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192 of Reyes and the high-handed acts that went before it only served to make the people bolder in their demands. From daring to nominate a candidate merely for vice-president, they passed to nominating a candidate for president. The pseudo opposition party became an opposition party indeed.

In Francisco I. Madero, the party found its new leader. Madero was a distinguished citizen of Coahuila, a member of one of the oldest and most respected families in Mexico. The Maderos had never involved themselves in Diaz politics; they were rich farmers, well educated, cultured and progressive. Madero's first notable interest in democracy was shown in his book, "La Sucesion Presidencial," which he published in 1908. It was a thoughtful but mild criticism of the Diaz regime, and in the end it urged the people to insist upon the right to engage in the elections of 1910.

Madero's book is said to have been suppressed in Mexico, but only after it had gained wide circulation, and its influence was no doubt considerable in prompting the launching of the Democratic Party. After the nomination of Reyes, Madero went about the country in his own private car, addressing public meetings, not campaigning for Reyes, but confining himself chiefly to the dissemination of the A, B, C's of popular government.

The banishment of Reyes did not stop Madero's speech-making, and before the end of 1909 it was announced that the Democratic and Reyist clubs would reorganize as "Anti-Re-electionist" clubs, and that a national convention would be held at which the Anti-Re-electionist Party would be organized and nominations made for president and vice-president of the republic.