MEXICO. 



559 



stated that he had been directed to stop all 

 intercourse with any garrison during a siege, 

 except that which humanity should dictate. 

 This communication was returned to him by 

 Mejia as being improper in language, and 

 thenceforth the correspondence between the 

 two commanders was brief and of a purely for- 

 mal character. In December, K. Clay Craw- 

 ford, formerly an officer of volunteers in the 

 United States army, arrived at Brownsville with 

 a commission as general in the Mexican repub- 

 lican army, and authority to recruit an Ameri- 

 can division for the republican service under 

 his command. He established recruiting offices 

 at Brownsville and other places in Texas, where 

 enlistments were made so rapidly as to greatly 

 alarm the imperialists in Matamoras. The de- 

 fences of the place were immediately strength- 

 ened, and Mejia issued an order forbidding all 

 communication with the American side of the 

 river, and requiring all citizens of Matamoras 

 to take an oath of allegiance to the Emperor 

 Maximilian. Crawford was, however, soon ar- 

 rested and sent a prisoner to New Orleans, his 

 recruiting offices were closed, and the year 

 ended with comparative tranquillity on both 

 sides of the river. 



Early in November news reached Juarez, in 

 El Paso, that the imperialists had evacuated 

 Chihuahua. He immediately departed for that 

 place with his cabinet, the members of the Su- 

 preme Court, and other functionaries, and on 

 the 20th reestablished there the capital of the 

 republic. On December 9th he was compelled 

 by the return of the imperial troops to evacuate 

 Chihuahua and retire to El Paso, where he ar- 

 rived on the 18th, and where he was established 

 at the close of the year. On December llth 

 the imperialists reoccupied Chihuahua. 



At this time a new element of danger to the 

 republican cause was developed. As the con- 

 stitutional term of President Juarez would ex- 

 pire by limitation on November 13, 1865, and, 

 in consequence of the unsettled condition of 

 country, no successor had been elected, the 

 question arose whether, under the circum- 

 stances, the Government should be transferred, 

 according to the provisions of the Constitution, 

 to Gen. Ortega, the President of the Supreme 

 Court, or retained by the man who had so long 

 and so heroically upheld the sinking fortunes 

 of the country, and who, in the^ opinion of 

 many, was the only Mexican living competent 

 to discharge the duties of President of the re- 

 public. A change of leaders at such a moment, 

 it was urged, would prove a great misfortune 

 to the cause. Accordingly, after consultation 

 with many influential republicans, soldiers and 

 civilians, Juarez, on November 9th, issued a de- 

 cree extending his presidential term until a 

 new election could be held, and urging at 

 length the necessity for such action. A cir- 

 cular was published at the same time by the 

 Minister of the Interior, censuring Gen. Ortega 

 for prolonged absence from his command with- 

 out leave, and ordering him to report forthwith 



for trial. In a letter written immediately after 

 the promulgation of the decree, Juarez stated 

 that the commanding officers and political lead- 

 ers of the frontier States had all approved of the 

 extension of his term of office, and that he had 

 reason to Relieve that a similar assent could 

 be obtained in the other States of the republic. 

 Unfortunately for the harmony of the repub- 

 lican cause this arrangement did not meet the 

 approval of one of the parties most interested in 

 the matter, Gen Ortega, who forthwith issued 

 the following protest : 



To Senor SEBASTIAN LERDO DE TEJADA, Minister of 

 Internal Affairs and Government ; 

 The unjust and impolitic act executed by Don Be- 

 nito Juarez in issuing, through your department, the 

 two decrees dated on the 8th of November last past, 

 has placed me in the painful position, in view of the 

 circumstances in which the Mexican Republic now 

 stands, of being obliged to protest, as I now do be- 

 fore the nation, against the contents of the said de- 

 crees. I do so 



_1. Because they are contrary to the express pro- 

 visions of the political constitution of the republic, 

 and consequently illegal, arbitrary, and unjust. 



_ 2. Because they create a dictatorship, to be exer- 

 cised by Don Benito Juarez, who will thus be en- 

 abled to remove and replace at his caprice the au- 

 thorities of one of the independent and sovereign Fed- 

 eral powers, who have received their appointment 

 and prerogatives through the votes of the nation, 

 destroying in this manner a republican principle and 

 the basis of legal order, which is the form of govern- 

 ment laid down in the Constitution. 



3. Because they are contrary to the powers dele- 

 gated to the Executive by Congress, which, notwith- 

 standing the war existing between Mexico and 

 France, declared, in granting said powers by the de- 

 cree of December 11, 1861, that the Executive should 

 be " entirely authorized to take such measures as he 

 may deem advisable under existing circumstances, 

 without any further restriction than to sustain the 

 independence and integrity of the national territory, 

 the form of government established by the Constitu- 

 tion and the principles and laws of reform ; " and 

 the law of October 27, 1862, contains the express and 

 decisive restriction that "he [Juarez] shall not act 

 contrary to the provisions of article 4 of the Con- 

 stitution ; " otherwise, that he shall not have power to 

 determine whether it be advisable or not 'to proceed 

 against public officers a restriction whose sole ob- 

 ject was to prevent the President from making an 

 abuse of power and destroying constitutional order. 



4. Because the said decrees seriously jeopard the 

 national independence, by depriving its defenders of 

 a legitimate government, which is the only one that 

 can serve as a centre, united under one flag, and sub- 

 stituting therefor an illegal government, devoid of 

 any justification save the anti-constitutional decree 

 that has been recently issued. 



5. Because these decrees imply an insult to the 

 Mexican people, and to those who nave fought for the 

 rights of Mexico beneath her flag, inasmuch as the 

 text clearly leads to the inference that the blood shed 

 by the Mexican people, the thousands of victims, and 

 the heroic efforts of all classes in support of a priu- 

 ciple, have had no other object than to protect the 

 person of Don Benito Juarez, and that if this indi- 

 vidual does not save Mexico, Mexico is unable to 

 save herself. 



6. Because not only the grounds upon which these 

 decrees are based are fallacious, but, further, because 

 recourse has been had to calumny, directed against 

 me personally. 



The solem'n oath which I took as constitutional 

 President of the Supreme Court of Justice, based 

 upon the Constitution of the Republic, has been loy 



