Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/278

258 estate. The strongest reason for the withdrawal was undoubtedly the approaching reunion of the new congress, with which was connected the election of a proprietary president. He preferred to play his game for that tempting prize in the background, where also a defeat would be less felt, under cover of an apparently voluntary surrender of power. For a first move he issued a plausible manifesto, explaining the manner in which he had used the extraordinary power conferred upon him in 1841, taking pains to place in the most favorable and absorbing light the several progressive measures of his rule and covering the rest with pleas for public necessity, national honor, the safety of religion, and so forth. A second move was to include among the stanch members selected for the government council a proportion of men whose appointment would please the people and conciliate cliques. A third was to appoint, not a lukewarm adherent like Bravo, nor a strong man whose ambition might prove dangerous, but one who could be relied upon to act wholly and faithfully as a machine of the hidden ruler. The choice fell on Canalizo, comandante general of Mexico, formerly the loyal supporter of Bustamante, and therefore a less apparent partisan of Santa Anna, although now wholly devoted to him. In addition all the vast political machinery