Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I
No. 277.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, December 18, 1871. (Received January 11.)
Sir: On the 15th instant the first session of the sixth constitutional congress adjourned until the next regular session, in April, 1872.
President Juarez delivered, in person, an address, a copy and translation of which I inclose, (A and 0.) I also inclose a copy and translation of the response of the president of congress, (B and D.)
I am, &c.,
Speech of the President of the Republic, Don Benito Juarez, at the closing of the First Session of the Sixth Constitutional Congress, December 15, 1871.
Citizen Deputies: At closing the first period of sessions, the sixth constitutional congress can congratulate itself with the idea that, in the presence of the actual crisis, it has effected all that could he anticipated from its patriotic efforts. In the first place, by the election of the President of the republic, it has given a legal termination to the political contention which was agitating the country, and which thus no one has been able to renew without rebelling against our institutions.
In continuation, you have discussed and approved the suspension of guarantees, initiated by the executive, in view of the extraordinary and difficult events, giving them, moreover, ample authority in the war and finance departments. Grateful: for this confidence, and in the fulfillment of my duties as constitutional ruler, I protest to you that I shall make use of the faculties you have invested me with solely in that which, may be strictly indispensable, and for the time necessary to re-establish the dominion of the law, laying them on one side, or not exercising any of them, as I have-done on former occasions, even while the authorization for their use was still in force.
Lastly, you have decreed the penal code, and have authorized the executive to carry into effect, provisionally, the law of proceedings in civil and criminal matters for this district and Lower California. With these measures a great benefit has been obtained toward moral order; the immediate adoption of a clear and methodical legislation, suited entirely to the necessities of the times, in place of any other more or less vague and complicated, or opposed to the principles of modern civilization. It is to be hoped that these new legislative decrees will be imitated or adopted entirely by the other States of the federation, as has already occurred with the civil code; and then the amelioration to which you have so prudently given your sanction will become of general interest for the republic. Even were it for this legislative act alone, the good name of the sixth constitutional congress would be now preserved in our parliamentary annals.
While you are temporarily resting from your labors, the executive will direct all its efforts to extinguish the flame of the rebellion which threatens to destroy legal order, and therewith all the hopes of our population. The faculties you have been pleased to confer upon me would not suffice for the re-establishment of peace, if I did not count, as I fortunately do, on the co-operation of the people in general, who, day by [Page 372] day, comprehend their interests better and better—interests identified with our institutions, and threatened with death by the civil war. To put a prompt and radical end to the latter is all that can be desired for the present; and to attain this, I trust to be assisted by your counsels, as well as by those of every Mexican who loves the honor, independence, and happiness of his country.
Reply of the President of the Congress–Session of the 15th December, 1871.
Citizen President: On the closing of the first period of its sessions, the sixth constitutional congress has the satisfaction of having fulfilled important duties in resolving the serious political questions presented at commencing its labors, as an inheritance from the late electoral term. The revision of powers required the lengthened and conscientious attention of the citizen deputies; and they had also to occupy themselves with no less solicitude in the presidential election, to the result of which all Mexicans were looking forward, as to whether it were to be the continuation of the legal regimen or the beginning of anarchy. The solution of so important a question, although confirming the constitutional tradition, was made a motive for the dissatisfied to raise the banner of rebellion. Congress, always watchful to dictate the requisite measures for re-establishing peace, one of the greatest blessing of the people, occupied itself in a detailed and rational discussion regarding the granting ample faculties to the executive in the war and finance departments, and the approbation of a suspension of guarantees, and thereby give additional strength to the authorities charged by our fundamental charter with the preservation of tranquillity and providing for the welfare of the republic.
Matters so serious require to be fully discussed, and have consequently occupied nearly the whole of the period ending to-day. Notwithstanding, congress has found time, not only to attend to certain ameliorations in the states and other affairs of private interest, but has also been enabled to decree a code of penal laws, which has been compiled by a board of distinguished counselors named by the executive, to take effect in the district and territory of Lower California, as respects ordinary crimes, and in the whole of the republic as regards offenses against the federation.
No one can be ignorant of the great benefit conferred upon the country by this decree, as no one is unacquainted with the important service rendered by the promulgation of the civil code, which has now become a general law, a great number of the States having adopted it. The penal code is a matter of greater interest still, because, although the civil laws which formally governed us were antiquated, it is also certain that, since the Roman laws, but little progress has been made in civil jurisprudence; but this has not occurred respecting penal laws, which have always received the beneficent influence of social improvement; it was, therefore, an incomprehensible absurdity that in the nineteenth century we should be ruled by the criminal laws issued in the Middle Ages, and dictated under the influence of the fanaticism, and the difference of the classes ruling at that time, which was a species of chaos, in which the gestation of modern civilization was being prepared; laws of which were, therefore, inapplicable in general, and which made room for arbitrariness of the judges, at all times dangerous; laws which have been reformed by the progressive institution of trial by jury, the adoption of which, inspired by the ideas of the time, has been developed according to the conceptions of the King Alfonso the Wise, at the commencement of the eighteenth century.
These slight considerations will suffice to show that the sixth constitutional congress has inaugurated its labors in a worthy and beneficial manner, and with a constant view to advancement.
But, moreover, experience having demonstrated the serious difficulties arising from the want of proceedings analogous to the ideas of the codes of law, this congress, anxious to complete its work, has authorized the executive to carry out the respective laws now under preparation. Therewith, Citizen President, we shall have been enabled to improve considerably the administration of justice; one of the affairs of most importance, as closely affecting the persons and property of the inhabitants of the republic.
The nation is persuaded that its representatives, animated with these intentions, will continue their exertions in its behalf in the coming sessions. Congress expects to dedicate itself in April next to so desirous a task, without having to pre-occupy itself with political disturbances, as it doubts not that the executive, armed with sufficient powers, will, ere then, have re-established peace, and will be able to deliver over to the chamber the powers conceded to it, and return to the inhabitants the guarantees it has been requisite to suspend.