a most unfortunate circumstance, and to its occurrence much of the evil
that Mexico has known for thirty years may be directly traced. Instead
of submitting to the strictly legal choice of President, made by the
members of Congress, the Federalists set the open example of revolting
against the action of men who had performed their duties according to
the requirements of the Constitution. Guerrero was violently made
President. That the other party contemplated the destruction of the
Constitution is very probable; but the worst that they, its enemies,
could have done against it would have been a trifle in comparison with
the demoralizing consequences of the violation of that instrument by its
friends. Yet the Presidency of Guerrero will ever have honorable mention
in history, for one most excellent reason: Slavery was abolished by him
on the anniversary of Mexican independence, 1829, he deeming it proper
to signalize that anniversary "by an act of national justice and
beneficence." Will the time ever come when the Fourth of July shall have
the same double claim to the reverence of mankind?

Guerrero perished by the sword, as he had risen by it. The
Vice-President, Bustamente, revolted, and was aided by Santa Ana. His
popularity was too great to allow him to be spared, and when he was
captured, Guerrero was shot, in 1831. Of the many infamous acts of which
Santa Ana has been guilty, the murder of Guerrero is the worst. Possibly
it would have ruined him, but for his services against the Spaniards, at
about the same time. He was now the chief man in Mexico, and became
President in 1833. The next year he dissolved Congress, and established
a military government. The Constitution of 1824 was formally abolished
in 1835, and a Central Constitution was proclaimed the next year, by
which the States were converted into Departments. Santa Ana kept as much
aloof from these proceedings as he could, and sought to add to his
popularity by attacking Texas, where he reaped a plentiful crop of
cypress.

The triumph of the Centralists was the turning-point in the fortunes of
Mexico, as it furnished a plausible pretext for American interference in
her affairs, the end of which is rapidly approaching. The Texan revolt
had no other justification than that which it derived from the overthrow
of the Federal Constitution; but that was ample, and, had it not been
for the introduction of slavery into Texas, the judgment of the
civilized world wou