Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/220

200 title I desire to transmit to my children, that of a true Mexican." The farce succeeded. The one absorbing theme throughout Mexico now became the noble and patriotic Santa Anna. San Jacinto and all the rest were consigned to oblivion beneath the pedestal of the hero. Even more. His leg, amputated at Pozitos, was afterward removed from its resting-place at Manga de Clavo and deposited midst imposing ceremonies at Mexico.

As the abandonment of Vera Cruz became known the discontent burst out anew, directed as before against the government. The cabinet resigned, and Bustamante yielded so far as to offer the interior and foreign portfolios to two well known federalists, Rodriguez Puebla and Gomez Pedraza. They took possession on December 13th, and the very same day, after taking the oath to the existing constitution, they presented a bill to the council for the formation of a consultative body, composed of one deputy from each department, and for the convocation of an assembly to revise the organic law of 1824, the president being meanwhile invested with extraordinary powers. The council rejected the bill; but the ministry had already summoned the chambers for their purpose, and before them they repeated the arguments, encouraged by a large federalist representation in the galleries. The same audience served undoubtedly to impose upon those deputies who would have risen indignantly against the project, and answers were modified to remonstrances against it as ill-timed under the prevailing critical circumstances, with a final determination for