512 



MEXICO. 



he counted some thousands of armed men un- 

 der his command. 



Thus, there were three Presidents who con- 

 sidered themselves entitled to exercise power : 

 Lerdo, founded upon his reelection ; Iglesias, 

 who, in the defense of his rights, in accordance 

 with constitutional principles, opposed the re- 

 election as being unfair, from having been 

 effected under circumstances that offered no 

 guarantee for free suffrage ; and General Diaz, 

 the chief of the anti-reelectionist revolution, 

 who based his claim on the political proclama- 

 tion made at Toxtepec, a town of the State of 

 Oajaca. 



General Diaz marched from the capital, with 

 numerous forces, toward the interior, for the 

 purpose of attacking the troops sustaining Ig- 



THK CATHEDRAL, MATAMOBO8. 



lesias. Such was the situation, and such the 

 attitude of the different parties when the year 



1876 was drawing to its close. 



The events which marked the beginning of 



1877 were of a nature rather to confirm the 

 apprehensions grounded upon the experience 

 of the year immediately preceding it, than to 

 inspire hopes of peace and tranquillity. 



The few troops still faithful to the cause of 

 Iglesias were quickly put to flight, at Union 

 de Adobes, by Diaz ; for if the soldiers of Ig- 

 lesias's government ever had formed the resolu- 

 tion to fight for him, they undoubtedly changed 

 their minds afterward. The military prestige 

 of Diaz, the numerical superiority of the army 

 at his command, and the desire to seek an early 

 solution of the existing difficulties, were pow- 

 erful motives for the recognition of the " plan 

 of Tuxtepec " (Diaz's plan), as the only remedy 

 likely to prevail amid the general confusion 

 then reigning throughout the country. All 

 military operations may be said to have ter- 

 minated with the affair of Union de Adobes 

 already alluded to. Indeed, all the troops still 

 remaining under arms and having served under 

 Iglesias went over to the Diaz side ; while 



some few of the officers either withdrew to 

 private life, or, like General Antillon, former 

 Governor of Guanajuato and leader of the mili- 

 tary movement made in favor of Iglesias, vol- 

 untarily left the Eepublic. 



General Mendez was temporarily intrusted 

 with the management of the affairs of govern- 

 ment during General Diaz's absence on his 

 military expeditions. 



In order to cover the first installment of the 

 sum owing by Mexico to the United States, 

 according to the decision of the late Interna- 

 tional Claims Commission at Washington, a 

 forced loan was raised, no provision having 

 been made for that purpose in the National 

 Treasury, and an arrangement was at once en- 

 tered into with a mercantile firm of Mexico, 

 which, on the guarantee 

 of the proceeds of the 

 levy, advanced the sum, 

 to avoid delay in its 

 payment. 



The payment was ef- 

 fected at the appointed 

 time ; and it was confi- 

 dently asserted in Mexi- 

 can circles of undoubted 

 authority that, whoever 

 may occupy the presi- 

 dential chair in the cap- 

 ital of their country, the 

 annual sum of $300,000 

 would be forthcoming 

 as it fell due, until the 

 total amount awarded 

 to the United States by 

 the Commission should 

 have been liquidated ; 

 that, under the fostering 

 care of an honest gov- 

 ernment, economically administered, the na- 

 tional revenue could be raised from $18,000,- 

 000 to $20,000,000, and that this very respect- 

 able aggregate of resources would enable the 

 Republic to meet all her liabilities. 



On October 8th, $25,000 were sent to the 

 United States Government on account of the 

 1878 installment. 



The total amount of the awards in favor of 

 the United States claimants was $4,000,000 ; 

 and by the terms of the treaty made in 1868 

 between the two countries, Mexico is required 

 to cancel that sum by annual payments of 

 $300,000. 



On February llth General Diaz returned to 

 the capital and again took charge of the presi- 

 dency ; and on that and the following days 

 the elections took place for Deputies to the 

 Congress of the Union, for President of the 

 Republic, and for Magistrates of the Supreme 

 Court of Justice. 



Congress assembled on the first day of April ; 

 and on May 6th, General Diaz took the oath 

 of office and was duly inaugurated as Chief 

 Magistrate of the Nation. 



On June 19th the Diario Oficial, the Govern- 



