ven when this project failed, they raised to the
vacant throne their own general, Iturbide. So strong in the beginning
was the element of conservatism, or reaction, as they term it now, in
Mexican affairs.

In 1823, however, the Liberal party obtained the supremacy, and under
the lead of Santa Ana, who then first came into prominence, drove
Iturbide from the throne, and put into operation a constitution
patterned after our own. It is not too much to say, that, from that day
to the hour when the allied troops landed at Vera Cruz, the conflict
between two parties, two principles, two methods of government, has been
waged with ever increasing bitterness and ever changing fortunes. It is
probable that the Liberals have always been numerically the stronger.
But the reactionary party has had its advantages. The rich and
aristocratic have been with it. To a great extent the army, ever partial
to the iron hand, has given it the support of its great power. And the
Church, which has possessed perhaps one-quarter of the whole wealth of
the country, and whose income has often far exceeded that of the State,
has always plotted for the downfall of the Liberals.

In 1835 the power of these combined forces was so great that they were
able to overthrow the constitution of 1824, and put into operation a new
one on the plan of centralization. By this plan all federal
representation ceased, and popular freedom was subject to unaccustomed
restraints. The most noteworthy fact connected with this change was the
Texan Rebellion, and consequent upon it our own Mexican War. But of
these we shall speak hereafter. It was not until 1857 that the Liberals
won back all that they had lost,--and more; for they replaced the old
constitution by a new and freer one, and, as if by one stroke to inflict
a final blow upon their adversaries, decreed the confiscation of all
Church property. The Reactionists had at least vitality enough to make a
death-struggle. Leagued with the army, they drove Comonfort from the
presidency, and his party from the city of Mexico. For three years there
were two presidents and two sets of officers of all sorts, and a civil
war. The Liberals, under the Indian Benito Juarez, held Vera Cruz and
the larger part of the country. At the end of this period the Liberal
chieftain, with an unexpected energy, drove the opposing party out of
the city of Mexico, and its leaders into exile, carried into effect the
decree for the confiscation