368 



POLKO REVOLUTION IN THE CAPITAL. 



sign the law, and it was sometime before a suitable person could 

 be found to put the law in operation. Santa Anna adroitly kept 

 himself aloof from the controversy, and wrote from San Luis, that 

 he merely desired support for the army, and that in other questions, 

 especially those touching the clergy, he had no desire to enter, but 

 would limit himself to the recommendation, that neither the canons, 

 nor the collegiate establishment of Guadalupe, should be molested, 

 inasmuch as he entertained the greatest friendship for the one, and 

 the most reverential devotion for the other. 



But the executive, fixed in its intention to liberate the property 

 held in mortmain, took every means to carry the law into effect, 

 and experienced the utmost resistance from the incumbents, espe- 

 cially when the property happened to belong to the female sex, 

 which is always averse from intercourse or dealings with persons 

 who are regarded as inimical to the church. 



This rigorous conduct of the executive, and the opposition it en- 

 countered from the Moderados, fomented by that powerful, spirit- 

 ual class which has so long controled the conscience of the 

 masses, gave rise, at this period, to the outbreak in the capital, 

 which is known as the revolution of the Polkos. It began on 

 the 22d of February, 1847, in Mexico, whilst Santa Anna was 

 firing the first guns at Angostura ; and its great object was to 

 drive Farias from executive power. The forces on both sides, 

 amounted to six thousand men, and were divided between the 

 Polkos and the partizans of the government. Funds were found 

 to support both factions, and from that time to the 21st of March, 

 the city of Mexico was converted into a battle field. On the morn- 

 ing of that day Santa Anna, who had already despatched a portion 

 of his broken army towards the coast, and who had been ap- 

 proached on his journey from the capital, by emissaries from both 

 factions, arrived at Guadalupe, and immediately the contest 

 ceased. The stewards of the convents refused to expend more 

 money for the support of their partizans, and the treasury of the 

 government was closed against its adherents. The personal in- 

 fluence of Santa Anna thus put an end to a disgraceful rebellion 

 which threatened the nationality of Mexico, within, whilst a 

 foreign enemy was preparing to attack its most vital parts from 

 the gulf. 



The conflict of arms was over, but the partizans of the clergy 

 did not intermit their efforts to get rid of the obnoxious vice-presi- 

 dent ; and at length, they effected pacifically, what they had been 

 unable to do by force. 



