Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/405

Rh he at length received the Presidential and popular sanction of his return to Mexico.

In truth, the nation at large had no one but Santa Anna, at that moment of utter despair, in whose prestige and talents—in spite of all his misfortunes and defeats—it could rely for even the hope of escape from destruction, if not of ultimate victory.

Whilst the Mexican nation had been thus sorely vexed by intestinal commotions and foreign invasion an Extraordinary Constituent Congress—Congreso Extraordinario Constituyente—had been summoned and met in the capital, chiefly to revise the Constitution, or the "Bases of Political Organization," of 1843, which had been superseded by the temporary adoption of the Federal Constitution of 1824, according to the edict issued by Salas, under the direction of Santa Anna soon after that personage's return from exile. This Extraordinary Congress re-adopted the old Federal Constitution of 1824 without altering its terms, principles, or phraseology, and made such slight changes as were deemed needful by an Acta Constitutiva y de Reformas, containing thirty articles, which was sanctioned on the 18th, and proclaimed on the 21st of May by Santa Anna, who had reassumed the Presidency. By this approval of the Federal System the Executive entirely abandoned the Central policy for which he had so long contended, but which, as we have seen in the 11th chapter, he no longer believed, or feigned to believe, suitable for the nation.

Notwithstanding this submission to popular will, and apparent desire to deprive the Central Government of its most despotic prerogatives, the conduct of Santa Anna did not save him entirely from the machinations of his rivals or of intriguers. Much discontent was expressed publicly and privately, and the President, accordingly tendered his resignation to Congress, intimating a desire to hasten into private life! This stratagetic resignation was followed by the retiracy of General Rincon and General Bravo, who commanded the troops in the city. Acts of such vital significance upon the part of the ablest men in the Republic, in an hour of exceeding danger, at once recalled Congress and the people to their senses; and if they were designed, as they probably were, merely to throw the anarchists on their own resources and to show them their inefficiency at such an epoch, they seem to have produced the desired effect, for they placed Santa Anna and his partizans more firmly in power. Congress refused to accept his resignation. Unfortunate as he had been, it perhaps saw in him the only commander who was capable in the exigency of controlling the Mexican elements of