In December 1857, a group of moderate liberals proclaimed the Plan of Tacubaya, which called for another constitutional convention in three months. The Plan declared Roman Catholicism to be Mexico’s sole religion and restored Church control over its property and reestablished the fuero for priests. Drafters of the Plan cemented an alliance with industrialists by reinstituting high tariffs. They then dissolved Congress and rescinded the constitution, leaving Comonfort as president. The moderates felt if they replaced the 1857 constitution with a more moderate charter designed to reconcile tradition and reform they could avoid a civil war.32
President Comonfort, hoping to prevent liberal reforms from escalating into civil war, accepted the provisions of the Plan of Tacubaya. This cost him the support of radical liberals. In January 1858, a second coup, led by General Felix Zuloaga, deposed Comonfort. The ousted president, by having accepted the Plan of Tacubaya, had already lost the support of radical liberals. Given the opposition of conservatives and weak support from his own liberal base, Comonfort resigned and went into exile. This marked the demise of the broad alliance of anti-Santa Anna forces that had supported Alvarez.33
Conservatives and the regular army supported the coup and recognized Zuloaga as president. The 1857 constitution, however, provided that Benito Juarez, who was serving as the chief justice of the Supreme Court, should assume the presidency. Juarez had been elected to this position during the Comonfort administration. Soon, both Zuloaga and Juarez were claiming the presidency.34
Juarez’s birthplace, the isolated Oaxacan village of Guelatao, had neither a school nor a church. As was the case with the other twenty families in the village, the family of Mexico’s future president spoke the Zapotec Indian language, not Spanish. As an impoverished orphan, Juarez worked as a sheepherder until age thirteen. Fortunately for Juarez, and for Mexico, he then decided to broaden his horizons and walked fifty miles barefoot to the Oaxaca City household where his sister worked. Her employer, Antonio Maza, a merchant who had immigrated from Italy, found him work with a bookbinder who became his benefactor. The bookbinder advised a seminary education, feeling that no other doors were open for an impoverished Indian, regardless of his education and talent.35
Juarez briefly studied for the priesthood, but soon disregarded his benefactor’s counsel and enrolled to study law at Oaxaca’s Institute of Arts and Sciences, a hotbed of liberal ideas. For the rest of his life, Juarez would proudly wear the liberal mantle. In 1843, he married Maza’s seventeen-year-old daughter Margarita, despite his being twenty years her senior. Even though indigenous men rarely married women of European ancestry, the marriage received the blessing of the Maza family. This marriage not only created a long-lasting relationship but provided Juarez with access to Oaxaca’s elite, which he would not otherwise have enjoyed.36
Beginning in 1832, with his membership in the Oaxaca City municipal council, Juarez rose steadily through public-sector positions. As Mexican historian Enrique Krauze observed, “In each of these public positions (and as a deputy to the federal Congress as of 1847) he demonstrated a sense of responsibility that was rare, especially in those frivolous times.” During this time, Juarez defended Indian villagers from abuse by priests. By the middle of the century, Juarez had broken with the indigenous world into which he was born and had adopted the world view of the Hispanic city of Oaxaca. From then on, Juarez was viewed, and viewed himself, not as an Indian, but as a liberal Mexican.37
In 1847, Juarez received an appointment as interim governor of Oaxaca, an office to which he was later elected—the first time an Indian was elected as a state governor in independent Mexico. As governor, Juarez introduced a style of governance that stressed budgetary discipline, regular payment of public employees, and arbitration of disputes in a spirit of conciliation. During his administration, Juarez opened more schools than any of his predecessors. Many events, such as securing the clergy’s collaboration in building schools and roads, showed his willingness to work with the Church. As would be the case with his presidency, he adopted a stoic, austere style and only reluctantly shared power, even though he did exercise power within a legal framework.38
During his last presidency, Santa Anna sent Juarez into exile in New Orleans. While there, Juarez, who survived by rolling cigarettes, fell under the tutelage of two fellow exiles—liberal ideologues Melchor Ocampo and Ponciano Arriaga. This cemented his belief in the separation of Church and state. As with most liberals, Juarez remained a Catholic who attended Mass, married in the Church, and baptized his daughters.39
Figure 12.1
Benito Juarez
Source: Reproduced courtesy of the Benson Latin American Collection, the University of Texas at Austin
Liberal exiles in New Orleans arranged for Juarez to return to Mexico via Havana, Panama, and Acapulco as a representative to Alvarez, thus positioning themselves for a return to power upon Alvarez’s triumph. Juarez’s journey to Acapulco lasted six weeks.
By the time Juarez arrived in Acapulco, liberal forces had driven Santa Anna from office. After Alvarez met Juarez, he appointed the Oaxacan as his minister of justice, ecclesiastical affairs, and public instruction (one of only six cabinet positions). Juarez was serving in this position when the Juarez Law was promulgated. His subsequent election as chief justice of the Supreme Court placed him first in the line of presidential succession. The 1857 constitution had scrapped the position of vice-president—vice-presidents were considered too prone to lead revolts against the presidents they served under.40
In January 1858, after the issuance of the Plan of Tacubaya, Juarez realized that he had little support in Mexico City and abandoned the capital. He retreated north to Guanajuato, where a resident commented: “An Indian by the name of Juarez, who calls himself the President of the Republic, has arrived in this city.” From there, Juarez continued on to the Pacific Coast and sailed to Panama. He crossed the isthmus and finally arrived in Veracruz, where he established a liberal government.41
The strongest support for the conservatives came from Mexico City, Queretaro, and traditionally conservative Puebla. In addition, many rural people supported the conservatives because they resented urban, liberal lawyers imposing their views on others through legislation. Often urban renters of Church property backed conservatives, since they assumed that if the Church lost its holdings, their rents would increase. Conservatives drew support from the Church, military officers, and Indian villages wishing to retain communal land holdings. Residents of central Mexico, especially hacendados, hoped conservatives would perpetuate that region’s dominance of the periphery. The traditional nature of Mexican society also favored the conservatives. In 1861, there were only 443 engineers and architects in Mexico, while there were 9,344 priests and 42,578 in
The military.42
The Veracruz customs house, the major source of government revenue, financed the liberal cause. Liberals used customs duties to purchase foreign arms, which were shipped to Veracruz.
At the leadership level, urban professionals such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and journalists, dominated liberalism. State governors tended to favor the liberals, whom they felt would permit more power to be retained at the state level. Businessmen who stood to benefit from free trade also backed the liberals. Miners, merchants, teachers, cattlemen, and professionals embraced the liberal cause as a way to gain a political voice, especially in north-central Mexico. Entrepreneurs, merchants, low-level government employees, radical intellectuals, and clerks felt liberals would promote their advancement.43
In July 1859, Juarez nationalized all remaining Church lands without compensating the Church. He blamed the civil war on the Church and accused it of financing the conservative war effort with income from its land holdings. The liberal government in Veracruz sought to separate church and state by secularizing cemeteries, declaring marriage a civil contract, and assuming responsibility for birth registrations. Liberals also decreed the nationalization of the Church’s investment capital, which exceeded the value of its real estate. These measures, the Juarez Law, the Lerdo Law, and the changes embodied in the 1857 constitution are known as the Reforma, for which Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma is named.44
The liberal government hurriedly sold the nationalized Church property to finance the war. Since the sales were so hasty and the titles so shaky, in many cases the government received only a quarter or a third of the value of the land. Such sales had the advantage of winning allies for the liberals since, if the conservatives were to win the war, these sales would be declared invalid, and the Church would recover the properties.45
The military overwhelmingly supported the conservatives. As a result, during 1858 conservative generals Miguel Miramon, Tomas Mejia, and Leonardo Marquez led their forces to a string of victories over the militarily inexperienced liberals. Since they lacked access to the Veracruz customs receipts, the conservatives borrowed abroad. One such loan from the Swiss banking house of Jecker netted 1 million pesos. For this sum, the conservatives committed Mexico to redeem bonds totaling 15 million pesos.46
Liberals recruited those favoring the abolition of compulsory military service, freedom of commerce, army reorganization, and, in areas where the Catholic clergy had lost its legitimacy, religious liberty. Eventually, liberal tenacity, the support of state militias, and the arms bought with Veracruz customs revenues overwhelmed the conservatives. Liberal commander Santos Degollado suffered repeated defeats. However, after each defeat, he would rally his forces, suffer another defeat, and then rally his forces once again. Even though both sides resorted to conscription, there were never more than 25,000 men under arms. This, in a nation of 8 million, did not represent total war. As historian Enrique Krauze noted, “The War of Reform was not a popular war in either sense of the word.”47
Liberal historian Justo Sierra commented on Degollado, who felt that limitations should be placed on the power of the Church: “He tried to limit the power of the Church because it had gone astray and was no longer faithful to the teachings of Christ. He was the Catholic, the canon lawyer, the theologian. The bishops were the impious.”48
Liberal forces reoccupied Mexico City on Christmas Day of 1860, thus ending the War of the Reform, as the 1857—1860 civil war is known. Once again, war had devastated the country. The U. S. consul at Veracruz reported, “Haciendas are abandoned, ranchos deserted, and even whole villages pillaged and sacked, leaving nothing but desolation wherever the armies of the contending parties have made their tracks.”49
World History
