No. 451.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, September 30, 1873.
(Received October 20.)
No. 52.]Sir: On the 25th instant the Mexican Congress
formally declared the ratification by a majority of the legislatures of the
republic of the laws of reform as additions and amendments to the federal
constitution, and under the same date President Lerdo proclaimed them as
embodied in that instrument. These laws were decreed by the liberal
government at Vera Cruz in 1859, and since the overthrow of Maximilian, in
1867, they have been enforced but their present incorporation into the
federal constitution may be regarded as the crowning act of triumph of the
liberal government in its long contest with the conservative or church
party.
[Page 714]
These amendments declare the independence of each other, of the state and
church, and forbid the passage of laws establishing or prohibiting any
religion; declare marriage a civil contract, and give exclusive jurisdiction
to the civil authority to celebrate this and all other civil personal acts;
prohibit the acquisition of real estate or capital secured by mortgages by
religious institutions, except for specific church-uses; abolish all
religious oaths; make unlawful the establishment or existence of monastic
orders, or the enforcement of any agreement for personal service without
just compensation, or which has for its object the infringement of personal
liberty. I inclose herewith a copy and translation (inclosures 1 and 2) of
the said amendments and their official promulgation.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
52.—Translation.]
Amendments to the Mexican constitution.
The citizen President of the republic has been pleased to address to me
the following decree:
Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, constitutional President of the United States
of Mexico, to all the inhabitants thereof:
Know ye that the Congress of the Union has decreed the following:
The Congress of the United States of Mexico, in the exercise of the
faculty conferred upon it by the one hundred and twenty-seventh article
of the constitution promulgated on the 12th of February, 1857, and with
the previous approval of a majority of the legislatures of the republic,
declares—
The following are additions and amendments to the said constitution:
- Article 1. The state and the church
are mutually independent. Congress cannot pass laws establishing
or prohibiting any religion.
- Article 2. Marriage is a civil
contract. This and the other acts of the civil life of
individuals are under the exclusive supervision of the civil
officials and authorities, in the manner provided by the laws,
and will have the force and validity which said laws confer upon
them.
- Article 3. No religious institution
can acquire real estate or capital, secured by mortgage
thereupon, with the single exception provided in the
twenty-seventh article of the constitution.
- Article 4. The simple promise to
speak the truth and comply with the obligations which are
undertaken, shall take the place of the religious oath, with its
effects and penalties.
- Article 5. No one can be compelled
to give personal service without just compensation and without
his full consent. The state cannot permit any contract, compact,
or agreement to be executed which may have for its object the
diminution, loss, or irrevocable sacrifice of personal liberty,
whether by reason of labor, education, or religious vow. The
law, therefore, does not recognize monastic orders, nor can it
permit their establishment, under whatever name or object they
may claim it to be formed. Neither can it allow any compact by
which an individual agrees to his own proscription or
banishment.
Hall of the Congress of the Union, Mexico, September 25, 1873.
(Signed by all the deputies of the Congress.)
Therefore I order the above to be printed,
published, circulated, and duly obeyed. Given in the national palace
of Mexico, September 25, 1873.
SEBASTIAN LERDO de
TEJADA.
To the Citizen Cayetano Gomez y
Perez,
In Charge of the Ministry of
the Interior.
And I communicate the above to you for your information and
consequent action. Independence and liberty!
Mexico, September 25,
1873.
CAYETANO GOMEZ Y PEREZ,
Chief
Clerk.
