Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/431

 350 General Santa Anna was the individual who struck the first blow against the power of Iturbidé, and it is to be hoped that his heart has not grown cold to liberty as it has grown in years.

Now, although it is true that the people are usually but slightly interested in the pronunciamentos, (which are made by regiments or officers of the army,) yet, I believe that the émeutes of 1841 were decidedly popular with the masses, and chiefly so, on account of an internal consumption duty, which they found extremely onerous. It must be said, in justice to Bustamante and his cabinet, that they too were opposed to it; but finding Congress resolved to continue its enforcement, they felt bound to sustain the law as long as they were its ministers under a Constitution.

At the outset of his administration, in September, 1841, Santa Anna had the most extraordinary difficulties to contend with. An army of near thirty thousand men was on foot, and to be maintained;—the officers of the Government were extremely numerous, and to be paid;—there were dissensions among his troops, and jealousy of his power;—the whole country was in a political ferment;—the copper currency (the only currency of the masses,) was depreciated more than fifty per cent;—and, to crown the catalogue of misfortunes, when he entered the Palace there was not a single dollar in the Treasury!

Still, he was unappalled by these amazing difficulties. He supported his army, paid hid clerks, quelled all dissensions among the troops and officers, pacified the country, called in the copper coin and issued new, dispersed a Congress whose Constitution he disliked—and, for more than two years, has held the Supreme power of his country in defiance of rebellious chiefs and angry demagogues. Nor were his efforts confined to his domestic relations alone, during this stormy period. By his skill and energy he managed to avert the horrors of a foreign war, and to preserve amicable intercourse with all those powers to whom Mexico bears the relation of a debtor.

Having thus passed the most trying portion of his administration, and established a system of government which can scarcely be called constitutional, it is his first duty to administer that government with a strong but patriotic arm. He must insure peace to his country at all hazards,—even if that peace be effected by despotism. He must end, forever, that rebellious spirit in the army, which is so easily excited by every ambitious leader who obtains a momentary influence, and embroils the whole nation in order to elevate him to power.

Foreigners, who are ignorant of the trials and turbulence by which he is surrounded, and the efforts that are often made in Mexico to defeat the most patriotic intentions, may call him a tyrant; but it is, nevertheless, his duty to persevere enduringly until he establishes permanent tranquillity, under which alone his country can advance.