Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/472

452 Mexican federation in 1824, and the decision of Chiapas to cast her lot with Mexico, the Central American federation still laid claim to Soconusco, which was a department of Chiapas. Instigated by agents and partisans of the Central American government, the discontented portion of the inhabitants of Soconusco pronounced at Tapachula July 24, 1824, against annexation of the department to Mexico, and the Central American congress thereupon passed a decree incorporating it into that republic. In March 1825 the Mexican government firmly proclaimed against this encroachment, on the ground that Soconusco, being an integral part of Chiapas, was a portion of the Mexican federation. The pronunciamiento of Tapachula was, in fact, nothing less than a revolutionary demonstration against the local government of Chiapas and the federal government, and Mexico had a right to interfere by force of arms to suppress the revolt. The federal executive, however, refrained from doing so, and the Central American government Occupied Tapachula with troops. As the protest of Mexico was disregarded, a few months later a brigade under General Anaya was sent to Chiapas, but it did not advance beyond that city. When Mexico assumed this threatening attitude, negotiations were opened by Juan de Dios Mayorga, minister plenipotentiary of the united provinces of Central America, who proposed that the question should be decided by the congress of Panamá. This the minister of relations, Lúcas Alaman, refused to agree to, on the ground that such assent would be an admission of a doubt as to Mexico's right to the department. Mayorga then suggested that the question of the boundary should be settled by a joint commission, which proposal Alaman accepted, without in any way renouncing Mexico's right to Soconusco. An agreement was entered into by which both governments were pledged to withdraw their troops, and the inhabitants of