No. 423.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, March 24, 1875.
(Received July 22.)
No. 260.]
Sir: Referring to my dispatches numbered 252 and
255, on the present situation of the republic, I have to report no further
armed outbreaks than those already noticed in the State of Michoacan. These
opponents of
[Page 889]
the government have
assumed no greater proportions than that of guerrilla bands, but they are
still able to maintain a kind of military organization, in spite of the
efforts of the federal troops to suppress them.
In addition to the forces already operating against them, it is announced
that re enforcements have been ordered from the garrison in this city. I
inclose herewith a copy and translation of the revolutionary plan under
which they claim to be operating, which will, in some measure, indicate the
basis upon which the reactionary or church party might attempt to overthrow
the existing government, if it could count upon success. But it is hardly
probable, however, that the present movement will amount to anything more
formidable than a mountainous guerrilla warfare, which with reasonable
energy may be soon suppressed.
General Rocha, who is now “in quarters” (constructive arrest) at Celaya, in
the interior, has written a letter, in which he denies that he ever had any
conference or complicity with the conservative or church party, and pledges
his unalterable devotion to the liberal party and principles.
The situation of the country may still be considered somewhat grave, in view
of the religious antagonism on account of the passage of the law enforcing
the reform measures and the departure of the Sisters of Charity, added to
the general prostration of business, but the government claims its ability
to preserve the peace and enforce obedience to the laws.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 266.]
Plan of the revolutionists in Michoacan.
[From “The Two Republics,”—Translation from the “Diario Official,” March 15, 1875.]
Mexicans:
Whereas the constitution which now rules us has been imposed upon the
people by force of arms and contrary to its express wall; the men who
hold authority over us have violated to the extent that already we are
not able to say that we are constitutionally governed; defrauding the
popular vote and mocking the national sovereignty, they have, for their
own profit, become possessed of the offices, usurping the public power;
they have wounded the religious sentiment of the nation; they have
regulated and erected into a system the persecution of Catholicism, the
religion of a majority of the Mexican people; they have attacked the
national and civil liberty of the citizens, constituting a tyranny in no
manner acceptable to those who have the pride of being called free
men:
We, exercising the right which aided our fathers in defending the
liberties of Mexico, have thought it our duty as men, as Christians, and
as citizens, to proclaim the following plan:
- Article 1. From this time there is
an end to the observance of the federal constitution of the
United Mexican States, sanctioned the 5th of February, 1857, its
amendments and additions, and the law which regulates them, as
also to the observance of all those codes which from that code
shall have emanated.
- Art. 2. The lawyer Sebastian Lerdo
de Tejada ceases in the exercise of public power, and all the
functionaries of the legislative, political, and judicial system
who, contrary to the express will of the people, now form the
personnel of the government of the
Mexican Republic.
- Art. 3. This plan, once being
adopted by a majority of the Mexican nation, steps shall be
taken to appoint a President ad interim
of the republic. The election shall be made by a convention of
representatives called by the general-in-chief of the forces who
may assist this plan, in the place most convenient in the
judgment of the said chief.
- Art. 4. The President ad interim shall at once become invested
with ample faculties in all the branches of the public
administration, but under strict obligation to respect the
Catholic religion, the individual guarantees, to attend to the
security and independence of the nation, and to promote whatever
may conduce to its prosperity and aggrandizement.
- Art. 5. As soon as the President ad interim may enter upon the exercise of
his functions, he shall appoint, without delay, a
plenipotentiary near the Holy See, invested with the necessary
powers to negotiate a concordat, which,
tranquilizing the conscience, may regulate the effects of the
acquisition of ecclesiastical property in virtue of the
so-called laws of reform.
- Art. 6. Two months after having
entered upon the exercise of his functions, the President ad interim shall convene an extraordinary
Congress, which shall attend exclusively to establishing the
nation under the form of a popular representative republic, and
to revising the acts of the present government, as also those of
the provisional executive, of which art. 3 treats.
- Art. 7. The constitution shall
recognize as the state religion the Catholic apostolic Roman
religion, granting to it all those rights and all those
liberties inherent in its nature, and indispensable for the
exercise of its high and elevated mission upon the earth, as
also for the maintenance of the charity and harmony which ought
always to reign between spiritual and temporal powers, without
sacrificing their respective independence.
- Art. 8. The principal chief who may
sustain in each State this plan shall at once call a convention,
composed of representatives of the municipalities, in order that
they may elect a governor ad interim, and
he shall exercise the necessary powers for organizing the public
administration in his respective territory.
- Art. 9. From this time there is an
end to the observance of the so-called stamp-laws, the
regulations of the national guard, and of the poll-tax and
personal taxes which rule in some States. The general government
and subordinate governments of the States, during the short
period of their interim, shall reduce the
corps of public employés to the number strictly necessary for
efficient public service, and shall moderate the imposts and
taxes, taking into account to this end the very urgent demands
of the administration and the state of misery in which the
extravagant government which now rules its destinies has left
the people.
- Art. 10. All those who shall oppose
the present plan will be treated as enemies of the people and of
the national independence; those chiefs of the army who adhere
to it shall be recognized in the grade in which they appear in
the military register on the date of their adhesion.
- Art. 11. This plan shall be modified
if the majority of the nation think it proper.
God and order.
New Urecho, March 3,
1875.
- ABRAHAM CASTAÑEDA.
- ANTONIO REZA.
