Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/376

356 Nevertheless, when the elections took place early in October, Juarez obtained the majority of votes for president of the republic, and Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, who had also had Diaz as a competitor, for president of the supreme court. At the opening of the fourth constitutional congress, Juarez surrendered his discretional powers, though he was authorized to hold them thirty days longer, and shortly after accounted for the manner in which he had exercised them. On the 19th of December he was declared by congress the president elect, and on the 25th assumed the duties for the term ending on the 30th of November, 1871. The constitutional reforms he had proposed to the people were put out of mind for the time.

The republican government of Mexico, since the time of the European intervention and subsequent establishment over the country of a monarchy which was recognized by all the powers of that continent, had been permitted to hold diplomatic relations solely with the republics of America, all of which, during the nation's struggle to shake off the foreign incubus, manifested at every opportunity their sympathy and wishes for the success of the republic. The relations of amity with the United States were continued after Juarez government resumed its functions at the national capital. At the opening of the Mexican congress, in December 1867, President Juarez took occasion to express his acknowledgment of the