ATTEMPTS CONDITION OF MEXICO SINCE THE WAR. 431 



Sierra Gorda belonging to the States of Queretaro, San Luis, and 

 Guanajuato. These, like the revolt in Yucatan, threatened a war 

 of castes, but the energetic government found means to subdue the 

 rebels, and to reduce their districts to order. 



Thus, for more than two years, has the government of President 

 Herrera maintained its respectability and authority in spite of a 

 failing treasury, political factionists, and domestic rebellion. The 

 attempted task of national reorganization has been honestly and 

 firmly, if not successfully carried out. The army, that canker of 

 the nation, has been nearly destroyed, and its idle officers and men 

 discharged to earn their living by honest labor, A great change 

 has passed over Mexico. Santa Anna lives abroad in almost com- 

 pulsory exile. Canalizo and Paredes are dead. Bustamante, 

 without political strength or party, retains a military command. 

 The force in garrison does not amount to more, probably, than five 

 or six thousand. The prestige of the army was blurred and 

 blighted by the war. Nearly all the old political managers and in- 

 triguers are gradually passing from the stage, and, with the new 

 men coming upon it, to whom the war has taught terrible but salu- 

 tary lessons, we may hope that another era of civilization and pro- 

 gress is about to dawn upon this great country. This hope 

 is founded on the establishment of order and official responsibility 

 by a strong government which will neither degenerate into despot- 

 ism nor become corrupt by the uninterrupted enjoyment of pow T er. 

 The true value of the representative system will thus become ra- 

 pidly known to Mexico as she develops her resources, by the 

 united, constitutional, and peaceful movement of her state and 

 national machinery. 



Among all the agitators of the country no one has been, by turns, 

 so much courted and dreaded as Santa Anna. His political history, 

 sketched in this volume, discloses many but not all the features of 

 his private character. He possessed a wilful, observant, patient 

 intellect, which had received very little culture ; but constant inter- 

 course with all classes of men, made him perfectly familiar with 

 the strength and weaknesses of his countrymen. There was not a 

 person of note in the Republic whose value he did not know, nor 

 was there a venal politician with whose price he was unacquainted. 

 Believing most men corrupt or corruptible, he was constantly busy 

 in contriving expedients to control or win them. A soldier almost 

 from his infancy, during turbulent times among semi-civilized troops, 



