Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/745

Rh judicious reforms and a conciliatory policy would meet with acceptance from the people. His reasons are given in a note below. Any other course, he feared, would give the retrograde element the control of affairs in the new situation; anarchy showed her head everywhere; despotism, with its accessaries, revenge and persecution, would be sure to follow, and render it impossible for liberty ever to reign in the country. His excuses could not, however, wash away the blot he threw upon his name and fame by the violation of his solemn oath. His conduct at first aroused public hatred, which later turned into contempt for his character.

Comonfort labored under the erroneous idea that he could bring about the amalgamation of parties bitterly hating each other, and constitute a government strong enough to overrule all parties, and be at the same time independent of them all. It is not even impossible that he believed the reaccionarios would eventually get the upper hand, and consign him to the fate that General Guerrero's eminent services — compared with which his own were as nothing — did not save that patriot from. Be it as it may, he soon saw his error, and the entanglements he had got himself into. Seventy deputies assembled in Querétaro and reiterated their protest. Anarchy, now that there was no recognized supreme law, reigned in Mexico, and a three years' terrible struggle began. The plan of Tacubaya was accepted in several towns, and rejected with indignation in others. Comonfort, hard