Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/71

42 sort of benevolent divinity. Rather tall, thin, apparently feeble but capable of great exertions on occasion, with a head that bulged at the top, a swarthy complexion, brilliant and restless eyes, a very clear«cut voice and a voluble tongue, he moved about his estate at Manga de Clavo and the near-by city of Vera Cruz in an easy, affable way, accumulating popularity, "Can read somewhat," reported our consul in that city; but his thoughts were above literature. "Were I made God," it was said that he once remarked, "I should wish to be something more."

Meantime, April 1, 1829, Guerrero assumed the Presidency. In his green jacket edged with fur, red waistcoat bound with a blue sash, brown mantle and heavy sabre, with his thick hair bristling toward all points of the compass, he was a picturesque ﬁgure, and as candidate had answered very well. For the role of chief magistrate, however, the British minister justly described him as "totally unfit." Being mostly of Indian and partly—it was stated—of negro blood, he instinctively distrusted the whites, while the latter utterly despised the class to which he belonged. Though his intuitive judgment was quick and within the range of his experience remarkably correct, he knew nothing whatever of letters and politics, necessarily depended upon the self—seeking ﬂatterers of his party, and veered about like the winds In military emergencies he could burst his bonds like a Samson, but the things he really cared for were a wench, a bottle, a game of monte and a nap under some spreading tree. Without ideas, knowledge, experience or high character, he faced a terrible inheritance: the laws ignored, the authorities despised, the administration disorganized, the treasury worse than empty, the country in distress and turmoil.

Professions of loyalty to the "sacred" constitution and the laws could not blot out the fact that his authority was based upon a riot; and others would not feel satisfied merely because he was content, The extraordinary powers of the Executive, granted in view of the Spanish invasion, were used oppressively. A multitude of persons clamored for money and he could give them none; a multitude clamored for reforms, and he scarcely knew what they were talking about As far as possible the rest of the Gachupines were driven out, but this merely added