350 MEXICO. 
General Santa Anna was the individual who struck the first blow 
against the power of Itiirbide, and it is to be hoped that his heart has not 
grown cold to liberty as it Ixas grown in years. 
Now. although it is true that the people are usually but slightly inte- 
rested in the pronnnciamentos, (which are made by regiments or officers of 
the army,) yet, I believe that the emeutes of 1841 were decidedly popular 
with the masses, and chiefly so, on account of an internal consumption 
duty, which they found extremely onerous. It must be said, in justice to 
Bustamante and his cabinet, that they too were opposed to it; but find- 
ing Congress resolved to continue its enforcement, they felt bound to sus- 
tain the law as long as they were its ministers under a Constitution. 
At the outset of his administration, in September, 1841, Santa Anna 
had the most extraordinary difficulties to contend with. An army of near 
thirty thousand men was on foot, and to be maintained ; — the officers of 
the Government were extremely numerous, and to be paid ; — there were 
dissensions among his troops, and jealousy of his power ; — the whole 
country was in a political ferment ; — the copper currency (the only cur- 
rency of the masses,) was depreciated more than fifty per cent. ; — and, 
to crown the catalogue of misfortunes, when he entered the Palace there 
was not a single dollar in the Treasury ! 
Still, he was unappalled by these amazing difficulties. He supported 
his army, paid his clerks, quelled all dissensions among the troops and 
officers, pacified the country, called in the copper coin and issued 
new, dispersed a Congress whose Constitution he disliked— and, for 
more than two years, has held the Supreme power of his country in de- 
fiance of rebellious chiefs and angry demagogues. Nor were his efforts 
confined to his domestic relations alone, during this stormy period. By 
his skill and energy he managed to avert the horrors of a foreign war, 
and to preserve amicable intercourse with all those powers to whom 
Mexico bears the relation of a debtor. 
Having thus passed the most trying portion of his administration, and 
established a system of government which can scarcely be called consti- 
tutional, it is his first duty to administer that government with a strong 
but patriotic arm. He must insure peace to his country at all hazards, — 
even if that peace be eflfected by despotism. He must end, for ever, that 
rebellious spirit in the army, which is so easl'iy excited by every ambi- 
tious leader who obtains a momentary influence, and embroils the whole 
nation in order to elevate him to power. 
Foreigners, who are ignorant of the trials and turbulence by which he 
is surrounded, and the efforts that are often made in Mexico to defeat the 
most patriotic intentions, may call him a tyrant ; but it is, nevertheless, his 
duty to persevere enduringly until he establishes permanent tranquillity, 
under which alone his country can advance. 
