SANTA ANNA FALLS HERRERA TEXAN REVOLT. 327 



the constitutional compact by taking actual command of the army 

 whilst he was president, without the previous assent of congress, he 

 became amenable to law for this violation of his oath. He was soon 

 at enmity with the rebels and with the constitutional congress, and 

 thus a three fold contest was carried on, chiefly through correspond- 

 ence, until the 4th of January, 1845, when Santa Anna finally fell. 

 He fled from the insurgents and constitutional authorities towards 

 the eastern coast, but being captured at the village of Jico, was con- 

 ducted to Perote, where he remained imprisoned under a charge and 

 examination for treason, until an amnesty for the late political fac- 

 tionists permitted him to depart on the 29th of May, 1845, with his 

 family, for Havana. 



Upon Santa Anna's ejection from the executive chair, the presi- 

 dent of the council of government, became under the laws of the 

 country, provisional president of the republic. This person was 

 General Jose Joaquim de Herrera, during whose administration the 

 controversies rose which resulted in the war between Mexico and 

 the United States. 



The thread of policy and action in both conntries is so closely 

 interwoven during this pernicious contest, that the history of the war 

 becomes, in reality, the history of Mexico for the ,epoch. We are 

 therefore compelled to narrate, succinctly, the circumstances that led 

 to that lamentable issue. 



The first empresario, or contractor, for the colonization of Texas, 

 was Moses Austin, a native citizen of the United States, who, as 

 soon as the treaty of limits between Spain and our country was con- 

 cluded in 1819, conceived the project of establishing a settlement in 

 that region. Accordingly, in 1821 he obtained from the Command- 

 ant General of the Provincias Internas, permission to introduce three 

 hundred foreign families. In 1823, a national colonization law was 

 approved by the Mexican Emperor Iturbide during his brief reign, 

 and on the 18th of February, Stephen F. Austin, who had succeeded 

 his father, after his death, in carrying out the project, was author- 

 ized to proceed with the founding of the colony. After the emperor's 

 fall, this decree was confirmed by the first executive council in con- 

 formity to the express will of congress. 



In 1824 the federal constitution of Mexico was, as we have 

 narrated, adopted, by the republican representatives, upon principles 

 analogous to those of the constitution of the United States ; and by 

 a decree of the 7th of May, Texas and Coahuila were united in a 

 state. In this year another general colonization law was enacted 



