Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/148

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
124
TLAXPAXQUIZQUI
TOCQUEVILLE

TLAXPANQUIZQUI (tlas-pan-keeth′-kee), Mexican soldier. He lived in the latter half of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century. During the struggle between Cacamatzin and Ixtlilxochitl for the kingdom of Texcoco, which began in 1516, he commanded the troops of his native state, Huexotzingo, now in support of one claimant, now of another. He had been convicted of adultery with the wives of two other chiefs of high rank. This was an almost unknown crime in the annals of the Aztecs, and was punishable with death. But as the culprit was very powerful, the husbands appealed to Montezuma, who promised to take the matter in hand. This occurred at the time when the republic of Huexotzingo, which was then in alliance with Montezuma and Cacamatzin, was invaded by the Tlaxcaltecs, who favored Ixtlilxochitl. The Tlaxcaltecs were commanded by Tlalhuicole, their greatest hero. Tlaxpanquizqui profited by the occasion to efface the stain of his crime by a glorious feat of arms. He succeeded in drawing Tlalhuicole into an ambuscade and made him prisoner. The Tlaxcaltecs fled in a panic, and the victory of the Huexotzingos was complete. Their leader led his captive to Mexico and presented him to Montezuma, who not only pardoned the conqueror, but loaded him with favors. See "Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale durant les siècles antérieurs à Christophe Colomb," by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (4 vols., Paris, 1859), and "Monarquía Indiana," byJuan de Torquemada (Seville, 1615).


TOBAR, Juan, clergyman, b. in Tezcoco, Mexico, in 1543; d. in Mexico in 1623. He was canon of that country when the first Jesuits landed in the kingdom, and entered their order soon after their arrival. He spent more than fifty-three years in efforts to convert the Indians. He wrote, by order of the viceroy, Martin Enriquez de Almansa, "Historia antigua de los Reinos de México, Acolhuacan, y Tlacopan." Jose de Acosta acknowledges in his "Historia natural y moral de las Indias" (Seville, 1590) that a considerable part of his material was derived from the work of Tobar.


TOCORXAL Y GREZ, Manuel Antonio (to-cor-nal′), Chilian statesman, b. in Santiago, 12 June, 1817; d. there in 1867. He studied law in the National institute, and in 1839 was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he was one of the founders of the University of Chili, and he became in the same year editor of "El Conservador," but in 1842 retired from the press. In 1844 he travelled through Europe, and in the last year was elected deputy to congress, where he forced the government to recognize ministerial responsibility. In 1848 he opposed the severe press law, and in 1849 was elected deputy by the opposition for Valparaiso, and called to form part of the new cabinet as secretary of justice. In 1851 he accompanied Gen. Bulnes in the campaign of the south as judge-advocate-general; but on the accession of President Manuel Montt he retired, refusing a nomination as minister to the United States, a seat on the supreme bench, and the presidency of the commission to revise the criminal code. He continued his opposition in congress, but in 1857 was defeated in the election for Santiago. From 1862 till 1863 he was secretary of the interior under Gen. Perez, but he resigned when war began between Peru and Spain. From 1865 till his death he was rector of the university.


TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, Count de, French statesman, b. in Paris, 29 July, 1805; d. in Cannes, 16 April, 1859. He passed his early youth at his father's castle of Verneuil, near Mantes, received his education in the College of Metz, and studied law in Paris in 1823-'6, being graduated as licencié in the latter year. Through the influence of his family he was named, 5 April, 1827, judge auditor at the tribunal of Versailles, and soon afterward assistant judge. Later he became deputy assistant district attorney of the same city, and made the acquaintance of Gustave de Beaumont, with whom he was sent in 1831 to the United States by the secretary of the interior to study the penitentiary system of the country. They landed at Boston on 12 May, and remained in the United States till March, 1832, visiting the principal prisons. They returned to France with six folio volumes of documents. Tocqueville published a few weeks later "Note sur le système pénitentiaire et sur la mission confiée par M. le Ministre de l'intérieur à MM. de Beaumont et de Tocqueville" (Paris, 1832), which attracted considerable attention. Tocqueville, becoming dissatisfied with his legal duties, resigned on 21 May, 1832, and opened an attorney's office. His "Du système pénitentiaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France" (Paris, 1832: 2d ed., with additions, 2 vols., 1836) was written in association with Gustave de Beaumont, and translated into several languages, including an English version by Francis Lieber (Philadelphia, 1833). The authors approved the solitary system as practised in the penitentiary of Cherry hill, in Philadelphia, and they caused the penitentiary system of France, and eventually of the continent, to be entirely remodelled. The French academy awarded them a Montyon prize, and the success of their work was then considered as unprecedented in the annals of literature. He then visited England, married there in 1835, and in January of the latter year published the first part of his "De la Démocratie en Amérique" (2 vols., Paris. 1835), which procured for the author an extraordinary prize of eight thousand francs from the French academy. In the report of award it is called "one of the most remarkable works published in the nineteenth century, and such as the academy has seldom been called upon to crown." It was followed by the second part early in 1840. The work was translated into several languages, including an English version by Henry Reeve, entitled "Democracy in America," with a preface and notes by John Spencer (4 vols., New York, 1839-'40). Reeve's translation has been edited by Francis Bowen (2 vols., Cambridge, 1862), and there is also an abridgment, entitled "American Institutions and their Influence" (New York, 1856). The author was created a knight of the Legion of honor, 6 June, 1837, elected a member of the French academy of moral sciences, 6 Jan., 1838, and given a seat in the Académie Française, 23 Dec., 1841. In parliament, where he served in 1839-'48, Tocqueville advocated the abolition of slavery, and urged the colonization of Algiers, which he visited in 1841 and 1846. Being returned to the constituent assembly after the revolution of 1848, he was chosen a member of the committee on legislation, elected vice-president of the assembly in 1849, and, after attending the diplomatic conferences in Brussels upon Italian affairs, was secretary of foreign relations from 2 June till 31 Oct., 1849, and strongly supported the French expedition to Rome. He was arrested at the coup d'état of 2 Dec., 1851, and afterward retired to private life. Besides those already cited, his works include "État social et politique de la France," written at the invitation of John Stuart Mill, who translated and published it in the "Westminster Review" for April, 1836;