Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/659

Rh and misery stalked abroad. Cholera was adding its horrors in the central provinces; locusts ravaged the eastern; both frontiers stood menaced by bands of invaders; and in the north neglected presidios and colonies were left to struggle with insufficient means against savage raiders; while the newly raised armies wallowed in ease in the interior cities, there massed to sustain autocratic measures and hush murmurings. And well they did their work; for the several efforts made to shake off the yoke were promptly suppressed, notably in Guanajuato, Yucatan, and Vera Cruz. The severe decrees against conspirators were applied with greater zeal than ever, and one prominent man after another who might prove dangerous to the government was sent into exile or cast into a dungeon, the only redeeming feature being a comparatively small number of executions.

The main object of the late revolution was to restore order, and convoke in due time a congress to frame a constitution. This implied a probable change of executive, and with curtailment of power, by no means palatable to Santa Anna; and as he had never yet allowed anything to interfere with his will so long as he possessed the means to enforce it, he was not likely to do so now in the face of such trifling objections as public rights and wishes, or such shadowy obstacles as promises and oaths. Nevertheless, he