The Reform and the French Intervention PDF

Printed by: quinn.smid!@avc:.edu. Printing is for pcil80D8l, privare uso only. No part of1his book may bci npn,dua,d or tnmsmitb:d without pabliahcr'a prior permisaion. VIOl.a1ms will be proeec:uted. CHAPTER 20...

Printed by: quinn.smid!@avc:.edu. Printing is for pcil80D8l, privare uso only. No part of1his book may bci npn,dua,d or tnmsmitb:d without pabliahcr'a prior permisaion. VIOl.a1ms will be proeec:uted. CHAPTER 20 THE REFORM AND THE FRENCH INTERVENTION THE REVOL UT IO N O F AY UTLA The Revolution ofAyutla, the armed movement that-ousted Santa Anna from power in 1855, brough1 1oge1her some of the mMt o riginal and creative minds in Mexico. l'ar from bpng ivory tower scholars, this group of writers and intelleauals syncretized their own. creative work with a spirit of public service, a sense of social consciousness, and a profound desire to see Mexico emerge at last from its lo'ng night of political instability and warfare. They sought to reevaluate the Mexican national conscience and redefine national t oals. Secularly oriented and antiroilitarist, they deeply mistrusted the cburth hierateh and had little use for the ambitious, self.seJVing Mexican army. Influenced by the European Enlightenment and l'rench pbilP5'ophy, attorney Melchor Ocampo practiced law, began farming scientifically, cata!ogedilora and fauna. studied Indian languages. and collected one of the best private lib.caries in Mexico. He also made the decision to enter politics. In the 1840s and 1850s )wserved as governor of Michoadn and as a con_gi:essman in the narional legislature. ~only after the war with the United States he w0r1 acclaim when he became in.volvecl in a virtual death struggle with the dergx of Mlchoac,n. The issue-the refusal oCa local curate to bury the body of a penni less campesino because the widow could not pay the sacramental fees- became a cause c&bre, used effectively by Ocampo to dlrnonstrate the ineptitude and decadence of the ecclesiastical effon. Other liberals took up the caUJ1e-of denouncing corruption in both church and state. Among them were Santos Degollado, who also served briefly as governor of Michoadn, and Guillermo Prieto, the son of a Mexico City baker who edited El Siglo XIX and popular- iz.ed the anti-Santa Anna cause. The government persecuted both, forcing them into jail or exile. But the real leader of the young, socially motivated intellectuals and the personification of Mexican history in th.e two decades following mid-century was BeniLO JuMez, a Zapotec 283 Printed by: [email protected]. Printing is for pmcma1, priva&e me only. No part of'lhis book may be reprodnced or transmitted without publisher's prior permisaii>n. Violatvn will be prosec:utcd.  284 LIBE RA LS A."l 0 COSSE RVl,TIVES SEAR.Cf! FOi. SOMETllffr,;C 8ETTfl.R Indian from the state of Oaxaca. Born on March 21, 1806, in the mountain village of San Pablo Guelatao, Juarez was orphaned at the age of three and raised by an uncle. Only a handful of the one hundred fifty villagers knew any Spanish, and Juarez had learned but a few words when, at the age of rwelve. he left his adobe home in the Zapotec village and walked forty-one miles to the state capital. An older sister working as a cook in Oaxaca City found employment for the boy in the home of a Franciscan lay brother who was a pan-time bookbinder. In return for daily chores jn the house and helping in the bindery, the Francis- can paid Juarez's tuition so that he could begin hi.s schooling. At his benefactor's insistence he entered the seminary in Oaxaca bm quickly realized that rhe priesthood was not his ca!Jing. He opted instead for the law and worked his way through law sch~ol, graduating in 1831. That year he entered political life on the Oaxaca city council an subsequently served in the state legislature. But he did not abandon his career as a barrister and defended, without fee, groups of poor villagers, challenging the exorbitant r.ues,charged by the clergy for the sacraments or protesting lhe arbitrary dictates of the local hacendado dass. These activities convinced him that only Structural al teration of the 7 could effect the changes he envi- sioned, and his liberalism strengthened. When war broke out between Mexico and the United States, Jwlrez, a delegate in the na- tional congress in Mexico City, was recalled 10 his home state to serve a term as provisional govem oL Later, the defeated and disgraced Santa Anna sought refuge in Oaxaca. but Gov- mor Juarez let him know he was not welcome there. In 1848 Oaxaquetlos elected Juarez to a full term as constitutional governor. The Juarez governorship was far from revolutionary, but he did give the state a g;:nuin esson in energetic, honest, and sound,management. Not only did he preside over the construction of fifty new rural schools and encourage female attendance. but he also sought to open the state up to wodd trade ~rehabilitating the aban- doned Pacific pon of Muarulco. Even more amazing for mi~ineteenth-cemury Mexico, he reduced the huge state bureaucracy and pushed economih mprovements while making regular payments on the state debt When San~Anaa returned to power for the last time, he moved to deal with the liberal threat. Juarez was arrested and then exiled to New O,r:leans. When he arrived in the Louisiana dry, he met other Mexicans of his ilk who had taken refuge there. Jost Marfa Mata and Pon- ciano,tmaga were active members of a revo~ti~aary clique Jed by Melchor Ocampo. Juarez joined the exiles in plotting to overthro-fthe dictatorship when they decided to cast their 161. with an old guerrilla chieftain, Jua!l.,Alvarez, then leading an antigovemment rebellion in the state of Guerrero. In 1854, the_,_P~ de Ayuda put fonh a statement of liberal principles and a long list of grievances against Santa Anna. In JaliKO, Santos Degollado gathered a formidable rebel army around him. Santiago Vidaurri in Nuevo l.ron and Manuel Ooblado in Guanajuato pronounced against the dictatorship and joined the Ayutla mowmen t. The exiles in New Orleans helped with arms and ammunition, and in the early summer of l.8SS they sent Juarez 10 Acapulco to join Alvarez as a political aide. With a wide base of support in August 1853 the liberals forced Santa Anna, whose popularity was at its lowest ebb, to resign and go into exile for the last time. Printed by: quinn.smi1h@avc:.ec1n. Printing is for pi,ncmal, privata uae only. No part of1his book may ba n,pmduced or trammitted wilhont pabliahet11 prior permilllion. Vwla1on will be proJec:Uted.  11ie R,form and du f-rench Imeroenriott 285 THE REFORM LAWS In the new government. Juan Alvarez became provisional president; Ignacio Comonfort. secretary of war; Melchor Ocampo, secretary of the treasury; Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, secre- tary of development; and Benito Juarez, secretary of justice. The provisional presidency of Alvarez marks the beginning of a period in Mexican history remembered as the Reform. f-or the first time since the G6mez Farias administration in 1833 the liberals set themselves in earnest to the task of destroying the sustaining structures of the conservative state in o rder to create a modem, democratic, secular, and capitalist nation. The first significant piece of legislation to emeige from the Refoan bore the name of the secretary of justice. Ley Juarez abolished the military and ecdoiastical fueros, the special dispensations exempting soldiers and clerics from having to stand trial in civil courts. Ley Juarez did not, as sometimes contended, abolish all military and ecctesiastical courts; rather, it placed stringent restriaions on their jurisdicrlons. The eccl iastlcal and mUiwy couns had competency only in cases involving the alleged transgression of canon or military law. If, o n the othe.r hand, a cleric or a soldier were chaiged with a violation of civil or criminal law, he would be required to stand trial in a stato or fei eral coun. Ley Juarez thus became an important milestone in an o ngoing battle to secure-die concept of equality before the law. Ley Ju4rez invoked the fury of the church and conservatives generally. But it also exppsed a schism in the ranks of the liberals. The moderates (moderados) favored backin clown, while the more staunch liberals (puros) refused. Before the month was out Presidj:Jlt Alvarez and most of the cabinet bad resigned. The presidency devolved on Ignacio Cornonfon, who was more of a compromiser than a firebrand. In June 1856 President Comonfon's secretary of the trc!a.,ury, Mi~I Lcrdo de Tejada. drafted an imponant new law that the radicals hoped would weaken the church and the - lgnsdo c-,,monfon ( I Al 2-63). A bun,,uc:rat of minor !m- ponantt for mo