_ / ^ 
 
 ' •4* 
 
 THE PRESIDENCY OF MEXICO. 
 
 PROTEST yj_^ 
 
 GEIERAL JESUS 60IZALES ORTEGA, 
 
 AGAINST THE 
 
 DECREES OF 8EI0R BENITO JUAREZ, 
 
 ISSUED NOVEMBER 8th, 1865, 
 AND HIS 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE MEXICAN NATION, 
 
 TO WHICH ARE APPENDED 
 
 LETTERS m RATIFICATION OF HIS POSITION. 
 
 (Mjy . ... Mif 
 
 FROM RUSSELL'S AMERICAN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE PRESSES, 
 
 28, 30 AKD 32 Centee Stbeet. 
 
 1866. 
 
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 In excianse 
 
 Harvard U-U-. Lib, 
 
 MAR 19 1908 
 
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DECREES OF BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 > MnnsTBY OF $ 
 
 I EXTEBNAL RELATIONS ^ 
 
 S AND ? 
 
 i GOVERNMENT. ^ 
 
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 DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT— Section 1. 
 
 The Citizen President of the Republic has seen fit to issue the 
 following decree : 
 
 Benito Juarez^ Constitutional President of the United States 
 of Mexico, to the inhabitants thereof. Be it known : 
 
 That in exercise of the plenary powers conferred upon me by 
 the National Congress, through its decrees of December 11th, 
 1861 ; of May 3d, and of October 27th, 1863 ; and whereas, 
 
 Firstly.— In articles 78, 79, 80 and 82 of the Federal Consti- 
 tution, treating of the period of the functions of the President of 
 the Republic, and of the manner of his substitution, provision 
 has been made for a new election of a President, but which, 
 in fact, has not been verified, inasmuch as said provision did not 
 anticipate existence of a state of war, such as the present ; and, 
 moreover, as the enemy, at the present moment, occupies a 
 great portion of the National Territory, it is impossible for a 
 general election to be constitutionally held at the ordinary 
 periods. 
 
 Secondly. — That in those articles of the Constitution, pro- 
 viding for a substitute for the President of the Republic in the 
 
event of a vacancy, it was provided to confide tlie executive 
 power of tlie Presidency to the President of the Supreme Court 
 of Justice, to act in the only case foreseen, during the interim,, 
 until a new election could be had according to the Constitution. 
 
 Thirdly. — Inasmuch as it is impossible for an election to be 
 held on account of the war, and as the President of the Supreme 
 Court, were he to enter upon exercise of the functions of the 
 executive office, would do so for an indefinite period of time, it 
 becomes necessary to extend his powers beyond the limit pre- 
 scribed by a literal construction of the Constitution. 
 
 Fourthly.— That by the supreme law of necessity for the 
 conservation of the government, the prolongation of the term of 
 office of the President, and of his substitute, would be more 
 conformable to the spirit of the Constitution, inasmuch as it 
 would avoid possibility of the Grovernment being without a head, 
 or the creation of rival functionaries, operating one in the 
 absence of the other ; and, moreover, because, conformably to 
 the popular vote, the President of the Kepublic was elected, 
 primarily and directly, to exercise the functions of the executive, 
 while the President of the Supreme Court was elected, primarily 
 and directly, to exercise judicial functions, those of the execu- 
 tive being entrusted to him, secondarily and ad interim, in the 
 case of absolute necessity. 
 
 Fifthly. — And considering that the present case is not pro- 
 vided for in the Constitution, and the interpretation of the pro- 
 visions and spirit of the Constitution belongs exclusively to the 
 legislative power, and that the law of December 11th, 1861, 
 confirmed by repeated votes of confidence by the National Con- 
 gress, has invested the President with power, not subjected to 
 ordinary Constitutional rules, by which he possesses plenary 
 power to do and perform all acts which he may judge proper 
 during existing circumstances, unrestricted save as to the salva- 
 tion of the independence and integrity of the national territory, 
 of the form of government established by the Constitution, and 
 of the principles and laws of reform : 
 
6 
 
 It iias pleased me to decree as follows : 
 
 Art. I. — In the present condition of the war, it becomes neces- 
 sary to extend, and are hereby extended, the functions of the 
 President of the Republic, beyond the time ordinarily limited by 
 the Constitution, until such a period at which the executive 
 government can be turned over to a president, duly elected at 
 an election, which shall be held whenever the condition of the 
 war shall admit of its being held constitutionally. 
 
 Art. II. — For a like reason it becomes necessary to extend, 
 and are hereby extended, the functions of the person who holds 
 the position of President of the Supreme Court of Justice, be- 
 yond the time ordinarily limited by the Constitution, in order 
 that, should a vacancy occur in the Presidency of the Republic, 
 he may be enabled to fill it as substitute. 
 
 For all of which I order this to be printed, published and 
 circulated, that force be given the same. 
 
 Griven at El Paso del Norte this eighth day of November, in 
 the year 1865. 
 
 BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 To THE Citizen Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. 
 
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 $ Ministry op ? 
 
 I EXTEKNAL RELATIONS ? 
 5 AND i 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 .J 
 
 department of government— Section I. 
 
 The Citizen President of the Republic has seen fit to issue the 
 following decree : 
 
6 
 
 Benito Juarez, Constitutional President of tlie United States 
 of Mexico, to tlie inhabitants thereof. Be it known.: 
 
 That in exercise of the plenary powers conferred upon me by 
 the National Congress, through its decrees of December 11th, 
 1861 ; of May 3d, and of October 27th, 1862, and of May 27th, 
 1863, and whereas : 
 
 Firstly. — The Citizen General, Jesus G. Ortega, thought 
 proper, in July of the year 1863, to assume the ofi&ce of Gover- 
 nor of the State of Zacatecas, and abandoned, in San Luis Potosi, 
 the oflS.ce of Constitutional President of the Supreme Court of 
 Justice. 
 
 Secondly. — For this reason, following the precedent of Con- 
 gress, which, owing to the vacancy in the Constitutional Presi- 
 dency of the Court, had created provisionally a President of the 
 Court, the Government, at the city of Chihuahua, under date of 
 November 30th, 1864, declared that it was necessary that the 
 Citizen General, Ortega, should continue in his capacity as Pre- 
 sident of the Supreme Court of Justice. 
 
 Thirdly. — The object literally expressed in that resolution 
 was to avoid possibility of the Government being without a 
 head, and gave to the Citizen General, Ortega, a definite and 
 recognized title, so that, in the case of a vacancy in the Presi- 
 dency of the Eepublic, he could enter upon its duties as sub- 
 stitute. 
 
 Fourthly. — Not being contrary to this motive, as he could 
 fulfil his duties in any part of the Republic, Government con- 
 ceded to General Ortega, on the 30th of December, 1864, a 
 license, which he prayed for on the 28th, to proceed and bear 
 arms in the cause of Independence within the interior of the 
 Republic, with the privilege expressed in the license, according 
 to his solicitation, as well as going direct through Mexican terri- 
 tory, as of passing in transitu through a foreign land. 
 
Fifthly. — General Ortega departed accordingly, and, never- 
 theless, despite the express tenor of his license, and, in the place 
 of passing in transitu^ has resided permanently in a foreign 
 country, without license or permission so to do, and in this wise 
 abandoned his office of President of the Supreme Court of 
 Justice, under the grave circumstances of an actual state of war, 
 at a time when serious casualties have happened, and still may 
 happen, by some of which the Government may suffer the in- 
 convenience of being without a head ; yet, in expectation of his 
 return, it was not deemed advisable to name another President 
 of the Court, who, in the event of a vacancy in the Presidency 
 of the Eepublic, might assume its functions as substitute. 
 
 Sixthly. — In addition to responsibility, incurred through 
 of&cial vacation of his post as President of the Court, he has 
 likewise violated the rules of good order, inasmuch as, holding a 
 position as General, he has gone to reside permanently in a 
 foreign country, during continuance of a state of war, and 
 thereby abandoned the cause of the Eepublic, its standard and 
 army. 
 
 Eighthly. — Considering that the Government can, and ought, 
 to declare this responsibility, with the power and ample func- 
 tions delegated to it by Congress, not in opposition to, by apply- 
 ing a just remedy in necessary cases, according to the provisions 
 of the Constitution with regard to public functionaries' — • 
 
 I decree as follows : 
 
 Art. I. — The Citizen General, Jesus Gonzales Ortega, inas- 
 much as from his having taken up a permanent residence in a 
 foreign land during a continuance of actual hostilities, without 
 license or commission from the Government, has rendered him- 
 self responsible to a charge of official dereliction, in voluntarily 
 abandoning his ofiice as President of the Supreme Court of 
 Justice ; that, when he presents himself upon the soil of the 
 Eepublic, the Government will make such dispositions as will 
 establish his guiltiness. 
 
Art. II. — The Government, employing the plenary powers 
 delegated by Congress, and applying Article 104 of the Consti- 
 tion, declares that cause exists to proceed against the Citizen, 
 Jesus Gonzales Ortega, and that, when he presents himself upon 
 the soil of the Eepublic, a judicial inquisition will be had against 
 him for a crime against good order, for that, while holding the 
 position of a general in the army, he has resided permanently 
 and voluntarily in a foreign land, during continuance of hos- 
 tilities, without license from the government, thereby abandoning 
 the army, its standards and the cause of the Republic. 
 
 Art. III. — Conformably to precedent, established by Congress, 
 the Government, in exercise of its plenary powers, will nominate 
 a President of the Supreme Court of Justice to serve as a sub- 
 stitute to the President, should a vacancy occur, prior to the time 
 when the of&ce shall be turned over to his successor, constitu- 
 tionally elected, as soon as the state of the war will permit an 
 election to be held. 
 
 For all of which I order this to be printed, published and 
 circulated, that force be given the same. 
 
 Given at El Paso del Norte this Eighth day of November, in 
 the year 1865. 
 
 BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 To THE Citizen Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. 
 
PROTEST OF THE CTTIZEN, JESUS G. ORTEGA, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OP JUSTICE OF THE MEXICAN 
 REPUBLIC, AGAINST THE DECREES ISSUED BY DON BENITO 
 JUAREZ, ON THE 8th DAT OP NOVEMBER, 1865. 
 
 The impolitic and disgraceful act, consummated by Don 
 Benito Juarez, in issuing, through your official hands, the decrees 
 of the 8th of November last past, has placed me in the painful 
 position, aware of the circumstances surrounding the political 
 situation of the Mexican Eepublic, of protesting before, and in 
 the name of the nation, against the subject matter and import of 
 those manifestoes : 
 
 Firstly. — For that they are against tlie express provisions of 
 the political constitution of the Eepublic, and are consequently 
 arbitrary, illegal and void of effect. 
 
 Secondly. — For that they create a dictatorship, to be wielded 
 by Benito Juarez, who can, at his option, supersede one of the 
 Federal authorities, sovereign and independent, whose functions 
 have been recognized by the vote of the nation, in this wise 
 destroying a Kepublican principle, and the basis of legal order, 
 that is, the form of Government established hy the Constitution. 
 
 Thirdly. — For that they are contrary to the spirit of the 
 powers delegated to the Executive bj'' the National Congress, 
 which to-day, notwithstanding existence of a war with France, 
 declared, while making the concessions contained in the decree 
 of December 11th, 1861, whereby authority of every nature was 
 conceded to the executive to institute, unrestrictedly, such 
 measures as might be considered apt and proper under the actual 
 circumstances, that such powers to be exerted with a sole view 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 of preserving tlie independence and integrity of tlie national 
 territory, the form qf Government established by the Constitution, 
 and the principles and laws of reform. Moreover, tlie law. of 
 October 27tli, 1862, imposed a positive restriction that the 
 executive could do nothing contrary to the provisions of Title 
 IV of the Constitution, which provides that the President has 
 no power to declare if cause exists against any public functionary 
 — a restriction, conceived and set forth with the aim of preclu- 
 ding possibility of the President abusing his power to the detri- 
 ment of constitutional authority. 
 
 FouETHLY. — For that the decrees aforesaid seriously compro- 
 mise the independence of the nation, robbing its defenders of a 
 legitimate government, which alone can serve as a rallying point 
 for united patriotism, and substituting in its stead an illegal 
 usurpation, with no more force in authority than that of the un- 
 constitutional decrees now issued. 
 
 Fifthly. — For that the tone of those decrees is insulting to 
 the Mexican people, battling for principle beneath the constitu- 
 tional banner, as from a perusal of their text it may be inferred 
 that blood, spilled by thousands of patriots and martyrs, had 
 been out-poured with no other object than for a defence of the 
 person of Benito Juarez, and that, without the salvation of this 
 individual, the cause of Mexico would be hopeless. 
 
 Sixthly. — For that the statements set forth in those decrees 
 are not only founded upon sophistry, but contain calumnies 
 affecting my personal and ofl&cial character. 
 
 The obligations of the solemn oath, assumed by one as consti- 
 tutional President of the Supreme Court of Justice, in accordance 
 with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, has been so fir ob- 
 served by me in full faith, as well as with a regard for the popular 
 rights, secured the nation by that instrument ; as the nation, 
 when again recovering full exercise of its privilege, must hold 
 all functionaries to a strict accountability. 
 
 Eagle Pass, December 21st, 1865. 
 
 JESUS G. ORTEOA. 
 
 To Don Sebastian Leedo de Tejada. 
 
11 
 
 THE CITIZEN, JESUS G. ORTEGA, 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE, 
 
 TO THE MEXICAN NATION. 
 
 Mexicans : 
 
 Don Benito Juarez has issued, at El Paso del Norte, on tlie 
 8tli day of November last past, through the intermediation of 
 Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, acting as Minister of Eelation 
 and Government, two decrees : in one, extending the duration of 
 his own powers, and in the other divesting of authority the 
 President of the Supreme Court of Justice. Although alleging 
 two separate pretexts for this last decree, it has been issued with 
 the; sole and exclusive aim of arrogating to his personal action 
 the election of the Vice-President of the Republic, a person who, 
 by the express terms of the Constitution, is entitled to, and 
 should succeed to the exercise of the Supreme Executive power 
 on the 1st of December following. There is nothing singular in 
 this step of the Senor Lerdo de Tejada, when his past political 
 career has been called to mind. It must be remembered that 
 he was one of the persons participating in the coup d^etat of 
 Commonfort — a bloody page in the history of Mexico, which 
 excited the scandal of the world. Returning to the soil of my 
 country, whither I had been drawn from promptings of honor 
 and duty, and where I had come to fulfil the duties of the office 
 which I had received, not from Benito Juarez, but through the 
 spontaneous expression of national confidence, the first spectacle 
 which greeted my vision was its genial horizon lowering over a 
 blood-stained country, strewn with the ruins of a political edifice, 
 previously raised at so dear a cost. There were presented to 
 me two decrees, foreshadowing the gloom of the future. Beneath 
 their shadow I perceived anarchy and disorder, an outrage upon 
 the Mexican people, another scandal in our political history, as 
 
12 
 
 the inevitable consequences of acts, reprobated bj morality and 
 experience, the deed| of men who have prostituted the law into 
 a means to serve their personal ambition, instead of administering 
 it for the public good. Thej revived the painful reflection that 
 Mexicans, treasuring confidence in the purifying influences of 
 Republicanism, had deceived themselves when they had hoped 
 that ignominy had forever disappeared from their midst, leaving 
 behind it but a melancholy memory of previous misdeeds. 
 
 My first impression was to postpone all action for the benefit 
 of my country, for which I would have spared no sacrifice, what- 
 ever may be its magnitude. My public career, heretofore with- 
 out stain, is the clearest testimony of the truth of my sentiments. 
 Two expedients presented themselves, whereby to extricate my- 
 self from my cruel position. The one was to remain mute, say- 
 ing not a word against the illegality of these decrees, immolating 
 myself upon the altar of my country, retiring to some foreign 
 land, so that the friends of legality, of popular rights, of consti- 
 tutional privilege, should have no other banner to rally around 
 than that set up in this arbitrary manner. 
 
 The other was to protest against these decrees, leaving national 
 rights intact, yet not to erect a new standard, for this might gene- 
 rate a fresh and imprudent scandal ; neither was I willing to 
 absent myself, for such a desertion would militate against princi- 
 ple. Had I followed the first suggestion, I would have 
 abandoned rights, not my own. but those of the people, trans- 
 mitted to me through their votes ; I should have shirked fulfil- 
 ment of the oath taken before the National Congress, and 
 avoided performance of the duties of my official position, substi- 
 tuting in their stead a modest shame ; I would have abandoned 
 the straight road and turned aside into another, whether for 
 good or evil, but which assuredly was not the pathvyay of duty 
 and honor. Moreover, it would have resulted in leaving the 
 country without a legal government, without which it would 
 have been impossible to have made head against a colossal 
 enemy ; it would have authorized a fresh attack upon the dignity 
 of the law, without which it is hopeless to anticipate permanent 
 establishment of the Republic, and of national tranquility. 
 
18 
 
 In adopting a second course, I would fulfil my duty and 
 demonstrate to the nation that I was not a party, neither tacit or 
 active, to the blow inflicted upon constitutional rights ; I would 
 show to the world that the errors of two men were not those of the 
 nation, whose interests are derived from a more elevated origin — 
 interests which Mexico has defended for the last ten years— and 
 finally, I would place myself in a position before my country 
 capable of defending my conduct. Neither did I believe that 
 persistence in silence .would better the military condition of the 
 war. Consequently, I determined upon this last line of conduct, 
 and directed to Don Sebastian de Lerdo de Tejada the protest 
 against the unconstitutional decrees to which I have alluded. 
 
 ARTICLES OF THE CONSTITUTION". 
 
 Art, 79. — The President shall enter upon the functions of his 
 office on the first day of December, and continue for the term of 
 four years. 
 
 Art. 79 — In the temporary absence of the President of the 
 Republic, and in the interim before his successor qualifies, the 
 President of the Supreme Court of Justice shall enter upon and 
 perform the duties of that office. 
 
 Art. 80. — If the absence of the President be absolute, a new 
 election will be held, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 
 76, and the President, in this wise elected, will perform his 
 functions until the last day of November of the fourth year from 
 the time of his election. 
 
 Art. 82. — If, from any cause luhatsoever, the election for Presi- 
 dent is not held and published by the 1st day of December, by which 
 time the vacancy should have been filled, or that the candidate elect 
 should fail to enter upon the peyformance of his duties, the term of 
 the previous President, nevertheless, ceases, and the Supreme execu- 
 tive power, during the interim, loill vest in the President of the 
 Supreme Court of Justice. 
 
 Art. 94. — The members of the Supreme Court of Justice, 
 
14 
 
 upon entering upon the functions of their office, shall take an oath 
 before Congress, or in the event of its adjournment, before the 
 Permanent Deputation, in the following form : — " You do swear, 
 loyally and patriotically, to fill the office of Magistrate of the 
 Supreme Court of Justice, which the people have conferred, upon 
 you conformably to the Constitution, and. regarding only the 
 welfare and prosperity of the Union. 
 
 Aet. 95. — The Office of Magistrate of the Supreme Court of 
 Justice can only he renounced for grave causes (por CAUSA GRAVE), 
 qualified hy Congress, unto ivhom the renunciation must he presented^ 
 if during its adjournment, the qualification shall he made hy the 
 Permanent Deputation. 
 
 TITLE lY. 
 
 RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC FUNCTIONARIES. 
 
 Art. 103. — The deputies of the Congress of the Union, the 
 Magistrates of the Supreme Court and Cabinet Secretaries, are 
 responsible for malfeasance in office, and for the derelictions or 
 omissions which occur during their continuance in office. The 
 governors of states are equally responsible for infractions of the 
 Constitution and Federal laws. So, also, is the President of the 
 Eepublic : but, during his term of office, he can only be accused 
 on charges of treason against the country, of express violation of 
 the Constitution, of attacks upon the elective franchise, and of 
 criminal offences of the common order. 
 
 Art. 104. — If the crime be of the common order, Congress, 
 acting as a grand jury, will decide whether there be cause to 
 proceed against the accused. In the case of a regular decision, 
 no ulterior proceedings can be 'had. Should the decision be 
 affirmative, the accused will be suspended from office and sub- 
 jected to the action of the ordinary tribunals. 
 
 Art. 105. — In cases of malfeasance. Congress will act as a jury 
 
 of accusation, and the Supreme Court as a tribunal for judgment. 
 
 The jury of accusation will declare as to the guilt of the 
 
15 
 
 accused by a majority of votes. If the accusation be absolved, 
 the oflS.Gial will continue in the enjoyment of his office ; if sus- 
 stained, the offender will be immediately divested of office, 
 and placed at the disposition of the Supreme Court. This Court, 
 erected into a tribunal of sentence, in the presence of the criminal, 
 the public prosecutor and the accuser, if any there be, shall pro- 
 ceed to pronounce, by a majority of votes, the penalty which the 
 law provides. 
 
 Art. 106. — Judgment pronounced for responsibilitj'- as to 
 malfeasance, no pardon can be granted the transgressor. 
 
 Aet. 107. — Eesponsibility as to malfeasance can only be ex- 
 acted during the term of the offender's office, and for the period 
 of one year thereafter. 
 
 Art. 108. — In demands of a civil order, there is neither pro- 
 cess nor immunity for public functionaries. 
 
 In according extraordinary powers to the Executive, by reason 
 of the state of war, Congress, in its concessions in the decree of 
 October 27, 1862, imposed an express and definite restriction 
 that he should do nothing contrary to the provisions of Title TV 
 of the Constitution. Hence, it can be readily surmised that 
 Congress had other objects in imposing this restriction upon the 
 Executive beyond the mere conservation of constitutional order, 
 in placing the high dignitaries of the State beyond reach of 
 Presidential attack. They evidently feared that, were unlimited 
 power placed in the hands of the Executive, he might proceed 
 against some functionary, and in this wise produce internal dis- 
 order, as Juarez has done in this instance, contrary to the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution, through abuse of the powers accorded 
 by Congress, and to the manifest prejudice of public decency. 
 
 According to Article 95 of the Constitution, " the office of 
 Magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice can only be re- 
 nounced for grave causes {por causa grave), qualified by Congress, 
 unto whom the renunciation must be presented. If, during its 
 adjournment, the qualification shall be made by the Permanent 
 
16 
 
 Deputation." A sufficient answer to this consists in the fact that 
 I have not renounced the office, conferred upon me by popular 
 suffrage, nor has any grave cause been urged against me to 
 render such a step advisable, and consequently no qualification 
 has been made by either Congress or the Permanent Depu- 
 tation. 
 
 I have quoted the preceding provisions of the Constitution, so 
 that from a perusal of their text the enormity of their infraction 
 is apparent, and not with a view to exhibit the utter worthless- 
 ness of the pretensions upon which are based the decrees of 
 Kovember, which attempt Avould be an insult to the common 
 sense of the general public. 
 
 In the decrees of Juarez, and the circular accompanying them, 
 he has sought to furnish a sample of logic and explanation of 
 our constitutional law. To these puerile expedients he has had 
 recourse, for want of better reasons to support his assumptions. 
 Neither as a Mexican, nor as a magistrate, do I wish to discuss 
 this point ; the nation will adjudicate upon the simple narration 
 of fact. I would it were within my province to reveal all ; it 
 would vindicate my conduct and place Juarez and Lerdo in no 
 enviable and patriotic light ; but national interests demand my 
 silence. 
 
 The coup d^eiat of Commonfort, in 1857, caused Don Benito 
 Juarez, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to enter upon 
 the executive functions of the Union. Legal order established 
 after three years of civil war, Congress met in 1861, and 
 there being no person legally entitled to assume the functions of 
 the Presidency of the Republic, in the event of a vacancj^, by 
 reason of the President of the Supreme Court of Justice having 
 entered upon the duties of the Chief Executive, an election was 
 held to supply the vacancy in the order of succession to the 
 Presidency, and, in accordance with that design, I was elected 
 to the Presidency of the Supreme Court, ad interim. About that 
 period I had been elected, by the popular vote, Governor of the 
 State of Zacatecas. 
 
 After assuming the prescribed oath of office, as President of 
 the Court, ad interim, before the National Representatives, I pro- 
 
17 
 
 ceeded, a few days thereafter, to tlie city of Zacatecas, and assumed 
 the Grovernorsliip of that State. 
 
 This occurred in the year 1861. During the last months of 
 that year, and the earlier ones of 1862, I acted alternately as 
 Constitutional Grovernor of Zacatecas, Grovernor and Military 
 Commander of the State of San Luis Potosi, and Military Com- 
 mander of the States of Aguascalientes and Tamaulipas. This 
 last disposition was made in consequence of the state of the war. 
 
 During all this time neither the nation, the Permanent Depu- 
 tation, nor Congress, when it assembled, perceived that I had 
 abandoned the Presidency, ad interim^ of the Supreme Court, nor 
 did they detect that incompatibility in oflSce holding which 
 Senors Juarez and Lerdo de Tejada seek to discover by a resort 
 to obsolete constitutional authority, with the aim of finding out 
 that which has no existence in our present national compact. 
 
 It had been the desire of Congress simply to select a person 
 with an acknowledged and legal title to succeed to the Presi- 
 dency of the Eepublic, in the event of a vacancy, and not an 
 individual to preside over the ordinary business of the Court. 
 The political emergencies of the period, particularly during a 
 state of war, demanded the recognition of a person entitled to 
 the succession, and it mattered li'ttle whether he was, or was not, 
 Governor of Zacatecas. 
 
 During normal times it might have proven inconvenient for 
 the same individual to enjoy two employments, still the Consti- 
 tution is silent on that head, and neither have I pretended to fill 
 both at the same time. The war and state of the country 
 governed my actions, and not my own inclinations, for my honor 
 and sense of duty to my native land have impelled me to situa- 
 tions wherein I could render myself most useful to my country. 
 Moreover, I have ever deemed it a gratification to obey the 
 summons which the nation extends to a soldier of the people. I 
 have referred to past events, not for the sake of argument, but 
 to cite facts, patent to the world, and ratified by popular 
 opinion. 
 
 During my sojourn in Zacatecas and San Luis, at a distance 
 from the capital of the Eepublic, a popular election was held for 
 the Presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice, which election, 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 according to the declaration of the house, resulted in my eleva- 
 tion to that dignity, notwithstanding opposition from the ad- 
 ministration of Benito Juarez, with all its power and influence. 
 
 When elected I was constitutional Grovernor of Zacatecas, and 
 notwithstanding that fact, on my transit through the capital of 
 the Eepublic, I took the oath of of&ce and entered upon its func- 
 tions for a day, and thence passed on to assume command of my 
 army division in the department of the Bast. 
 
 Shortly after, I took command in my capacity as General-in- 
 Chief of that department, and a very little later officiated as 
 Governor and Military Commander of the State of Puebla, which 
 I held until the middle of the year 1863 ; and during all this 
 period I maintained a second capacity, as I have stated, namely, 
 as constitutional Governor of Zacatecas. 
 
 During the interval of my respective services, neither the 
 nation, the Permanent Deputation, nor Congress discovered any 
 abandonment on my part of the Presidency of the Court, neither did 
 they perceive that incompatibility in employments, concerning 
 which so much has been said. I was found exactly where my 
 duty as a soldier summoned me. 
 
 Having been taken prisoner on the plaza of Puebla, it appears 
 that some propositions were made in the House, having for their 
 object the nomination of some person to replace me in office. 
 No action was had on these propositions, as my nomination had 
 been made for the Presidency of Court in compliance with the 
 requirements of the Constitution, consequently the appointment 
 of any other person would have been invalid on account of its 
 unconstitutionality. The records of the Congressional session 
 attest the truth of these facts. Having attained freedom through 
 an escape from the prison of Orizaba, I forthwith hastened to 
 San Luis, where I found the Government located. After open- 
 ing the Supreme Court, I directed my steps to the State of Zaca- 
 tecas, in no wise abandoning the Presidency of the Court, as has 
 been malignantly asserted, but on the contrary, complying with 
 all the rules and regulations governing the internal organization 
 of that body. 
 
 At the time of my march, and my separation from the Court, 
 
19 
 
 I demonstrated to tlie magistrates that my escape from prison 
 in no wise compromised my parole of honor, and that my object 
 was to hold myself in readiness to struggle for the independence 
 of Mexico, whose salvation depended rather upon feats of arms 
 than upon discussions of points of law, and hence I was anxious 
 to present myself in a State of which I was a son and the gover- 
 nor, to impose new obstacles to the advance of the invader. My 
 colleagues approved of my resolution. A little later was con- 
 ceded the license I solicited ; at the time I was still Grovernor of 
 Zacatecas. 
 
 I had, on many occasions, organized the troops of Zacatecas 
 and commanded them through various successful campaigns. 
 I had been one of the leaders of the State during the revolution 
 for reform and the establishment of public order. I had been a 
 governor for five years, and was so at the time, having been re- 
 elected by the popular vote. 
 
 It was natural to suppose I exerted no little influence upon" 
 the political affairs of that population. My convictions, and I 
 may assert without fear of equivocation, the convictions of my 
 copatriots, demanded that I should devote my enei'gies to there- 
 organization of its troops, to impose a bold front to the enemy 
 during those solemn moments of the countr3^ 
 
 It is but rational to presume that the Government of the 
 Union would have been actuated by similar patriotic convictions. 
 The spectacle of the national drama remained unchanged, or, if 
 it had changed at all, the aspect had been rendered more melan- 
 choly by the misfortunes incurred at Mexico and Puebla; never- 
 theless, personal interests, shielded from public scrutiny, over, 
 powered considerations for the common weal. 
 
 During anterior years my permanent presence at the court had 
 not been deemed requisite, neither was it so considered when I 
 lay besieged within the walls of Puebla. But in those days 
 organs of the popular voice were on the alert, keeping constant 
 guard over 4he interests of the State. 
 
 The Government worked only to stultify my influence ; it 
 operated to preclude any opportunity of my sharing the popular 
 destiny through rendering fresh services to the country. The 
 cardinal policy of all its acts tended towards ulterior purposes. 
 
20 
 
 My position at the head of the troops of an influential Demo- 
 cratic State was one of the most serious obstacles Mexico pre- 
 sented to the invader ; it served, moreover, as a sentinel, guarding 
 the legal rights and privileges of the people, so that the offi.ces 
 of the State could not be disposed of, as if they were in the hands 
 of private proprietors. 
 
 The administration of Senor Juarez, instead of employing for 
 the benefit of Mexico the great or little influence which I pos- 
 sessed in Zacatecas, commenced intriguing, in a private manner, 
 with a view of removing matters and persons to another sphere, 
 in order to neutralize my influence. At the same time, Senor 
 Juarez indited a private epistle to Don Severe Cosio, who acted 
 as Governor of Zacatecas, promising him a continuance in office. 
 As the tenor of the communication was of a private character, 
 and related to the personal opinions of the President, the patriot 
 Senor Oosio answered in a like style, assuring him that my in- 
 fluence in the State, taken in connection with my official position 
 as governor, was of importance, if not absolutely necessary, did 
 they desire to defend the integrity of the State. Never theless, 
 the intrigues continued. Shortly after came commissioners and 
 agents of the Government, who tendered proposals of command 
 to the General, Don Yictoriano Zamora, who had been provisional 
 constitutional Governor of the said State in previous years. Civil 
 war was on the point of breaking out in Zacatecas by reason of 
 the private intrigues of the Government, and this, too, at a time 
 when ti:!e French army was penetrating into the interior of the 
 country, and Zacatecas was standing in threat of an attack. 
 
 The Government was well aware that, should it declare 
 Zacatecas to be in a state of siege, with the view of appointing a 
 governor, selected by it, to supersede me, it would be my duty 
 to obey the mandate ; but, at the same time, the Goverment was 
 likewise aware that such an act would be reprobated by a State 
 notoriously jealous of the exercise of its privileges, and one 
 which contributed the most toAvards the defence of Independence 
 under a constitutional regime. It was aware, moreover, that the 
 nation at large would recognize, in an act of that nature, the 
 motive of its dictation to be to impair my popularity to serve its 
 
21 
 
 own personal inclinations. All these macliinations crumbled to 
 pieces, shaken by the patriotism and common sense of the people 
 of that section of the Eepublic. 
 
 The country disapproved of all these things, for it was deemed 
 necessary to discard private interests, and to concentrate every 
 energy towards the public welfare. With this object in 
 view, a delegation, composed of the Deputies, the Licentiate 
 Don Jose Maria Castro, and Col. Don Jesus Leora, was sent to 
 the city of San Luis, there to address the Government in a firm 
 yet respectful manner, as to the resolution taken up by Zacatecas 
 to farnish troops, in its sovereign capacity, in accordance with its 
 population and dignity, which forces would be placed at the 
 disposal of the Supreme Government. At the same time, the 
 delegation was charged to request that no more obstacles 
 should be placed in the way of its particular Government, when 
 endeavoring to discharge its patriotic mission. Finally the 
 State agreed to guarantee all my actions, and pledged itself to 
 pay over monthly the assessment levied upon it as a national 
 contribution. 
 
 The general Government had previously dispatched agents into 
 the State, ostensibly to act as collectors of revenue, but in reality 
 to impede my progress in the work of raising troops. Had the 
 Government stood in need of resources, the delegation were pre- 
 pared to stipulate as to payment of contributions, under the 
 proviso of having the amount definitely determined. The 
 delegation had interviews with Senor Juarez and some of his 
 ministers, without arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. 
 Nothing could be more natural, for they were strenuously opposed 
 by two ministers, holding secret communications with the enemy, 
 as was shortly afterwards demonstrated to the public through 
 the notoriety of their treason. These ministers, in treacherous 
 employ, naturally exerted every endeavor to damage the Eepublic, 
 and through complication of affairs to augment its perilous con- 
 dition. Nevertheless all their arguments were warmly applauded 
 by this same Senor Juarez, for they flattered his vanity by en- 
 couraging expectations as to his prolongation of his term of 
 office. 
 
22 
 
 The definite answer received by the delegation, was to the 
 effect that it would manifest to me that the Government had no 
 inclination to recall its agents, and neither did it stand in need of 
 troops, as there loere sufficient under the command of Generals Do- 
 hlado and JJraga. 
 
 The delegation conveyed to me the result of its mission, and I 
 detected the hand of treason in these machinations of the cabinet. 
 So, was it possible that the defence of our independence de- 
 manded no further soldiery, when a foreign army was invading 
 the national domain ? Did no necessity exist for fresh ' troops, 
 when the army of the Bast had been dissipated at Puebla ? My 
 conscience dictated perseverance in discharge of my duty as a 
 Mexican, and as Governor of Zacatecas. 
 
 Shortly after Sen or Juarez departed from the State of San 
 Luis, and proceeded to that of Coahuila, in consequence of the 
 loss of the division under General ISTegrete, which served him as 
 an escort. 
 
 About this time the Deputy, Don Trinidad Garcia de la Ca- 
 dena, visited Saltillo on a mission from the Governor of Zacatecas 
 to Senor Juarez. Upon concluding his official business he was 
 invited to a private interview with Senor Lerdo de Tejada, 
 Minister of Foreign Relations and Government. Thither he 
 presented himself, and received from the Minister proposals 
 flattering his ambition as to military command. It was proposed 
 to him that, upon my first absence from the city of Zacatecas, 
 he should seize upon the Governorship, supported by the troops 
 beneath his command as a colonel. He was, moreover, informed 
 that the Government would approve of this measure, and would 
 immediately thereafter forward him his commission as Governor 
 of the State. 
 
 Senor Garcia de la Cadena, a native of Zacatecas, who had 
 rendered the country signal service, both in politics and the 
 army, refused to accept this proposition, objecting that such a 
 course would excite a civil war within a State upon the eve of in- 
 vasion by a foreign force. Nevertheless, the intrigues were not as 
 yet concluded. The same Senor Cadena, while communicating 
 to me the narrative of his official mission, remarked, " I have 
 noted, in all my conferences at Saltillo with Senor Lerdo de 
 
23 
 
 Tejada and his subordinates, that a strong desire exists for the 
 disbandment of the troops which you have organized and are 
 continuing to organize. They fear them, because they also dread 
 the arrival of the period at which the term of Jaurez's ofl&ce 
 will expire, as of course, Senor Lerdo desires to continue in 
 discharge of his ministerial functions." 
 
 My relations in the General Government were apparently 
 in concert and harmony. The course "of the war compelled it to 
 withdraw more than 150 leagues from Zacatecas, and experience 
 demonstrated that it had ample need of the forces which I had 
 been engaged in organizing. 
 
 In one or two months I raised, equipped and armed a strong 
 division of the three arms of the service. Ttiey had been raised 
 in the midst of these numerous intrigues, and against the incli- 
 nations of Senor Juarez, and served to co-operate, in more than 
 one instance, most efiicaciously for the salvation of his person, 
 and consequently of that of the legitimate government, beside 
 paying implicit obedience to orders received from him. 
 
 Herein are some of the consequences of the abandonment^ as 
 he states^ of the Presidency of the Supreme Cow% while at San 
 Luis. 
 
 I was still within the State of Zacatecas, at the head of the 
 division I had organized, when most reliable information was 
 communicated to me with regard to the contemplated treason of 
 Don Jose Lopez Uraga, who commanded, as General-in-Chief, the 
 flower of the Eepublican army, in the South of Jalisco. 
 
 I repeatedly communicated this intelligence to Senor Juarez, 
 so that he might institute effective measures with regard to this 
 General, and avoid the destruction of our army. 
 
 General Corona possessed a command under the immediate 
 orders of Uraga. When he became aware of his superior's trea- 
 son, he demanded his passports and withdrew. Passing 
 through Zacatecas, he entered into a conversation with me rela- 
 tive to this treason. 
 
 Corona gave to the Government a minute and ofi&cial narration 
 of the affair, and placed the manuscript in my hands for trans- 
 mission, which I sent forward by a special messenger. This 
 messenger was Captain Don Marcelino E. Cavero, an ofl&cer who 
 
24 
 
 had likewise separated from the forces of Uraga, and who was 
 charged to communicate other details verbally to the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Other chiefs, coming from the south of Jalisco, successively 
 visited me, corroborating particulars of the affair. I was assured 
 by all of them that full knowledge of Uraga's contemplated 
 treason had been communicated to the Grovernment by the 
 illustrious and patriotic Greneral Arteaga. At a later period I 
 found this statement substantiated in an autographic letter of 
 that unfortunate and lamented general. 
 
 Greneral Don Felipe B. Berriozabal, passing through the State 
 of Zacatecas, invited me to a conference with the intention of 
 placing me in possession of facts connected with the treason 
 projected in Jalisco. Urgent military business precluded my 
 presence at the proposed interview. 
 
 Greneral Berriozabal, without loss of time, pressed forward to 
 the States of Coahiula and Keuvo Leon, then the seats of the 
 Government, 
 
 He presented himself thither, and gave most conclusive evi- 
 dence of the existence of the treason alluded to, as that was the 
 object of his mission. He did more, he denounced Uraga to the 
 Government as guilty of high treason. Still nothing was done. 
 Senor Juarez made but a single reply, saying : " That if Senor 
 Berriozabal had been invited to -participate in the projected treason^ 
 it had been^ doubtlessly, done as a test of his firmness and con- 
 stancy.'''' 
 
 The General, taking into consideration what had passed, and 
 the support bestowed upon Uraga by the Senors Juarez and 
 Lerdo, withdrew his accusation and remitted to the Government 
 a communication, very respectful, yet expressed in emphatic 
 terms, in which he stated that either the Government should in- 
 vestigate the charges made agaiist him by Uraga, or he ivould 
 publish documents dishonorable alike to Uraga and the Government. 
 His demand was complied with, and Senor Berriozabal gave to 
 light the communication to which I have alluded and the 
 answer, wherein he vindicated himself, preserving in obscurity 
 the documents to which he referred. Senor Juarez and Lerdo 
 persistently turned a deaf ear to complaints ; they regarded as 
 
25 
 
 of no account the depositions and information given bj persons 
 interested. The honor of Mexico, the morality of the army, the 
 salvation of the elements for a successful defence of our inde- 
 pendence appeared to them of no value. It was a matter of 
 policy to destroy these elements created, as all the world knows 
 and admits, by the States of the confederation through their 
 individual energies and resources. It was absolutely necessary 
 to demolish the sustenance of constitutional order in order to 
 create other elements and other agencies with the aim of perpetu- 
 ating, when the time arrived, power in the hands of Senor 
 Juarez. I state this, for I know of no otaer explanation which 
 can be given of anterior facts. Moreover, I am authorized in 
 this statement, by the facts themselves, as I have heard from the 
 very lips of Senor Lerdo, when he says: "The destruction of 
 existing things is of no consequence ; great causes save them- 
 selves. Our sole question of to-day is how to live." 
 
 Every one is aware of the manifold means at the disposal of a 
 minister for the complication of a political situation, whereby, 
 of his own accord, he can undermine the foundations of public 
 order. The secret workings of his cunning may may escape the 
 observation of the multitude, but never the penetrating criticism 
 of the historian Nevertheless, how much more easy the de- 
 structive task through the machinations of an arbitrary minister, 
 versed in the art of cajoling the vanity of a dominant ex- 
 ecutive. 
 
 Located in the city of Zacatecas were two strong divisions of 
 the three arms of service, wilh a formidable train of artillery ; the 
 one under the command of Greneral Doblado, the other under my 
 orders. Both divisions were at the disposal of the Grovernment 
 when it saw proper to use them. Although both of these corps 
 were located at several days' march from the plaza of San Luis, 
 an order was given to General ISre_rete by the Government to 
 assail that position with the single division at his disposition. 
 
 This division were completely destroyed in the attack ; subse- 
 quently the division of General Doblado was cut up by piece- 
 meal at Matehuala ; a little later, mine was annihilated at Ma- 
 joma. 
 
 At a conference which I subsequently had with Senor Juarez 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 at Monterey, in the presence of the Minister of War, I remarked 
 to him that the period was not far distant when the nation would 
 hold the Government to an account for the disastrous manner 
 in which it had frittered away the material for the national 
 defence, through dispersing the elements of resistance by frac- 
 tions, for whatever may have been its intentions, the work of the 
 Government bore that appearance. 
 
 In August of last year the withdrawal of our forces and of 
 the seat of Government from ISTeuvo Leon and Coahuila was 
 determined upon. General Negrete had then charge of the 
 ministry of war, to which he conjoined a double employment as 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army, composed of two divisions, 
 the one under command of General Alcade, and the other under 
 my orders — the same as I had raised in Zacatecas, 
 
 In the city of Saltillo I received orders from the General-in- 
 Chief to march to the Punta de la Angostina, at the head of the 
 two divisions, and there give battle to the enemy, should they 
 court it. If they avoided an engagement I was to retire the 
 same night in the direction of the villa of Monclova, I obeyed 
 my orders and accomplished the latter command, finding it im- 
 possible to execute the first. 
 
 A little after my retreat I effected a junction with Gen^eral 
 Negrete, whose headquarters were at Saltillo. On the morrow 
 the Government united with the forces, and journeyed in com- 
 pany to the Hacienda del Anhelo. From this point the Govern- 
 ment resolved to progress, by the way of Parras, to Chihuahua, 
 carrying along with it General Negrete, who ofGiciated as Minis- 
 ter of War. 
 
 The responsibility of saving our army was committed to my 
 charge, although in an indirect manner, for I had not been 
 nominated GeneraJ-in-Chief, but assigned to the command of the 
 rear guard, following in the wake of the Government. This 
 circumstance is to be noted as explanatory of the manner in 
 which I was forced to assume the responsibility. 
 
 The army was absolutely destitute of commissary stores, 
 while the military chest contained not a single dollar. Its route 
 lay over the most inhospitable and uninhabited section of the 
 national territory ; for the greater part over a fearful desert, 
 
27 
 
 devoid of grain and forage for tlie cattle. Beside, on tliese 
 barren plains it was liable to be attacked and cut to pieces by 
 tbe Prencli forces for the want of the necessaries I have 
 mentioned. 
 
 It is likewise to be remembered that, if the army was unpro- 
 vided with a dollar to supply its absolute necessaries, it was not 
 from want of means, which could have been provided before- 
 hand, especially as two months had elapsed after the retreat had 
 been determined upon. 
 
 Th Government had abandoned a plaza, which it had occu- 
 pied during several months, replete with resources, as was that 
 of Monterey, where it could, and did, avail itself of the revenues 
 from the frontier custom hojises of Matamoras and Piedras 
 Negras. 
 
 I took my line of march in obedience to orders I had received. 
 On the road I notified the Government that the French army 
 was only four leagues distant, and received in reply a written 
 order signed by Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, saying that I 
 should abandon all my artillery and trains and limit myself to 
 saving the personnel only of our army, to effect which I was free 
 to take any measure I should deem expedient, 
 
 I remonstrated energetically to Senor Lerdo de Tejada, that 
 acquiescence in the order I had received, would in no way result 
 in saving the personnel of our army, inasmuch as we would 
 abandon the only means of its salvation in voluntarily sacrificing 
 our war material, while at the same time we were compromising 
 the honor of our arms. I said, however, that if, notwithstanding 
 any opposition, the Government should insist upon observance 
 of that order, it should be communicated to me ofiicially, to 
 absolve me from responsibility. My argument was attended 
 to, and the Minister answered that the Government approved of 
 my determination not to anticipate voluntarily the sacrifice of 
 material, but to await the chances of a battle. The French army 
 avoided a conflict at that time. 
 
 I continued my march without interruption, losing, it is true, 
 in the desert, a third or fourth part of our army, hundreds of 
 mules, and a greater part of our munitions of war. 
 
 I then gave notice to the Government, located at the Villa del 
 
28 
 
 Almo de Parras, that I had detected symptoms of a dissolution 
 of the forces, as well as from scarcity of provisions and stores, 
 as from consequences of the privations endured by the army. 
 
 To avoid that calamity, I received an order from the Minister 
 of Eelations not to separate myself from the body of ray troops. 
 
 At the Hacienda of Santa Rosa a council of war was sum- 
 moned by the Grovernment, at which, after hearing the opinion 
 of the ministers, I received the appointment of Commander-in- 
 Chief of the army. 
 
 At the same time there were accorded to me extraordinary 
 powers to procure a supply of metallic currency, of which the 
 army stood in absolute need, with the restriction, however, of 
 acting, on this point, in concert with Greneral Patoni, the Con- 
 stitutional Governor of Durango, in which State was located both 
 the army and the Government, who would effect some arrange- 
 ments with the landed proprietary to supply the wants of the 
 soldiers. Patoni assured me of the impossibility of enforcing 
 contributions upon the landholders, reduced to penury through 
 the hardship of the war. If this were true, as it doubtless Avas, 
 it only went to aggravate the privations of the troops, caused 
 through the intentional want of foresight in the Government. 
 It was under the circumstances of this unavoidable nature that 
 the army, whose dissolution was inevitable, was placed under 
 my orders as Commander-in-Chief. The warmest advocate for 
 my appointment, as I learned from the Minister of War, was 
 Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. 
 
 It is worthy of note, that if the condition of the army was bad 
 when it commenced its retreat from Anhelo, it grew notoriously 
 worse, as was natural, from the causes I have related. 
 
 It is more worthy of note, that when I took charge as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, the coffers of the Government contained 
 thousands of dollars, reserved for its own use and that of its 
 employees, whom it preferred to the salvation of an army, 
 whose privations had ascended to a point of heroism — an army 
 which had been raised at a heavy cost to the States of Durango, 
 Coahuila, Neuvo Leon and Zacatecas. 
 
 At the Council of "War, of which I have spoken, I delivered 
 my opinion, in terms perfectly intelligible to the Government, 
 
29 
 
 that we should not destroy, piecemeal, the material upon which 
 we depended, and that we should take advantage of the extent 
 of our line to harass a formidable enemy. At the same time I 
 advised giving battle to the hostile forces, regardless of the point 
 of attack or the number of their reinforcements, inasmuch as, in 
 in this manner, if fortune proved propitious to us, we might 
 capture some city of importance, and if the reverse, it was pre- 
 ferable that our army should be destroyed through chances of 
 war than through want and misery, to the dishonor of the 
 Government and our arms. 
 
 I commenced my march from Santa Eosa, and posted myself 
 between the States of Durango and Zacatecas, both occupied by 
 the invading army. A few days afterwards occurred the battle 
 of Majoma. 
 
 The fortune of war caused us to lose one of two points occu- 
 pied by our troops and artillery. I retook the point only to lose 
 it again. 
 
 The death of the brave Colonel Fernandez y VillagTanta, who 
 commanded the battalions of Zacatecas, as well as the loss of the 
 leaders of distinction, and particularly the wounding of General 
 Don Eugenio Castro, whom I had ordered to lead a charge of 
 cavalry, introduced confusion among our ranks, which disorder 
 was soon checked through the ability of our of&cers. Under fire 
 of the enemy our bodies of the National Guard remained firm. 
 Evening approached rapidly, when I perceived that the heat of 
 the conflict, the physical prostration, engendered through priva- 
 tion and the march through the desert, had so far worn out the 
 national troops that I ordered a retreat. It was effected' in the 
 most orderly manner, in the full sight of the French army, who 
 dared not follow us ; conseqiiently we left behind us but a portion 
 of our artillery and the corpses of our brave and patriotic 
 militia, whom we were forced to leave on the field of battle. 
 
 It is not my intention to narrate, in a detailed manner, an account 
 of all that befel us upon that disastrous day, for those matters I 
 have already of&cially reported to the Government. My object 
 is merely to connect the thread of events. Our forces retired in 
 the best possible order, to the town of San Miguel del Mezquital, 
 and disbanded during the night of the same day on which 
 
30 
 
 occurred our reverses at Majoma. No discipline could have 
 averted this final calamity. Every man conceived that he had 
 discharged his duty, and that the war could be more successfully 
 carried on in detached bodies. The only aspect for a contrary 
 course, presented to them, seemed that of privation and the desert. 
 Senor Juarez was at that time in the town of Mazas, await- 
 ing the result of my expedition, where he was visited by more 
 than a hundred leaders, desirous of receiving facilities and orders 
 to continue the campaign under other auspecies. But he did not 
 await their action, for, aware of the disasters occurring to our 
 forces, he withdrew to Chihuahua, one hundred and fifty leagues 
 from the place we occupied. 
 
 I committed the insignificant remnants of our national forces 
 to the charge of Grenerals Quesada and Caravajal, until the Go- 
 vernment could make some disposition of them. 
 
 I gave the of&cial notice, to which I alluded, and received an 
 acknowledgment, which ordered me to transfer the relic of our 
 army to General Patoni, which I did. In the verbal conference 
 which I had with the Government, I made known to it that there 
 still remained at its disposal a. small escort of cavalry which ac- 
 companied me. This I regarded as my dut}^, and, after a lapse of 
 two or three clays, I received an order to that effect, which I 
 fulfilled. Tacitly I remained awaiting orders, as a general, from 
 the Government ; but this suspense in no wise suited me, so I 
 notified it that I held myself ready to obey orders, and that such 
 disposition could be made of my person as suited ofi&cial inclina- 
 tion, I had no military commission to fulfil, and did not even 
 possess an escort. 
 
 I would add to these particulars many other details respecting 
 the charge made by the Government in one of its decrees, that 
 "while holding the position of General in the army, I had gone 
 to reside permanently in a foreign land, during continuance of 
 hostilities, toithout license from the Government^ and therein aban- 
 doning the army^ its standards^ and the cause of the Bepuhlic,^^ and 
 which is likewise called the official dereliction of voluntarily 
 abandoning the Presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice. A 
 portion of the statements which I intend setting forth can be 
 
31 
 
 substantiated by reputable persons, some well known in the 
 State of Chihuahua, and others of a world-wide repute. Other 
 assertions bear the sanction of the Grovernment, and all observa- 
 tions I shall make are deducible from the state of facts. I 
 arrived in the State of Chihuahua after the disaster at Majoma, 
 some time towards the end of September, 1864, and remained in 
 that state until the end of February, 1865, when I departed for 
 a foreign country. During all this period, in Chihuahua was the 
 seat of the general Government, and for more than three months 
 of the time above named I resided in the same city with the 
 administration . During this period of inactivity I was tendered 
 no command of troops to defend " the standard and cause of the 
 Republic ;" neither was I offered any military commission, great 
 or small, nor did I receive any intimation as to the manner in 
 which my services and good will could be rendered of value to 
 my countrj^, although I ardently desired employment, if only 
 for the sake of appearances. 
 
 The Government had no desire to furnish me with troops, and 
 in this wise deprived me of opportunity to add to my influence 
 beneath a military title ; it preferred leaving me without positive 
 support, and was blind to the privileges accorded me by the 
 law. 
 
 About this time it became incumbent upon the Executive 
 either to relinquish his functions, according to constitutional 
 provision, or to furnish such an explanation of the law as would 
 warrant him constitutionally to prolong his term of office for 
 another year. 
 
 The 30th of November, 1864, arrived, and terminated four 
 years, dating from the election of Senor Juarez. On that day I 
 addressed a communication to that high functionary, through 
 the medium of Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, in his capacity 
 as Minister of Government, enquiring whether it was his inten- 
 tion on the following day to pass over the executive power to 
 me, as it has ceased by legal limitation ; or, if the contrary was 
 his determination, I told him to bestow upon the constitutional 
 law such an interpretation as he might deem proper, whereby 
 we could avoid anarchy, stengthen the exercise of the functions 
 
32 
 
 of the President of tlie "Republic and leave intact the constitu- 
 tional law — a law, sustained by the blood of the Mexican people 
 during a period of eight years in warfare. To such a conception, 
 I added, I would be among the first to give my acquiescence. 
 This he gave me on the same day — November 30th, accompanied 
 by a note, which had been agreed upon at a meeting of the 
 Cabinet, and which bore the signature of Senor Sebastian Lerdo 
 de Tejada. It decided that the constitutional term of office of 
 President Juarez did not conclude in that year (l'~-64), but would 
 expire on the 30th of November, 1865, according to the pro- 
 vision in the constitution. And, notwithstanding this decision, 
 he claims to continue exercising the functions of President, 
 according to the selfsame provision of the constitution, which he 
 has previously interpreted to have closed his career, at the 
 furthermost, upon the 30th day of November, 1865. 
 
 I will insert, at this point, the exact words employed by the 
 minister in his official note, in making his deductions from the 
 premises he had laid down. " For which reason, it is decided 
 that the term of office of the Citizen President of the Republic 
 does not expire until the 30th day of the next year, 1865, con- 
 formably to the evidence and literal tenor of article 80 of the con- 
 stitution^ 
 
 In the same communication he declared me President of the 
 Court. I did not pretend to this declaration, for I stood in no 
 need of it, and neither the condition of affairs at this epoch, nor 
 the interests of Mexico, demanded it. I had been appointed by the 
 nation Constitutional President of the Court in 1862, and the 
 House had declared me to be such in a most solemn manner. 
 The decree, containing this declaration, had received the sanction 
 of the executive and been published throughout the Republic. 
 
 Neither popular opinion, nor the councils, municipalities, gov- 
 ernors and legislatures of States entertained the least doubt upon 
 the fact of my election, and of my being president of the court. 
 To the nation belonged the right of appointing supreme authori- 
 ties, in accordance with the fundamental law, sole source and 
 fountain of authority with us. I did not, therefore, require any 
 other appointment or declaration, and especially one, suited for 
 
33 
 
 for the convenience of Senors Lerdo de Tejada and Juarez in 
 their prospects for a future date — prospects whose tendencies 
 were far from the conservation of the purity of the law, entrusted 
 bj the nation to the guardianship of Senor Juarez. 
 
 The main object of tlie declaration was the destitution of the 
 President of the Court elected by the people, and the substitution 
 of one appointed by Don Benito Juarez, who might have the 
 power of removing him at his individual pleasure. 
 
 Such had been the intention of the government ever since it 
 had left the city of San Luis. Latterly it had suffered no oppor- 
 tunity to escape it to compass its design, even when the oppor- 
 tunities failed to bear the imprint of patriotism. 
 
 In this wise the Government acted, upon its arrival within the 
 States of Neuvo Leon and Chihuahua, when issuing a decree 
 summoning a reunion of the magistrates comprising the court. 
 The summons found me at the head of my division, battling with 
 the French troops within the interior of the republic. 
 
 It was apparent that the sole motive for the decree was the ap- 
 pointment of a President of the Court, who should owe his nomi- 
 nation and creation to the President of the Republic, and thereby 
 remove the prestige derived from a popular election from the 
 person who might, through emergency, act as the substitute of 
 the supreme magistrate of the nation. But the decree failed of 
 effect. Out of respect for the position I occupy, out of respect 
 to the dignity of the nation — the only source whence can come 
 nominations of supreme authorities, and their destitution con- 
 formably to the law — I have preserved intact the charge reposed 
 in me by the voice of the people. Consequently, in my of&cial 
 correspondence with the President of the Republic, I maintained 
 the title conferred upon me by my fellow citizens as President of 
 the Supreme Court of Justice. 
 
 The determination of the Government to continue in of&ce one 
 year longer was acquiesced in by me, as I had previously antici- 
 pated that action, and my object had been simply to obtain a con- 
 struction of the spirit of the law which might become a definite 
 and decisive opinion. 
 
 I did not accept office, neither do I continue to hold it, simply 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 for tlie cause of self-gratification ; during more glowing and less 
 fluctuating periods, wlien fortune smiled upon me with pleasing 
 aspect, I could have obtained official dignities, if not in a man- 
 ner prescribed by the law, at least in such a wise as the law 
 would countenance in a successful leader, during the stormy 
 hours of revolutionary transitions. But I have ever abided the 
 sanction of the popular will, as expressed in accordance with the 
 fundamental law. At that time, as now, I have only asked that 
 respect be paid the law, as a foundation stone in the column sus- 
 taining our institutions, beneath the shade of which we shall pro- 
 gress in greatness, as has been done in the great republic from 
 whose borders I indite these sentences. 
 
 My official communication and the answer from the govern- 
 ment, of which I have spoken, were published in the state jour- 
 nal. There was not the remotest possibility of establishing the 
 court at the city of Chihuahua, as all the magistrates were at a 
 great distance, save the licentiate, Don Manuel Euiz, I had, as 
 I have observed, no military commission for active duty. In 
 order to avoid imputation of doing aught to the disparagement 
 of the G-overnment, and fearing lest my political influence might 
 be seized upon to sanction meetings, ostensibly for social pur- 
 poses, but in reality to distract public opinion, I withdrew myself, 
 as it were, from comingiing with the world, and sacrificed the 
 pleasures of a social state, notwithstanding the hospitable recep- 
 tion tendered me b}^ the chivalric inhabitants of that illustrious 
 and democratic state. 
 
 From Chihuahua I addressed a letter to the President, Juarez, 
 under date of December 28, 1864, No reference is made to this 
 letter in the decrees of the 8th of November. 
 
 In this epistle I stated, that having terminated the business 
 which called me to that city — that is to ascertain whether or not 
 his official term of service had ceased — I found myself without 
 employment since the early days of October, when I had received 
 orders to pass over the forces to General Patoni ; that I had not 
 installed the court, and found it impossible so to do, and that, in- 
 asmuch as the state of affairs might result in a crisis^ from the fact 
 of the President of the Republic and President of the Court being in 
 
85 
 
 one city in company, and liable to capture hy the French forces, hy 
 surprise or otherwise, and in this way leave the nation toithout a 
 head, I requested to be granted a] license as President of the 
 Court, and a passport as a soldier, to take my wsij towards the 
 interior of the republic, or to any of the populations on the sea 
 coast, or to travel by sea to a foreign country, as I should esteem 
 suited to my convenience, and with the object of continuing to 
 serve my country. I transmitted this letter of solicitation officially, 
 omitting only those passages above printed in italics, which I did 
 not think suitable to be incorporated in a public letter, notwith- 
 standing they set forth the most cogent reasons for urging my 
 solicitation. 
 
 My communication was read at a meeting of the cabinet and 
 acted upon, as was natural to anticipate. 
 
 On the 29th, Senor Juarez answered me in reply, saying : 
 " There has been conceded to you the license and passport you 
 solicited, and at the earliest opportunity the respective ministers 
 will forward you the documents indicated." 
 
 On the 30th I received the license granted to me as President 
 of the Supreme Court from the Minister of Justice, together 
 with a passport, issued by the Minister of War. 
 
 I insert this last document at length, because, in the decrees of 
 Benito Juarez an intentional omission has been made with re- 
 gard to the fact of my having a military passport when I left the 
 country, so that an accusation could be brought against toe that 
 " I had gone voluntarily to reside in a foreign country during 
 the continuance of hostilities, without a license from Grovernment, 
 thereby abandoning the army, its standard and the cause of the 
 republic." 
 
 " Secretary of State, Department of War and Marine ; Sec- 
 tion First. — Upon this date the Minister of Justice, Protection 
 and Public Order, makes known to the Citizen President of the 
 Supreme Court of Justice, as follows : 
 
 "In accordance with your petition, relative to having a license 
 granted to you as President of the Supreme Court of Justice, to 
 pass to a point unoccupied by the enemy, with the aim of con- 
 
36 
 
 tinuing to defend in arms tlie independence of tlie Eepublic of 
 
 Mexico, the citizen President has seen jit, in accordance with a meet- 
 ing of the cabinet, to accord you that license for a definite period, or 
 until you present yourself at the seat of the government, or ivhen 
 the government shall call upon you to return, or bestows upon you 
 some commission — leave, in the meantim,e to proceed, either directly, 
 or by traversing the sea, or through some foreign country, to points 
 of the Mexican Republic unoccupied by the enemy, so that you can 
 continue defending the national independence with the forces you can 
 raise, loith the understanding that in all the military undertakings 
 you institute you are to act in concert with the governor and military 
 commander of the respective states, or ivith the leaders of the republi- 
 can forces, so that in conjunction ivith those raised by you, you can 
 harass the enemy, but subordinate to the officers of the su2:>reme gov- 
 ernment, or to the agents to whom such power has been delegated. 
 
 1 convey to you the official answer to your solicitation of 2Sth 
 of the last month, and I have the honor of corresponding with 
 you for the purposes mentioned. 
 
 /;; is transmitted to you on behalf of the Department of War. 
 
 Independence and Liberty. 
 
 Chihuahua, the 30th of December, 1864. 
 
 M. NEGEETE. 
 
 To the Genercd of Division, Jesus G. Oetkga, Present^'' 
 
 From the literal tenor of the document inserted, it can be 
 adduced : 
 
 FiESTLY. — That I had a license, as President of the Court, 
 and a passport, as a soldier, to traverse foreign countries. Subse- 
 quently will be shown the reasons inducing me to dwell outside 
 of the country. 
 
 Secondly. — I had no definite orders to raise this or that force, 
 or to collect together the elements of warfare within this or that 
 period of time, neither was there any time fixed for my reaching 
 Mexican territor}^ after traversing the sea and sojourning in 
 foreign lands, with the sole provision, of defending, upon the national 
 
87 
 
 territory^ the independence of the State, leaving me free to proceed 
 to any point whicli I might consider tlie most proper. 
 
 Thirdly. — The license accorded me, in pursuance of the 
 decision of the cabinet, was for an indefinite period of time, either 
 until I should present myself at the seat of Government, or be 
 recalled, or have some official charge conferred upon me, thereby 
 demonstrating that neither as President of the Court nor as a 
 general in the army were my services for the moment required ; 
 yet, nevertheless, it is apparent that in either or both of these 
 capacities my absence, at a distance from the seat of Government, 
 was desirable. 
 
 Fourthly. — The Government, instead of giving me authori- 
 zation to raise forces in any part, or to collect war materials at a 
 definite position, as it had done for a hundred other persons, and 
 notably for guerilla chiefs, destitute of popular morality, issued 
 to me a simple passport for the purpose of travel, inserting, 
 however, a provision that the forces ivhich I might raise should act 
 in conjunction with the governors and military commanders, and 
 ivith the chiefs of the Eepuhlican forces, luithout interference loith the 
 exercise of military and political functions of the officers of the Su- 
 preme Oovernment or their delegates. That is to say, that the 
 Government precluded possibility in my raising of forces, for 
 how could a Governor, having lost the capital of his State, 
 secure resources or material to make head against an emergency ? 
 What faculty had he to procure them against delegated authority, 
 where power so to do had been denied by the Supreme Govern- 
 ment of the Union ? Could a delegate of the Government, or 
 even his subordinate, sustain me when my circle of action was 
 reduced and limited? Could there be placed at my orders a 
 solitary captain of guerillas, who might serve as a centre for 
 forces which I might raise and discipline for a larger body, 
 when the Government provided in my passport that I should 
 act in conjunction with him ? 
 
 I have demonstrated that I had in my possession a license to 
 traverse the seas to a foreign country. I have, moreover, demon- 
 strate'd that I was recognized by the nation as President of the 
 
38 
 
 Supreme Court of Justice, a duty wtiicli I could not exercise in 
 a judicial capacity, tlirougli the impossibility of convening tlie 
 Court, but a position which I considered solely as the substitute 
 to the President of the Republic, according to the provisions of 
 the law. I have, moreover, demonstrated that I had no military 
 employment, neither army nor forces, be their number ever so 
 small, nor even the material of warfare, thanks to the ofl&cial 
 opposition of the Grovernment. 
 
 I was not annoyed at this disposition in the Executive, for I 
 expected and was prepared for it. The services which I had 
 rendered to my country had bestowed upon me influence, and 
 that influence opposed personal aggrandizement. In remem- 
 brance of recent transactions, transactions which had presented 
 to me many difficulties which I had surmounted, T was induced 
 again to proffer my sword to my unfortunate country. 
 
 In view of intelligence from the interior, and of the disposi- 
 tion of the G-overnment, I determined to retire to a distance 
 from it, 
 
 I distrusted myself. I was uncertain of that which was best 
 for the future of Mexico. I desired to be perfectly correct and 
 sought light. 
 
 I addressed myself for counsel to two illustrious and patriotic 
 citizens, in whom I had confidence, and who formed a part of 
 the circle of the Grovernment of Senor Juarez as his most zealous 
 partizans, and I supposed them, as was natural, cognizant as to 
 the emergencies of the times. Moreover, they were clothed with 
 an of&cial capacity as members of the Greneral Congress — they 
 were Senors Don Gruillermo Prieto and Don Francisco Urquidi. 
 Both were of an opinion that my best course was to proceed 
 to the United States of America, inasmuch as from a port in 
 that country I might journey to Acapulco, by the way of the 
 Isthmus of Panama, and thence enter the Republic from the 
 Pacific coast, and in the meanwhile I might ascertain, in the 
 Grreat Republic, what could be done for the Mexican people, 
 
 I accepted the suggestion and commenced my journey. Per- 
 mit me to remark that the Grovernment was in no wise ignorant 
 as to the course I had adopted ; on the contrary, when I reached 
 the Custom House, at the Paso del Norte, I found an order to 
 
39 
 
 pass my baggage to the United States, which had been granted 
 at the solicitation of my friends. 
 
 Thence I went to Santa Fe, capital of ISTow Mexico. The 
 authorities of that territory informed me of the presence there of 
 a stranger, a Hungarian by birth, who represented himself as a 
 special commissioner of the Mexican Government to recruit 
 volunteers, to negotiate a loan of some millions, hypothecating the 
 imports of the Pacific seaports. It was, moreover, asserted that 
 his credentials were apocryphal, taking into consideration that 
 he was a foreigner unknown to the Mexican residents, and the 
 fact that nations seldom, according to universal custom, commit 
 such trusts to other than their own citizens. On this account I 
 deemed it advisable to institute inquiries, so that if the man 
 should prove an impostor I should cause his arrest and extra- 
 dition to Mexico. 
 
 My anterior acquaintance with this stranger, named Jaymes, 
 was through a letter of introduction, representing him as a 
 colonel, soliciting employment in the division beneath my com- 
 mand in that capacity, but which I refused, as I was unaware of 
 his antecedents. The information I subsequently acquired was 
 that he was among the number of adventurers who travel the 
 world seeking glory and fortune. I saw him three or four 
 times. 
 
 I made investigations into the character of his commission, 
 which I found, in many respects, ample and correct, emanating 
 from Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. He was authorized to 
 raise two thousand men in foreign parts, as well as the sum of 
 several millions, hypothecating for its repayment the revenues 
 of several custom houses on the Pacific coast. The evasive 
 talents of Senor Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada being notorious, 
 it is supposed that he designed merely to corer appearances 
 when he bestowed upon this stranger such ample authority to 
 accomplish great things, when he was confidently convinced that 
 he could do nothing. I explained to the authorities of Santa 
 Fe the nature of the commission bestowed upon the Hungarian 
 gentleman, and returned thanks to them for their zeal in favor 
 of Mexico. I arrived in the centre of the United States during 
 the period of the termination of the great civil war. The press 
 
'40 
 
 indulged in favorable comments upon my arrival, and expressed 
 profound sympathy with the cause of Mexico. It was likewise 
 so with the entire continental press, and that of Europe. It was 
 believed in the United States that I had some authority from 
 the Government, seeing that the period for action was opportune, 
 as in fact it was, that a demonstration should be made in support 
 of Mexico and her independence. The enthusiasm of the 
 Americans in our favor, and in support of the Monroe doctrine, 
 was intense. 
 
 On my passage from New Mexico to New York I was beset 
 by thousands of persons, tendering their services and influence 
 in favor of Mexico, many of them being of the highest social 
 and political position. Generals with a most honorable record, 
 commanding divisions and brigades, whose term of service had 
 expired, volunteered to place themselves under my orders, to 
 further our cause. 
 
 The passage of the Eio del ISTorte could be easily effected with- 
 out impairing the neutral character the general Government at 
 "Washington had assumed, without respect to the Franco-Mexican 
 question. I was, moreover, visited by several bankers of the 
 highest position, who inquired as to the possibility of establish- 
 ing an agency to supply our financial wants and that of warlike 
 material. Persons who represented that they had authority to 
 act on my behalf, which they had not, enlisted, within a few days, 
 thousands of men to go to Mexico, but, as I have said, I gave 
 no sanction to these acts, as I did not wish to lead home ar filibuster 
 expedition. 
 
 Without loss of time, on the 8th of May, I addressed a letter 
 to Senor Benito Juarez, announcing my arrival in the United 
 States, the manner of my reception, and a view of what could be 
 done in favor of Mexico. Beside, Senor Juarez was aware of all 
 this through the newspapars, I wrote, moreover, that I would 
 pledge myself to enroll and equip, on my own part, any number 
 of volunteers he might deem advisable — that I would collect 
 war material to carry on hostilities, as well as an abundant sum 
 of money, so as to be able to elevate the character of the war, 
 and turn it to a fortunate account. All that was requisite to 
 consummate these projects would be his authorization, for I was 
 
41 
 
 unwilling to conclude any contract, or enter upon any enterprise 
 without sanction of him, to whom the nation had committed 
 emergent powers. I offered anew my individual services to 
 Mexico. I furthermore suggested that, should he be unwilling 
 to accord me the desired authorization, he should apprise me 
 to that effect, that I might govern my subsequent actions 
 accordingly. 
 
 I communicated these details in a private epistlCj and not in an 
 ofl&cial note, for I, at that time, held no official commission. This 
 matter was one of mere form, and had the correspondence re- 
 sulted in anything, the results would have been the same, irre- 
 spective of the style of communication employed, 
 
 I appointed a delegate to deliver personally this letter to Senor 
 Juarez, having previously made him aware of its contents. This 
 task was assumed by Don Guillermo Prieto, Administrator 
 Greneral of the Post Office and deputy to the Congress of the 
 Union. It will be remembered that I had quitted Chihuahua 
 in the month of February, It will be remembered, likewise, 
 that my journey across the plains to ISTew Mexico had occupied 
 two months, for it had been undertaken during the Winter 
 season. It must be furthermore remembered, that a period of 
 from two months and twenty da3^s to three months, is necessary 
 for the transmission of an answer to a correspondence between 
 the city of JSTew York and Chihuahua, and even then under 
 favorable auspices as to transit, for it is only during the Summer 
 season that post coaches can travel with rapidity. On this 
 account I did not receive the answer from Don Guillermo 
 Prieto until the commencement of August last. In this letter 
 that gentleman stated that he had fulfilled my commission, that 
 Senor Juarez had listened, with attention and interest, to the 
 details of my letter, as communicated verbally by Senor Prieto, 
 who was given, as he supposed, to understand that I should 
 receive, by the next mail, the authorization I desired. The con- 
 clusion of Senor Prieto's communication conveyed to me a 
 felicitation touching my patriotic sentiments. " Whether or 
 not," he wrote, " the Government accepts of your services, 
 whether or not it renders your projects of utility to the country, 
 you have assumed one of the most noble and disinterested tasks 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 of a Mexican, in discarding all ideas of a personal reward, wMle 
 endeavoring to strengthen the action of the Government, and, 
 without seeking to create a new candidate for political honors, 
 to strive to have Mexico continue, with unanimity of will, de- 
 fending the cause of right, guided by a solitary intelligence — 
 that of the legitimate Government." With a subsequent mail, 
 towards the end of August, I received a further communication 
 from Senor Prieto, which related to me that, notwithstanding his 
 previous impressions, it was now apparent to him that the Go- 
 vernment did not intend to bestow upon me the authorization, 
 but whether or not, I should receive some response from Senor 
 Juarez. Yainly I awaited its receipt by the next mail and 
 the one folloAving. It was in September, and my anterior 
 correspondence had incurred no interruption. I waited upon 
 Senor Eomero, the Mexican Ambassador, near the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, and inquired whether any com- 
 munication had come through his hands for me from the 
 Government of the Mexican Republic, and he answered in the 
 negative. 
 
 I comprehended from all this that Senor Juarez never would 
 answer me, nor did ever intend so to do. He believed that, had 
 I received any such document, it would have served to refute 
 the fallacies upon which are based the decrees of the 8th of 
 November ; which said documents, I verily believe, were at that 
 very time in course of fabrication at the paper mill of the 
 Minister Tejada. I comprehended, moreover, that these ne- 
 gociations were being carried on with the sole aim of detaining 
 me in the United States, so that by putting in play the jugglery 
 of bad faith, it would be impossible for me to return to Mexico 
 before the first day of December, 
 
 It would be futile to vindicate my conduct to my fel- 
 low citizens, as against the charges promulgated in these decrees, 
 for a critical examination of them, through the impartial light of 
 reason and philosophy, renders such an explanation unnecessary. 
 These same decrees declare illegally " that there exists cause to 
 proceed against me" and adds most falsely " that I abandoned vol- 
 uniarily the office of President of the Supreme Court of Justice, 
 and that, holding the position of general in the army, Iivent tore- 
 
43 
 
 side psrmanently in a foreign land during the continuance of hos- 
 iilities, ivithoul license from the government^ and therein abandoned 
 the army, its standard and the cause of the republic" while in 
 those same decrees, I repeat, wherein Senor Don Benito Juarez 
 declares himself President of the Republic, he likewise de- 
 clares that neither the Constitutional President of the Supreme 
 Court, nor the President named by the Constitution, shall 
 enter npon the functions of their office. This is the sole 
 and simple object which dictated the promulgation of these 
 decrees. 
 
 If I had acted as Senors Juarez and Lerdo have acted, 
 trampling under foot republican principles, outraging constitu- 
 tional order, violating the solemn obligations of an oath assumed 
 for the welfare of the people, I would have done better to imitate 
 the coup d'etat of Commonfort, alleging as a pretext, as has ever 
 been alleged, the salvation of Mexico; for the scandal would 
 have been the same, tlie lack of loyalty to the people the same, 
 and the political results the same. A single difference might be 
 detected ; in the coup d^etat of Commonfort there was but little 
 frankness and civil valor ; in that of the 8th of November even 
 these qualities were wanting, as in their stead were substituted 
 words and sophisms, which, although insulting to popular intel- 
 ligence, fail to deceive the people. 
 
 I abandoned the standards of the army and the cause of the 
 republic, say Senors Juarez and Lerdo — ^in other words, that I 
 betrayed my trust. And this is set forth in a document Avherein 
 'they betray their own — the gravest trust which could be commit- 
 ted to mortal man. To extenuate their own transgressions they 
 confuse me individually with another capacit}^, that of the person 
 prescribed by law to succeed to exercise of the supreme power. 
 I to abandon the standard of the army and the cause of the re- 
 public ! Can it be imagined that an humble citizen, called by 
 the will of the people to assume a position of the highest dignitj^, 
 and that without intrigue and solicitation on his part, would vol- 
 untarily depart from the rules of honor and decency ? Can it 
 be imagined that an humble citizen, freely assuming his place 
 among the ranks of the nation's defenders, disdaining the joys 
 and pleasures of a peaceful hearthside, contem.ning the luxuries 
 
44 
 
 of a home and the flatteries of a social position, to struggle in 
 the cause of liberty and order, would voluntarily abandon the 
 principle of honor, which called him into being as a sol- 
 dier? 
 
 What man would desert the executive chair as Grovernor of a 
 State? What man, already honored through the nation's voice 
 with the high dignity of President of one of the supreme powers 
 of the United States of Mexico, would go forth to battle against 
 foreign invaders of his country, would defend the walls of a city, 
 wherein he was taken prisoner while defending his flag, and at 
 the last hour abandon the cause of duty and honor? What 
 man, escaping from a dungeon and liberated through honorable 
 means, would offer his sword and his patrimony to the service 
 of his country, would contend against intrigues and difficulties, 
 would levy forces after forces to hurl against the invaders, 
 wherever they appeared, and in the hour of national trial basely 
 desert the army, its standard, and the cause of the republic? 
 How can it be pretended that I fled, abandoning the Presidency 
 of the Court, when I was travelling for the good of the country, 
 with the license of and a passport from the Government? 
 When in that license and passport there had been committed to 
 me no trust to fulfil, no duty imposed wherein I could make de- 
 fault, was it a crime to intimate to the Government that in the 
 position in which I found myself I could do much, very much 
 towards the salvation of your and my native land? Was it a 
 crime to reiterate, time after time, that any person was subject to 
 its orders, so that my services could be rendered useful to the 
 common weal, and all this without having been favored with a 
 response to the epistle I sent it? 
 
 In what did I neglect my duty as a Mexican? Wherein, 
 yielding to the emergencies of m}^ position in a foreign country, 
 did I make default in any order, when leaving all projects I 
 made to the satisfaction of the Government? When the Govern- 
 ment received my dispatch it should have answered frankly and 
 openly that the country had no need of my services abroad, and 
 indicated to me the route I should take to return homeward. 
 Had that been done it would have been nearer the truth when it 
 declared to the nation that I remained abroad 'permanently^ 
 
45 
 
 although neither hefore or after did I receive the least intimation that 
 my presence was necessary vpon Mexican soil. Is not an imputa- 
 tion of this natare a pure calumny ? Is it worthy the dignity of 
 the Government? Will such weak inventions, to be detected by 
 those unversed in political matters, satisfy an accusation in the 
 eyes of a people acquainted with the fundamental principles of 
 the law ? Can any man fail to ] erceive in the decrees and the 
 circular, which attempted to divest me of the responsibility and 
 functions of the President of the Court, and nominated another 
 in my stead, a declaration that neither I nor he could succeed to 
 the supreme power, as provided for in the constitution. Who 
 fails to perceive, I repeat, that all these documents have a single 
 object, a single aim — that of perpetuating power in the hands of 
 those issuing them? If my presence was necerjsary, as Senors 
 Juarez and Lerdo would have us understand, to prevent the State 
 from being without a head, why concede a license ybr an indefinite 
 'period of time ; and which, from its literal interpretation, suffered 
 me to traverse seas and to journey to foreign lands ? If emer- 
 gencies, unknoAvn at the time of granting the license, occurred 
 subsequentl}^, why was I not recalled ? It is only in frank and 
 truthful actions that a loyal government can account for the trust 
 committed to it by the popular will. If, as has been pretended, 
 the independence of Mexico required exercise of all human 
 energies ; if to its cause all other interests should have been made 
 subordinate, why was denied me the authorization I desired, 
 through which, in a foreign land, I might have jDroved of advan- 
 tage to Mexico ? It was because it was feared that I might 
 acquire influence, which did not suit the interest of others ; illy 
 disguised as it is, the fact is true. 
 
 To what other cause can this be attributed ? Was it because 
 the Grovernment had need of my services to take the head of af- 
 fairs, should a vacancy occur, or was it to fulfil my judicial 
 functions? It will be seen that the court had never assembled, 
 for it was impossible for it to do so; it will be seen, moreover, 
 that I had a license and passport to leave the seat of government 
 and traverse territories and seas to a foreign country. Was it 
 because the Government conceived it necessary to entrust to me 
 some commission of national utility ? It will be seen that I had 
 
46 
 
 no employment at Chiliualma, nor when I quitted that place. 
 "Was it because th.e Government had not received my letter? It 
 is proven that the letter was received, as v/ell hy the testimony 
 of Senor Prieto as by that of numbers of other respectable citi- 
 zens of Chihaahua. Was it because there was lacking in me 
 aptitude, representative abihty or national confidence ? Possibly 
 I may have been wanting in the first and confess it ingenuously 
 and in all modesty, but perchance the deficiency was not per- 
 ceived when States, Grovernors and the people have honored 
 me with evidences of their confidence in my representative 
 ability. 
 
 There can be wanting neither representative ability nor 
 national confidence in a man who has been elected deputy to the 
 constituent Congress of Zacatecas and the Federal Union ; to 
 one who has acted officially as Minister of War ; to one who has 
 been elected, by popular suffrage, Governor of one of the princi- 
 pal States of the Republic ; to one upon whom has been bestowed, 
 by the General Don Santos Degollado, the most ample functions 
 for the military command of the States of San Luis Potosi, 
 Durango, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas ; to one who, a little 
 while thereafter, had been appointed General-in-Chief of the 
 Federal army of the Republic, and charged with extraordinary 
 powers for finance and v/ar ; to one to whom we are indebted for 
 the definite triumph of Reform and legal order ; to one who has 
 received, during this emergencj^, the military command of the 
 States of San Luis, Aguascalientes Zacatecas and Tamaulipas, 
 with extraordmary powers for war and finance in the three last, 
 together with everj^ branch of administration for the government 
 of the former ; to one unto whom has been confided the com- 
 mand-in-chief of the army of the East, and invested with the full 
 authority necessary to govern the States of Puebla, Yera Cruz 
 and Teaxcala ; • to one to whom the popular vote has conferred 
 the Presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice; to one upon 
 whom the popular voice has concentrated as among the candi- 
 dates for the Presidency of the Republic? No, against a man 
 who has been entrusted with all these dignities cannot be charged 
 lack of representative ability or national confidence — which 
 cannot rationally be expected in a stranger who holds in this 
 
47 
 
 country neither position nor family, and to whom the welfare of 
 Mexico is a matter of perfect indifference. 
 
 It was during September that I prepared to leave New York 
 for Mexico, when I was detained by an order for my arrest upon 
 civil process, as was noted by the newspapers at the time. 
 
 I believed that the order would have been disposed of briefly 
 on account of the manifest injustice of the claim, which was 
 decided afterwards as unjust according to the legislation of this 
 country. I pressed the matter forward, but it was retarded by 
 the intricacies of the law, exerted to my disadvantage. The hand 
 of intrigue put in motion all the springs to obtain that object, 
 assisted by that of treason. All concluded, finally, through the 
 honesty and impartiality of the judges, who dismissed the com- 
 plaint on the 8d day of November, when the order was revoked. 
 The latest letters received in New York from El Paso del Norte 
 intimated that the G-overnment was to remove to the frontier 
 post of Piedras Negras. Thither I proceeded, and there received 
 notice that Senor Juarez had retrograded to Chihuahua, as the 
 French had evacuated that city. At the same time I received 
 some vague intelligence concerning the decrees and circulars of 
 the 8th of November. 
 
 While in Piedras Negras I addressed a letter to' Don Andreas 
 S. Viezca, invited him to an interview, and awaited his coming 
 upon this side of the river, at Eagle Pass. Senor Viezca was a 
 chivalric, honorable and intelligent man, and, I believe it useless 
 to add, appointed Governor and military commander of the State 
 of Coahuila by Don Benito Juarez, by virtue of the extraordi- 
 nary powers conferred upon him. 
 
 Senor Viezca presented himself at the conference, and alluded 
 to the circular and decrees I have mentioned, and desired to 
 learn, in his official capacity, which he held on behalf of the 
 nation, in what light I regarded the circular and decrees of the 
 8th of November. I replied that for my part I did not come to 
 disturb public order ; that I travelled alone and incognito^ having 
 refused the forces tendered me by my friends, as well as the use 
 of orders and recommendations from most distinguished persons 
 in the United States, who had offered me an escort while upon 
 American territory ; that I desired Mexico to regard an exhibi* 
 
48 
 
 tion of this nature as a testimony of its political advancement in 
 the republican system ; that I would present myself with no other 
 forces than my own support ; without other title than that given 
 by the law ; and trusted that Senor Juarez would deliver over 
 to me the supreme power, for no other reasons than those assigned 
 by the provisions imposed upon him by that same law. 
 
 To the honor of Mexico be it said that it had already witnessed 
 a spectacle of this character when a victorious army, flushed with 
 success, called Don Benito Juarez, President of the Supreme 
 Court of Justice, to the presidential chair, which he acquired 
 through no other title than that given him by the law, the same 
 as the Eepublic confers upon other citizens. Senor Viezca stated 
 to me that he had no desire to enter upon an official conference, 
 neither would he touch upon the question of legality ; he would 
 only say to me that he had received an order, decree, or circular, 
 to warrant my arrest, which had, as he said, been issued by the 
 Government of Don Benito Juarez within appropriate time — 
 that is to say, during the month of ISTovember; — that he was 
 disposed to obey the summons and to make the arrest. His secre- 
 tary added, " Not only to make the arresihut to cause me tohe shoty 
 
 I replied to Senor Viezca that it was necessary to terminate, 
 in a decorous and dignified manner, a question so deeply affect- 
 ing the interest of Mexico ; that it was requisite that he should 
 allow me to pass through the State he governed, thence to travel 
 to Chihuahua, with the aim of seeking an interview with Benito 
 Juarez, so that I might demonstrate to him by word of mouth 
 the evils which he would cause the nation should he persist in 
 the course he had taken, or whether he could not remedy the 
 error he had committed. I told him, finally, that if he would 
 assume the responsibility of the step I indicated, I would cross 
 the river and place myself within the State of Coahuila, and 
 not upon foreign territory, where he would be at liberty to arrest 
 me, dispose of my person, or take me prisoner to Chihuahua, so 
 that I might demonstrate to the nation that I comprehended my 
 duty and would comply with it. 
 
 Senor Viezca refused to accede to my proposition, but indica- 
 ted to me that I might pass through Chihuahua by the plains of 
 Texas. 
 
49 
 
 In fact there had been issued an order, decree, or circular by 
 the Government, the exact form of which had escaped me, but 
 whose contents I remember, authorizing the arrest of those so- 
 journing in a foreign land without special leave from the Grovern- 
 ment, and those who were living abroad by leave from said govern- 
 ment given to traverse the foreign territories. This order, decree, or 
 circular had for its object my person, and, although unjust, it was 
 legal on a certain point, for the convenience of the Government 
 de facto^ but at the same time general. A multitude of leaders 
 and officials had previously abandoned the Government in Chi- 
 huahua after rendering long services, without resources, but with 
 hearts filled with faith, at the advance of the French troops to- 
 wards that city, which they deserted to go across foreign 
 territory, and thence to return to the country to continue the 
 struggle for independence. Others had suffered privations on 
 the frontiers of Mexico, after fighting with bravery ; others 
 again went involuntarily into foreign countries, either to cure 
 their wounds or to gather fresh strength to continue in the 
 struggle for our liberty. 
 
 With ample concurrence of the Government, many of the 
 most influential men of the country had gone to foreign territo- 
 ries ; notably, General Don Placido Yega, who held a commission, 
 I believe ; General Don Pedro Ogazon, General Don Manuel 
 Doblado, General Don Felipe B. Berriozabal, who extorted a 
 passport to reside in a foreign country, and many others of more 
 or less influence, some with passports and others expelled, or 
 forced out by the Government. A general, who had lost his 
 army, raised by his individual efforts, and could have raised 
 more, had he not been beneath ban of the Government, 
 did not declare that he went forth to engross the files of treason, 
 neither was he exiled to a foreign land, but forced thither by 
 more efficacious means. In place of giving him troops, for the 
 Government had none, or the means of raising and organizing 
 them, it placed him in a humiliating and undignified position, to 
 which the Government contributed from its seat, successfully 
 erected in city after city. This conduct resulted in weak men, 
 without restraint upon their passions, augmenting the catalogue 
 of traitors, both as military men and politicians, while others of 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 the refugees went forth into foreign lands, protesting to the 
 thinking world against the invaders of their country, and 
 against the Government, whose imbecility rendered it responsible 
 for these shameful disorders. 
 
 I had frequently spoken to Senor Juarez as to the bad impres- 
 sion caused by this exode of influential persons, and prayed him 
 to put a stop to it in the most determined manner. At that time 
 General Doblado and Colonel Eincon Gallardo, both Governors 
 of the State of Guanajuato, quitted Monterey. But he did not 
 decree at that time against the evil, as he has now done, when 
 his object is to entrap my person. 
 
 Placing my hand upon my heart I have inscribed this mani- 
 festo, and have asked myself many times has it not been done 
 for the best interests of Mexico, my place of nativity, the 
 receptacle of the ashes of my forefathers, wherein is preserved 
 all I hold most dear and sacred, memory of my past and present, 
 and are not my conclusions justifiable ? My conscience answers 
 in the affirmative. I have defended the Government of Juarez 
 with the loyalty of a gentleman, with my sword and my voice, 
 for six or seven years ; I have sanctioned it with my signature ; 
 I reverenced it as that of my native land, while loyally support- 
 ing the standard of the law, the palladium of public rights ; but I 
 do not honor those who make a burlesque of their fellow citizens, 
 who break through the obligations of their oaths, who betray 
 the law, be they called either Commonfort or Juarez. I neither 
 honor, nor will I ever honor those who dishonor my country, 
 who have made it a scoff to the world, asserting through example 
 that Mexico has no laws which cannot be trampled down at the 
 will of a mandarin, although at this very time Mexico is deluged 
 with the blood of her children, in defence of the banner of law 
 and order. 
 
 I have been one of the chieftains of the people. I have raised 
 thousands of men to go forth and battle for the principle of legal 
 order against one of the most powerful nations of the earth ; I 
 have seen the blood of my countrymen wet the soil of their 
 birth, I have seen the resting places of the dead desecrated, our 
 towns and cities pillaged and burned, and all this in defence of 
 
61 
 
 that principle. I have, therefore, a double duty which my con- 
 science dictates, in view of these numerous and sanguinary 
 sacrifices. 
 
 I have not heaped upon the Government useless or unnecessary 
 charges, dictated by a personal sentiment. The public is my 
 judge, before whom my writings will be exposed, when the heat 
 of anger and passion has passed away. I have defended law and 
 order because it was my duty ; if others have been remiss in 
 their duty, it has been no crime of mine to remain silent. I have 
 defended my person, not as an individual, but as an officer 
 charged by the public will with the salvation of a principle. I 
 have retraced at length the errors committed by the Government 
 and for its personal motives, but not until that Government has 
 consummated an official act which tends to destroy the law in the 
 place of preserving it. I have protested against this act, that the 
 people shall learn the errors of past and present Government, so 
 as to draw their conclusions from experience gained by the nation 
 during a brief yet melancholy apprenticeship. 
 
 I have no desire to tarnish the glory of my country. Glory, 
 indeed, belongs to a nation who has maintained a four years 
 straggle with a powerful enemj^, who has used every endeavor 
 to divide its defenders and maintain a ceaseless combat. Glory, 
 indeed, belongs to a nation, not one of whose states, towns or 
 cities have given adherence to intervention unless beneath pres- 
 ence of foreign bayonets. Glorj^, indeed, to a nation who has 
 preserved its cities, ever open to the access of the authorities, 
 even if they do not come at the cannon's mouth, but in the name 
 of the law. Glory to a nation, who, having lost its army, with- 
 out moneys, stores or material, improvises bands after bands to 
 rally around the standard of independence — of heroes, born with 
 the emergency, springing from the bosom of the people and 
 willing to lay down their lives in a martyrdom for liberty. 
 
 Neither have I tarnished the glory of Senor Juarez, who has 
 himself destroyed it, and with it his previous good fame. His 
 glory was that of a Governor, who should have placed himself at 
 the head of his legions to show to his fellow citizen, by his own 
 example, how to defend the independence of the country or 
 perish in the attempt. 
 
52 
 
 But he exercised no judiciousness in the selection of persons, 
 for we have seen generals in a foreign land, who had served 
 loyally and patriotically, remain without their services being ren- 
 dered usefal to the country, as well as those who had filled high 
 official positions. We have seen governors, who had faithfully 
 performed the functions of their office, superseded by others of 
 his creation ; moreover, we have seen generals, ministers and gov- 
 ernors named by him, deserting to the cause of treason. The 
 glory of Benito Juarez was derived from the democracy, which 
 ever progresses with reform and liberty, from that government of 
 the people which takes the law as its guarantee. 
 
 If then Senor Juarez has tarnished his own glory by following 
 in the footsteps of men traveling on the wrong road before him, 
 I am not the only Mexican who has involuntarily obeyed the in- 
 stinct of duty and narrated that which the Grovernment has done 
 by its own acts. Nevertheless, the glory of Mexico remains 
 immaculate, for it cannot be stained by the errors of a man, nor 
 decried by the intrigues of others. 
 
 Mexicans, I believe that I have fulfilled the obligations I con- 
 tracted with you. I believe I have done so during this solemn 
 trial of the country, when prudence should dictate conciliation 
 with those remedies required to rectify infraction of the law. 
 
 Fellow citizens, believe me, I speak from my heart. If the 
 salvation of our common country demands as a sacrifice on my 
 part that I shall never again tread the blooming turf of my 
 native land, nor breathe the balmy air of its sunny clime, and no 
 longer defend in your midst our nation's banner, cheerfully will 
 I submit to the sacrifice, and seek a death spot in some foreign 
 land. But if, on the contrary, you believe that the cause of law 
 and order has need of my presence as a rallying point, if you 
 believe that my coming to Mexico will dissipate the evil conse- 
 quences inflicted upon it by the Grovernment, I am yours through 
 the convictions of honor and duty. Act with circumspection, 
 and whatever you do, let it be to reclaim the honor of MexicO) 
 and you will work out its salvation. 
 
 JESUS a. ORTEGA. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar, December 26th, 1865. 
 
DOCUMEJ»[TS 
 
 KELATIYE TO THE 
 
 ™ -•-^0 1 
 
 EX-PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 
 
55 
 
 A WORD TO THE MEXIGAN PEOPLE. 
 
 I publisli the accompanying documents, believing them neces- 
 sary to the end I contemplate. 
 
 "With me it is an established principle never to depart from 
 the pathway my conscience and sense of honor dictates, 
 no matter what adverse influences may be brought to bear 
 upon me. 
 
 I make this statement, actuated by no egotistical motives, but 
 simply because I conceive that my native land, in the hour of 
 her calamity, demands, and should receive, an explanation as to 
 my future line of conduct. Silence under such circumstances 
 would reveal a cowardly disposition, and, consequently, I feel 
 myself compelled to give an exposition of my motives, even 
 though I may incur the risk of reiterating statements to which I 
 have alluded in a previous manifesto. 
 
 I assure you that m}'- course is shaped to compass no ignoble 
 ends, neither will I permit personal considerations to intervene 
 in the discharge of my duty, for I shall suppress nothing which 
 does not taint our national honor. 
 
 A few months since I said to Senor Viezca, while upon the 
 frontiers of the United States : " I do not come with a ridiculous 
 design of overturning established order ; I have arrived, solitary 
 and unrecognized, after having refused the physical force tendered 
 me by my friends, so that I shall not be regarded as an element 
 of disturbance. Should you yourself proffer me the strength 
 of your State and your own influence to establish a government, 
 I should decline the offer. My only object, at the present 
 rnoment, is to visit Senor Juarez, to avert, if possible, the evils 
 which he would inflict upon the country, and to inquire of you 
 your opinion as to his conduct." 
 
 The man who acts in this wise takes as his guide the good of 
 his country ; moreover, I give way to none, asking whether or 
 not they would recognize a Government of my establishing. 
 
 A most easy task would it have been for me to create a new 
 
56 
 
 Government in Mexico, possessed of more or less strength than 
 that possessed bj the one of Juarez. I say an easy task, inas- 
 much as Mexico is a nation faithful to and conscious of her rights, 
 and I hold a legal title and a well defined authority, derived 
 directly from the Mexican people, which Senor Juarez does not. 
 I have governed many of the interior States of the Eepublic, 
 commanded national armies, and my political influence has 
 bestowed upon me the confidence of the people. Moreover, 
 during my residence at San Antonio de Bexar, I have been per- 
 sonally visited by many leaders, among them generals of well 
 earned repute, soliciting my return to the Eepublic to operate as 
 a centre of legitimacy, and the salvation of our independence. 
 I have, furthermore, received letters from officers, commanding 
 armies in the field, actuated only to secure tbe safety of our 
 principles, inviting my return to the Eepublic, which documents 
 I do not employ as they were of a confidential nature. 
 
 The task was, furthermore, easy, inasmuch as I had witnessed 
 the reprobation following this violation of the law by Senor 
 Juarez, not alone from persons occupying high positions in Chi- 
 huahua — which State was the official residence of that gentle- 
 man — but from the members of the legislature of that same 
 State, as I have ample evidence to demonstrate, did it not involve 
 a breach of confidence in giving private letters to the light. One 
 of the members of that legislature, of the highest social and 
 political standing, came to me as a commissioner, after a travel of 
 a hundred leagues, for the express purpose of invoking my 
 return, as soon as it became apparent that Senor Juarez designed 
 trampling upon the rights of the Eepublic. That representative 
 stated to me that the State of Chihuahua would not acquiesce in 
 the usurpation of Senor Juarez, but would, on the contrary, 
 repudiate all his acts, which, I believe, it has done. 
 
 And the task was easy, as a final reason, because the late Pre- 
 sident destroyed the sole means whence he derived popular 
 prestige, and, if he lingers in political existence, within a corner 
 of the national territory, it is that he is tolerated from exceptional 
 motives, to which I need not now allude. 
 
 However easy to me would have been the establishment of a 
 government, it was not such an easy task to convince myself as 
 
57 
 
 to the necessity of assuming a prominent part in a drama, repre- 
 senting the Government with conflicting executives, and, at the 
 same time, contending with a foreign power, even though one, 
 having no excuse in lack of national virtue, arrogated to itself, 
 amid the darkness of the pending struggle, powers which had 
 originally been conferred by the people. Yet, had I believed 
 the honor of Mexico, and the honor of Mexico alone demanded 
 my temporary abstainence from establishment of a legitimate 
 government, in the hope either that Senor Juarez would restore 
 to the nation that which he bad unlawfully appropriated to him- 
 self, or that the nation would arouse to a sense of injured dignity^ 
 I likewise believed that the majesty of Mexico should have re- 
 buked the scandalous acts of Senor Benito Juarez, as it has 
 already done in similar cases. Let him be rebuked, inasmuch as 
 the establishment of a legitimate government, by him overridden, 
 has cost the nation more than half a century of blood-staiaed 
 conflicts. Let him be rebuked for having vitiated that very 
 principle for which we are sacrificing human life in a contest 
 with one of the most powerful nations of the earth. Let him be 
 rebuked, for were he not, the nation forfeits title to its own ex- 
 istence, inasmuch as a people, permitting its laAvs to be dese- 
 crated at the option of its ruler, can neither guarantee its own 
 integrity nor hope to advance towards the standard of civiliza- 
 tion enjoyed by nations jealous of their well-being. Mexico, 
 however, thanks to its own endeavors, is progressing steadily in 
 accordance with the spirit of the age, as will be demonstrated by 
 the documents I now publish. Let the nation rebuke the treach- 
 ery of this man for the sake of its own honor, even though it 
 suffers a passing penalty for his transgressions — ^for a nation, 
 struggling for a principle, consecrated within the hearts of its 
 citizens, must inevitably resuscitate with a tenfold vigor. Not 
 so with a people who succumb at the dictation of a man usurp- 
 ing authority, through the vacillations of its sons, to his own and 
 individual aggrandizement, for that people stand for all ages dis- 
 graced in the eyes of Grod and man. 
 
 Mexico will, doubtlessly, preserve her independence, preserve 
 her principles, preserve her honor. Should the caprices of 
 fortune render the salvation of her independence an impossi- 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 bilitj, lier lionor may be saved at all hazards, for all the strength 
 of the world is impotent to destroy the honor of a people who, 
 like the Mexican nation, has struggled around a flag whose 
 tattered folds will bear to the end the inscription of a solitary 
 cardinal principle. Triumphant it will shine in effulgent glory ; 
 down-trodden, it will carry to remote ages the noblest title to 
 heroic martyrdom. 
 
 It may be insinuated, as some have already done, that if 
 Juarez has acted illegally, an admission of the fact would dis- 
 honor him and thereby inflict injury upon the nation. 
 
 Will my silence, or the silence of six or eight other men, pro- 
 pitiate a nation, whose privileges and laws have been trampled 
 under foot by the individual to whose custody they have been 
 entrusted? Can a silence of this nature confer prestige upon 
 a man violating his oath and reprobating his duties? Can it 
 prejudice a nation to protest energetically against wrong perpe- 
 trated in its name? Has it prejudiced Mexico in the eyes of the 
 world to have protested against the creation of a throne upon 
 the land of Hidalgo, and to have proclaimed that the rights of 
 Mexico have been assailed through the usurpation of a foreign 
 armed force ? Does the sentiment of Mexico and the world 
 depend upon expression of our judgment? Will our silence 
 alter the nature of political acts, rendering bad good and good 
 bad? 
 
 The reputation of a public functionary depends neither upon 
 the silence nor the expression of any one citizen, but upon the 
 unequivocal and impartial judgment of society, when popular 
 sentiment canonizes, so to speak, the right and legal procedure 
 of that functionary. None can be ignorant of the fact that when 
 the trials of a nation are at their highest pitch, it is far more 
 noble and honorable to exhibit herself worthy of herself, con- 
 demning all acts that she would have discountenanced, when in 
 the plenitude of majesty and power, or against the dignity and 
 spirit of the law. The heroism of a country, like unto that of a 
 man, is rarely evoked unless beneath bitter trials, imposed upon 
 it through emergent circumstances. 
 
 I herewith publish the correspondence between Senors Juarez 
 and Prieto, relative to the letter addressed by me to the former, 
 
59 
 
 through the medium of this latter, respecting tender of my ser- 
 vices to the Government, while outside of the territorial limits 
 to which I have alluded in my manifesto. To demonstrate the 
 accuracy of my statements in this latter document, it would 
 suffice the public to know that the epistle had been received by 
 the Government. This is not only shown by the correspon- 
 dence, but the additional fact that it was received in May or June, 
 and according to Senor Juarez's authority, was not responded to 
 until September, thereby proving that reply to a communica- 
 tion of vital importance was intentionally delayed for several 
 months. Moreover, I was assured that that which I requested 
 should receive the requisite authorization, without any intention 
 on the part of the Government so to do, and that, while I was 
 awaiting this authorization, I should remain outside of Mexicoj 
 in order that Senor Juarez might publish, in a decree, that I had 
 abandoned the Presidency of the Court, dwelling permanently 
 in a foreign land, without license, and / had not even informed 
 the Government as to lohen I intended returning within the Re- 
 public. I have already stated that I never received an answer 
 from Senor Juarez. 
 
 (Signed), JESUS G. OKTEGA. 
 
60 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL PEESIDENT OF THE SU- 
 PEEME COUET OF JUSTICE OF THE EEPUBLIC 
 OF MEXICO. 
 
 CIRCULAR. 
 
 I herewith,/ send you a copy of the protest and manifesto 
 which I have deemed it incumbent upon me to make public, in 
 regard to the coup d'etat perpetrated by Senors Benito Juarez 
 and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada. 
 
 National, as well as State legislation having been necessarily 
 suspended during continuance of hostilities, nothing remains to 
 direct the administration of public affairs save those high func- 
 tionaries elevated to power through the votes of the people. It 
 is for this reason that I address myself to you, inquiring as to 
 the course of conduct you have adopted with respect to this 
 outrage upon legal order, and whether you repudiate or endorse 
 the act. 
 
 The nation preserves an inherent right at all times, and 
 especially during hours of trial and anguish, to demand from 
 public o£fi.cials the expression of their opinion as to matters 
 touching the common weal. This right conceded, I conceive it 
 to be obligatory upon me, as President of the Supreme Court, to 
 collate all available information upon that head. Did I not do 
 so, I would regard myself amiss in the discharge of the sacred 
 duties imposed upon my position, and most particularly so when 
 we contemplate the circumstances at the present moment affect- 
 ing the country. 
 
 If I, in this instance, avail myself of my title as President of 
 the Supreme Court, and not of that of President of the Eepub- 
 lic, to which position I possess a perfectly legal right under the 
 Constitution, it is because I do not deem it expedient, while the 
 national independence is in jeopardy, to elevate contradictory 
 standards, even though the one be emblazoned with the motto, 
 " Order," and the other with "Abuse of Power," and treason 
 against organic law. Yet my forbearance does not necessitate 
 the Eepublic to recognize as legitimate the ofi&cial acts of Benito 
 Juarez after the 30th day of November last past. Considera- 
 
61 
 
 tions as to tlie national welfare, botli now and for the future, will 
 ever instigate my actions ; nevertheless I will always struggle to 
 reconcile the cause of independence with the absolute salvation 
 of the law. 
 
 Do not on any account presume that this note is designed to 
 solicit your opinion upon an unprofitable business, neither that I 
 have constituted, myself into a judge as to your conduct, No ! 
 the object of this epistle is much more noble and elevated. 
 The nation is undergoing a terrible ordeal, her organic code has 
 been ruthlessly violated, and that at a moment of the nation's 
 crisis, struggling against a foreign invasion and battling to con- 
 serve the form of government instituted b}'- that same organic 
 code, without which independence would be a nullity. The 
 assumption of a solemn oath, my duties, my honor, my patriotic 
 devotion to the interests of Mexico renders it obligatory upon 
 me to exert my most earnest endeavors to preserve inviolate the 
 Constitution and laws, whose creation has cost our nation so many 
 and bitter sacrifices. At the same time a similar sense of duty 
 impels me to exercise an equal devotion towards preservation 
 of our national independence ; consequently I have attempted to 
 effect both purposes simultaneously, rendering the one subser- 
 vient to the other. It is for this reason that I have not appealed 
 directly to the masses, who might manifest their disapprobation 
 of the Juarez usurpation in a temptuous manner. To avoid 
 tumultuous demonstrations from the populace I have addressed 
 myself to the officers of the people, citizens charged with super- 
 vision of popular rights, whose foundation rests upon the 
 observance of the Constitution. 
 
 During peaceful times and those of national quietude, the 
 organic law lays down both the order of succession and the 
 manner wherein each authority and functionary attains exercise 
 of the duties entrusted to them by the people. During an 
 emergent period these provisions ma}'' be departed from. Yet 
 the precedent of history, in similar instances, has demonstra- 
 ted that the most appropriate method of saving popular rights, 
 is one wherein the opinions of the representative departments have 
 been consulted. With this aim we have observed Governors and 
 
62 
 
 local representatives of tlie respective States, either in accord or 
 separately, protest against ignominious acts, wherever they had 
 the power so to do, when such acts were found to be in conflict 
 with the spirit of the law, as the exponent of the will of the 
 sovereign people. 
 
 For the reasons I have given I now address myself to you as 
 a representative of the people, even although you are momenta- 
 rily debarred from the exercise of your functions, so that in 
 your official capacity you may communicate to me your senti- 
 ments upon this matter. While so doing you may discard 
 formalities, as much for the reason that they cannot, at this 
 present moment, be complied with, as from a consideration of the 
 grave circumstances which encompass our, common country. 
 
 Independence, Libertj'- and the Constitution. 
 
 San" Antonio de Bexak, February 8d, 1866, 
 
 (Signed), . J. G-. OETEaA. 
 To the Consiiiutional Governor of the State of 
 
 FROM THE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNOR OF THE STATE 
 OF DURANGO, 
 
 To the Citizen, J. G. Oktega, 
 
 Constitutional President of the Republic of Mexico : 
 
 As a satisfactory reply to your communication of yesterda}^, 
 enquiring as to my opinion of the coup d^etat of Juarez, the 
 manner in which it impressed me, and my projected line of 
 conduct for the future, I herewith transmit to you a copy of a 
 letter which I forwarded to Senor Juarez from Presidio del 
 Norte, dated December 15th, of the past year. 
 
 Independence and Liberty. 
 
 (Signed), J. M. PATONL 
 
 San Antonio, February 4th, 1866. 
 
 PitESiDio DEL Norte, December 15th, 1865. 
 Senor Benito Juarez, 
 
 Paso del Norte. 
 My Dear Friend and Sir : — The circumstance of the French 
 
63 
 
 troops being at the gates of Chihualiua at botli my arrival and 
 departure from that city, the implied bad taste of manifesting 
 my sentiments during the critical moments signalizing our last 
 ioterview, and lastly a determination not to take the initiative in 
 enunciating my discontent at your couij cVeiat, believing that 
 task to be more properly alloted to persons of more considera- 
 tion than myself, impelled me to preserve silence on that 
 occasion, while at the same time my duty instigated me to indite 
 a confidential epistle to you on a matter affecting national 
 interests. 
 
 It is not within my province, neither do I boast capacity 
 adequate to analyze the decrees of the 8th of November. 
 ^Nevertheless, however masterly may be deemed the manner in 
 which the law has been perverted, however applicable and 
 sagacious may be the deductions drawn from the spirit of the 
 law by your cabinet ; in everything not comprised within the 
 circle you have described for your personal advantage every 
 honest citizen perceives that the law has been violated, that 
 there does not exist in your person title sufficient to exercise the 
 functions you have usurped, and that the countr}^ is threatened 
 with the danger of anarchy, when constitutional order could and 
 should have progressed in all its majesty. The grand jDrinciple, 
 secured through triumph of the plan of Ayutla, was the perpet- 
 ual abolition of persons. . By it popular sovereignty' — the soul of 
 democracy — was recognized as a practical truth, and military 
 mobs condemned by the just severity of the people as illegal 
 combinations, who, with more or less plausibility, and stimulated 
 by ambitious leaders, subjugated a populace incapable of re- 
 sistance. 
 
 When I abandoned my peaceful employment and sacrificed 
 my private fortune in furtherance of these principles, and their 
 sustenance through force of arms, combating with like vigor 
 through adversity and success, I was buoyed up with the trust 
 that the law would be our guide, conscious as we were that it 
 would be sustained by the popular vote. 
 
 The citizen soldier can never be rendered an instrument for 
 the destruction of the laws. Called into existence by the nation 
 
64 
 
 he can never convert himself into a traitor to its interests, and as 
 a defender of the Government he can never be induced to con- 
 spire against its interests. According tomy method of observa- 
 tion, and viewed by my conscience, I have no doubt but that your 
 retention of power after the 30th of November is an usurpation, 
 that the naming of your successor is an assumption unknown to 
 our code, and but initiated by Santa Anna during a period of 
 the greatest disorder, and that this comingling of anomalies 
 exposes the country to anarchy, beside depriving it of strength 
 and compromising our name with foreign countries. 
 
 I adjure and pray of you, Senor Juarez, by the lustre of your 
 good fame, by the well merited position to which your virtues 
 exalted you, and by the interest of our common weal, to which 
 your devotion has been an earnest of hope and a source of 
 pride, to retrace your steps upon the road along which you have 
 started, as in your footprints it is impossible for me to follow. 
 
 I take greater pains to communicate to you my resolution, in- 
 asmuch as it should recall to mind memory of the past. You 
 have ever found me at your side, unvacillating and obeying your 
 every order, while you represented the law. You will remem- 
 ber that I have always been one among the first to fly to your 
 defence, and during moments when it happened that personal 
 friends had deserted you, I was too anxious to hasten to your 
 company, eager to identify my destiny with that of the princi- 
 ples which you have guarded heretofore with fidelity. When 
 you ceased to represent principles you deserted me, so that our 
 separation has not been wrought through apprehension of 
 danger, or through momentary emergencies, but because I did 
 not wish to appear as a traitor against laws you taught us to 
 respect. 
 
 This manifestation of opinion, which I submit with the greatest 
 respect and with the best of feeling, does not in the least weaken 
 my resolution to serve my country with the same loyalty I have 
 ever given evidence of, neither will it prevent my union with 
 those who are fighting against the invader with a determination 
 to vindicate our common rights to the utmost extremity. 
 
 Denying beforehand any intimations of disrespect, and with 
 no wish of giving personal offence, on the contrary, actuated by 
 
65 
 
 the sincerest well wishes for your future, I assure you in honesty 
 and frankness, that my sense of loyalty compels me, without com- 
 promising my self with party or person, distinctly to state that I will 
 obey no orders emanating from you as the Government, but will 
 continue to defend my country according to my own inspira- 
 tions, co-operating with those who legitimately, indispensible 
 condition according to my judgment, do so for the salvation of 
 our independence. 
 
 I do not wish to conclude without acknowledging, indepen- 
 dently of my official duties, my personal gratitude for the atten- 
 tions you have shown me. With sincere feelings of esteem, I 
 remain, as ever, your affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 (Signed), J. M. PATONI. 
 
 FROM THE EX-CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNOR OF THE 
 STATE OF MICHOACAN, REPUBLIC OF MEXICO— GEN- 
 ERAL OF DIVISION. 
 To the General of Division, J. G. Oktega, 
 
 Constitutional President of the Mexican Republic : 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the circular, 
 dated 8d of this month, you have communicated to me, inquiring 
 my opinion as to the coup d''etat perpetrated by Senors Benito 
 Juarez and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, through their decrees of 
 the 8th of November of the past year. 
 
 In response, it becomes my duty in the first place to inform 
 you that my term of office, as Constitutional Governor of the 
 State of Michoacan expired on the 16th of September of last 
 year ; that in consequence of the war with a foreign power, I 
 asked leave from the legislature to absent myself and devote 
 myself to the formation of forces for the independence and tran- 
 quilization of our fatherland. • Being so just and necessary an 
 object, the license was granted by the State Congress, and in com- 
 pliance with an article in the Constitution of Michoacan, they 
 appointed as my successor the citizen Deputy, Antonio Huerta, 
 who, by virtue thereof, entered upon the functions of that of- 
 fice, receiving at the same time, and from the same legislature, 
 
 9 
 
authorization to continue in office until a new election is held, 
 that is, provided I should be killed in action, or my term of of- 
 fice should expire by reason of the prolong&,tion of the war. 
 
 Having said this much, it is with pleasure that I respond to 
 the circular of February 3d, in the capacity of the former Con- 
 stitutional Governor of the State of Michoacan, and as one who 
 received that exalted position through popular suffrage. 
 
 In inditing this letter I do not wish to weaken the force of the 
 laws committed to my custody by the people, for I neither desire 
 to maintain a position to which I am not entitled, nor usurp an 
 influence not justly my own, and which only derives honor and 
 respectability when endorsed by the popular vote. 
 
 For these reasons, while enumerating my opinion with regard 
 to the coup dCetat of Senors Juarez and Lerdo de Tejada, you will 
 accept it as the sentiment of a supreme authority, who has 
 been entrusted with the governorship of an important State, and 
 as an expression of opinion from the only Governor elected by 
 the popular voice who could speak in its behalf 
 
 The State of Michoacan regards with deep bitterness the coup 
 d'etat perpetrated at El Paso del Norte, as antagonistic to the 
 principles of the State Constitution, and bedimming the tradi- 
 tional respect with which the laws have ever been regarded by 
 the citizens of that State. I am intimate with the sentiments of 
 my fellow citizens, and well know their obedience to the legiti- 
 mate authority, inasmuch as I am a native of that State, and have 
 had the honor of being at the head of its affairs for eight years, 
 during which period the rule of constitutional order was never 
 once disturbed. On the contrary, the sons of Michoacan, enthu- 
 siastic admirers of law and justice, have ever presented a firm 
 front against the aspirations of ambition and the intrigues of dis- 
 affection. Let the foolish attempts of Commonfort attest the truth 
 of this declaration. In all things, neither has Michoacan nor 
 myself judged otherwise than the laws of the republic owe their 
 creation to aught save the will of the people, and we believe, 
 moreover, that laws once framed cannot be violated by any 
 person at his own will. 
 
 Senor Benito Juarez, who has broken through the constitu- 
 tional defences of the country by a blind mis-step, and who 
 
67 
 
 now unfurls a revolutionarj banner with a hand pledged to sus- 
 tain that of law and order, has not, neither can he have my 
 assent to his decrees of the 8th of November last past. At the 
 period of the never to be forgotten epoch of Ayulta, for the 
 purpose of assisting in crushing out a despot, oppressing the 
 Mexican masses, I marched to the battle field, not only to seek 
 glory in triumphing over tyranny, but to acquire a ground plan 
 whereon the people could erect a nation, so that in the pages of 
 a sacred code they could read their rights and duties. 
 
 No infraction of the laws, nor disobedience to the supreme 
 power has thrown a shade upon my public life ; on the contrary, 
 wherever the fundamental laws of the nation have been menaced, 
 the sons of Michoacan, with myself, have ever been foremost in 
 their defence. 
 
 Benito Juarez, victim of the scandalous coup d'etat of Common- 
 fort, is well aware that among the ranks of the Constitutional 
 army, organized to defend the supreme authority, I have been 
 always ready for the sustenance of the laws, and willing to die 
 before consenting to their violation. It is in such high esteem I 
 hold the cardinal principles of right, acquired through shedding 
 of Mexican blood. 
 
 The consequences of our present war are not mute witnesses of 
 my devotion to the laws. A prisoner of war at Puebla, and trans- 
 ported to France as such, I have never recognized any other 
 cause but that of the Eepublic, nor any other authority than 
 that imposed upon me by the voice of the people, and congenial 
 to the fundamental code. Notwithstanding that obedience has 
 natural limits, and thus, as I would consider it a crime to op- 
 pose legitimate authority, I would regard it a still greater crime 
 to obey one who usurps illegally the sovereign power. 
 
 Benito Juarez has finished his career, for nothing, according 
 to my conception, can authorize his perpetuation in authority ; 
 neither can he exclude the person to whom the law gives the 
 succession in a determinate manner. Consequently, Senor Juarez 
 is but a private individual, and the Presidency of the Eepublic 
 has reverted to the Constitutional President of the Supreme 
 Court of Justice, who is the only man entitled to direct the 
 destinies of the country. Therefore, as the last Constitutional 
 
68 
 
 Governor of the State of Michoacan, or, as general of division in 
 tlie army, you will please accept my opinion, whicH I have set 
 forth in reply to your circular, appealing to those placed by the 
 will of the people to watch, through all time, over the national 
 rights within their respective jurisdictions. 
 
 Please accept the expression of my high esteem. Independence, 
 Liberty and the Constitution. 
 
 (Signed), E. HUERTA. 
 
 New Yokk, February 26th, 1866. 
 
 Constitutional Presidency of the Supreme Court \ 
 of the Mexican Republic : j 
 
 To GUILLERMO PrIETO, 
 
 Postmaster General of ike Mexican Republic. 
 
 I h^erewith send you a copy of the Protest and Manifesto, which 
 I caused to be published in this city, respecting the coup d'etat^ 
 pepetrated by Benito Juarez on the 8th day of November of 
 last year. I sent through you from New York to Senor Juarez 
 the document alluded to. As it was not of a private character, 
 but relative to public and national affairs, I trust that you will 
 supply me with all details in reference to its reception, accom- 
 panying the information with any document you may possess. 
 
 Clothed as you are with an oflScial position, I hope that you 
 will likewise favor me with your views as to the act of Senor 
 Juarez, of which I have made mention, and as to that which 
 you have done either in approving or condemning the same. 
 
 The nation has a right at all times, and more especially during 
 its hours of trial, to learn the conduct of public officers. 
 
 A s for myself, and placed in the position of President of the 
 Court through popular suffrage, I believe myself compelled to 
 gather such information, so as to comply with the obligations 
 imposed upon me by my duty, and the circumstances of the 
 national situation. 
 
 Independence, Liberty and the Constitution. 
 
 (Signed), J. G. ORTEGA. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar, February 3d, 1866. 
 
69 
 
 ih 
 Mexican Republic. 
 
 Office of the Postmaster General of the \ 
 
 To General J. G. Ortega, 
 
 Constitutional President of the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 The misfortune of suffering in my eyesight deprives me of the 
 pleasure of answering your official note autographically, and as 
 extensively as I would wish, consequently I am obliged to send 
 you copies of the documents to which you make allusion. 
 
 The first is a copy of a letter sent to an intimate friend in 
 Chihuahua, and exhibits in the amplest manner my opinion with 
 respect to the coup d'etat, free from all other motives than those 
 of sorrow at the unexpected retention of authority by Senor 
 Juarez. I have the honor of assuring you that my conduct has 
 been entirely consistent with my ideas. At the time I suspected 
 the incredible weakness of the Chief Magistrate of the Eepublic, 
 I demonstrated to him personally, and in the most earnest manner, 
 the consequences of his design. I made public my disapproval 
 of the scheme, and to avoid scandal, sent in my resignation, 
 which was not accepted; while, in my discourse of September 16th, 
 I alluded to the advantages Senor Juarez would obtain by swerv- 
 ing from the path of usurpation. I caused my name to be 
 stricken from the head of the official newspaper when publica- 
 tion of the decrees of the coup d'etat were made. I had pub- 
 lished that paper gratuitously for two years. Finally, crossing 
 the desert, I retired to a foreign countrj^, separating myself from 
 a class of persons attempting to impose upon the nation as law 
 scholastic cunning, which the people will have the good sense, 
 doubtlessly, never to accept. 
 
 The other documents which I forward are copies of letters 
 exchanged with Senor Juarez. They will bear me out in saying 
 that I placed the letter, which you entrusted to me, in the hands 
 of that high functionary ; that he was aware of your being in a 
 foreign country, with the intention of remaining there for a time ; 
 that he never exhibited the slightest disapprobation of your con- 
 duct, and, finally, that he did not answer you until the 7th of 
 September, at a time when it was publicly known that the idea 
 of the coup d'etat existed with the cabinet. 
 
70 
 
 I believe what I have said will cover the object of your note; 
 as for myself, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have 
 performed everything possible, consistent with my duty. 
 
 Independence, Liberty and the Constitution. 
 
 GUILLERMO PRIETO. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar, February 15th, 1866. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 31, 1866. 
 [strictly confidential.] 
 
 My Dear Frank : 
 
 This will be no letter, but a panorama of the terrible shock 
 which I suffer in a painful manner. You will comprehend my 
 meaning by reading the enclosed decree, issued by Benito Juarez 
 on this date — a decree, which it is, at this moment, impossible 
 for me to analyze, as I feel as if I were in the midst of chaos. 
 The decree, as you will perceive, is apparently according to the 
 law, besides being solicitous for the well-being of the army, and in 
 accord with the purest sentiments of patriotism. Ostensibly it 
 is a measure which does not transcend the natural faculties of 
 the executive, against exercise of which opposition would be 
 made only from selfish motives. But a careful perusal will dis- 
 close the .resuitical mask, covering the Presidential question, so 
 as to cloak, during the nation's most solemn trial, in the most 
 audacious and treacherous manner, by surprise, the prologue to 
 the coup ofeiat. It is thrown forth as a secret poison to assassinate 
 legality ; it is designed as an ingenious dagger to pierce un- 
 noticed, but to leave behind an incurable wound. The allusion 
 to Ortega is transparent on every line. It is he who is away in 
 a foreign land, leaving with license and absent for four months. 
 It cannot mean Berriozabal, for he was recalled by express 
 orders, neither is it Huerta and his companions, for they are ex- 
 cluded, Ortega is the party denounced, as any reasonable being 
 can at a glance detect. 
 
 This man, whom the unalterable law declares to be Presi- 
 dent of the Republic ; this man, whose title was confirmed in a 
 solemn manner by the Grovernment but a short year since, when 
 
71 
 
 public opinion accused him of being ambitious, wbetber with 
 reason or not we cannot say, as memory of his defeat at Majoma 
 remains fresh, as accusations from, which he was absolved by Go- 
 vernment, are still being fanned by hate and malice ; this man, 
 I say, is not judged nor condemned, but his power is torn from 
 him, as one dangerous to the common weal, or unworthy his 
 trust. No ! the law is spread as a trap so as to render him help- 
 less ; when, thus enchained, he is wounded and robbed of his 
 legitimate functions. 
 
 Do not think for a moment that I am pleading for Ortega as 
 an individual. I defend him as he, at this moment stands, the 
 personification of right. I neither favor him nor dread him, nor 
 have I evidence to show him preferable to Juarez, but in all 
 justice I regard him as an exponent of the law, whom they desire 
 to override with a cowardly intrigue, concocted in secresy and 
 out of the popular sight. The decree is a confusion of ideas, 
 which renders its unraveling difficult. The Presidential ques- 
 tion is a simple one ; the Constitution places a definite and posi- 
 tive term to the Presidential office, so that a usurpation is impos- 
 sible. It expresses that, no matter ivhai may happen, the Presi- 
 dent of the Court shall be the substitute for the President, when 
 the term of office of this last expires, and no election is held for 
 his successor. The subterfuge of declaiming the incumbents to 
 remain in office until a new election is not expressly set forth 
 but implied, in my estimation. li^irst, because this case is like 
 all others, and provided for in the Constitution. Secondly, be- 
 cause, when the law regulating elections was adopted, the con- 
 trary was held ; and, lastly, because, in the famous answer of 
 Lerdo to Ortega, Government denied the right to change the 
 law. 
 
 Ortega left the country upon leave of absence, advised the 
 Government of his residence, placed his services at its option, 
 wrote directly to Juarez, and still received no sign of its disap- 
 probation. To all of this you are a witness. 
 
 The previous career of Ortega in Chihuahua gave no evidence 
 of irregularity or insolence ; her espected the resolutions of the 
 Government ; he acquiesced in its mandates, and left to make 
 himself useful. But, that nothing should be wanting in this vio- 
 
72. 
 
 lation of the Ikw, it is concocted with ingenious perversion, which 
 is sought to be excused by sophistry and perfidy. Was it an- 
 ticipated or found inconvenient that Ortega should not come into 
 power ? Then, why did they not trump up a thousand reasons 
 or plausible pretexts to incapacitate him ? Was it not rumored 
 that he committed an error while exercising power as Governor 
 of Zacatecas, and thereby destroyed his right to the position of 
 President of the Court ? Was it not reported that he should 
 have been court-martialed for his conduct at Majoma ? If so, 
 why did he continue vested with authority and recognized as 
 successor to the Presidency ? 
 
 We will suppose that Ortega deserves the prosecution so 
 openly instituted against him. What is the power for his judg* 
 ment ? Has not the Constitution prescribed the method of pro- 
 cedure? Is there no restriction imposed upon the faculties 
 which the Government has arrogated, thrusting the future into 
 the embrace of usurpation and absolutism? Why deceive the 
 nation with this assumption of perjury and falsehood? Is it 
 possible that the presence of a foreign enemy renders us blind 
 to the theft perpetrated upon the national laws, upon the most 
 precious of conquered rights? Is not all this formality and 
 falsification the proper weapons of usurpers ? 
 
 Juarez has heretofore been my idol, both on account of his 
 virtues and his having been chosen by the law, for his standard 
 was our glory and our rights, and were we to fail, we must suc- 
 cumb in the defence of the law. What remains of our political 
 edifice? Whom shall we respect? Does it make any differ- 
 ence whether the usurper be named Santa Anna or Commonfort, 
 or Ceballos, as of old, or Juarez, the suicide of to-day ? We will 
 suppose that Juarez was a political necessity, and that his ad- 
 ministration was immaculate. Did he derive reputation apart 
 from his official position ? We will not hazard the presumption 
 that a change would prove distasteful, or that our exterior rela- 
 tions being paralyzed would prove the cause of anarchy. Has 
 not usurpation the same or greater dangers ? What would be 
 the result from the discontent of the adherents of Juarez in the 
 city of Mexico, where they are very few in number ? Is, then, 
 discontent comparable to the disaffection of Negrete, of Zacate- 
 
73 
 
 cas, of the division of tlie army in the State of Sinaloa, and of 
 the remainder of the Eepublic ? Yet all this occurs through 
 the action adopted by Juarez. The partisans of principle will 
 not recognize Juarez in the future, for they advocate principles, 
 not men. Such being the case, will it justify a deliberate rising 
 in favor of Ortega ? What are our foreign relations ? Who 
 will assure us that the United States will continue their sym- 
 pathy after this coup d'etat, as they alwaj'-s follow principles and 
 not persons ? 
 
 And what an instrument to our disadvantage will be this act 
 in the hands of our enemies when knowledge of it becomes 
 diffused to the world at large. 
 
 Anarchy ! It is a word, under the circumstances, which ter- 
 rifies more than it injures ^ it exists already, and through it may 
 be saved the national honor. 
 
 There can be no anarchy when there is unity in thought, and 
 this unity employed to put down the invasion. If Arteaga and 
 Eegules, Fernando Ortega, Eiva Palacios and Eosales, and all 
 the chiefs had been subjected to, or omitted our orders, what 
 would have become of the country ? Anarchy is horrible when 
 the ambition of different men is loosened to run riot. Then the 
 struggle between the strong and the weak commences on the 
 same soil. But the country without a head would have an in- 
 surrection, and that this would be common will be the supreme 
 good of the country. Would not the nation be convulsed to 
 see the flag of the invader disappear, only to give place to 
 another equally illegal and equally detested ? 
 
 In any case, should evil befall the country, Juarez and those 
 who have allured him to his ruin will stand the blame, and not 
 those who follow the path of duty and honor respecting the 
 public will of their country, which is expressly mentioned in 
 their fundamental code. I even go further, and suppose this 
 extraordinary feat of jugglery of Juarez to terminate happily. 
 Is it honorable to follow him ? Is it right to acknowledge such 
 a vaulting over the law ? Ought we to tolerate this act, thus 
 authorizing others of a similar nature, which would very soon 
 follow ? For my part I will not. 
 
 10 
 
74 
 
 I have been so candid with you so far that not even the feai'. 
 of the Constitution's being broken stops me. Our cause is so 
 grand that the glory of driving out the invaders would be un- 
 fading, and this might tempt me to act against the laws. But 
 no, that would be reputation for the life of the country. I have 
 not done it yet. I am not frightened. 
 
 I am frightened to contemplate Juarez as a revolutionist, inert, 
 crippled, haggling, occupying himself with misrepresentations, 
 or in elevating the baseness of vengeance against a certain persan 
 to the height of a State question. Can you imagine Juarez as a 
 revolutionist ? What are the rights of this man ? What his 
 strength ? Are the destinies of a country to be subverted at the 
 call of a scene shifter ? Can this rushing of a country into per- 
 dition be caused by cautious but deceitful night vigils and 
 thought ? Is it virtue to break the law ? Is it right to be the 
 judge in your own case ? Is it honorable that the culprit should 
 turn the tables on his judge and declare him a thief, because h& 
 happens to acquire a temporal power ? 
 
 I repeat that I grope in darkness and know not where to turn. 
 
 How obscure and treacherous is this document ; how it omits 
 the name of Ortega ; what an innocent and natural air it bears. 
 If we say to the Government, here, that artful idea, that order, 
 is an ambush from behind which you will assassinate the legiti- 
 mate possessor of what you declare to be your inheritance? 
 Then they might say, what do you deduce from ? Damn anath- 
 emas on the calumniator. Shame and punishment to the sus- 
 picious rogue ! 
 
 I saw this intrigue coming and I threw up my position, because 
 I had neither labor to perform nor means of livelihood. My 
 renouncement of office was not accepted, and I was retained so 
 as to martyrize me, or for the purpose of having me desert my 
 position in an infamous way, so that this desertion might be used 
 as a gag to stop my just reproof of what I knew to be a turning 
 of the truth, the abjuration of the law, the improbable transfor- 
 formation of the legitimate Government into a strolling company 
 of actors, who wish to enact plays after the manner of Napoleon 
 the little, and oh! shame, after the style of Maximillian the 
 rickety ! 
 
75 
 
 Can you imagine what I have suffered ? Can you imagine 
 my situation when I am the exception amongst those gentlemen ? 
 I am yours, affectionately, 
 
 (Signed), GUILLERMO PRIETO. 
 
 Paso del Noete, October 1st, 1865. 
 Benito Juarez : 
 
 My Dear Friend and Sir : — The last two times in which I have 
 seen you, you have manifested that you were displeased with me. 
 This displeasure is caused doubtlessly by my having, in a 
 thoughtless moment, disclosed my ideas at a public entertain- 
 ment, but which I am proud to say were conformable to the law 
 and the honor of the Grovernment. Having lost your esteem, I 
 miss one of the most powerful reasons for being near your person, 
 as well as the small recompense of eight years of public service, 
 in all of which time I have given patent proofs of my loyalty to 
 the cause, and of affection to you, personally. Misrepresentation 
 is a degradation, and I have remained here so as not to degrade 
 myself. I beg of you as a special favor that you give an order, 
 causing the labors of the administration of post ojQ&ces to cease, 
 which in fact are useless, for I neither have anything to do in 
 that respect, nor have I any salary, and this order will rid you 
 of me, and rid me from being the victim of penury. 
 I am as ever, your servant and friend, 
 
 (Signed), GUILLERMO PRIETO. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 1st, 1865. 
 GuiLLERMO Peieto: 
 
 My Dear Friend : — I answer your letter of to-day, by saying 
 that I cannot give the order to stop the administration of post 
 offices, as you wish, because that would be equivalent to the Gov- 
 ernment commencing the destruction of public administration. 
 Let the enemy destroy it if they have the power, and such 
 should be the destiny of my country, but I shall neither do it 
 nor allow it to be done so lon^ as I am able to prevent it. K 
 
76 
 
 you liave been wanting in circumspection in the matter of which 
 you speak I can say nothing, as you have a faithful and sincere 
 friend, which can satisfy you by approving or disapproving your 
 conduct ; that friend is your own conscience, to which I appeal 
 without having the necessity of verbal explanations in this 
 matter, or any other particulars which you may not wish to in- 
 form me of, or I may wish to ask of you. 
 
 Before closing this letter I ask of you a favor, which is, that 
 you bring to your memory that I never have said to you nor 
 authorized you to say to Gen. Gronzales Ortega, in my name, 
 that he could remain indefinitely away from his country. It has 
 never been my pleasure to tell any one to do anything but what 
 he liked best. Neither have I authorized any one to pursue the 
 road of dishonor. 
 
 I am as always, your true friend, 
 (Signed), BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 1st, 1865. 
 Benito Juarez : 
 
 My Esteemed Friend and Sir: — I did not wish for an 
 order to destroy the administration of post ofiices, but that the 
 labors of it should cease, which in fact is the case. I have ap- 
 pealed to my conscience, and that is not only satisfied but proud. 
 I have never written one single syllable to Gren. Ortega, neither as 
 coming from myself or yourself, in regard to your feelings about 
 his indefinite permanency away from his country. Once, in a 
 private conversation between Yglesias (Minister of Hacienda 
 and Gobernacion, in the Juarez cabinet) and myself, I said to him 
 that Ortega had written to you through me, in which letter he 
 expressed a wish to labor for our country in the United States, 
 and asking j^our approbation. In answer to which letter you 
 told me that you had said to him to act in conjunction with 
 Romero (Mexican Minister to the U. S). I added in that conver- 
 sation that, taking this reply as a guide, you were not averse to 
 his remaining away from his country. This answer covers the 
 grounds of your letter to me, which ought neither to offend you 
 nor suspect your future intentions, and gives you proof of my 
 
77 
 
 proceedings. Any way, if you can in any manner so fix it as 
 to enable me to separate myself from my position, so that it will 
 not appear as if I had been expelled, but only as a matter of 
 delicacy on my part, I shall be very much obliged if you will 
 inform me as to the manner. 
 
 Eespect fully, your obedient serv't, 
 
 (Signed), GUILLERMO PRIETO. 
 
 Paso del Nobte, Octoher 1st, 1865. 
 
 GUILLERMO PrIETO : 
 
 My Esteemed Friend :— I am sure that I could never have 
 told you that I would have answered Ortega by telling him to 
 act in concert with Romero. I recollect having answered 
 Ortega on the 7th day of September last, simply telling him that 
 he could not receive the authority which he asked for, and this 
 is the first time that I have ever told any one what I had written 
 to your constituent (Ortega). I am very happy to know that 
 you have so clear and proud a conscience, for that b eing the case 
 you will live tranquilly. 
 
 I cannot grant your prayer in regard to the ceasi ng of the 
 labors of the general administration of post offices, because I 
 have not the wish to assist the invaders of Mexico in 
 discrediting the administration of my country. I cannot tell 
 you either to leave your office, because I have neither a motive 
 to tell you so nor does the Government repel you, nor are you 
 a stumbling block in the way. 
 
 I am your affectionate friend, 
 (Signed), BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 2d, 1865. 
 Benito Juarez: 
 
 My Esteemed Friend and Sir ; — When I, in May or June 
 last, placed a letter from Mr. Ortega into your hands, I am sure 
 that you then said to me that you were going to nnswer Ortega 
 to the effect that he should act in concert with Romero. If you 
 did or did not do it, I cannot say, neither do I know what you 
 said to him in your letter of last month. The former idea, that 
 
78 
 
 is to say, that of May or June, I communicated to Mr. Yglesias 
 then, and this is a proof to me that I am not mistaken. 
 
 I do not think that there would have been dishonor in sus- 
 pending the labors of the general administration of post offices, 
 nor with my ceasing to operate would the invaders have been 
 assisted, for by the same reasoning is it not ridiculous to believe 
 that the ceasing of the administration of sealed paper, public 
 lotteries, and Custom Houses, h^ave also assisted the invasion ? 
 I proposed that I should be considered as having resigned, for 
 the reason that the public should not know that there could be 
 a cause of difference between you and myself. To stop all fur- 
 ther doubts, and to close a correspondence which occupies your 
 attention, I herewith send my resignation, which I hope, as a 
 great and only favor, may be at once attended to. 
 I am, your affectionate servant, 
 (Signed), GUILLERMO PEIETO. 
 
 [COPY OF RESIGNATION]. 
 
 Office of General Administration of P. 0. — There being 
 no duties to perform in the general administration of post offices, 
 and my presence in this place being of no consequence to my 
 cause — on the contrary, a source of unpleasant feelings — I beg of 
 you to entreat the President to grant me leave to reside wherever 
 I may see fit, and if this should seem impossible, to admit the 
 formal resignation which I make of the offics of general admin- 
 istrator of post offices. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 2d, 1865. 
 
 (Signed) GUILLERMO PEIETO. 
 
 To the Minister of State. 
 
 Paso del Norte, October 2d, 1866. 
 Guillermo Prieto: 
 
 My Esteemed Friend : — I perfectly well recollect that I did 
 not tell you what I was going to answer Ortega when you 
 brought me his letter. I said that I would answer him in a cour- 
 teous and polite manner, and nothing more. 
 
79 
 
 I will present your resignation to the proper parties, and in 
 due time will communicate to you their resolution. 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 (Signed,) BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 Republican Army of Mexico, ) 
 Office of Brigadier General. ) 
 
 Notwithstanding the several supreme decrees which would 
 have justified me at different times to have separated myself 
 from the Mexican Government, yet their iudisputable title to 
 legality made me remain at the side of Mr. Juarez, where I 
 would now be were it not for the decrees of the eighth of No- 
 vember, which I consider as an attempt against constitutional 
 order. 
 
 When General Commonfort, colleaguing with a portion of the 
 army, shielding himself behind the memory of glorious deeds, 
 and flattered by parties interested, gave his coup d'etat^ I, in my 
 humble position, withdrew from the armed mob, and did not 
 vacillate an instant in giving my support to him who was Pre- 
 sident of the Supreme Court of Justice, and who shortly entered 
 into the exercise of the Presidential power. In the struggle for 
 Reform, I had the honor to be one of the number who com- 
 posed the army that, victorious in the capital, were the first to 
 aggrandize the head of the Government, so that in his aggran- 
 dizement might be seen the triumph of the law. During the 
 present war, the more adverse to our cause was fortune the more 
 inseparable have I been to the Government, and Mr. Juarez 
 will bear me witness, that on treading the confines of the Re- 
 public, when it appeared that we touched the limits of our terri- 
 tory and our hopes at the same time, I was one of the few who 
 carried that far their faith, and respect for the Government which 
 still upheld the tattered but glorious banner of the nation. 
 
 The decrees of the 8th of November changed the face of 
 affairs, and threw the country back to the times when an obscure 
 plot displaced the will of the nation, and when reason, which is 
 
80 
 
 the law, ceded its place to arbitrariness, which, is nothing but a 
 manifestation of tyranny. I found myself more than any one 
 else obliged to separate myself from the so called Government, 
 because to a soldier there was not even the excuse that power 
 was retained so as to continue the struggle, for the same coup 
 d'etat only asked from the people their indifference in exchange 
 for the Government's inaction. 
 
 I have arrived here, after extreme difficulty, so that you who 
 have the legitimate title to, and imperious duty of saving the in- 
 dependence and laws of the country, might see me at your side 
 in the station and manner which you may see fit, when you 
 head the ranks of the defenders of Independence. 
 
 Having made this declaration I comply with the duties which 
 honor imposes on me ; and if, through any motive which I be- 
 forehand respect, you should not find it convenient to present 
 yourself within the Eepublic, I will go and join any soldiers 
 who carry our flag as their symbol, without having lost for one 
 moment faith in the holiness of our cause through your absence ; 
 and thus I shall not be in the sad condition of him who tram- 
 ples the laws and honor of his country under foot to save our 
 Independence, nor of him who compounds with the transgres- 
 sions of Mr. Juarez. 
 
 My acts will, at any rate, serve to explain my opinions, and 
 be a proof that I neither received nor complied with the watch- 
 word to break, by force of arms, the rights of the nation. 
 
 Liberty and Reform. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar, Feb. 6, 1866. 
 
 (Signed,) FERNANDO POUSEL. 
 
 To Gen. Jesus G. Ortega, 
 
 Constitutional President of the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 n 
 
 Army of the Mexican Republic, 
 Office of a Brigadier General. 
 
 In the month of August of last year Government left the 
 city of Chihuahua and went to Paso del Norte, giving the order 
 to the chiefs and officers who were attached to and followed it, 
 
81 
 
 that tliej might choose a place of residence in any place not 
 occupied by the enemy, and, also, that it should not be El Paso 
 del Norte. In accordance with these orders, several chiefs, and 
 I amongst them, took the road to Presidio del Norte, and there, 
 in unison with General jSTegrete, and inspired by our patriotism, 
 we fortunately got togetlier a few arms so as to be able to hos- 
 tilize the enemy. Two mouths passed, during which time I be- 
 came convinced that the resources of the State being frittered 
 away, and the executive taking no initiative part, our efforts 
 would be useless. I vacillated between going into the interior of 
 the Eepublic to join some other forces, or to go to the United 
 States, there to try and procure arms, when I had reason to 
 know that Juarez was seriously plotting his perpetuation in 
 power, which would, in reality, incapacitate national defence, 
 and convert the army into the escort of an usurper. I entered 
 the career of arms with Liberty as a godfather. I wished to 
 enter into citizenship on the field of battle, because the war 
 which then raged was for the liberties and regeneration of the 
 masses ; and the commencement of my career and the advent of 
 Juarez to power coinciding, I neither had any other name nor 
 other flag to invoke, nor any other cause than that with which 
 he has been identified. 
 
 His transformation into a revolutionist was his disappearance 
 from legal right, and an army could only serve him for uses 
 entirely personal. The evils which I then foresaw, the senti- 
 ments which, from that moment, animated me, and my acknow- 
 ledgment of yourself as President of the Republic after the 80th 
 of November, I made manifest to you through a commissioner 
 which I sent to New York in August last, I coming to this city 
 to reside, where I have, as you know, been as useful as I could 
 be to the common cause of our country. This is the simple 
 explanation of my conduct ; I think it fully justified, not only 
 from my inward feelings of conscience, not only from the rigid 
 test of the laws, whose unequivocal tenor condemns Mr. Juarez, 
 not only on account . of public feeling, which, as it leaks out, 
 shows the bitterness felt for the painful loss of one of our glories — 
 for the name of Juarez was one of our national glories — but on 
 account of the overturning of the legal order, and the danger to 
 
 11 
 
82 
 
 independeDce, because Governments to be strong must be just, 
 and usurpation carries witbin itself tbe germs of weakness and 
 annihilation. I, one of tbe least of citizens, but in my expres- 
 sion of national conscience, as great as any, have wished to pro- 
 test by my conduct against tbe coup d'etat of Mr. Juarez, so as to 
 be witness that amongst all classes, and on behalf of all who 
 love their country, there is an unanimous feeling against this 
 overturning of the public right of the nation, against the crimi- 
 nal attempt to divide the lawful cause of the country, and against 
 the probable effect of giving cause for anarchy and fraternal 
 war in the midst of our foreign invasion, and the danger even, 
 if triumphant, in this horrible invasion, of receiving the terrible 
 inheritance of civil war and capricious rulers. Having thus ex- 
 pressed my feelings and fully convinced that you are the legiti- 
 mate head of Government, I place myself at your orders, so that 
 I may be employed, even if only as a common soldier, in the 
 defence of national independence. 
 
 Independence and Liberty. 
 
 San Antonio de Bexar, Dec. 18, 1865. 
 
 (Signed,) M. QUESADA. 
 
 To Jesus G. OetegA, President of the Republic of Mexico. 
 
 To Gen. Jesus G. Ortbjga, 
 
 Presiderd of the Repuhlic of Mexico : 
 
 SiE, — I herewith send you a copy of the letter which I sent 
 to Mr. Benito Juarez on the 7th of October, of last year. You 
 will note the frankness with which I always express myself, and 
 more than ever when my feelings are brought in contact with 
 the politics of my country. 
 
 Benito Juarez, blinded in the extreme, has just given a terrible 
 blow, not only against the Constitution and nationality of the 
 Kepublic of Mexico, but against himself. I trust that he may 
 yet turn his steps and arrive at a full knowledge of the gravity 
 of the crime which he has committed. As in my letter I dilate 
 fully upon the conduct which, in my belief, Mr. Juarez ought 
 to observe, I omit repeating it here, but I wish it to be under- 
 
83 
 
 stood that I protest against the decree of the 8th of JSTovember, 
 1865, given by the referred to Juarez, whom I not only consider 
 as an infamous blot in a Grovernment which is known as a Con- 
 stitutional one, but as the volume in which is recorded the ex- 
 propriation of the rights which belong to a people, and which 
 are now entrusted bj them to the President of the Supreme 
 Court of Justice. 
 
 Independence and Liberty. 
 
 New York, February 22, 1866. 
 
 (Signed,) JOAQUIN VILLALOBOS. 
 
 New York, October 7, 1865. 
 Benito Juarez : 
 
 Sir, — The extraordinary events now transpiring in our coun- 
 try is the reason why I direct myself to you, to manifest what 
 my opinion of the actual state of the political horizon is, and 
 what I consider as just and necessary. Do not look on this 
 letter as from a philosopher, which I am not, nor as the result 
 of a partiality. What I wish to say to you now is instigated by 
 my love for my country, and for those Kepublicah institutions 
 which fortunately still rule us. Take this letter in that light 
 and hear me. 
 
 One of the great motives which has actuated France in origi- 
 nating an intervention, has been the disorder and want of respect 
 to the laws, in which Mexicans have always lived. Unfortu- 
 nately, our reform, which originated the agony and death of the 
 retrograde party, caused, necessarily, a civil war, but which, in 
 Europe, was not so considered as necessary. Each party, which 
 had come into existence up to the time of the Eevolution of 
 Ayutla, had put forward their leaders, only to depose them in 
 turn, and the conservative party, incorrigible to the last, owes 
 its downfall to the villany of its acts and men. Not so the 
 liberal party, which, convinced that its only guide could be law, 
 pursued from the Ayutla Eevolution a legal path ; and neither 
 defeat nor obstacle has made it change from its original reso- 
 lution. 
 
84 
 
 The desertion of Mr. Alvarez, which was rather turbulent, 
 compromised materially our situation, but, fortunately, a pacific 
 arrangement quieted every tL in g, and opened the path to the 
 Presidency for Mr. Commonfort. This gentleman, who, unfortu- 
 nately misunderstood the part he was to play, and wished to 
 become the gratuitous thief of what he legally possessed, brought 
 to light the famous coup cVeiat, and, in doing this, infringed the 
 law and changed public opinion. 
 
 You know perfectly well what the result was of this notorious 
 act : The church party extended its arms to the chief of the 
 revolution, not to embrace him, but to strangle him, and Common- 
 . fort, undeceived a few hours after his treason, knew that mili- 
 tary force had lost its influence in the country, and that nothing 
 but the law held full dominion. "We have here the reason why 
 this apostate of Ayutla opened your prison doors, and left "you 
 at liberty to join the army which was waiting for you, and who 
 unanimously acknowledged 3'ou as the head of Government. 
 Nearly all the States lent their adhesion to you and offered to 
 sustain you. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the case, that vvhen Commonfort violated his 
 oath he left the field open for the ambitious success of many 
 influential politicians, and that it was to be feared that each par- 
 ticular faction, civil or military, should each take a separate and 
 distinct road; however, this was not^ihe case ; on the contrary, 
 every Eepublican of any note, capable of successfully playing 
 his ambitious part, constituted himself into a bulwark of the 
 law, and recognized Benito Juarez as the legitimate successor to 
 the Presidency of Mexico. 
 
 It is needless to follow the course of that struggle, sufiice it to 
 say, that in all the defeats of our army, and in all the confusion 
 naturally originating from so many rebuffs, your authority was 
 never questioned, and even when 3"ou had to leave the country, 
 and embark on foreign waters, and travel through foreign coun- 
 tries to return, it was never disrespected or doubted. Yera 
 Cruz, which was the place chosen by the Eepublican Govern- 
 ment for a temporary capital, opened its doors to the supreme 
 authority of the nation, it raised its walls, and gave its sons for 
 the defence of the law in Ben ito Juarez. The triumph of the 
 
85 
 
 national cause was finally obtained, and tlie capital of the Ee- 
 public offered a seat in its palace to the legitimate President. 
 
 Later, and through legal steps, the election for Constitutional 
 President was held. A portion of the people voted against you, 
 but a majority elected you to that position, and you were recog- 
 nized as President by all parties. 
 
 From that time the opposition (to w^hich party I belong) has 
 criticised your official acts through the press, but always law- 
 fully, and never have advised that you should be dispossessed 
 by force ol arms of your position. 
 
 This, without doubt, would be sufficient to prove the respect 
 rendered by Mexicans for duly elected authorities ; but God, who, 
 doubtless, wished to demonstrate, in a stronger manner, our re- 
 spect for the law, caused foreign intervention to be landed on 
 our shores, so as to completely prove our solidity. In vain has 
 Napoleon and his soldiers tried to disavow, and cause to be dis- 
 avowed, the President of Mexico. The invader has overrun our 
 country for three years, in every direction, and has been unable 
 to overturn the lawful pedestal on which our banner rests. All 
 the forces who rise to defend the Eepublic do it in the name of 
 Juarez, the laws which are given forth are signed by Juarez, 
 and an account of all the battles won or lost is made to Juarez, 
 and the Mexican United States, who follow no model not fash- 
 ioned by the law, acknowledge no other authority nor legitimate 
 power excepting that of Juarez. It will, doubtless, be asked, if 
 it is the person who accomplishes all this acknowledgment. Is 
 it Benito Juarez, solely as Benito Juarez, who does all this? 
 Undoubtedly no. He may be possessed of sufficient virtues to 
 command great respect, but what the Mexican United States 
 and society recognize is not Benito Juarez but the legality of the 
 law. 
 
 "Well, sir, after these hasty remarks and reflections, imagine 
 my surprise to learn that a few Mexicans (residing in New York, 
 calling themselves your friends, and also of our nationality, 
 without being one or other) say, that notwithstanding your term 
 of office has expired, that you ought to continue in power, al- 
 leging reasons which are far from being satisfactory. These 
 persons, unwittingly, are striving to dim the glory of your term, 
 
and would hurl us into sad confusion. No one is ignorant of 
 tlie path pursued from the time of Ayutla to this date, yet it 
 seems as if this interesting branch of Mexican liistory is not 
 known by these imprudent advisers. The Republic has no other 
 method of being saved except through a respect for its laws, 
 and if consent was given, through a false conviction, to their 
 counsels to violate legality, any one would hereafter have the 
 right to rise as sovereign and rule at his pleasure. 
 
 One of the reasons given by those who wish you to continue 
 as President, is that General Gronzales Ortega will not maintain 
 the rights of the nation with safety, and will occasion the loss of 
 a country which you have so worthily defended. I do not wish 
 to judge of this. It may be that they are right, or they may be 
 wrong, but what there is no doubt about is, that your continua- 
 tion in office illegally, and the resistance to turn over the 
 Grovernment which the law demands should be turned over, 
 would make you, not the President of the Republic of Mexico, 
 but only a revolutionist. One great proof of the obedience of a 
 people who love republican institutions to their laws, is, that 
 after the death of Lincoln, Johnson, without a murmur from the 
 masses, took his seat as President. Europe, which accused the 
 Republics of being based on false sj^stems of Government, on 
 seeing this changed its tone, and loudly sang a thousand praises 
 in honor of the system which it had attacked. When, finally, 
 the universe has understood that it makes but little difference to 
 a people, who obey their laws, who disappears, and that order is 
 still maintained ; when we have such glorious examples before 
 us, shall we, Mexicans^ be the first to defile the Republic, and 
 give our more scandalous example to the world ? Which would 
 be greater for Juarez — to revolutionize and anarchize his coun- 
 try, or deliver up the trust which the law demands, and thus 
 satisfy both the law and his conscience ? How grand a spectacle 
 would it be to see on the wide desert of Mexican politics, where 
 there is scarcely a green spot lavge enough to spread our book 
 of codes, to see two men open this book, and, changing the 
 leaves, take or leave power without a struggle and in perfect 
 harmon3\ What chief of Mexico would doubt the validity of 
 this act, and would not take courage to iDlume his ambition in 
 
87 
 
 lionorable fliglit. The occupation by Johnson of his elevated 
 position would be no more an act worthy to be extolled as be- 
 longing to the Eepublican form of Government than v>'Ould be 
 offered by you by so just an example. Then would all the 
 severe criticisms of many writers, who exaggerate and even 
 misunderstand our manner of government, be tempered in their 
 censures, and these scribblers no more throw dirt in our faces. 
 Then would the celebrated Eichard Cobden be once more in the 
 wrong, for he has declared that the Republic of Mexico was 
 ungovernable, and that civilization would never enter its 
 doors. 
 
 Yes, Mr. Juarez, you can now be the greatest or most con- 
 temptible man of our country. Your conduct can either lower 
 us to the lowest depths, or elevate us to the orbits of great 
 nations. Do not become responsible to future generations for 
 evil consequences, nor lend a willing ear to aught but the voice 
 of the law and your own conscience. Fortunately you are in 
 the position to act as few others. You have borne the national 
 standard nobly for three years and one half, in cities and in 
 mountains, and on the same Mexican soil you can turn it over 
 to your successor. If he takes it to the capital of the Eepublic, 
 not on this account will your glory be dimmed, but if, unhap- 
 pily, this flag should be dishonored in the hands of the new 
 President, there will remain the satisfaction to you of having 
 been able to fulfil what others could not do. 
 
 Excuse my thus writing to you, and I repeat that if these 
 remarks are not the best counsels I can give, they are still to the 
 point. Eespectfully, 
 
 (Signed,) JOAQUIN VILLALOBOS. 
 
 The Mexicans who sign below, residing at this date in New 
 York, on account of not wishing to recognize either the so- 
 called empire of Maximillian, nor foreign intervention, and 
 knowing that the legitimate base for the sustainence of demo- 
 cratic principles, and of the nationality of the Mexican Eepub- 
 lic of Mexico, consists in obeying blindly the fundamental com* 
 
pact whicli binds tlie nation together, therefore, wbatever Mexi- 
 can spurns said fundamental compact is not worthy of consider- 
 ation only as a creditor for the severest punishments. There- 
 fore : 
 
 1st. We protest against the decree of Benito Juarez, given • 
 on the 8th of November, 1865, wherein he declares himself 
 President. 
 
 2d. We recognize as President of the Eepublic of Mexico, 
 during the time accorded to him by the law. General Jesus 
 Gonzales Ortega, President of the Supreme Court, and conse- 
 quently legitimate successor to Mr. Benito Juarez; 
 
 3. A copy of this shall be sent to Citizen, Jesus Gonzales 
 Ortega, to do as he likes with, and the original shall be pre- 
 served for whatever may occur wherein it may be needed. 
 
 New York, February 20, 1866. 
 (Signed,) 
 
 JUAN TONGO, 
 
 Colonel in the Mexican Army. 
 J. EIVEEA, 
 JUAN N. BNEIQUEZ ORESTES. 
 
 LEJi '08 
 

 
 THE PRESIDENCY OF MEXICO. 
 
 PROTEST 
 
 OP 
 
 GENERAL JESUS GONZALES ORTEGA, 
 
 ' AOATNS r THK 
 
 DECREES OF SENOR BENITO JUAREZ, 
 
 ISSUED NOVEMBER 8th, 1855, 
 AND HIS 
 
 IADDRESS TO THE MEXICAN NATION 
 
 TO WHICH ARE APPENDED 
 
 LETTERS IN RATIFICATION OF HIS POSITION. 
 
 fiw-f 0rl: 
 
 EROM RUSSELL'S AMERICAN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE PRESSES, 
 28, 3 AND 32 Centre Street. 
 
 1866. 
 

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