Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/682

552 of the capital, not the usurpation of a few military officers, but the act of a prominent citizen who, for his open hostility to the late dictatorship, had been proscribed, and as he proclaimed it before the events of the capital became known to him, he could not be looked upon as an intruder at the eleventh hour. This fact made of him an element to be feared equally by the two chief contending parties; particularly as aimed at gaining the good-will of both the people and the ruling class. Thus we see that since Santa Anna's disappearance from the political field, the leaders of Ayutla and Acapulco had to contend against two dangerous elements, inasmuch as they both manifested a purpose to forward the aspirations and interests of the masses, proclaiming liberty, and yet endeavoring to uphold the principles and abuses that the southern revolution had been fighting to extirpate. They attempted a compromise, and even to support the clergy and the army, against whom the revolutionary element bore a deadly hatred.

Meanwhile Comonfort was marching on Guadalajara. Many departments accepted the plan of Ayutla; but the efforts of the liberals for a general recognition of it met opposition on the part of the troops. The latter provisionally accepted at Vera Cruz Carrera's government, coupled with the condition of its being recognized by all the other departments.

Carrera endeavored to avert anarchy by means of strict impartiality toward all the elements of the body politic, but neither the respect felt for him personally, nor his meritorious services, could make the masses of the people forget the illegitimate source of his authority.

The wording of the fourth article of the plan of Ayutla having enabled its enemies to divert the revolution from its real aims and to make themselves