A more serious affair was the now pronounced segregation of Yucatan. She had in March 1841 adopted a new constitution, a revision of the federal law of 1825, a newly elected congress had been installed, and a declaration of independence had actually passed the lower chamber, although the governor induced the senate to table it.[1] Santa Anna was determined to continue the preparations for reconquest which he had diverted for the overthrow of Bustamante. Meanwhile he commissioned the Yucatec lawyer, Quintana Roo,[2] to seek a peaceful settlement; but relying on its late successes, the peninsula would yield only in so far as to remain nominally a part of Mexico, with her own present laws and management of finances and custom-houses, subject to her own civil and military rulers, and contributing to the republic only a fair sum based on true resources and requirements. Any disposition encroaching hereupon could be entertained only from a free and popularly elected congress.[3] These terms roused the indignation of the Mexican government, which declared that the bases of Tacubaya must be admitted as a primary condition, and that all Yucatecs who failed to submit to the laws of the republic would be treated as foes.[4]
The peninsular authorities proving equally obdurate, a part of the projected expedition, 1,500 strong, left Vera Cruz in August under Morales, and after a slight skirmish took possession of the Isla del Cármen presidio and the entire Yucatec navy of three vessels. With the aid of 2,700 additional men, under
- ↑ Barbachano and Peraza were the main promoters of independence. A flag was designed with four vertical stripes of green, red, white, and red, the former bearing five stars, representing the departments of the new state; the red stripes were narrower than the others. Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 244.
- ↑ Famed as a writer, and whose wife achieved celebrity by eloping to share his hardships during the war of independence.
- ↑ To which representatives would go from Yucatan. This was signed on Dec. 28, 1841. Yuc., Manif. Gob., 1841, 18 et seq.; Baqueiro, Ensayo Yuc., iii. ap. 38 et seq.; Yuc., Expos. Gob., 1841, 4-5.
- ↑ Yet offering to leave undisturbed its officials and troops, and also the tariff till it could be revised for the whole republic. Méx., Mem. Rel, 1844, 47-8; Buenrostro, Hist. Prim. Cong., pts 52-5, 153 et seq. The new commissioner arrived with these proposals in May 1842.
