Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/75

46 order enough to dominate it, yet enough outside to escape from all obligations. Farías proposed, therefore, Without having a Well-digested plan, to reassert the supreme authority formerly exercised by the king, abolish the clerical fuero and the compulsory tithes, provide for popular, lay education, and bring into productive circulation the immense wealth controlled by the Church; and Congress, fully aware that reforms were necessaryI dazzled by the boldness and novelty of his programme, and misled by the Mexican faith in theories and formulæ, supported him.

Naturally such projects and their foreseen consequences roused the clericals and all in that camp to fury, and the proprietors of great estates also grew alarmed. The President felt his time had come, and in May, therefore, he resumed his functions. The progress of reform promptly halted, and soon it was announced that Santa Anna, ingeniously made a prisoner by his own troops, had been proclaimed dictator. Undoubtedly he expected the mutiny that now broke out at the capital to overthrow the government; but Farías, again in power during the President's absence, quelled the revolt, and Santa Anna found it necessary to "escape" and resume his office.

Pretending still with consummate address to favor both parties—though really a Centralist now—he made both of them court and fear him, and proved his power by breaking down and then restoring the army. of course, however, these manoeuvres excited suspicion. The privileged classes, though anxious for his support, hesitated to pledge him theirs, and so he returned on a six months' leave of absence to his ﬁgurative plow, leaving Tornel, Whom an American minister described as "a very bad man," to scheme in his interest. The now embittered and excited forces of reform were thus unleashed, and before long the Church and the rich proprietors oﬁered the Cincinnatus of Manga de Clavo absolute power on condition that he should protect them. In April, 1834, therefore, two months before his leave was to expire, he took possession of the supreme power again, and was hailed by the clergy as a new Messiah. Supported soon by the revolutionary "plan" of Cuernavaca, he made himself in effect a dictator. The cause of reform was harshly checked and turned back.