ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MEXICO. 



315 



to the advantage and support of so inestimable a good ; which may further insure 

 the public tranquillity; which may tend to the aggrandisement of the republic, and 

 may reinstate an unfortunate portion of its inhabitants in the sacred rights which 

 nature gave to them, and the nation should protect by wise and just laws, con- 

 formably with the dispositions of the thirtieth article of the constituent act, employ- 

 ing the extrordinary faculties which have been conceded to me, I have resolved to 

 decree — 



1. Slavery is and shall remain abolished in the republic. 



2. In consequence, those who have hitherto been regarded as slaves, are free. 



3. Whensoever the condition of the treasury shall permit, the owners of the 

 slaves shall be indemnified according to the terms which the law may dispose. 



Guerrero. 



Mexico, Sept. 15, 1829. 



MEXICAN LAW FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE REPUBLIC. 



Art. 1. — Slavery is abolished, without any exception, throughout the whole 

 republic. 



2. The owners of the slaves manumitted by the present law, or by the decree of 

 September 15, 1829, shall be indemnified for their interests in them, to be estimated 

 according to the proofs which may be presented of their personal qualities; to 

 which effect, one appraiser shall be appointed by the commissary general, or the 

 person performing his duties, and another by the owner ; and, in case of disagree- 

 ment, a third, who shall be appointed by the respective constitutional alcalde ; and 

 from the decision thus made, there shall be no appeal. The indemnification men- 

 tioned in this article shall not be extended to the colonists of Texas, who may have 

 taken part in the revolution in that department. 



3. The owners to whom the original documents drawn up with regard to the 

 proofs mentioned in the preceding article, shall be delivered gratis — shall them- 

 selves present them to the supreme government, which will authorise the general 

 treasury to issue to them the corresponding orders for the amount of their respec- 

 tive interests. 



4. The payment of the said orders shall be made in the manner which may seem 

 most equitable to the government, with the view of reconciling the rights of indi- 

 viduals with the actual state of the public finances. 



April 5, 1837. 



The Constitution of 1843, or Bases organicas de la Republica Mejicana, of that year, 

 declares that: " JVb one is a slave in the terrilm-y of the nation, and that any slave who 

 may be introduced, shall be considered free and remain under the protection of the 

 laws."— Title 2d. 



The Constitution of 1847 — which, in fact, is the old Federal Constitution of 1824 

 — does not r&enact this clause ; but, in the Acta de Reformas annexed to it in 1847, 

 declares, " that every Mexican, either by birth or naturalization, who has attained 

 the age of twenty years, who possesses the means of an honest livelihood, and who 

 has not been condemned by legal process to any infamous punishment, is a citizen 

 of the United Mexican States." — Acta de Reformas, Article 1. "In order to secure 

 the rights of man which the Constitution recognizes, a law shall fix the guaranties 

 of liberty, security, property and equality, which all the inhabitants of the republic enjoy, 

 and shall establish the means requisite to make them effective." — Id. Article 5. The 

 third article provides that " the exercise of the rights of citizenship are suspended by 

 habitual intemperance ; by professional gambling or vagabondage ; by religious or 

 ders; by legal interdict in virtue of trial for those crimes which forfeit citizenship, 

 and by refusal to fulfil public duties imposed by popular nomination'' (nombramientc 

 popular.) 



