Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/752

732 laws had already developed interests that could not be destroyed, particularly such as emanated from the ley Lerdo. However, so great a change was operated in one month, with the power and pecuniary assistance of the clergy, that the government found itself enabled to meet the liberal forces, among whose leaders was lacking the bond of union so necessary to insure success. The conservative chiefs, on the contrary, were now acting in accord.

The possession of the port of Vera Cruz being of the highest import, Zuloaga tried to win over to his side Gutierrez Zamora, governor of that state, who never returned answers to his official letters, but in a private letter apprised him of his resolve to sustain Juarez' constitutional authority. The reactionists still hoped to gain possession of the port, believing that their opponents, by using the moneys appropriated under conventions from the customs revenue to the payment of the foreign debt, would provoke a foreign war. Zuloaga placed much reliance on the recognition of his government by the diplomatic corps, as well as on the support of the pope's legate, Monsignore Clementi.

All eyes were turned to the campaign in the interior, which was to decide the destiny of the country. Everything else, even the dispute with Spain, fraught though it was with danger in view of the concentration of a large Spanish fleet in the waters of Cuba, went for the present unnoticed. Zuloaga endeavored to win popularity by an order suppressing levies for the army, and to ingratiate himself with the