Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/76

Rh Congress found the door of its hall barred; and Farías, covered with abuse, was driven from the country.7

Secretly encouraging reactionary insurrections and instigating demands for a centralized régime, though still professing publicly the other creed, Santa Anna ordered the people to surrender their weapons, and crushed with a ruthless hand the state of Zacatecas, which dared to oppose his will. "Worthy son of the father of lies," "unrivalled chameleon," "shameless hypocrite," "atheist and blasphemer," shrieked his opponents. "With the tranquility of a tiger, which, sated with the ﬂesh of its prey, reposes on what it does not wish to devour, Santa Anna reports his victory," cried El Crepúsculo. But resentment counted for nothing; Mexico was prostrate. Late in 1835, therefore, a packed Congress of self-seeking politicians decided upon centralization, and it was understood that Santa Anna would be chosen President for ten years, with a longer term and a higher title in prospect. But now the scene was tragically shifted. In March, 1836, the Texans declared their independence. The Napoleon of the West fell into their hands at San Jacinto, where they defeated his army; and, as an inkling got abroad of the unpatriotic agreements made with his captors while in fear of revenge for his cruelties, he thought it wise to announce, on returning to Mexico in 1837, a deﬁnitive retirement from public life.

According to the organic law, any proposed constitutional change had to remain under consideration for two years; but the Congress of 1835, not minding a trifle like this, drew up as fast as possible what it named the Seven» Laws—called by others the Seven Plagues. By December, 1836, despite the resistance and threats of the Federalists, the new regime was fully organized, and Bustamante soon held the reins again. The Church and the wealthy were now satisfied. The army also felt pleased, for the Federalists denounced its privileges, the cost of the many state ofﬁces created by them reduced the amount of money it could get, and an aristocratic government seemed likely to need it constantly and pay it with some regularity; and so the prospect was, especially with Santa Anna eliminated, that the new regime would be stable.

But among the aristocrats it had become unfashionable by this time to meddle with politics. The groups that made up