existence or had ended in dissolution. A sort of rump congress, however, had begun its sessions at Querétaro and with this as a nucleus, Peña succeeded in establishing at least a de facto government with which the United States might treat.

The treaty negotiations were long drawn out and frequently promised a fruitless end. This result would have meant the long continued and perhaps permanent occupation of Mexico by the United States. In the latter country there were three parties, namely, those who wished (or professed to wish) no acquisition of territory from Mexico; those who were anxious to obtain California and other regions north of the 32° parallel; and those who sought to annex all or most of Mexico to the United States. If it had not been for party politics and the slavery question, the last mentioned group would have accomplished their purpose.

In Mexico, the political situation was extremely chaotic. One party wished to continue the war in order to bring about Mexico's annexation to the United States; a moderate group, led by Peña, sought to effect as speedy and favorable a peace as possible; the monarchists were hopeful of reestablishing the empire; and Santa Anna's adherents were secretly planning his return to power. Peña y Peña, having served his allotted time, gave place to General Anaya, a member of the moderate faction. Negotiations were accordingly continued with the American commissioner, Nicholas P. Trist, until after many delays and apparent failures, the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was completed. Ratifications were exchanged May 11, 1848, and the two countries were once more at peace.

The most important provisions of the treaty dealt with the cession of territory. Mexico lost what is now the states of New Mexico, most of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The ceded territory included something over 500,000 square miles, or more than two-fifths of the total area of the country. For this she received $15,000,000 in cash and the cancellation of $3,250,000 in claims held against her by American citizens. The sacrifice in territory was not so great, ` however, as it superficially appeared. California, the most valuable of the lost provinces, was in fact independent of the mother country-barring only a nominal allegiance-before the war began. The rest of the territory, except the settled portions of New Mexico, was occupied only by Indians, and over it Mexico could not possibly exercise control. The contraction of boundaries which resulted from the treaty was thus an actual advantage to the real Mexico. Her government was rid of one of its most perplexing problems, and the control of her remaining territory lay at least within the realm of possibilities.

Six years after the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo the United States acquired through the Gadsden Purchase 54,500 additional

square miles of Mexican territory to afford an all-American right-of-way for the Pacific railroad. The purchase price was $10,000,000. The territory ceded lay between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River and for the most part south of the Gila.

The Constitution of 1857: The close of the war with the United States found Mexico in sad straits. The chronic bankruptcy of the national treasury and the constant intrigues of rival candidates for the presidency (a position which Herrera filled for over two years after peace had been declared, with considerable credit) were supplemented by a bloody race war from 1849 to 1851. About the same time, the republic was threatened with disintegration by a series of state revolts. During the war with the United States, Yucatán had set up a separate government; and only a short time after the treaty of peace several of the border states, harassed by Indian attacks which the federal government could not repel, and heavily taxed to meet expenses from which they derived no benefit, sought to establish an independent government known as the Northern Republic. The movement, however, lacked the necessary leadership to become. effective.

In 1851 Herrera gave place to Arista. The financial problems still remained acute, with expenditures exceeding receipts. by more than 200 per cent. Political factions continued their active rivalries, while discontent with the administration increased with every attempt the government made to raise the taxes. The country's industries and economic life were almost demoralized. Brigandage and crime went on virtually unchecked. Indian forays along the frontier seriously depopulated the northern states. Filibustering expeditions, chiefly American, threatened to dismember the republic.

Arista could not withstand so much adversity. In January, 1853, he resigned, to be followed, after a brief ad interim, by the recalled exile, Santa Anna. The latter, who had been intriguing all along for a return to power, almost immediately sought to make himself dictator, with the ultimate purpose of establishing an empire and placing himself at its head. The gov ernment was accordingly centralized as never before, and a whole host of supporters were bribed by appointments to civil or military offices, especially created for the purpose, to carry out Santa Anna's scheme. After a superficial triumph, however, the latter fell to earth. Numerous minor uprisings were consolidated into a major movement under Álvarez. The plan of Ayutla, demanding Santa Anna's removal, the framing of a new constitution, and the establishment of a representative government, gave a definite program to the revolution. Ignacio Comonfort, commander of the garrison at Acapulco, added his strength to the movement; and in attempting to capture this stronghold, Sante

Anna suffered such a decisive reverse that his cause was ruined. On the 9th of August he left the capital for Vera Cruz; and here, after a few characteristic proclamations, took ship for Havana. Though he afterwards returned to Mexico and died there in 1876, his political career was ended. He had enjoyed the fruits of supreme power and enriched himself at the public treasury for the last time.

The years immediately following Santa Anna's overthrow were marked by one of the few real struggles over questions of principle that Mexican politics has ever known. The issues involved had chiefly to do with the privileges of the church and of the army. Both institutions had been in large measure exempt from the workings of the ordinary law. Both claimed the right of having offenses committed by their officials tried in special tribunals. The higher clergy, especially, generally supporting the most reactionary element in the government, had frequently been involved in attempts to overthrow the republic and establish a monarchy. More than this, the church's enormous land holdings had become a matter of grave economic concern; while its willingness to join in a revolt against any government that might either curtail its privileges or tax its possessions made it a source of constant danger to the peace of the country.

The army, even more than the church, had been the perennial field of revolution. Not once since independence had the civil authority been freed from the danger of military supremacy. The vital need in Mexican politics after the collapse of Santa Anna was, therefore, to make all citizens equal before the law and to establish the government upon a constitutional rather than upon the military-ecclesiastical basis heretofore prevailing.

The first effective measure of the liberals, enacted while Álvarez was still president, was the Law for the Administration of Justice; or, as it is better known from the name of its framer, then at the head of the supreme court, the Law of Juárez. Under this decree, class legislation was abolished, military and ecclesiastical tribunals for offenses against the civil law were suppressed, and the privileges previously enjoyed by the army and clergy generally annulled. Shortly after the promulgation of this law Álvarez was succeeded by Comonfort, a man of more conservative type. But a revolution, chiefly engineered by ecclesiastics and disgruntled military leaders, for a time threatened even his administration. The defeat of this movement was followed by the confiscation of much church land and of the estates of the revolutionary leaders. In 1856 the Jesuit order was suppressed, a fate it had once before suffered under Charles III. This was followed by a law of much wider application, enacted while Lerdo was justice of the supreme court and called by his name, prohibiting civil and religious corporations from holding

land and allowing the tenants of such property to purchase it on easy terms.

In the meantime, to further the liberal policies and make them more permanent, a constituent congress was assembled to draft a new instrument of government. The body began its sessions February 18, 1856, and completed the constitution February 3 of the next year. This document, which nominally remained in effect until 1917, was a much more advanced constitution than Mexico had ever known before. The liberal ideas of federalism, suppression of class privileges, state supremacy over the church, and many of the personal rights found in the United States constitution were embodied in it.

The church party and conservatives generally so bitterly opposed the constitution of 1857 that its promulgation was followed by four years of almost constant civil war. Comonfort himself turned against the document and a vigorous revolution headed by Felix Zuloaga, in command of the "Army of Regeneration," seized the capital and prepared to establish a government along the old lines. The liberals, however, had found a real leader in the person of Benito Juárez. Taking up his headquarters at Vera Cruz he appealed to the Mexican people to vindicate the constitution. For the most part, the struggle which ensued was only a repetition of what the country had so often experienced before. Industries were paralyzed, crops ruined, brigands and guerrilla bands ravaged and laid waste on every hand.

A division occurring in Zuloaga's party, Miguel Miramón, one of the ablest generals opposed to Juárez, was appointed to the presidency by the conservative congress. To finance his campaigns and maintain himself in power, Miramón proceeded to float a foreign loan of 15,000,000 pesos which was afterwards to involve his country in no little difficulty. Meanwhile Juárez had secured recognition for his government from the United States and in 1859 issued one of the most drastic of anti-clerical decrees. This measure, known as the Laws of Reform, was aimed at the revolutionary and monarchistic activities of the clergy. It provided for the confiscation of all property held by the regulars and seculars, separated the church and state, dissolved the monastic orders, and made marriage purely a civil ceremony.

The renewed activity of the conservatives following this decree gave them increasing success for several months. Indeed it was not until August, 1860, that the Juaristas won a signal victory and turned the tide. This was followed in January by the capture of the capital and the return of the liberals to power. Juárez, who was now formally elected to the presidency, faced a serious task. The liberals were not united, the conservatives were anxious for a new opportunity to revolt, the nation's finances were in chaos, foreign creditors were pressing for a set

tlement of claims, and the country was overrun with hordes of bandits and bands of guerrilla soldiers.

French Intervention: The hopeless condition of the treasury and the contention of Juárez that the bonds issued by Miramón were invalid led to a suspension of payments on the national debt. This in turn gave to certain interests outside of Mexico an opportunity of which they were eager to take advantage. Mexico's chief foreign obligations were due to citizens of France, Great Britain and Spain. The last two governments, believing the collection of the debt impossible, except through intervention, decided to join with France in employing force to obtain satisfaction. This agreement, signed October 31, 1861, was known as the Convention of London.

While England and Spain had no ulterior purposes to serve in the proposed intervention, the case of France was far otherwise. Louis Napoleon, anxious to regain prestige lost by his blunders in European politics, eager to stem the growing power of Anglo-Saxon democracy, and seeking to build up a great Catholic empire in the New World, looked upon the Convention of London as merely the first step in the establishment of French supremacy in Mexico. His ambitions were quickened, if indeed. they were not created, by certain French capitalists, eager to obtain possession of the mines and other natural resources of the country; and most actively of all, by those monarchists and clericals who had fled from Mexico with the triumph of Juárez and the liberal party.

In keeping with the terms of the Convention of London, a French army, aided by British and Spanish naval forces, seized Vera Cruz. A demand was then made for the payment of the claims against Mexico and notice given that the allied force would take steps to secure guaranties for the satisfaction of the debt. On January 10, 1862, a proclamation was addressed to the Mexican people denying that the invading force had any intention of conquest or of interference in Mexican politics. This was met in turn by Juárez with a manifesto denouncing the allied nations and condemning as traitors any Mexicans who lent them their support.

At the same time, Juárez endeavored to negotiate with the invaders. By the convention of La Soledad the allied forces were allowed to march without opposition into the interior and occupy certain towns where danger from yellow fever was not so great as at Vera Cruz. Before long, however, the real purpose of France began to manifest itself. General Almonte, one of the conservatives who had been most active in the councils of Louis Napoleon, returned from France with the definite program of setting up an empire with Maximilian of Austria at its head. The French commander explicitly refused to treat any further with the Juárez government. Almonte and other monarchists