Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/408

388 The national congress in due time took into consideration the form of posthumous honors to the late statesman, including substantial provision for his family. Several ways were proposed; and finally a resolution was adopted, on the 18th of April, 1873, giving, among other things, monuments to himself and wife, and pensions to their children. 1st. Juarez was declared a "benemérito de la patria en grado heróico;' his name was ordered to be inscribed in letters of gold in the chamber of the national congress. 2d. On the 21st of March of each year the national flag was to be hoisted on all public buildings, in commemoration of his birth, and also on the 18th of July at half-mast, as a sign of mourning for his death. 3d. The executive to appropriate from the treasury $50,000 to erect a commemorative monument, with a statue of Juarez thereupon. This monument was to be finished on the 5th of May, 1874. 4th. The executive to apply, out of the treasury, $10,000 for a sepulchre to hold the mortal remains of Juarez and his wife. The work was to be finished on the 18th of July, 1873. 5th. A pension of $3,000 a year granted to each of Juarez' daughters, Soledad, Josefa, and Maria de Jesus, while they remained unmarried, and the same to the minor son, Benito, till he completed his professional studies, or till his 25th year. The same pension to be allowed to each of Juarez' seven children should they ever become poor. The pensions to be paid in monthly instalments of $250, and the executive never to reduce the amounts upon any consideration. 6th. The pension of $3,000 allowed the unmarried daughters to be reduced to $1,500 from the date of marriage. This latter sum to be paid yearly from date of the law to each of the married daughters, and to the son after he completed his 25th year. 7th. The executive was authorized to capitalize each one of these pensions, taking as a basis a period of five years, provided the party interested assented to it. 8th. A prize of $2,000 was to be offered for the best biography of Juarez, the executive to appoint the judges. Diario Debates, 6° Cong., iv. 135-9; Méx., Derecho Intern., 3d pt, 118-19; ''Boletin Ofic. Est. Sin., May 24, 1873; El Fénix'', of Mazatlan, Dec. 13, 1872. Young Benito was in 1877 appointed secretary of the Mexican legation near the government of Italy. La Voz de Méj., Oct. 17, 1877. On the 7th of May, 1875, the remains of Juarez and his wife were exhumed from the family vault and transferred to the provisional niche which was to hold them till the monument then being prepared in the San Fernando cemetery should be finished. The final exhumation, with appropriate ceremonies, took place on the 18th of July, 1880. Juarez left property valued at $138,000, and three books in his own handwriting, namely, a compilation of maxims from Tacitus, an account of his expenditures during his peregrinations,