716 SANTA ANNA, ANTONIO L. DE. 



SEWARD MONUMENT, THE. 



contest, he was signally defeated, and retired 

 to his home. At the end of 1828 he secured 

 the overthrow of the Pedraza administration, 

 and shortly after the elevation of Guerrero, 

 who made him Minister of War and Com- 

 mander-in-chief of the Army, after Santa Anna 

 had repelled the Spanish invasion under Bar- 

 radas, in September, 1029. He subsequently 

 headed two successful insurrections, one to 

 replace Guerrero in the executive functions by 

 Bustamente, and the other to overthrow the 

 latter in favor of Pedraza (January, 1832). In 

 March, 1833, he was elected President; but, 

 though a favorite with the army, he was un- 

 popular with the nation, being suspected of 

 aiming at the imperial crown. Several insur- 

 rections broke out, the last and most formi- 

 dable of which was crushed by Santa Anna on 

 May 11, 1835, when the insurgents sustained 

 severe losses, and the Republican party received 

 a fatal blow. A complete administrative re- 

 organization was now effected, and the gov- 

 ernors of the several States were henceforth 

 dependent upon the supreme power. A revo- 

 lutionary feeling, long existing in Texas, now 

 broke out into open insurrection. Early in 

 1836 Santa Anna took the field in person. By 

 the middle of February he reached the Rio 

 Grande at the head of six thousand troops, 

 stormed the Alamo at San Antonio on March 

 6th, after several days' siege, and massacred its 

 defenders, but with great loss to himself, and, 

 after the massacre at Goliad, done under his 

 express orders, marched toward Gonzales. At 

 San Jacinto he was totally routed by the Texan 

 army under Houston, April 21st. The next 

 day he was taken prisoner, and his functions 

 were at once suspended by the Mexican Gov- 

 ernment. In 1837 he returned to his native 

 country by way of the United States, but was 

 coldly received, and at the presidential elec- 

 tion of that year he had only two out of sixty- 

 nine electoral votes, after which he retired to 

 his estate at Jalapa. The same year he took 

 part in the defense of Vera Cruz, bombarded 

 by the French, and there sustained an injury 

 which necessitated the amputation of a leg. 

 In the long contention between the Centralists 

 and Federalists he was one of the leaders of the 

 former; and from October 10, 1841, to June 

 4, 1844, he was virtual dictator, under the 

 title of Provisional President. He was again 

 Constitutional President under the instrument 

 of June 12, 1843, from June 4 to September 

 20, 1844, when he was deposed by a new revo- 

 lution, taken prisoner near Tlacolula on Jan- 

 uary 15, 1845, and banished for ten years, and 

 took up his residence in Cuba. In 1846 he was 

 recalled, appointed generalissimo, and in De- 

 cember made Provisional President. Imme- 

 diately after, at the head of twenty thousand 

 men, he advanced northward, and on February 

 22, 1847, attacked the American troops at 

 Buena Vista, five thousand strong, under Gen- 

 eral Taylor, by whom he was effectually re- 

 pulsed on the following day. Having raised a 



new army, he took up a position at Cerro Gor- 

 do, where he was again defeated by the Amer- 

 icans, under General Scott, on April 18th. Col- 

 lecting three thousand men from the fragments 

 of his army, he retreated toward the city of 

 Mexico. Late in April he was informed of his 

 appointment to the presidency by Congress; 

 but, finding subsequently that the election for 

 President, which the States had held on May 

 15th, was unfavorable to his pretensions, he 

 prevailed on Congress to postpone the count- 

 ing of votes until January, 1848, and in the 

 mean time banished or imprisoned all who op- 

 posed his schemes, and established a severe 

 censorship of the press. He had organized an 

 army thirty thousand strong for the defense of 

 the capital ; but Molino del Rey was stormed 

 by General Scott on September 8, 1847, and 

 Chapultepec on the 13th, and on the 14th the 

 city of Mexico fell. Santa Anna now resigned 

 the presidency, and made a last effort to re 

 trieve "his reputation by the siege of Puebla ; 

 but he was attacked by General Lane at Hua- 

 mantla, and forced to retire from the place, 

 which was now relieved. Having received 

 permission from the American commander-in- 

 chief, he sailed for Jamaica on April 5, 1848. 

 In 1853 he returned to Mexico, and was re- 

 ceived with great enthusiasm. He was ap- 

 pointed President for one year, after which 

 time he was to call a constituent Congress; 

 but he fomented a new revolution, by which 

 he was declared President for life, with power 

 to appoint his successor, and with the title 

 of Most Serene Highness. He began to rule 

 with despotic authority, and the revolution 

 of Ayutla followed, led by General Alvarez. 

 After a struggle of two years, Santa Anna 

 signed his unconditional abdication, and sailed, 

 on August 16, 1855, for Havana. He after- 

 ward spent two years in Venezuela, and thence 

 went to St. Thomas. During the French in- 

 vasion he reappeared in Mexico, and pledged 

 himself to strict neutrality; but a manifesto 

 tending to excite disturbance in his favor led 

 General Bazaine to order him to quit the coun- 

 try in May, 1864. Maximilian, liowever, ap- 

 pointed him Grand-Marshal of the Empire ; but 

 in 1865, having been implicated in a conspiracy 

 against the Emperor, he again withdrew to St. 

 Thomas. In 1867 he made a last attempt to 

 gain ascendency in Mexico, but was taken 

 prisoner at Vera Cruz and condemned to death. 

 Juarez pardoned him on condition of his quit- 

 ting Mexican soil forever, and he came to the 

 United States. After the death of Juarez he 

 was permitted to return to Mexico. 



SEWARD MONUMENT, THE. A colossal 

 statue of William H. Seward, which was mod- 

 eled by the sculptor Randolph Rogers, and 

 cast in bronze in the Royal Foundery at Munich, 

 presented to the city of New York by an asso- 

 ciation of private citizens, and erected on the 

 southwest corner of Madison Square, in that 

 city, was ceremoniously unveiled on the after- 

 noon of the 27th of September, 



