320 



GOMEZ FARIAS DEPOSED CHURCH. 



The congress of 1834 was unquestionably federal republican in 

 its character, and Santa Anna seemed to be perfectly in accord 

 with his vice presidential compeer, Gomez Farias. But the 

 church, — warned by a bill introduced into congress the previous 

 year by Zavala, by which he aimed a blow at the temporalities of 

 the spiritual lords, — did not remain contented spectators while 

 the power reposed in the hands of his federal partizans. The 

 popular representatives were accordingly approached by skilful 

 emissaries, and it was soon found that the centralists were strongly 

 represented in a body hitherto regarded as altogether republican. 

 It is charged in Mexico, that bribery was freely resorted to ; and, 

 when the solicitations became sufficiently powerful, even the in- 

 flexible patriotism of Santa Anna yielded, though the vice presi- 

 dent Farias, remained incorruptible. 



On the 13th of May, 1834, the president suddenly and unwar- 

 rantably dissolved congress, and maintained his arbitrary decree 

 and power by the army, which was entirely at his service. In the 

 following year, Gomez Farias was deposed from the vice presidency 

 by the venal congress, and Barragan raised to the vacant post. 

 The militia was disarmed, the central forces strengthened, and the 

 people placed entirely at the mercy of the executive and his min- 

 ions, who completed the destruction of the constitution of 1824 by 

 blotting it from the statute book of Mexico. 



Puebla, Jalisco, Oaxaca, parts of Mexico, Zacatecas and Texas 

 revolted against this assumption of the centralists, though they were 

 finally not able to maintain absolutely their free stand against the 

 dictator. Zacatecas and Texas, alone, presented a formidable 

 aspect to Santa Anna, who was, nevertheless, too strong and skil- 

 ful for the ill regulated forces of the former state. The victorious 

 troops entered the rebellious capital with savage fury ; and, after 

 committing the most disgusting acts of brutality and violence 

 against all classes and sexes, they disarmed the citizens entirely 

 and placed a military governor over the province. In Coahuila 

 and Texas, symptoms of discontent were far more important, for 

 the federalists met at Monclova, and, after electing Agustin Viesca 

 governor, defied the opposite faction by which a military officer 

 had been assigned to perform the executive duties of the state. 

 General Cos, however, soon dispersed the legislature by violence 

 and imprisoned the governor and his companions whom he ar- 

 rested as they were hastening to cross the Rio Grande. These 

 evil doings were regarded sorrowfully but sternly by the North 

 Americans who had flocked to Texas, under the sanctions and as- 



