No. III.
ANALYSIS OF THE MEXICAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1824.
It has been wisely remarked by that great illustrator of the machinery of governments, (Montesquieu) that there can be no liberty where the legislative, executive, and judicial powers, or any two of them, are united in the same person or body of persons. See Spirit of Laws, in reference to the English Constitution. If any corroboration of this high authority is needed, I will refer to Mr. Jefferson, and the writers of that invaluable text book, the Federalist. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, page 195, says the concentration of legislative, executive and judicial powers in the same hands, is precisely the definition of despotism. And in the Federalist, page 261, it is said, "the accumulation of these powers in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, is the very definition of tyranny." In the same great work it is clearly demonstrated, that if each department is not so fortified in its powers as to prevent infringement by the others, the constitution which creates them all will be worth no more than the parchment upon which it is written. So important was it deemed by all the states of the Union to keep these departments distinct, and in different hands, that it has been specially provided for in all their constitutions. See the constitutions of the different States. And yet in the face of all this wisdom and experience, and contrary to every thing that is republican in its nature, the framers of the Mexican constitution have reserved to Congress the sole power of construing the constitutionality of its acts. This, it will be readily seen, is an entire nullification of the judiciary in all constitutional matters, and leaves the rights of the people and the constitution itself without any other security than what is to be found in the virtue, patriotism and intelligence of Congress. What slender reliances, where the liberties and happiness of a nation are concerned! If in the United States Congress should transcend its powers in the passage of a law, the courts would declare it null and void, and bring back Congress to a constitutional discharge of its duties. But if the same thing were attempted in Mexico, Congress would re-enact the law, declare it constitutional, and imprison the judge for his presumption. It appears then, that the Mexican constitution of 1824 contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction,—for the accumulation of legislative and judicial powers in Congress, and the enabling of that body to violate the constitution at will, renders it of no more avail than "a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal." It will be no alleviation, says Mr. Jefferson, in his work above quoted, page 195, that in the case of Congress unlimited powers are vested in a plurality of hands. One hundred or two hundred despots are surely as oppressive as one. Let those who doubt it turn their eyes on the republic of Venice. In the next place I will show, that independent of this objection, the Mexican constitution contains principles and provisions 500 years behind the liberalized views of the present age, and at war with every thing that is akin to civil or religious liberty. In that instrument the powers of government, instead of being divided as they are in the United States, and other civilized countries, into legislative, executive and judicial, are divided into military, ecclesiastical and civil, and these two first are fortified with exclusive privileges, and made predominant. It is specially declared that the Roman Catholic religion is, and forever shall be, the established religion of the land. No other is tolerated, and no one can be a citizen without professing it. Can any people be capable of self-government—can they know any thing about republicanism, who will, in this enlightened age endeavor to erect the military over the civil—to bind the conscience in chains, and to enforce an absolute subscription to the dogmas of any religious sect—but more especially of that sect, which has waged an unceasing warfare against liberty, whenever the ignorance and superstition of mankind have given it a foothold?
Can republicans live under a constitution containing such unhallowed principles? All will say they cannot. And if the Texan colonists are willing to do so a moment longer than they are able to shake off the yoke, they are unworthy the sympathies or assistance of any free people—they are unworthy descendants of those canonized heroes of the American revolution, who fought, and bled, and conquered for religious as well as civil liberty, and who established the sacred principle, that "all men have a right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences." Yet bad as this constitution is, it has been swept away by, if possible, a worse form of government, the central. This system, now attempted to be rivetted upon the people of Texas, has preserved most of the bad features of the old constitution, viz: the preponderance of the military and clergy, and has destroyed all of the good features, to wit: the representation of the people through the medium of Congress, and the division of the republic into States. The whole of the States are now consolidated into one, and governed by a dictator and council of about a dozen, who are the creatures of his will, and the flatterers of his lawless despotism. All of Mexico, but Texas, has submitted to this, and she is waging a war against it with all the energies of an infant and much oppressed people. If it be asked, why have the people of Texas submitted so long to such a constitution, I answer, that for the first few years their numbers or wealth did not attract the notice or cupidity of government. 2dly, the incessant revolutions of Mexico kept their attention from Texas for many years more. 3dly, they submitted from physical inability to resist. And 4thly, they were determined to prove themselves a law and oath abiding people, and in case of rupture with Mexico, to show to the world that they were not the aggressors. This rupture has been brought about, and it is folly to think of ever healing the breach. The constitution has been destroyed, and it is idle to think of restoring it. If restored, I have shown that no republican can live under it. We have no right to conclude, that if re-established, it will be amended so as to be made more republican and more congenial with our wishes—for in all their changes and commotions, each party contends for the established religion—it is the last thing they will part with—believing it to be the anchor of their hope and salvation here and hereafter. But granting that the federal party should triumph—that the monster centralism should be crushed, and that the constitution should be amended so as to make it appear, on parchment, the most unexceptionable charter of human rights known to the world, have we any reason to believe or to hope, from their demonstrated incapacity of self-government, and from their incessant past revolutions, that it will be or can be administered for a day? But, as I before said, it is idle to talk of the constitution now. Texas must be Independent. The tie between her and Mexico is severed, and that by the injustice and violence of Mexico. It can never be re-united—for between the colonists and Mexicans there is an almost total dissimilarity of soil, climate, productions, pursuits, interests, habits, manners, education, language and religion.
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No. IV.
In my last I contended that none of those ties which are necessary to bind a people together and make them one, existed between the colonists and Mexicans. That there was an almost total dissimilarity in the soil, climate and productions of the regions of territory they respectively inhabited; and that superadded to this, there was no identity of pursuits, habits, manners, education, language or religion. I now proceed to show, that these circumstances have engendered towards the colonists in the mass of the Mexican nation, feelings of unconquerable jealousy and hostility. Yes! our superiority in enterprise, in learning, in the arts and in all that can dignify life, or embellish human nature, instead of exciting in them a laudable ambition to emulate, to equal, or excel us—excites the most hateful of all the passions—envy—and has caused them to endeavor for years past, by an unremitting series of vexatious, oppressive and unconstitutional acts, to retard our growth and prosperity, and if possible, to get rid altogether of a people whose presence so hourly reminds them of their own ignorance and inferiority. Some of these acts I now proceed to enumerate.
1st. With a sickly philanthropy worthy of the abolitionists of these United States, they have, contrary to justice, and to law, intermeddled with our slave population, and have even impotently threatened in the war now pending, to emancipate them, and induce them to turn their arms against their masters. If they would cast their eyes around them, they would find that at home the more wealthy and intelligent of the Mexicans have unjustly imposed upon at least one quarter of their fellow citizens, the most galling and illegal system of servitude that ever stained the annals of human oppression.
2d. [Footnote: Have been repealed.] Although the colonization law conceded to emigrants to Texas all the rights and privileges of citizens, in 1829 a law was passed confining the retail of merchandize to native born Mexicans. It is useless to comment upon the illegality and injustice of this law. It speaks for itself, and clearly indicates the diabolical spirit in which it was engendered.
3d. I pass over many minor grievances growing out of their illegal legislative enactments, and plainly denoting their settled hostility, and come to the law of the 6th [Footnote: Have been repealed.] of April, 1830. By this law, North Americans, and they alone, were forbidden ad mission into Texas. This was enough to blast all of our hopes, and dishearten all of our enterprise. It showed to us that we were to remain scattered, isolated, and unhappy tenants of the wilderness—compelled to gaze upon the resources of a lovely and fertile region, undeveloped for want of population. That we were to be cut off forever from the society of fathers and friends in the United States of the North—to prepare comforts suited to whose age and infirmities, many of us had emigrated and patiently submitted to every species of privation, and whose presence to gladden our firesides we were hourly anticipating. That feature of this law granting admission to all other nations except our brethren of the United States of the North, was sufficient to goad us on to madness. Yes! the door of emigration to Texas was closed upon the only sister republic worthy of the name which Mexico could boast of in this new world. It was closed upon a people among whom the knowledge and the foundations of rational liberty are more deeply laid than among any other on the habitable globe. It was closed upon a people who would have carried with them to Texas those principles of freedom, and those ideas of self-government in which, from their birth, they had been educated and practised. In short, and more than all, inasmuch as it stamps the Mexican government with the foul blot of ingratitude, it was closed upon a people who generously and heroically aided them in their revolutionary struggle, and who were first and foremost to recognize and rejoice at the consummation of their independence. Nothing but envy, jealousy, and a predetermination to destroy the colonial settlements, could have prompted the passage of this most iniquitous law. Simultaneous with it, all parts of Texas were deluged with garrisons in a time of profound peace. These garrisons extorted and consumed the substance of the land, and paid for their supplies in drafts on a faithless and almost bankrupt government. In their presence and vicinity the civil arm was paralyzed and powerless. They imprisoned our citizens without cause, and detained them without trial, and in every respect trampled upon our rights and privileges. They could not have been sent to Texas for our protection, for when they came we had expelled the savages, and were able to protect ourselves; and at the commencement of the colonial settlements, when we were few and weak, and scattered, and defenceless, not a garrison—no! not a soldier came to our assistance.