No. 421.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, March 2, 1875.
(Received March 15.)
No. 255.]Sir: In my dispatch No. 252, of February 26, in
giving a review of the political condition of the country, in closing I
referred to the rumors on that date of an intended pronunciamento within the
federal forces I in this city which compromised their commander, General
Rocha.
The first division of the Mexican army is stationed in this city, and is
commanded by General Sostenes Rocha, who rendered signal service to the
republic during and previous to the French intervention, and who commanded
the successful assault upon the citadel in 1871 in behalf of President
Juarez against the revolutionists. It is alleged that for some time past
General Rocha has been surrounded in social life by many of the disaffected
and most bitter of the liberal opponents of President Lerdo, who had
weakened his attachment to the administration. He had recently been ordered
by the President to the State of Michoacan to take command of the guerrilla
bands, which had assumed somewhat formidable proportions in that locality.
With the double purpose of preventing his departure from the city and of
making a demonstration against the present government, more or less
revolutionary, as success might justify, these malcontents induced General
Rocha to agree to attempt a pronunciamento. The occasion determined upon was
on the morning of the 26th ultimo, when a public review and division drill
was to occur in the suburbs of this capital. A lunch had been prepared by
General Rocha for the brigade aud regimental commanders, at which the plan
was to be announced to them, and such of them as refused to go into the
movement were to be immediately arrested and other persons assigned by
General Rocha to their command, when the announcement was to be made to the
troops and the pronunciamento to be at once carried into effect. The
executive was fully advised of the plans of the conspirators, and General
Mejia, the minister of war, at the opportune time, went to the parade-ground
in his carriage, without escort, and alone, quietly directed the return of
the troops to their quarters in the city, and invited General Rocha to a
seat in his carriage, with whom he returned. No reference was made by
General Mejia to the intended pronunciamento at that time; but on the next
day General Rocha, being invited to the palace, voluntarily acknowledged his
complicity, and alleged that he had unwittingly been made the dupe of the
conspirators.
It is alleged that none of the brigade or regimental commanders had been
consulted by the conspirators, and that not one of them could be counted
upon to aid in any movement against the government; neither does it appear
that there was any special organization or promise of support beyond General
Rocha within the army.
General Rocha has been relieved of his command, and he, together with
Generals Riva Palacio and Carrion, have been placed under arrest and ordered
to quarters in towns distant from this capital. The two latter were generals
with commissions, but without commands in the army. General Riva Palacio has
been a prominent officer of the republican army, was a member of the last
Congress, and has recently been distinguished in the press and political
circles as a bitter opponent of President Lerdo. He has tendered his
resignation from the army, which it is expected will be accepted and he be
released from arrest.
Beyond these arrests the government will probably inflict no punishments,
[Page 886]
although many of the conspirators
are known, confident of its ability to preserve public order and maintain
its authority without the sanguinary measures which have so often followed
revolutionary attempts in Mexico.
A “revolutionary plan” has appeared in this morning’s dailies, which it is
supposed was edited by General Riva Palacio, and is alleged to have been
sent to the revolutionary bands in Michoacan some weeks ago, and possibly
was to have been the basis of the frustrated movement in this city.
I inclose a copy and translation thereof.
In a call which I made at the foreign office to day, I took occasion to
congratulate Mr. Lafragua, and through him President Lerdo, upon the
frustration of the “revolutionary plan,” and to say that the United States
felt a deep interest in the success of his administration, as it gave
promise of a substantial and permanent government.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No.
255.—Translation.]
Plan of political regeneration.
[From the “Monitor,” Mexico, March 2,
1875.]
As every party which inaugurates a revolutionary movement ought, out of
respect to society and to the country, to give an explanation of the
motives which impel it, and of the reasons which it has for undertaking
that enterprise, whatever may be the success which Providence may
vouchsafe to it, we, the undersigned, in compliance with this sacred
obligation, declare that—
Whereas the Mexican Republic is ruled by a government which has elevated
abuse to the rank of a political system, by disregarding and violating
all the principles of morality, all the sanctions of the fundamental
pact, all the provisions of the laws in force, by corrupting society,
dishonoring the institutions, and making impossible the remedy of so
great evils in the pacific way which the laws mark out;
It being a democratic system .which governs us, the public suffrage has
been converted into a farce, because the President of the republic, by
means of force, of bribery, and corruption, has caused what, in our
present corrupt political system is called official candidate,”
irremissibly to triumph. In virtue of this criminal administration, the
Congress and the supreme court of justice, chosen by order of the
President, besides being illegitimate, are not, neither are they able to
be, independent in the exercise of their official duties; but, on the
contrary, they are the blind instruments of the caprice of the
executive, thus converting into ridicule the fundamental principle of
the independence of the powers;
Whereas the federative principle has disappeared, because the sovereignty
of the states, wounded every instant, scarcely exists, and the sport,
not only of the President of the republic,” but even of the little
circle of men who form the coterie of the President;
By reason of this loss of the sovereignty of the federative entities, the
President and even his favorites depose governors at their will,
intrusting the power to whomsoever it pleases them, as it has happened
in Coahuila, Oaxaca, San Lujs, Puebla, and Yucatan;
Under this system, the governors of the States have no alternative but
blindly to obey the central executive or to abandon the post to which
the vote of their fellow-citizens has called them, which makes
impossible a good administration;
Whereas in order to bring about this result, the President and his
favorites have not been deterred in the use of measures, however much to
be reprobated these may have been, including that of the promotion of
dissensions in the bosom of the legislatures and local pronunciamentos
in the States. And in order to legalize this they have extorted from
Congress decrees which authorize the intervention of the federal forces
in the local questions of the States:
Whereas in disregard of the rights of humanity and civilization, there
has been kept back from the frontier States the petty subvention
destined for the war which those suffering and heroic States are waging
against savages, thus leaving them exposed
[Page 887]
to the depredations of their natural enemies
while, on the other hand, the money of the nation is wasted in useless
repairs upon the palaces of Mexico and Chapultepec, in feasts and in
commissions of real luxury, like that which was sent to observe in Asia
the transit of Venus across the disk of the sun;
The political party dominant to-day has sown the seeds of division in
Mexican society, making illusory the amnesties granted to political
mistakes, obliging the, employés and functionaries to make unnecessary
protests, and causing tolerance and concord to be regarded as
incompatible with the spirit and principles of our democratic
institutions;
Whereas the public treasury is plundered in all branches at the caprice
of favorites, without, up to the present time, the accounts of the
expenditures of the government having been examined by the national
representatives, as if all the funds which those in authority manage
were their own property and not that of the people, of those who are
servants only, and not masters;
The President and his cabinet hold the dispatch of public affairs in the
most complete disregard, without attending to it further than their
personal pleasures dictate to the scandal of honest men and to the scoff
of society;
Whereas the administration of justice is thoroughly corrupt; the supreme
court itself, to the shame of the nation, pronounces contradictory
judgments in similar matters, and district judges have been constituted
into agents of the central government for the purpose of destroying the
sovereignty of the States;
The public instruction is a chaos, above all in that part which pertains
to the federation, and the professorships are the sinecures of
favorites;
The municipal power has disappeared completely, and the ayuntamientos,
(city councils,) officers of a superior order, have been converted into
humble dependents upon the governors and prefects;
Whereas the abuse, already elevated to a regular system, of each one of
the protégés of the President or of his friends,
having three and even four positions, and receiving three and four
salaries, corrupts good administrations;
And whereas, finally, by means of none of the ways which the constitution
and the laws mark out is it possible to obtain the remedy for so great
an evil, so great an abuse, and so great a crime:
In the name of God, of outraged society, and of the reviled Mexican
people, we raise the standard of war, and proclaim the following plan:
- Art. 1. The President of the
republic, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and all his functionaries
and employés are not recognized.
- Art. 2. Likewise, on account of the
complete illegality of its origin, the so-called supreme court
of justice and the so-called Seventh Constitutional Congress are
not recognized.
- Art. 3. Ail the governments of the
States which may give their adherence to the present plan will
be recognized as such until the complete triumph of the
revolution.
- Art. 4. In the State in which the
governor does not adhere to this plan, the chief shall be
recognized as such governor, who, proclaiming, this plan, shall
first occupy in a permanent, manner the capital of the
State.
- Art. 5. The commanding
general-in-chief of the regenerating army, upon occupying the
capitol of the republic, shall issue an edict for the election
of a President of the republic, which office can, under no
circumstance, devolve upon the general-in-chief who may be in
power at the time of the election, and for the election of
president and magistrates of the supreme court of
justice.
- Art. 6. Until the day on which the
President elected by the popular vote may receive the
government, the general-in-chief of the army shall maintain the
powers of war and the command of the republic, under the title
of the depositary of the executive power.
- Art. 7. The States shall be
recognized by the same terms being observed as those designated
for the reorganization of the republic, the depositary of the
executive power having the right to dictate all the measures
which he may think necessary to assure the fulfillment of the
promises of this plan.
- Art. 8. The depositary of executive
power is vested with ample authority to make effective, in the
most vigorous manner, the responsibility, civil and criminal, of
Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada and his accomplices, applying to them
the corresponding punishment.
- Art. 9. Upon the triumph of this
plan in any State whatsoever of the republic, the odious burden
of internal customs duties shall by this fact be there
abolished, the chief who may occupy that State being personally
responsible for the fulfillment of this article.
- Art. 10. The Eighth Congress having
assembled, which shall have a constituent character, its first
business shall be the constitutional reform which guarantees
municipal independence, and the law of the political
organization of the federal district and of the territory of
Lower California. Liberty and regeneration, &c.
