CHAPTER V. 1824–1829.

republicans than that of Guadalupe Victoria,—was not calculated to heal the animosities of the two factions, especially, as the scant majority of two votes had placed the Escoces partizan in the presidential chair. The defeated candidate and his incensed companions of the liberal lodge, did not exhibit upon this occasion that loyal obedience to constitutional law, which should have taught them that the first duty of a republican is to conceal his mortification at a political defeat and to bow reverentially to the lawful decision of a majority. It is a subject of deep regret that the first bold and successful attack upon the organic law of Mexico was made by the federalists. They may have deemed it their duty to prevent their unreliable competitors from controlling the destinies of Mexico even for a moment under the sanction of the constitution; but there can be no doubt that they should have waited until acts, instead of suspicions or fears, entitled them to exercise their right of impeachment under the constitution. In an unregulated, military nation, such as Mexico was at that period, men do not pause for the slow operations of law when there is a personal or a party quarrel in question. The hot blood of the impetuous, tropical region, combines with the active intellectual temperament of the people, and laws and constitutions are equally disregarded under the impulse of passion or interest. Such was the case in the present juncture. The Yorkinos had been outvoted lawfully, according to the solemn record of congress, yet they resolved not to submit; and, accordingly, Lorenzo de Zavala, the Grand Master of their lodge, and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was then a professed federalist, in conjunction with the defeated candidate Guerrero and Generals Montezuma and Lobato, determined to prevent Pedraza from occupying the chair of state. Santa Anna, who now appeared prominently on the stage, was the chief agitator in the scheme, and being in garrison at Jalapa, in the autumn of 1828, pronounced against the chief magistrate elect, and denounced his nomination as "illegal, fraudulent and unconstitutional." The movement was popular, for the people were in fact friendly to Guerrero. The prejudices