189
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
he desired which was to destroy liberty, establishing a system in which he might enjoy greater power than that which he had as President of the United States. Only one obstacle had to be overcome and this was the resistance that the state of Zacatecas would make against his power whenever the dissolution of the federalists should be pronounced. In order to seek a pretext with which to march against Zacatecas he had the new Congress to pass a law by which it was ordered that there be no national Militia, and that the arms they had in the States should be delivered to the general government. The State of Zacatecas opposed this great usurpation of power, al- though Santa Anna assured them officially through the Minister of finance (Gutierrez Estrada) that that measure had nothing of malice for the future, and protested that in no case would the federal system be attacked. The Zacatecans enlisted for the campaign and started out to defend the rights of the people by force of arms; but they were betrayed in camp on the 11th .day of May and with this catastrophe the Mexican federation (that Santa Anna proclaimed everywhere by his legions) was killed. The authorities of Coahuila and Texas were involved in the com- mon misfortunes of the country. General Cos dissolved the legislature, imprisoned the Governor, the deputies and other high officials and from that time an unchecked militarism ruled the Nation. From that time dated the epoch of separation of Texas from Mexico. N. B. The conduct of Santa Anna was so mysterious and criminal that a little before he marched against Zacatecas, he compelled th~ Minister Gutierrez Estrada to write a letter to the authorities assur- ing them that the federal system would be maintained. After his casual triumphs and when he began to proclaim Centralism everywhere, the minister energetically opposed this act of treachery, and made a solemn and public protest against it and issued a manifesto to the Nation in order to prove that he also had been deceived, and he resigned from the cabinet and even left the ·Republic. Mejia was for a long time united with Santa Anna while Santa Anna was working for the welfare of the people, and to this man, whom Santa Anna had tried to offend in a thousand ways, he owed much in his campaign of Oajaca and in that of 1832. If it had not been for Mexia who was the one who gained the battle of Palmar at the very moment in which Santa Anna had been overcome by General Facio, without doubt the campaign would have ended disastrously. . It was also Mejia who assaulted Puebla some days after and to make a. long story short all the military successes Santa. Anna had were on account of the cooperation and good conduct of l\lexia and General Arago.- Mexia as a Senator in the general Congress always sustained the rights of the people, he was always one of the opposing force when Santa Anna was in power, and many of the celebrated laws of that time were works of Mexia, Zavala and Reyon. It only remained for Mexia to profess these principles in order to be an enemy of Santa Anna with whom there was always strong friction, because he did not wish to abandon his liberal principles. Although Mexia was a military officer he had always been against military privileges and against the monopoly of the Roman Clergy.
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