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Congress a sufficient length of time to develop his plans and give his orders, and then went to Mango de Clava again with the touching pretext of restoring his poor health. He left the City on the 27th of .January, and the same day Congress deprived Vice President Farias of his office without any accusation or reason, or even without any ·form of justice and placed Barragan in his stead. A month later [February 27] that body ratified and legalized the arbitrary acts of Santa Anna for the last two years. But the greatest boldness and .usurpation on the part of that servile and corrupt Congress was the consolidation of the two chambers into one body and declaring them to be vested with the powers of a National Convention. After this it proceeded to issue a formal decree annulling the Constitution and the federal system and proclaiming the establishment of a central government. One more step was necessary to complete its work and that was the disarmament of the peoples. 'I'he lives of despots are in danger when the people have arms. Santa Anna knew this very well and, consequently, made his Congress or National Convention fill the measure of his desires by issuing a decree taking away the arms from· the people and leaving only one gun to every 500 men. While this sealed the crime and in- famy of that body, it calmed the traitor's fears of a counter revolution, and he abandoned himself to pleasant dreams for a while as though he had effected some grand and glorious end for his country and at- tained all that a virtuous man and real patriot could desire in this world. · _ Thus we see our modern Cataline triumph to the end. · Although the great mass of the people were essentially democratic and federal, the influence of the Clergy and the power of the army were sufficient to restrain and subjugate them. Two years before Bustamante had been thrust from the power which he had usurped on account of his centralistic and aristocratic principles by that same man who had now reestablished them in the most odious and despotic form. His power was now almost absolute. With a Congress which was his own work and with no army to oppose him; with the authority of the states de- stroyed and the people humiliated and without arms, it seemed that there was no obstacle in the way of his becoming Dictator, Emperor or whatever else he should desire on a solid and permanent basis. The only obstacle to the complete establishment of his absolutism was that some states still hold out against his usurpations. These states were Zacatecas, and Coahuila and Texas. The former was rich and power- ful, the latter weak and without resources. The usurper considered their subjugation an easy task and proceeded to the work without delay. Zacatecas strongly opposed all usurpations from the beginning to end, and as a last recourse flew to arms in defense of her rights. The rest of the states had already succumbed without offering any resist- ance and only the latter maintained any hostile attitude of fighting for its liberty. In a brief time Santa Anna marched against that $tate in person at the head of an army of four thousan_d men. It is worthy of note that a short time before undertaking the in- vasion of that State he compelled his Minister Estrada to write to the authorities for the purpose of deceiving them and preventing their being on guard, and warned to resist him. The treachery had the desired effect in part in helping to deceive the Governor, who still
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