THE ARMY THE CHURCH. 



309 



Was it to be imagined that men who had always been controled, 

 could learn immediately to control themselves ? Was it to be 

 believed that the military personages, whose ambition is as pro- 

 verbial as it is natural, would voluntarily surrender the power they 

 possessed over the masses, and retire to the obscurity and poverty 

 of private life when they could enjoy the wealth and influence of 

 political control, so long as they maintained their rank in the 

 army ? This would have been too much to expect from the self- 

 denial of Creole chiefs ; nor is it surprising to behold the people 

 themselves looking towards these very men as proper persons to 

 consolidate or shape the government they had established. It was 

 the most natural thing conceivable to find Iturbide, Guerrero, Bus- 

 tamante, Negrete, Bravo, Santa Anna, Paredes, and the whole host 

 of revolutionary heroes succeeding each other in power, either con- 

 stitutionally or by violence. The people knew no others. The 

 military idea, — military success, — a name won in action, and re- 

 peated from lip to lip until the traditionary sound became a house- 

 hold word among the herdsmen, rancheros, vaqueros and Indians, 

 — these were the sources of Mexican renown or popularity, and the 

 appropriate objects of political reward and confidence. What in- 

 dividual among the four or five millions of Indians knew anything 

 of the statesmen of their country who had never mixed in the 

 revolutionary war or in the domestic brawls constantly occurring. 

 There were no gazettes to spread their fame or merit, and even if 

 there had been, the people were unable to buy Or peruse them. 

 Among the mixed breeds, and lower class of Creoles., an equal de- 

 gree of ignorance prevailed ; — and thus, from the first epoch of in- 

 dependence, the People ceased to be a true republican tribunal in 

 Mexico, while the city was surrendered as the battle field of all the 

 political aspirants who had won reputations in the camp which 

 were to serve them for other purposes in the capital. By this 

 means the army rose to immediate significance and became the 

 general arbiter in all political controversies. Nor was the church, 

 — that other overshadowing influence in all countries in which re- 

 ligion and the state are combined, — a silent spectator in the 

 division of national power. The Roman Hierarchy, a large land- 

 holder, — as will be hereafter seen in our statistical view of the 

 country, — had much at stake in Mexico, besides the mere au- 

 thority which so powerful a body is always anxious to maintain 

 over the consciences of the multitude. The church was, thus, a 

 political element of great strength ; and, combined with the army, 

 created and sustained an important party, which has been untiring 



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