A3ek /v 999 SANTOS DEGOLLADO AND THE MEXICAN REFORMA, 1854-1861 DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By John T. Hardi, M. A. Denton, Texas December, 1975 Hardi, John T., Santos Degollado and the Mexican Reforma, 1854-1861. Doctor of Philosophy (History), December, 1975, 474 pp., bibliography, 161 titles. This study examines in detail the public career of Santos Degollado during the era of the Mexican Reforma, and, because of his central role in national events of that period, the story is presented in the context of a general history of the Reforma. Sources of information were largely primary, including manuscripts and newspapers from Mexican archives. The richest of these were the collection of Degollado's letters at the Instituto de Antropologia e Historia; manu- scripts from the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores archive, the Archivo Juarez of the Biblioteca Nacional, and the Centro de Estudios de Historia de Mexico; as well as documents from various collections at the University of Texas Latin American Collection. Important published sources included the 36-volume collection edited by Genaro Garcia and the 15 volumes of Benito Juarez papers edited by Jorge L. Tamayo. As much as possible the study followed a chronological narrative. The thirteen major divisions treat, respectively, Degollado's early life and career, the two-year Revolution of Ayutla, his term as governor of Jalisco, his involvement 1 2 in the diplomatic dispute with the British known as the Barron-Forbes affair (2 chapters), the drafting of the Con- stitution of 1857, don Santos' contributions as commander- in-chief of the liberal army during the first year of the Three Years' War, the military developments of the first half of 1859, the issuance of the Reform Laws and the Estancia de las Vacas campaign, Degollado's activities as minister of foreign relations and the course of the war in the summer of 1860, his role in the conducta and peace plan affairs, the political events of early 1861 and his death, and an epilogue. Santos Degollado was a pivotal figure in the national history of the Mexican Reforma. As a liberal serving in several positions of power, Degollado made political contri- butions including his participation in the drafting of a new liberal constitution and a key role in the issuance of the Reform Laws. In diplomatic affairs he achieved national prominence through a steadfast defense of Mexico's national sovereignty. While his best-known role, that of a military leader, was blemished by numerous defeats in battle, he nevertheless provided a unity and central direction without which his party could never have won the Three Years' War. All of his contributions to the cause of liberal reform in 3 Mexico were magnified by a remarkable record of personal sacrifice and capped by the ultimate self-denial of political martyrdom. In seeking to explain and justify aspects of Degollado's conduct and behavior which have heretofore often been characterized as aberrations, this study has suggested some revised interpretation of the role of Benito Juarez in the Reforma. This great Mexican hero of the nineteenth century has long overshadowed the other important figures of the period, including Degollado. This study contends that not only should other Mexicans receive a larger share of credit for the progressive advances made during the Reforma, but also that Juarez should receive less. 0 1975 JOHN THORNLEY HARDI ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PROLOGUE 1 Chapter I. REVOLUTION OF AYUTLA . 22 II. GOVERNOR OF JALISCO.......... 51 III. BARRON-FORBES AFFAIR: PART -"-". 75 I.. - " IV. BARRON-FORBES AFFAIR: PART 2. .. 116. V. CONSTITUTION OF 1857 . 171 VI. THREE YEARS' WAR: 1858. .. .. 218 VII. TACUBAYA CAMPAIGN. 260 VIII. REFORM LAWS AND THE ESTANCIA DE LAS VACAS CAMPAIGN. 295 Ix. MINISTER OF FOREIGN RELATIONS.- 334 x. CONDUCTA AND PEACE PLAN AFFAIRS. 375 XI. THE LAST FULL MEASURE. ....... 414 EPILOGUE. ...... ....... 446 BIBLIOGRAPHY...-.-...-.-.-.............-... 46o iv PROLOGUE 1 Mexico won her independence from Spain in 1821 after a protracted civil war. But independence was not, in this case, synonymous with revolution, for patterns of Spanish colonialism continued to dominate Mexican life for years to come. It was not, in fact, until the Reforma began in 185+ that a defini- tive break with Spanish traditions of absolutism, feudalism, and a dominant Catholic Church took place. In general Mexico's political evolution in the first decades after independence followed a familiar pattern, one which was outlined by Sim6n Bolivar, the great South American liberator, in his famous "Jamaica letter." Bolivar said it was . characteristic of civil wars to form two parties, conservatives and reformers. The former are commonly the more numerous, because the weight of habit induces obedience to established powers; the latter are always fewer in number although more vocal and learned. Thus, the physical mass of the one is counterbalanced by the moral force of the other; the contest is prolonged, and the results are uncertain. In Mexico these two parties were called "centralists" and "federalists," and their contest was indeed prolonged. 1 David Bushnell, ed., The Liberator, Sim6n Bolivar: Man and Image (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970), p. 21. 1 2 Their initial differences in philosophies centered around the form the national government was to take, hence the labels "centralist" and "federalist." As the conflict progressed, however, it became clear by the 1840's that more elemental differences separated the two groups. The conflict over centralized or federal government had often been little more than a facade obscuring from view these more basic issues, for even when the federalists had been in power, they had never tried to implement a truly federal system. The regimes of both parties in the first three decades of independence differed more in degree of centralization than in kind.2 The real ideological clash developed over the issue of corporate privilege, and as this became clearer in the 1840's, more accurate party labels of. "conservative" and "liberal" came to replace, respectively, those of "centralist" and "federalist." The conservatives, whose ranks included the clergy, most army officers, large landowners, monarchists, and others, sought to preserve the special privileges, powers, and wealth of the Catholic Church, the army, and the landed aristocracy. The liberal party, depending largely on the 2J. Lloyd Mecham, "The Origins of Federalism in Mexico," Hispanic American Historical Review 18(1938):166-181; Jesus Reyes Heroles, El liberalismo mexicano, 3 vols. (Mexico: UNAM Facultad de Derecho, 1957-1961), 2:35. 3 creole middle class for leadership, attacked the privileged position of the conservatives in order to create political and economic equality and to free the State from autocratic rule. As the conflict crystallized after 1846 the questions of Church-State relations and the wealth, privileges, and temporal powers of the Church became by far the most serious issues..3 Yet even in respect to these details, the Mexican experience was far from unique. As Crane Brinton has shown, a characteristic of most revolutions is their "progressively increasing hostility to organized Christianity, and particu- larly to the more oecumenical forms of organized Christianity." Men who lead such revolutions are not necessarily evil men, for their heaven and their ethics are very close to the more orthodox Christian's heaven and ethics. The revolutionary simply wants his heaven here and now whereas the traditional Christian has accepted the notion of a long haul. Mexican liberalism in this period has generally been characterized as a movement to break away from the Spanish 3 Reyes Heroles, Liberalismo mexicano, 2:35; Charles Hale, Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora, 1821-1853 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 296-297. Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, rev. ed. (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952), pp. 216-217. 14 heritage of colonialism. Many writers have described attempts by federalists to create a political system modeled after the United States. More recently Charles Hale has suggested some revision of this picture. He points out that both the Church and the military emerged from the wars of independence more powerful than ever. Under the Spanish colonial system these institutions had been restrained by a strong absolutist State. But independence removed that restraint and liberals spent the ensuing years in vain attempts to restore control through constitutional liberalism. After 1830, Hale shows, Mexican liberals, led by Jose Maria Luis Mora, turned for inspiration, not to the United States, but to the reform tradition of the Spanish Bourbons. Liberals in fact harkened back to the Spanish colonial system in an effort to restore State sovereignty over corporate privilege. Though the concept was pragmatic, it still represented no departure from the Spanish heritage. Furthermore these liberals retained traditional creole social conservatism as well, since their call for political reforms in no way implied support for social revolution.6 5 See Reyes Heroles, Liberalismo mexicano, vol. 2 ; also see Hubert H. Bancroft, History of Mexico, Vol. 5 1824-1861, vol. 13 of The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, 39 vols. (San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft and Co., 1875-1890), 5:19. 6 Hale, Mexican Liberalism, pp. 298-304; Reyes Heroles, Liberalismo mexicano, 2:92-94, 98-99. 5 It remained for the Reforma to provide the final break with Spanish colonialism and to establish a national identity for Mexico. The thinking of Reforma liberals and the programs they introduced advanced far beyond the liberalism of Morals time. Though the Church-State clash was the obvious issue in the Reforma, in a larger sense the struggle was a "Mexican middle class revolution" to bring democratic capitalism to Mexico.