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LIBERAL INSTITUTIONS RESTORED.

It is unnecessary here to speak at length of his services in the field and council, after the adoption of the plan of Ayutla; suffice it to say that the triumph of that measure was in a great measure due to him

The temporizing disposition of the new president did not blind, him to the necessity of upholding the measures of Alvarez, and of acting in accord with the spirit of the revolution. Two days after assuming the reins of government he appointed his cabinet, whose members gave assurance that a true spirit of liberty, order, and integrity would influence every act of the administration; that an enlightened democratic reform and the advancement of the country's general interests would result from their labors. The ministers were: Luis de la Rosa, of foreign relations; Ezequiel Montes, of justice and ecclesiastical affairs; Manuel Siliceo, of fomento; José María Lafragua, of interior relations; Manuel Payno, of the treasury; and José M. Yañez, of war and marine.[1]

The chief points of the policy outlined by the ministers were: no dismemberment of the national territory;[2] avoidance of civil war by prudent and conciliatory measures, appealing to physical force only in the last extreme; a constituent congress[3] to be convoked at once to frame the constitution, and in the

  1. Rosa is well known to the reader; a man of literary and scientific attainments, progressive ideas, and ability as a political economist and diplomate. Montes was an able jurist, and though new in the political field, had liberal convictions, and public education was already indebted to him for good service. Siliceo was a new man in politics. Lafragua had been active in a press law with liberal tendencies indicating his political proclivities. Payno had previously done good work in financial matters. Yañez was a good officer and a magnanimous man. Archivo Mex., Col. Ley., 135-6; Méx., Legisl. Mej., 1855, 629-32; Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 487-8, 600; Méx. Revol. contra Santa Anna, 132.
  2. Comonfort and Payno have been accused of an intention to sell Lower California to the United States in 1856, which plan, it is alleged, was defeated by Minister La Rosa.
  3. Owing to difficulties which prevented the meeting of congress at Dolores Hidalgo, the president, on the 26th of Dec., revoked art. 66 of the decree and summoned the congress to assemble in Mexico. Archivo Mer., Col. Ley., i. 201; Zarco, Hist. Cong., i. 19-29; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., vii. 631l-2, 639-40.