, when he handed over the control to his successor, when for the first time in the history of the Republic this change was effected without violence.
His administration was economical and moral, and so was that of his successor. General Arista, who continued the reform of the army, bringing order into the financial condition of the country. These two terms may be regarded as models of good government.
Before the close of Arista's term the Mexicans took up their old practice of pronouncing, and rather than create a disturbance, the President, finding himself unpopular, secretly retired from the capital.
BENITO JUAREZ.
Resolutions began, and Santa Anna, hearing their echo afar, returned to the country once more, to be made Dictator.
But Mexico was not to fall back into the hopeless anarchy of the period before the American war. The better class had learned to desire peace, and there were leaders among them strong enough to restrain the mobile desires of the multitude, and lead them to better things. The epoch of the reform began; and although this reform was signalized by bloodshed, it was a war for definite objects and principles, and not a squabble, setting up and putting down incompetent presidents, which used to prevail.
The great struggle arose over the question of the sequestration of Church property, begun during the United States war, but then, as we have seen, treated injudiciously, hastily dealt with, with but temporary and inefficient results. Later the disagreement between the clerigos, or Church party, and the liberales, or those demanding the surrender of the property of the Church, became wider and wider, until two great parties divided the country. For half a century these parties have disputed the power under their two political standards. It must not be inferred that the party opposed to the clerigos has been opposed to religion. The liberals have been as good Christians, and not only this, as devout Catholics, as the so-called Church party. The question has not turned upon matters of doctrine, but upon those pertaining to the goods of the Church.
Benito Juarez was of pure Aztec birth. It has even been said that the blood of the Montezumas was in his veins. Be that as it may, his family was of the lowest order of the Indians, living in a village of the state of Oaxaca. They were poor, and it is said that at twelve Benito knew neither how to read nor write.
He found a protector in Don Antonio Salanueva, head of a rich family of Oaxaca, who became interested in him, and kindly helped him to an education. In him, as in many other cases less known, the facility of the Indian intelligence to acquire knowledge was shown. He learned rapidly to read and write, and advanced so far as to study law, in which he afterwards distinguished himself, elected first a member of the legislature of Oaxaca, and afterwards climbing all the steps to legal fame until he became the presiding judge of the courts there.
During the war with the United States, Juarez was at the capital, as deputy to Congress. He took a vigorous part in the demand for the loan upon Church property to supply money for the war, and thus ranged himself with the opponents to the Church party, although himself preserving the devout faith of the Catholic religion, which the Indians almost invariably cling to.
He was made Governor of Oaxaca, and devoted himself to establishing schools for the Indians, to benefit his race, while he managed affairs wisely and economically for all.
During Santa Anna's dictatorship, he was banished from the country, and stayed in New Orleans until the turn of the wheel brought his way of thinking to the top, when among other offices he resumed that of Governor of Oaxaca. He became afterwards Secretary of State, and President of the Supreme Court of Justice.
On the 17th of February, 1857, a new Constitution was promulgated by the enlightened Congress. It declared that national sovereignty resides essentially in the people, and adopted the republican form of government, representative, democratic, and federal. It proclaimed each state free and sovereign within its limits, and introduced many reforms and improvements in the old code. It was received with great applause by the liberal party, but with little disguised disapproval by the army and clergy, who set themselves from its birth to combating its success. Great disturbance arose, excommunication of the liberals, promulgations, pronunciamentos, arrests, uprisings. From the midst of all the confusion Juarez took possession of the presidency by right of his position as head of the Supreme Court, since Comonfort, the legitimate President, had pronounced, been condemned, and forced to leave the country. Juarez and his party held their own through much adverse circumstance. On his side were ranged, in the defence of the Constitution of 1857, Doblado, Ortega, Zaragoza, Guillermo, Prieto, and other important men; on the side of the clerigos were the Generals Miramon and Marquez, and the greater part of the chiefs of the regular army. Civil war waged over the land; there is reason to believe that moderate principles and the Constitution of 1857 would have triumphed, had it not been for the strange and certainly unexpected events of the foreign intervention, which occasioned an episode in Mexican affairs as cruel and unnecessary as it was dramatic. So foreign indeed was it to the national life of the Mexican people, that it in reality scarcely formed a part of their history. The Indian in his hut of adobe saw the princely pageant pass, he scarce knew why.
