Constitution of Mexico

“ It would be a waste of time to argue that the incorporation of Mexico would be dangerous to our free institutions. He who understood the American constitution; he who had studied its character; he who had profited from the examples of history, and had marked the consequences, where large conquests have been held by a hostile nation, as territorial possessions, would need no other proof to convince him that to hold the republic of Mexico, either as a province or as territories, must lead to the subversion of our free institutions. ”

“ Constitutions have never been a set rule of action in Mexico and a consideration of the actual conditions within the republic gives little hope that it will be possible to make the political provisions of the Constitution of 1917 function as was intended, until fundamental changes have been accomplished in the social, educational, and economic equipment of the people. The reconstruction of Mexico involves problems deeper than those that can be settled by constitution makers. ”

“ The republic of Mexico, for such she has claimed to be, amid all the phases and changes in her political condition, has never possessed a firm or stable government since 1821, when she ceased to be one of the dependencies of the Spanish crown, except during the first presidency under the federal constitution. Her prolonged struggle for independence was not viewed with indifference in the United States. The government of the latter was the first to recognize her separate existence, and her battle fields were crimsoned with the blood of many an American citizen. ”

“ It cannot be said that the de facto government of Mexico is a constitutional government. The de facto government, like the majority of revolutionary governments is of a military character, but, as already stated, that government has committed itself to the holding of elections, and it is confidently expected that the present government will within a reasonable time, be merged in or succeeded by a government organized under the constitution and laws of Mexico. ”

“ Mexican constitutions had their beginning in the Spanish organic law of 1812, which admitted colonies to a share in national affairs through the córtes, and to elect legislatures and municipalities among themselves, Indians being raised to citizenship, but not African admixtures. This law gave impulse to the first republican constitution issued in 1814 at Apatzingan, which extended citizenship to all, and vested the supreme power in an elected congress, limited to one member for each of the 17 provinces. Congress appointed the triple alternating executive, the judges, and the military chiefs. ”

“ The national sovereignty is vested essentially and originally in the people. All public power emanates from the people, and is instituted for their benefit. The people have at all times the inalienable right to alter or modify the form of their government.
Art. 40. It is the will of the Mexican people to constitute themselves into a democratic, federal, representative republic, consisting of States, free and sovereign in all that concerns their internal affairs, but united in a federation according to the principles of this fundamental law. ”

“ Mexico has a constitution which has never been repealed, a constitution said to be modeled after our own, and one which is, indeed, like ours in the main. Like ours, it provides for a national congress, state legislatures and municipal aldermen to make the laws, federal, state and local judges to interpret them, and a president, governors and local executives to administer them. ”

“ Three days later was issued the revised political plan known as the Bases of Tacubaya, by which the supreme powers established by the constitution of 1836 were declared removed, except the judiciary. A council composed of two deputies from each department, selected by the general-in-chief from those at Mexico, should choose a provisional president, and summon a congress, to meet within eight months," for the sole purpose of framing a new constitution. ”

“ In 1835 the conservatives gained control, and issued a centralist constitution, under which the states were reduced to departments, ruled by governors, with subordinate prefects, appointed by and subject to the government at Mexico, yet assisted by elected councils. Towns with over 5,000 inhabitants could alone elect a municipality. The representation in the lower house was reduced to one member for every 150,000 inhabitants, elected for four years ”

“ In addition to this there is a permanent legislative committee of both branches, having power to act in all emergencies, and to sit during the recess of Congress. The President is not chosen directly by the people, but by electors; holds office for four years, and can not remain in power for two successive terms; and this last provision is said to be almost the only one of the Mexican Constitution that is rigidly observed. ”

“ The conspirators having perfected their plans with soime governors, particularly with him of Vera Cruz, a political movement was effected in the early morning of December 17th, at Tacubaya, to set aside the national constitution, which was declared to be not in accord with the customs and usages of the Mexican people; the supreme control of the government with ample powers was vested in Ignacio Comonfort, who was to convoke, within three months, an extraordinary congress for framing another constitution to conform with the national will, guaranteeing the true interests of the people ”

“ The new constitution does not do so. The people of Mexico will never truly rule themselves until the day when by evolution through education, industry, and habits of political association they fit themselves to do so. ”

“ Mexicans not so electing shall be admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States," and meantime shall have the rights "now vested in them according to the Mexican laws." ”

“ But the reverses sustained by the Creole leaders in the field were more than counterbalanced by the effect previously produced, by the introduction of the Spanish Constitution into Mexico; which, although its most important articles were suspended almost immediately, so far favoured the developement of a spirit of independence, that nothing could afterwards shake its hold upon the minds of the people. This Constitution was, as may be recollected, sanctioned by the Cortes of Cadiz, in 1812, and immediately applied, not only to Spain, but to the Transatlantic dominions of the Crown. ”

“ The Mexican Constitution does not require any foreigner to renounce his citizenship, as a condition to acquiring Mexican property. It requires foreigners only to agree "to be considered Mexicans in respect to such property, and accordingly not to invoke the protection of their governments in respect to the same." ”

“ At this time there were actually three presidents in Mexico, each with his cabinet, and each invoking in his favor the Constitution of 1857. Difficult (says the native historian) is it for the impartial chronicler, much less the youthful reader, to comprehend who was in the right in this political labyrinth. It does not seem difficult to the impartial reader of another nation to decide. On the side of law and order was Lerdo, the constitutionally elected President of the Republic; against him was the usurper, Diaz, at the head of a revolutionary army ”

“ They mean that the standards set forth in the law must correspond at least approximately to those observed in the everyday life of the community, and that neither the executive nor any other part of the government can act contrary to the popular will as expressed in the constitution and the laws. In many states of the New World that standard has not been reached—it has not been reached in Mexico. ”

“ The Articles of this Constitution, which establish the liberty and independence of Mexico as a nation, its religion, and form of government, the liberty of the press, and the division of the Supreme Powers of the Federation, can never be varied. ”

“ Other concerns have been taken over in the same way, and, with the constitution amended as proposed by the president, any business in Mexico which appears to be earning a profit, from running a railroad to farming, can be seized and used by the government, as the street railways in the Federal District were.
Article 33 of the new constitution provides:
"The executive shall have the exclusive right to expel from the republic forthwith and without judicial process any foreigner whose presence he may deem inexpedient." ”

“ All despotisms grow out of similar necessity. They are generally established for the protection of the people, though, of course, perpetuated through ignorance and fear. So Mexico at present needs a much stronger government than the United States. Her people may govern themselves, but they have long since learned that their happiness is concerned in being protected by a much stronger central police, and a more restrictive constitution than the American people would submit to, and hence they leave to a few what they dare not trust to more. ”

“ Santa Anna during his last administration suppressed the district and circuit judiciary, and extended the jurisdiction of the common tribunals. But he restored the mercantile and mining "fueros" which were loudly demanded by public opinion. One of the few really good and useful provisions of the Spanish constitution has always been preserved in all the changes of Mexican legislation. ”

“ Art. 116. The Powers of the Union are bound to protect the States against all invasion or external violence. In case of insurrection or internal disturbance they shall give them the same protection, provided the Legislature of the State, or the Executive thereof if the Legislature is not in session, shall so request.
TITLE VI. Of General Provisions Art. 117. All powers not expressly vested by this Constitution in the Federal authorities are understood to be reserved to the States.
Art. 118. No person shall hold at the same time two Federal offices or one Federal and one State elective office ”

“ The Mexican people recognize that the rights of man are the basis and the object of social institutions. Consequently they declare that all the laws and all the authorities of the country must respect and maintain the guarantees which the present constitution grants. ”

“ The provinces were guaranteed in the córtes equality of representation with Spain. Negroes and their intermixtures were excluded from citizenship, which in Mexico was deemed a political mistake, giving rise to much discussion. [32] Eighteen deputies from New Spain and the provincias internas signed the constitution. Had all this come in time, and in the right way, her colonies might have been saved to Spain. But it was too late. Justice and humiliation were now not enough; she must pay the penalty of her past iniquities. ”

“ So long as any province is occupied by the enemy, existing deputies select a suplente to represent it. Peace once established, a formally elected congress shall assume the sovereignty and adopt the present or a new constitution, and establish the laws, local governments, and other features so far left unchanged. The present imperfect document was intended therefore only as provisional. Following the French ideas enunciated in the opening, we find the regulations proper to be chiefly modifications of the Spanish constitution, with a sprinkling of features from colonial laws. ”

“ Accordingly Agustin, 'emperor of Mexico by divine providence and appointment by the congress of the nation's representatives' swore to observe and cause to be observed the constitution which the said congress should form, and all orders and decrees issued by it; never to alienate or convey away any portion of the territory of the empire, and to respect the political freedom of the nation and the personal liberty of the inhabitants. ”

“ The observance of the constitution, interrupted by rebellion, must be restored as soon as the people recovered its liberty. This was no doubt a lost point, for the fight continued round Mexico, in accordance with Maximilian's late regency decree. ↑ Art. 13 of the constitution forbade, besides, any special tribunal, was fraudulent, he as a foreigner, on the other side of the ocean, could not judge. The demonstrations always accorded, on and after arrival, tended to confirm the sincerity of the vote. ”

“ The Government is endeavoring to respect and consolidate existing rights, but absolutely cannot accept the principle that the liberty of Mexicans to govern according to their own necessities should be limited. ”

“ Actively engaged through life as a politician and a soldier, he has found time to readjust the whole complicated system of Mexican laws, and, in a series of volumes of autocratic decrees, he has drawn from that chaotic mass a new system of jurisprudence, that will stand as a monument of his genius as long as the Mexican nation shall continue. ”