fluence — in the state of Mexico, of which Lorenzo de Zavala was elected governor in March 1827, and in most of the states. The important state of Vera Cruz, however, went against them.[1] Both these societies were strongly represented in the press. During this period of Mexican history the number of periodicals greatly increased, and the people read them with interest. They were, however, with hardly an exception, devoted to politics.[2]
The year of 1827 was a painful one for Mexico. Among other troubles, to complicate matters and render the situation of the government still more perplexing, came news of the failure of Barclay and Company of London, in whose hands was a balance amounting to nearly $2,250,000 of the loan contracted with that house. In November congress authorized the government to borrow four millions, pledging the revenues from customs and tobacco, and an equal sum
- ↑ Also a few of the less influential. Bustamante, Voz de la Patria, ii. no. 15, 4; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, ii. 400–1; Id., Gob. de Mex., ii. 126;Masones y Elecc., 1-8.
- ↑ In Yucatan were issued the Yucateco and another; in Vera Cruz, the Mercurio, whose editor, Ramon Ceruti, a Spanish emigrant, was a stout champion of popular rights, and the Veracruzano Libre; in Jalapa, the Oriente, established by Sebastian Camacho, and continued under his direction after he became a minister of state; in Mexico, El Sol, the organ of the escoces party, supposed to have among its chief contributors Lúcas Alaman and other able politicians well versed in national affairs; El Águila Mexicana, the organ of the Iturbidists, more popular than El Sol, which gradually lost ground, and it may be said was sustained only by the great ability of its writers. The yorkinos established the Correo de la Federacion, whose contributors were Lorenzo de Zavala, and all the men of the party that could and were inclined to write. It was their organ till 1829. Though lacking in plan, this paper struck El Sol some severe blows. These papers excited the passions of their respective supporters, but violated the laws of decency and the respect due to society much less than some newspapers of the present day. The escoceses, pretending to respectability, also published El Observador, and the yorkinos later brought out in opposition to it El Amigo del Pueblo. The former was noted for its incisive logic; the latter for its more popular and independent ideas, and for its marked American principles. These two papers were types of the political exaggerations of that period, which were but the preliminaries of a civil war. And yet there was in the midst of all a generous idea — that of the country's welfare as each party understood it. For all that, the abuse of the liberty allowed the press had a baneful effect.
There were periodicals also in Guadalajara, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Oajaca, Valladolid, and a little later in Durango, Sonora, and even in the most distant and smallest places. Tornel, Breve Reseña Hist., 80-1; Zavala, Revol. Mex., i. 355-6; Pedraza, Manif., 34-5.
