DEPOSITION AND DEATH OF GUERRERO.

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At the close of Victoria's term of office, in 1828, when Gomez Pedraza had been elected president of the republic, Santa Anna, with his troops, pronounced in favour of General Guerrero, the rejected presidential candidate, and defeated the government troops, and thus gave to Mexico the example of prostrating the civil by the military power. Guerrero was, in consequence, installed president. Bustamente, who had received the suffrages of the friends of Pedraza, was vice-president. Santa Anna, in/ reward of his services, was appointed secretary of war.

In 1831 Bustamente organized a conspiracy, deposed Guerrero, and, under the formalities of a military tribunal, sentenced him to be shot, on the 10th of February, 1831. Though Bustamente pretended that this zeal was evinced in favour of "Constitutional order," he did not recall Pedraza, the rightful president, but, sustained by the aristocracy and clergy, who were alarmed at the influence of republican institutions on their privileges, he proceeded, under the humble title of Vice-President, to establish throughout the country a perfect military despotism, in utter disregard of all constitutional and loyal restraints. The tyrant and his military satraps exercised the most absolute sway over the life, liberty, and property of his subjects. All freedom of the press was destroyed. As an instance, in Guadalaxara, the publisher of a paper which had given offence to Inclon, the military commandant, was seized, his press and types destroyed, and he himself, in presence of the governor and state authorities, ordered to be shot in three hours.

Among the early acts of this iniquitous administration, was the repeal of the colonization laws in relation to Texas and the / United States. Emigrants from that republic were forbidden to hold land in Mexico; and by a new construction of law, many of the settlers in Texas were to be deprived of their lands, endeared to them by their labours and their sufferings. Troops soon after were sent to Texas to harass the people, under the pre

text of aiding the revenue officers. Forts erected for their accommodation at Nacogdoches, Anahuac, and Velasco, soon became the seats of military tribunals, for mock trials of popular and influential citizens, under the vague charges of disaffection to the government; and were made prisons for their incarceration, after they were condemned.

Determined to resist this military despotism, the planters united, and with such forces as they could raise, in one week took the forts at Velasco, Nacogdoches, and Anahuac, and drove the enemy from the country. About this time, but without any concert of action, the garrison of Vera Cruz declared against Bustamente, and invited Santa Anna to assume the command of that post. He accepted the offer, and addressed a remonstrance to Bustamente, after which he seduced over to his interest large bodies of the government troops, and marched upon the capital, when Bustamente resigned his power and fled from the country. With a seeming regard for "constitutional order," which he had violated in 1828, when he deposed Pedraza, Santa Anna now recalled to the executive chair that chieftain, whose term of office was about to expire. Aware of his popularity, and assured that he would be the next president, he hazarded nothing, but gained much by this show of disinterested action.

In the beginning of 1833 Santa Anna was elected to the presi dential chair without opposition; and, from the popularity which he now enjoyed, as the restorer of the constitution of his country, the most sanguine expectations were entertained of a liberal execution of the powers of government. The members of the Congress were regarded as sincere friends of liberty, and the inhabitants of Texas thought the time favourable to petition the government for admission into the Mexican confederacy as a free

state.

Their petition set forth, that " Coahuila and Texas were totally dissimilar in soil, climate, and productions: that the representa

SANTA ANNA PRESIDENT.

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tives of the former were so much more numerous than the latter, that all legislation for the benefit of Texas could be only the effect of a generous courtesy: that laws happily adapted to the one, would on account of the great dissimilarity of their interests be ruinous to the other: that Texas was in continual danger from the aggression of the Indian tribes, without any efficient govern ment to protect her in such cases: that the present legislation is calculated to exasperate the Indian tribes by withholding their rights; whereas, by doing them justice, valuable auxiliaries might be gained, instead of deadly enemies, which should be the policy of Texas: that Texas possessed the necessary elements for a state government, and that for her attachment to the federal constitution, and to the republic, the petitioners pledged their lives and honour.""

For the above reasons and others, they prayed that Texas might be erected into a separate state of the Mexican confederacy, agreeably to the decree of the 7th of May, 1824, which annexed it provisionally to Coahuila.

Austin as Commissioner proceeded to Mexico with this petition, which he presented to Congress and had referred to a committee. He urged its importance upon Congress and the executive, but after waiting several months, during which he was unable to get the committee to report, to obtain a hearing from Congress, or the encouragement of the president, he despaired of success in the existing state of affairs. He wrote therefore to the municipal authorities of San Antonio, advising the call of a convention to organize a state government in Texas, with the view of rendering/ the action of Congress necessary in their behalf. In consequence of this letter, while on his return to Texas, he was arrested in ' Coahuila, and imprisoned on a charge of treason.

The circumstances of the election of Santa Anna, probably led him to aspire to the supreme power. Movements of the soldiery in which he was implicated soon after his inauguration,