Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/394

368 sign the law, and it was sometime before a suitable person could be found to put the law in operation. Santa Anna adroitly kept himself aloof from the controversy, and wrote from San Luis, that he merely desired support for the army, and that in other questions, especially those touching the clergy, he had no desire to enter, but would limit himself to the recommendation, that neither the canons, nor the collegiate establishment of Guadalupe, should be molested, inasmuch as he entertained the greatest friendship for the one, and the most reverential devotion for the other.

But the executive, fixed in its intention to liberate the property held in mortmain, took every means to carry the law into effect, and experienced the utmost resistance from the incumbents, especially when the property happened to belong to the female sex, which is always averse from intercourse or dealings with persons who are regarded as inimical to the church.

This rigorous conduct of the executive, and the opposition it encountered from the Moderados, fomented by that powerful, spiritual class which has so long controled the conscience of the masses, gave rise, at this period, to the outbreak in the capital, which is known as the revolution of the Polkos. It began on the 22d of February, 1847, in Mexico, whilst Santa Anna was firing the first guns at Angostura; and its great object was to drive Farias from executive power. The forces on both sides, amounted to six thousand men, and were divided between the Polkos and the partizans of the government. Funds were found to support both factions, and from that time to the 21st of March, the city of Mexico was converted into a battle field. On the morning of that day Santa Anna, who had already despatched a portion of his broken army towards the coast, and who had been approached on his journey from the capital, by emissaries from both factions, arrived at Guadalupe, and immediately the contest ceased The stewards of the convents refused to expend more money for the support of their partizans, and the treasury of the government was closed against its adherents. The personal influence of Santa Anna thus put an end to a disgraceful rebellion which threatened the nationality of Mexico, within, whilst a foreign enemy was preparing to attack its most vital parts from the gulf.

The conflict of arms was over, but the partizans of the clergy did not intermit their efforts to get rid of the obnoxious vice-president; and at length, they effected pacifically, what they had been unable to do by force.