DECREE PENA PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA AND LANE. 425 



The capital, and the captured towns were still as strictly governed ; 

 the growing army was organized for future operations, and a gen- 

 eral order was issued demanding a large contribution from each of 

 the states for the support of our army. This military decree, more- 

 over, reformed and essentially changed the duties, taxation, collec- 

 tion and assaying of the nation; it indicated the intention of our 

 government to spread its troops all over the land ; and while it re- 

 asserted the supremacy of law, and the purity of its administration, 

 it announced instant death, by sentence of a drum-head court-mar- 

 tial, to all who engaged in irregular war. This decree satisfied re- 

 flecting Mexicans, who noticed the steady earnestness and increase 

 of our army, that their nationality was seriously endangered, and 

 greatly aided, as doubtless it was designed to do, in stimulating the 

 action of the cabinet and commissioners. 



Thus closed the eventful year of 1847. On the 1st of January, 

 1848, only thirty deputies of the new congress appeared in their 

 places; and on the 8th, — the day for the decision of the presi- 

 dency, — as there was still no quorum in attendance, and Anaya's 

 term had expired, he promptly resigned his power to his minister of 

 foreign affairs, Pena-y-Pena, who re-assumed the executive chair, 

 as he formerly had done, by virtue of his constitutional right as 

 chief justice. Anaya at once came into his cabinet as minister of 

 war, while De la Rosa took the port-folio of foreign relations. All 

 these persons were still sincere coadjutors in the work of peace. 



The destiny of Santa Anna was drawing to a close. Huamantla 

 had been perhaps his last battle field in Mexico. About the middle 

 of January General Lane received information of the lurking place 

 of the chieftain, who now, with scarcely the shadow of his ancient 

 power or influence, was concealed at Tehuacan in the neighborhood 

 of Puebla. The astute intriguer's admission into the Republic had 

 once been considered a master stroke of American policy ; but his 

 death, capture, or expulsion, was now equally desired by those who 

 had watched him more closely and knew him better. Lane, ac- 

 cordingly, with a band of about three hundred and fifty mounted 

 men, undertook the delicate task of seizing Santa Anna and had 

 he not received timely warning, notwithstanding the secrecy of the 

 American's movements, it is scarcely probable that he would have 

 quitted his retreat alive. Among the corps of partizan warriors 

 who went in search of the fugitive there were many Texans who 

 still smarted under the memory of the dreary march from Santa Fe 

 in 1841, the decimation at Mier, the cruelties of Goliad and the 



