Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/389

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NEW STATES.
369

restored, the insurgents being defeated everywhere, without the government having resorted to ruinous taxation.

The expediency of creating new states from the large territory possessed by the old state of Mexico was generally acknowledged. On the 1st of December, 1868, congress enacted a law for the formation of the state of Morelos.[1] It required that a legislature and executive should be there installed within four months. President Juarez sanctioned, and published on the 17th of April, 1869, the creation of the new state, and it was subsequently ratified by the other states. The state government was formally installed on the 26th of April.[2] The population of Morelos at that time was about 121,000.[3] The capital was established in Cuernavaca, a town of some 12,000 souls.

The state of Hidalgo was erected pursuant to an act of congress of January 16, 1869,[4] which measure was well received by the nation. The boundaries

    finally brought to trial, and sentenced, on the 21st of Feb., 1873, to ten years' imprisonment. He died at Durango in April of the same year. The operations of the kidnappers caused much terror, and business was paralyzed. Diario Ofic., Aug. 24, 1868, Nov. 5, 1869; Monitor Rep., June 23, 26, 1872; El Federal, Feb. 25, March 7, 1873; La Estrella de Occid., Sept. 11, Oct. 2, 1868; La Gaceta de Policia, Oct. 1868 to May 1869; Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 682. Gen. Plácido Vega, on the 14th of Oct., 1868, wrote several members of congress that he had a narrow escape from a fate similar to Patoni's. Vega, Doc., iii. 672-3.

  1. It was formed with the districts of Cuernavaca, Yautepec, Cuautla de Morelos, Jonacatepec, and Tetecala, whose respective chief towns bear the same names. Its area is 4,600 square kilometers. Morelos, Exped. sobre, 134; Tovar, Hist. Parl., i. 95, 152, 218, 310, 489; ii. 530-3; iii. 91-1107 passim; iv. 102, 140, 160, 170, 180; Diario Debates, 8° Cong., i. 103.
  2. Diario Ofic., Apr. 20, 1869; El Monitor, Apr. 28, 1969. The state constitution was adopted on the 28th of July, 1870, and was considerably amended on the 3d of Dec., 1878. Morelos, Constitucion Polit., 1-37.
  3. In 1874 it was about 150,300. García Cubas, Atlas Metód., 48. The chief sources of wealth were agriculture and the manufacture of flour and excellent sugar and rum. Hermosa, Compend. Geog., 138-40.
  4. Gen. Doria was made the provisional governor. El Monitor, Jan. 21, 22, 1869; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., X. 519-18; La Regeneracion de Sin., Feb. 10, 13, 1869. The petition for its creation was presented by Deputy Antonio Tagle, and bore the signatures of a number of deputations and upwards of 60 representatives. Petitions to the same effect also came from municipalities and private citizens. Tovar, Hist. Parl., i. 74-616 passim; ii. 235-533 passim; iii. 32-1105 passim.