CHAPTEE XI. 

 1846 — 1847. 



SANTA ANNA'S RETURN CHANGES HIS PRINCIPLES. SALAS 



EXECUTIVE. CONSTITUTION OF 1824 RESTORED PAREDES. 



PLANS OF SALAS AND SANTA ANNA HIS LETTER TO AL- 

 MONTE HIS VIEWS OF THE WAR REFUSES THE DICTATOR- 

 SHIP COMMANDS THE ARMY. STATE OF PARTIES IN MEX- 

 ICO PUROS MODERADOS SANTA ANNA AT SAN LUIS. 



PEACE PROPOSITIONS INTERNAL TROUBLES. FARIAS'S CON- 

 TROVERSY WITH THE CHURCH. POLKO REVOLUTION IN THE 



CAPITAL VICE PRESIDENCY SUPPRESSED IMPORTANT DECREE. 



When General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna landed from the 

 steamer Arab, after having been permitted to pass the line of our 

 blockading fleet at Vera Cruz he was received by only a few 

 friends. His reception was in fact not a public one, nor marked 

 by enthusiasm. 



By the revolution which overthrew Paredes, General Salas came 

 into the exercise of the chief executive authority, and as soon as 

 Santa Anna arrived he despatched three high officers to welcome 

 him, among whom was Valentin Gomez Farias, a renowned 

 leader of the federalist party, in former days a bitter foe of the 

 exiled chief. Santa Anna, in his communications with the revolu- 

 tionists from Cuba, had confessed his political mistake, in former 

 years, in advocating the central system. " The love of provincial 

 liberty," said he, in a letter to a friend dated in Havana on the 8th 

 of March, 1846, " being firmly rooted in the minds of all, and the 

 democratic principle predominating every where, nothing can be 

 established in a solid manner in the country, which does not con- 

 form to these tendencies, nor can we without them attain either 

 order, peace, prosperity or respectability among foreign nations. 



" To draw every thing to the centre, and thus to give unity of 

 action to the republic as I at one time deemed best, is no longer 

 possible ; nay, more, I say it is dangerous ; it is contrary to the 

 object I proposed to myself in the unitarian system, because we 

 thereby expose ourselves to the separation of the northern depart- 

 ments which are most clamorous for freedom of internal administra- 

 tion. * * * * J therefore urge you to use all your influence 

 to reconcile the liberals, communicating with Senor Farias and his 



