Rio, Tulancingo, and Tlaxco were also assailed. The centre of all these revolts was Mexico. Puebla, the cradle of the reaction, again became a bloody field. On the 16th of October the reactionists attempted to bribe a body of troops, but failed and lost their money. They were, however, more successful on the 20th, when there was a revolt under the lead of Colonel Joaquin Orihuela and Lieutenant-colonel Miguel Miramon, but really directed by the clergyman Francisco J. Miranda, rector of the chief parish.[1] A portion of the garrison had been prevailed on to mutiny, demanding the repeal of the Juarez and Lerdo laws; seized the artillery and ammunition; for a while kept under arrest the governor, comandante general, and other officers; and finally compelled the loyal force under Cayetano Montero to retreat in the direction of Mexico. The prisoners obtained their freedom through the energetic defence made with 80 men by Lieutenant-colonel Diaz Quijano, thereby securing a favorable capitulation.[2]
These overt acts against the reform, to which the majority of the nation was laboring to give life, served to strengthen the liberal union; this became evident when congress, on being asked by the president to suspend for a time its revisory authority over gov-
- ↑ Remarkable for his astuteness and skill, he was the ruling mind of all reactionary work, and the most dangerous man Comonfort had to contend with. Exiled during the first days of Álvarez' government, he came back disguised early in 1856, and most of the time lived in the capital, but constantly shifting his place of residence in the city, so that the police never could find hiın. He frequently visited Puebla, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosí, always marking his visit by some act distasteful to the government. It was through his efforts that guerrilla parties infested the rural districts, assailing defenceless towns. He afterward was a prominent factor in bringing about the imperial régime. Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iv. 705.
- ↑ Orihuela gave his name to this pronunciamiento; its objects were to depose the existing government, adopting the bases of 1843, and reserving the first place in the administration to be created for the commander-in-chief of the forces engaged in the support of religion and fueros. Orihuela hurled a proclamation against the heretics, issued officers' commissions, received with honor some guerrillas, chose a council of government, and ordered the arrest of some prominent citizens. Portilla, Méj. en 1856-7, 109-40; La Nacion, Oct. 21-30, Nov. 2, 5, 1856.
dante general. Id., 704; La Nacion, Oct. 20, 22, 24, 1856; Méx., Legisl. Mej., 1856, July-Dec., 202-4; Archivo Mex., Col. Ley., ii. 432, 437, iii. 116.
