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Rh the hands of Gomez Farías, who energetically sustained that the civil authority should always be above the military, and endeavored to prevent interference on the part of the clergy in secular affairs.

The new administration likewise promoted public instruction, and labored to have the abolition of the capital penalty for political offences recognized as a principle of public policy. It did not favor proscriptive measures, though the more violent wing of its supporters wanted to apply them to their defeated opponents, whom they nicknamed picaluganos — after Picaluga, the wretch who betrayed Guerreroand looked upon as hateful aristocrats.

The reform measures proposed to be introduced, so directly affecting the interests of two such powerful elements as the ecclesiastical and military, caused the greatest agitation. Santa Anna thought that his presence at the head of the government might allay it, and accordingly assumed the presidential authority on the 16th of May, 1833. It was about this time that the centralist party made its first public demonstration in a paper directed against the congress. This body closed its session on the 21st of May.

The prevailing uncertainty and alarm among the better elements of society gave encouragement to the enemies of the progressionists. At last armed parties began to present themselves in southern Mexico expecting support from Santa Anna, who had been