Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/338

320 The congress of 1834 was unquestionably federal republican in its character, and Santa Anna seemed to be perfectly in accord with his vice 6presidential compeer, Gomez Farias. But the church,—warned by a bill introduced into congress the previous year by Zavala, by which he aimed a blow at the temporalities of the spiritual lords,—did not remain contented spectators while the power reposed in the hands of his federal partizans. The popular representatives were accordingly approached by skilful emissaries, and it was soon found that the centralists were strongly represented in a body hitherto regarded as altogether republican. It is charged in Mexico, that bribery was freely resorted to; and, when the solicitations became sufficiently powerful, even the inflexible patriotism of Santa Anna yielded, though the vice president Farias, remained incorruptible.

On the 13th of May, 1834, the president suddenly and unwarrantably dissolved congress, and maintained his arbitrary decree and power by the army, which was entirely at his service. In the following year, Gomez Farias was deposed from the vice presidency by the venal congress, and Barragan raised to the vacant post. The militia was disarmed, the central forces strengthened, and the people placed entirely at the mercy of the executive and his minions, who completed the destruction of the constitution of 1824 by blotting it from the statute book of Mexico.

Puebla, Jalisco, Oaxaca, parts of Mexico, Zacatecas and Texas revolted against this assumption of the centralists, though they were finally not able to maintain absolutely their free stand against the dictator. Zacatecas and Texas, alone, presented a formidable aspect to Santa Anna, who was, nevertheless, too strong and skilful for the ill regulated forces of the former state. The victorious troops entered the rebellious capital with savage fury; and, after committing the most disgusting acts of brutality and violence against all classes and sexes, they disarmed the citizens entirely and placed a military governor over the province. In Coahuila and Texas, symptoms of discontent were far more important, for the federalists met at Monclova, and, after electing Agustin Viesca governor, defied the opposite faction by which a military officer had been assigned to perform the executive duties of the state General Cos, however, soon dispersed the legislature by violence and imprisoned the governor and his companions whom he arrested as they were hastening to cross the Rio Grande. These evil doings were regarded sorrowfully but sternly by the North Americans who had flocked to Texas, under the sanctions and