Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/371

Rh government to issue an amnesty law. This was rather pleasing to the president and his cabinet, who would have acceded thereto but for the office-seekers, who kept up their clamor of treason against the fallen party. But the government tempered its rigor as far as it could without running the risk of being charged with weakness by the opponents of amnesty. It evidently intended to gradually give way, so as to arrive at the end desired by the friends of a general amnesty, without too openly antagonizing the most radical portion of its opponents. This was frankly acknowledged by the conservative Revista Universal. But the radical element would sanction no half-way measures. Several attempts were made from time to time, and a general amnesty bill was favorably reported on by the committees of judicial and government affairs in congress, but failed of passage, its antagonists claiming that it would be dishonorable and immoral to pardon the traitors.

The imperialist commander Olvera had surrendered on the 27th of May, with his force, to General Martinez at Huichapan, on condition of not being molested for the past on account of political opinions, so that all military resistance to the government's authority had ceased. After the embarkation of the French troops, the city of Vera Cruz, which had been under the imperialist generals Taboada and Herran, made some resistance for a while, but on the 27th of June capitulated to the republican troops of Alejandro