Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/165

Rh to serve as a basis for the change to be effected in the form of government. The same congress, acting as a constituent assembly, framed a new constitution, which, being composed of seven laws, became popularly known under the title of the 'Siete Leyes,' and was sanctioned and promulgated on the 30th of December, 1836. I give below the chief features of the instrument.Law 1st prescribes the rights and duties of Mexicans and other inhabitants of the republic. Every citizen having $100 a year income, procceding from property or industry, and not disqualified by crime or other cause, had the franchise. 2d, Organizes a fourth power entitled 'supremo poder conservador,' composed of five members, each of whom at the time of election must be 40 years old and have $3,000 a year; they were renewable, one every two years. The object of this fourth power was to maintain the equilibrium between the other powers; to see to the strict observance of the laws, and to make known the national will on extraordinary occasions. 3d, Establishes the legislative branch in two chambers, namely, that of the senate and that of the deputies; the former with 24 members, eight of them renewable every two years. Each senator must have an income of $2,500 a year at the time of his election. The manner of choosing the senators was as follows: the house of deputies, the government in council of ministers, and the supreme court of justice each selected a number of persons equal to that of the senators to be chosen, from which lists the departmental assemblies made the choice of senators. The lower house, of popular election, consisted of one deputy for every 150,000 inhabitants and every fraction of 80,000. The deputy must have at least $1,500 a year. No person having jurisdiction, civil, judicial, ecclesiastical, or military, could be a deputy. 4th, Organizes the executive, vesting it.in a president to hold his office for eight years, with the privilege of reëlection; he was chosen as follows: the president in council of ministers, the senate and supreme court were each to name a 'terna' froım which the deputies had to nominate three candidates, one of whom was to be chosen president by the departmental assemblies. With the president was associated a council of 13 members, two of whom must be ecclesiastics and two military. The councillors were selected by the deputies from a list formed by the executive out of another made by the senate. The president was required to have an incone of $4,000 a year, and had the exclusive right of appointing his ministers. 5th, Establishes the judiciary, namely, one supreme court of eleven justices and an attorney general chosen in the same manner as the executive, one of its branches being the supreme court martial; superior courts; auditing tribunals; and courts of the first instance in the departments. 6th, Treats of the division of the territory and interior government. The state organization is done away with, and the country divided into departments, each of them having an asamblea. The appointment of governor was to be made from the 'terna' proposed by each asamblea departamental. At the head town of each district was to reside a prefecto. Ayuntamientos popularly chosen were to exist at the departmental capitals, and such other towns as had a certain population. The rest were to have 'jueces de paz.' 7th, Fixes the mode of repealing or amending constitutional laws.

A separate law of the same date makes of each of the former states a department, with the following changes: The state of Coahuila and Texas was made into two departments. New Mexico was constituted into a department. The two Californias were formed into one. Colima was annexed to