488 



MEXICO. 



march without delay to Sinaloa to resist you and the 

 other chiefs in rebellion, that peace be established by 

 giving the necessary aid to the constituted authorities 

 of the State. 

 Independence and liberty I 



Instead of obeying this mandate from the 

 central Government, Martinez published a long 

 reply, in which he reviewed the events which 

 followed the election of December, and entered 

 into an elaborate defence of his own conduct, 

 closing with a request for the withdrawal of 

 the orders of February llth, coupled with a 

 pretty clear intimation that he had no intention 

 of obeying them. Vehement pronunciamientos 

 were published by the other revolutionary 

 leaders in Sinaloa, intended to rouse up the 

 people to a determined resistance, and the 

 military forces stationed in the State were 

 mostly combined against Governor Eubi, who 

 with a small force waited in the mountain 

 fastnesses of Copala for the relief promised by 

 the Federal authorities. Martinez attempted 

 to induce Lozada, a rebellious Indian general 

 in the State of Jalisco, to prohibit the Govern- 

 ment troops from passing through that region 

 on their way to Sinaloa. This request was 

 not complied with, and vigorous efforts were 

 made to suppress the revolution. Collisions oc- 

 casionally took place between bodies of revo- 

 lutionists and the forces of Kubi, but the decisive 

 battle was fought on the 8th of April, when 

 the army of the Republic, under the command 

 of General Corona, met the collected force of 

 the leaders of the insurrection, on the Presidio, 

 and utterly defeated them. The State and na- 

 tional forces engaged numbered about 1,500 

 men, while the revolutionists had an army of 

 3,000, but the leaders of the rebellion were not 

 thoroughly united in action, and many of the 

 soldiers had no heart for the service in which 

 they were enlisted. After a fierce struggle, the 

 revolutionary army was cut in pieces and its 

 leaders fled. Rubi was immediately installed 

 in the office of Governor, and Martinez took to 

 the mountains at the head of 150 men, and de- 

 clared Ms intention to carry on a guerilla war- 

 fare against the State of Sinaloa. This revolu- 

 tion was supported throughout by forced loans 

 and a rigorous conscription of unwilling citi- 

 zens, and was characterized by a disregard, 

 on the part of the leaders in Sinaloa, of the 

 real wishes and interests of the people, and it 

 became in the end absolutely unpopular. The 

 spirit of the rebellion was not thoroughly 

 crushed by the battle of the Presidio; the 

 leaders frequently discharged fiery pronuncia- 

 mientos from their retreats among the moun- 

 tains, and endeavored to excite the people to 

 a new uprising. The Government, on the other 

 hand, dealt with the utmost severity with any 

 sympathizers with rebellion who fell into its 

 hands ; and no opportunity was found during 

 the year to renew any active operations against 

 the authority of the State or nation in the 

 neighborhood of Sinaloa. 



The rebellion in Sinaloa sprang altogether 



from local causes, and the principal actors in 

 it were formerly earnest supporters of Juarez ; 

 but, after the disastrous failure of their at- 

 tempts at revolution, they turned against the 

 the Government and joined with the numerous 

 malcontents of other parts, in embarrassing 

 the Federal authorities by constant hostile 

 outbreaks, and annoying pronunciamientos, or 

 appeals to the people to throw off all allegiance 

 to the citizen-president, Don Benito Juarez. 

 These discontented leaders, at the head of their 

 wild bands of marauding soldiery, acted in no 

 well-concerted plan and with no definite ob- 

 ject. The principal grounds of complaint 

 against the existing administration were the 

 conwcatoria of August, 1867, an alleged inter- 

 ference of the President in the elections which 

 followed, and the assumption by Juarez of 

 powers not delegated to him by the Constitu- 

 tion of 1857. If the opponents of the Govern- 

 ment had been organized under one efficient 

 head, they might have become truly formida- 

 ble, but Ortega, who claimed to be the con- 

 stitutional President by virtue of Ms office of 

 Chief Justice when the term of Juarez expired, 

 was confined in prison at Monterey, and no one 

 appeared in the field of action with influence 

 or prestige enough to gather up the elements 

 of discontent and direct them with vigor 

 against the obnoxious administration. A few 

 visionaries still cherished the name of Santa 

 Anna, and in more than one instance proclama- 

 tions were issued in the nope that Ms name 

 without Ms presence would serve to head a 

 revolution. The strongest combination effected 

 against Juarez was formed in May, under the 

 leadership of Aureliano Rivera, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the capital. Rivera was a man of 

 good natural abilities, but totally uneducated, 

 and with no training but that of a soldier, in 

 which capacity lie had won great distinction 

 in the Liberal army during the late war. He 

 published an address to the nation on the 5th 

 of May, which was signed also by several other 

 officers of distinction. As this document sets 

 forth very fully the grievances of the malcon- 

 tents, a very accurate translation of it is here 

 given. 



MEXICO, May 5, 1868. 

 To the Nation : 



When, a few months since, the heroic Mexican 

 people were struggling against the French invasion hi 

 order to assert their independence, and against the 

 mad pretences of the criminal empire, to secure those 

 republican principles proclaimed since the war of our 

 first emancipation, in 1810; when, a few months 

 since, blood was shed in torrents upon the altar- of 

 the country in order to reconquer in that manner 

 those precious rights which an insolent foreigner had 

 usurped, we believed in the triumph and had firm 

 faith in the victory of the people. 



But later we have seen with grief that it was neces- 

 sary to continue the struggle against those domestic 

 oppressors who made a show of repelling the Euro- 

 pean invaders in order to occupy their places. With 

 grief we saw the Constitution and the laws appealed to, 

 though wounded to the death, by those very persons 

 who owed to them their title, their consideration, and 

 their entire authority. 



