Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/279

Rh controlled by the dictator was put in motion to support him with intrigue and pressure.

The people, on the other hand, had had enough of such autocracy as Santa Anna's, and looked with expectant hope to the now uniting congress for its termination. So well was this feeling understood that a wide-spread surprise arose when, on January 2, 1844, the national representatives in their opening session announced the presidential vote of the departmental assemblies to be nineteen for Santa Anna, and one each for Francisco Elorriaga and General Muzquiz. Congress shared in the disappointment, and sought to make the situation as bearable as possible by restricting the presidential power, and forbidding the further exercise of the legislative faculty. Minister Tornel stood up in warm defence of his assailed patron, and the latter paid little heed to the injunction, confident in the subservient adhesion of the majority among the senators, creatures of his, partly by election, partly by influence. A test of this control was furnished by the failure of a motion to remove the acting president, Canalizo, who had become extremely unpopular as the blind tool of the dictator, and his reëlection to the position by a large majority. Santa Anna naturally objected to a substitute who night prove less tractable, and this requisite he also bore in mind when selecting governors for the departments.

For six months longer Santa Anna chose to remain in the seclusion of his country estate, under the plea that the winter air of the capital did not agree with his broken health. Finally the warm weather