Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/292

284 Chili, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela. The spirit of republicanism had been spreading like fire on dry grass. Mexico for the first time decided to be a republic, and was formally recognized as such by Spain. In the constitution which the whole country then adopted, although patterned after that of the United States, the people show themselves still ignorant of the first principle of liberty. All religions but the Roman Catholic faith were prohibited, the property of the clergy was put beyond the reach of secular law, and none but gachupines were allowed to fill high offices in the Church.

The republican reaction after the fall of Iturbide resulted in the expulsion of the old Spaniards from the country. When the Spanish flag was hauled down from the castle of San Juan d'Ulua, not a vestige remained of the old colonial power of Spain, this fortress, her last foothold on this coast, having held out against the revolutionists several years longer than any other part of the country. By a strange ordering of Providence, its keys were finally given into the hands of General Barrancas, the husband of a lineal descendant of the Aztec chief Montezuma. The fall of this castle was thus announced by the president of the republic in his proclamation: "The standard of the republic now waves over the castle of Ulua! I announce to you, fellow-citizens, with indescribable pleasure, that now, after a lapse of three hundred and four years, the flag of Castile has disappeared from our coasts." Thus ended what is known as "the war of independence." Mexico was now a member of the family of nations, and, though still wearing the fetters of the greatest despotism on earth, had already entered on that mighty struggle