No. 207.
Mr. Foster to Mr. Fish.

No. 457.]

Sir: During the past two weeks the political condition of the country has assumed a more serious aspect than at any time since the revolution now in progress began, in January last. Mr. Richardson in legation dispatch No. 453, of October 28, gave information of the extension by Congress of the “extraordinary faculties” which have been exercised by the President, embracing a suspension of individual guarantees, and of the freedom of the press; and also of the declaration by the Chamber of Deputies of the re-election of the President. and its promulgation by solemn and public proclamation; and he also alluded to the reported action of the president of the supreme court, the Hon. José M. Iglesias, in opposition to the decree of the Chamber of Deputies.

Repeated references have been made in previous dispatches to the differences existing between the supreme court and the two other departments of the federal power; also to the opposition manifested to the re-election of Mr. Lerdo as President; and latterly to the validity of the elections held in June and July last.

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For some time past it has been apparent that a new or fresh outbreak would occur upon either the declaration of the re-election of Mr. Lerdo, or when he should enter upon the second term of the Presidency. As has been heretofore stated, a number of the leading men of the country, who composed in part the special circle or party of Mr. Lerdo’s first candidacy for President, announced themselves at an early day as opposed to his re-election, upon the ground that the principle of non-reelection was one of the main planks of the platform of his party, when he was mentioned as a candidate against Mr. Juarez, and that he was committed against a second term. It was also charged that his partisans were determined to secure his re-election through the suppression of the popular suffrage; that in the revolutionary state of the country and the temper of the people no fair election could be held, and that it would be only a mockery of the public will. When the elections were held the opposition almost unanimously abstained from voting, and on all sides the opponents of the President proclaimed that the elections were invalid, or rather that there had in fact been no election.

As advised in dispatch No. 453, of the 28th ultimo, the Chamber of Deputies on the 26th ultimo adopted the report of the examining committee (on elections), which declares that Mr. Lerdo had been legally re-elected President of the republic, and that two magistrates, and an attorney-general of the supreme court (partisans of Mr. Lerdo) had at the same election been chosen.

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The report of the committee was followed by the presentation to the chamber of a protest on the part of the minority of deputies. It will be seen that the minority decline to discuss the report on the ground that the government organ, on being questioned, failed to give assurances [Page 377] that freedom of discussion would be respected, and that they would not be arrested under the recent act suspending the individual guarantees. They, however, it will be seen, call in question some of the essential facts stated by the committee; declare that fifteen States are actually or virtually under martial law; that the people did not participate in the election; that the returns in the hands of the committee are fraudulent or falsified in the results stated; and that the general voice of the nation is that there was no election.

On the day following the passage of the decree by the Chamber of Deputies, declaring the result of the elections, the 27th ultimo, the Hon. José M. Iglesias, president of the federal supreme court and ex officio Vice-President of the republic, sent to that court a communication announcing that, having the conviction that there were no elections in June and July; that the members of that court declared elected had no legal right to act as such; that he could not, by his presence, become an accomplice in such an outrage on the institutions of the country, and that he would not attend the sessions of the court. At the same time the solicitor and attorney-general ad interim submitted to the court a petition asking that that body protest (1st) against the decree declaring Mr. Lerdo legally re-elected; (2d) that it refuse to recognize the newly-elected members of the court; and (3d) that it suspend its functions until the observance of the constitution is reestablished.

A protest was also presented to the court by the Hon. Emilio Velasco, a lawyer of ability and a citizen of high standing, against the recognition of the decree of the Chamber of Deputies by the supreme court.

These papers were followed by a lengthy discussion by the members of the court, an abstract of which is inclosed herewith. The first two propositions were rejected by the court by a vote of six magistrates against five, including among the last the attorney-general; and the third proposition was rejected by a vote of seven against four. This result was quite unexpected, as the opposition had been led to believe that the majority of the supreme court would declare against the legality of the elections. They claim, however, that such would have been the result but for the recent unlimited powers conferred upon the President, on account of which they insist that the members of the supreme court would not be granted freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, for which reason Mr. Iglesias and two other members of the court absented themselves from the session. In confirmation of which they point to the fact that three of the members of the court were on the day following arrested by order of the President and placed in close confinement, and that the others only avoided that fate by escaping from the city.

Immediately after the arrest of the members of the court, the Executive reported this fact to the Chamber of Deputies, and that body at once voted articles of impeachment against those arrested, as also against Mr. Iglesias and the other members who had voted to sustain the three propositions of the solicitor. The action of the chamber is, I am informed (as no official publication has been made of the act), based upon a law which was passed in May of last year, in a season of great excitement, and which was intended to take from the judiciary, both federal and state, all right or jurisdiction to pass upon the electoral acts of Congress or other electoral bodies, making the latter the sole judges and the authority of last resort.

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As there stated Mr. Iglesias regarded it as such a direct assault upon [Page 378] the supreme court, and as so plainly unconstitutional, and subversive of the judicial power, that he at that time tendered his resignation, but was induced to withdraw it and content himself with making his protest in the supreme court against it.

On the 28th ultimo the decree proclaiming the election was officially published, and on the same day Mr. Igiesias, having privately left the capital, caused to be circulated a manifesto addressed to the nation in which he by virtue of the seventy-ninth article of the constitution (providing for the temporary occupancy of the Presidency by the president of the supreme court in the event of the vacancy of the former office), announced that the Chamber of Deputies and President Lerdo had destroyed all their rights and titles to legitimate authority on account of the passage and promulgation of the decree as to the elections, and that provisionally he would assume the Presidency of the republic.

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On the 30th of October the legislature and governor of the State of Guanajuato passed and published a decree rejecting and disowning President Lerdo, and recognizing Mr. Igiesias as the constitutional and provisional President of the republic, and on the day following Mr. Igiesias was received in the city of Guanajuato by the State authorities, the event being attended by popular demonstrations of approval.

Upon proclaiming the assumption of the duties of provisional or ad interim President, Mr. Igiesias organized in part his cabinet of ministers, and issued a second document, which he terms his “programme of government,” in which he indicates the course which he will follow and the principles which will govern his temporary administration. The first part of his programme announces that he will only hold the office until a President can legally and fairly be elected by a free and unrestrained expression of the popular will; and that neither he nor any of his ministers will be candidates for the office, nor shall there be any official candidature, or any interference whatever on the part of federal officials to influence the popular suffrage. He announces, as the important measure of his administration, the endeavor to secure the adoption by the legal and prescribed methods of an amendment to the federal constitution prohibiting re-election to the Presidency; and after explaining in detail the other measures which he will favor, he closes with an epitome of the whole. His recommendation as to the adoption of a constitutional amendment prohibiting re-election to the Presidency is claimed by the opponents of Mr. Lerdo as the great measure of reform which is imperatively needed to pacify the country, and prevent a repetition of the present disorders at the approach of every Presidential election. They point to the history of the Mexican and all the other Spanish American republics in support of their position, asserting that the great majority of the revolutions and disorders in these countries have had their origin in the efforts of reigning Presidents to extend the first or legal period of their power.

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The effect of these acts has been very marked, both on the general public and on the military situation of the country. The movement of General Porfirio Diaz, in its inception and progress, has not met with the hearty approval of any very large or respectable body of the public men of the country, as it was generally regarded by them as unwarranted at the time of its inauguration, and as a political enterprise of professional revolutionists. It must, however, be conceded that Mr. Igiesias and the greater portion of the public men who support him, have been distinguished [Page 379] for their attachment to constitutional government and order and respect for law, and are sincerely the friends of republican institutions. However much Mr. Iglesias’s present course is condemned and lamented, he is generally credited with honest and patriotic convictions, freedom from the suspicion of ambitious designs and any intention to use his attempted provisional assumption of the Presidency to continue in that position.

Such being the case, his course has had the effect to greatly strengthen the revolutionary spirit in all parts of the country. There has been no official announcement of an arrangement or understanding between the party of Mr. Iglesias and that of General Diaz, but it is rumored that the latter has given his adhesion to Mr. Iglesias. However this may be, the task of the government of Mr. Lerdo in suppressing the revolution has increased twofold. General Diaz was, at last advices, still in the State of Puebla with a considerable force, confronting the main army of the government. The State of Guanajuato, one of the most powerful in the republic, has an armed and organized state guard variously estimated at from three to five thousand, which has been placed at the orders of Mr. Iglesias’s minister of war. To meet and subdue this force, and scatter the gathering government of Iglesias, the detachments of the federal army in the central or interior states have been ordered to concentrate and march upon Guanajuato.

Meanwhile, a large force of revolutionists has occupied Apizaco, at the junction of the Puebla branch with the main line of railroad from this city to Vera Cruz, thus cutting off the capital from Vera Cruz, stopping all railroad communication whatever, and isolating the main federal army. The strategetic importance of this position is doubtless felt by the government, and it is reported that a movement is now on foot to repossess this point and the line of railroad. The concentration of forces for this purpose has made it necessary to both weaken the garrison in this city and draw in all detachments in the vicinity of this valley, which has exposed all the neighboring towns to the incursions of bands of revolutionists, and they have even approached very near to the city gates.

These occurrences and the evident danger in which the government of Mr. Lerdo is placed, have caused wide-spread alarm in the capital, and a general fear that an uprising of the lower classes of malcontents may occur, endangering public order, and security to property.

But in the midst of the prevailing distrust and alarm, President Lerdo and the federal authorities appear calm and determined to continue in the exercise of what they insist is the constitutional and legal administration of the government; and they claim confidence in its ability to finally triumph over the united enemy. They insist that the elections have in all respects been in conformity to law, and with the full freedom of the electors; that Mr. Lerdo has been by the popular voice chosen to the presidency for another term; that to yield in the least degree to the revolutionary spirit is to abandon all hope of constitutional government for Mexico; and that the peace and future prosperity of the country can be secured solely by the maintenance of the present administration.

As I close this dispatch, rumors are in circulation as to military events of importance, but they are not sufficiently confirmed to be noticed.

I am, &c.,

JOHN W. FOSTER.