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ance with the election of 1828. This plan wa8c presented to Congress, and after a heated discussion lasting two hours was rejected by that body. This obliged the commanders and superior officers of both armies, as well as the soldiers, to declare in favor of the said plan in spite of Congress. Thus ended an obstinate conflict between liberty and despotism which lasted twelve months and cost the lives of six thousand men. Both armies marched to the Capital and Pedraza was duly installed in the Presidency on the 26th of December, 1832, and remained in office until the 1st of April, 1833. Angulo, Secretary of State, Pares, Secretary of War, Arispe of the Department of Justice and Gomez Farias of the Treasury composed his Cabinet. · We have stated that this was the triumph of liberty over despotism; but it. was, however, only a momentary triumph; because as soon as Santa Anna entered the office of President as Pedraza's successor he betrayed the principles of the revolution, joined the Centralist party which he had conquered, and conspired against the Constitution and the Federal system. He was supported in this by the very army which had sworn to maintain them inviolate at Zavaleta so that in a short time after the elevation of this traitor to the high position to which he had aspired the friends of liberty had to work against him as they had worked against the usurper and tyrant Bustamante. But these matters ·will appear in their proper place. We shall now continue our story. Our hero remained in the Capital after Pedraza's installation only a short time, delighting in the honors which he had recently acquired and devoting himself to promoting his electiol!.. to the presidency for which he was one of the most prominent candidates. With this idea in mind he distributed without distinction more than six thousand military commissions within a few days. The truth is that his recent triumph had placed him ahead of all the other competitors for that high station. The nation extolled him and everyone considered him Pedraza's successor. Being certain of his election, and not caring to endanger his popularity by mixing in public affairs, he retired to his hacienda in Veracruz and remained there until after the election. This · took place in due time and Santa Anna was almost unanimously elected President, and Valentin Gomez Farias, a man of integrity and a well~ proven patriot, was elected Vice-President. In this way we have traced this man's life from the delinquency of his youth to his elevation to the Presidency, the grand object of his ambition for which he had fought many years and which he had finally attained by crimes which can only consign his memory to eternal shame and make his name the reproach of his country and the godfather of all that is criminal and detestable in the human heart. We have seen him as the forger in Bexar and Monterrey, the assassin in Orisaba and Veracruz, the traitor in J alapa, and everywhere and at all times the tyrant, the coward and the thief; but in spite of all of his crime and wickedness. his march has been onward and onward until we have seen him with the highest honors that a nation could confer heaped on him. We would attribute this to the depravity of the public morale, to a lack of knowledge and virtue among the people, did we not realize that the same thing happens continually in countries that boast of being supe-
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