1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lerdo de Tejada, Sebastian

LERDO DE TEJADA, SEBASTIAN (1825–1889), president of Mexico, was born at Jalapa on the 25th of April 1825. He was educated as a lawyer and became a member of the supreme court. He became known as a liberal leader and a supporter of President Juarez. He was minister of foreign affairs for three months in 1857, and became president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1861. During the French intervention and the reign of the emperor Maximilian he continued loyal to the patriotic party, and had an active share in conducting the national resistance. He was minister of foreign affairs to President Juarez, and he showed an implacable resolution in carrying out the execution of Maximilian at Querétaro. When Juarez died in 1872 Lerdo succeeded him in office in the midst of a confused civil war. He achieved some success in pacifying the country and began the construction of railways. He was re-elected on the 24th of July 1876, but was expelled in January of the following year by Porfirio Diaz. He had made himself unpopular by the means he took to secure his re-election and by his disposition to limit state rights in favour of a strongly centralized government. He fled to the United States and died in obscurity at New York in 1889.

See H. H. Bancroft, Pacific States, vol. 9 (San Francisco, 1882–1890).