Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/370

350 Lacunza, and Ramirez de Arellano succeeded in escaping from the country.

The time had now come when the government might have disarmed party hatred, and gained the support of its former opponents; but the men in power adopted the policy of persecution, continuing to punish the imperialists with confiscation of their estates, thereby reducing whole families to indigence. Howsoever justifiable such a course, not all the liberal party looked with favor upon the proceeding, a portion of the progressionist press strongly condemning it as unconstitutional. The confiscation was decreed pursuant to the law of August 16, 1863; but the president, exercising his discretional powers, finally commuted it, deciding that the persons who had incurred it should pay instead a fine, to be fixed by the secretary of the treasury. The imperialist prisoners were disposed of in an order of July 14th; many of them were sentenced to imprisonment, and together with those from Querétaro were sent to Perote. A still larger number was liberated, but to continue under the surveillance of the authorities. Twelve of the most prominent imperialists were expelled from the republic.

A portion of the press was trying to prevail on the