October 23, 1835
Far too often, I see and hear comments in this vein: “Yeah well Mexico graciously invited Americans in. All they had to do was become Catholic and learn Spanish. They didn’t. They deserved what they got at the Alamo fighting for slavery.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, equally simplistic: “Santa Anna tore up the 1824 Constitution and declared himself a dictator.”
Both have kernels of truth, but both are wrong by omission. You and I both know the real story is infinitely more interesting. Complexity is always more interesting.
Today, let’s remember together that Texas history lives beyond March 2; beyond Gonzales, Goliad, the Alamo, and San Jacinto. During that period, much energy in the form of frontier statesmanship and lifeblood, was expended.
We remember those dates. For obvious reasons, we remember less the events that caused such a head of steam to build in the first place. Today, let’s look at October 23, 1835.
In Mexico, in 1834-35, change was in the air and Stephen F. Austin was in a Mexico City prison breathing it in. Out on bond, he was at ground zero of the roiling political chaos in Mexico’s capital.
The fledgling Mexican nation struggled to establish a stable government after winning independence. Instability creates or empowers opportunists and patriots alike. Mexico was no different.
After a couple of years as an empire, she tried on the britches of republicanism with the Constitution of 1824. The revolving door of Mexican presidents and coups began in earnest.
Ten years on, a sentiment was rising among Mexico’s ruling class: Mexico wasn’t ready to be a democratic republic.
The Mexican Congress in 1833 passed some radical reforms, secularizing missions and seminaries, abolishing laws requiring church tithes, and expelling a number of politicians deemed unpatriotic.
This was too much, too soon for many politicians and intellectuals, even those who of an anti-clerical bent. They knew that to direct heavy fire at the church was to shoot themselves squarely in the foot. The church, after all, had money and power on which the government could depend.
The architect of Santa Anna’s political career, Jose Maria Tornel, described the sweeping changes this way: “Without having prepared the earth first, we have planted exotic plants that died as soon as they were born."
Tornel authored and implemented the Plan of Cuernavaca in mid-1834, reversing the laws of the reform Congress, making nice with the Catholic Church, and giving absolute authority to Santa Anna and the military to enforce it all. Tornel reined in freedom of the press, prohibiting published materials that opposed the new regime.
The people of Mexico largely supported the strength of the Church. Even those who were agnostic on the issue of federalism were Catholic. So the Plan found wide support, with Santa Anna held out as the protector of the Church.
The same could not be said of the population of Texas. Americans who had settled in Mexican Texas had stronger opinions on the constitution than on religion. They began stirring.
Austin, writing from the belly of the beast, his prison cell in Mexico City, addressed the drama in August 1834:
One year later, Austin, fresh off his prison stint, arrived home at Brazoria. His tune had changed but not drastically. He maintained a tone of diplomacy.
Addressing the guests at a dinner given in his honor, he said he had no doubt that a centralist government was coming but that Texans must act rationally. They must have a consultation and calmly decide if/how they could live with centralism.
“It is my duty to state that general Santa Anna verbally and expressly authorized me to say to the people of Texas, that he was their friend, that he wished for their prosperity, and would do all he could to promote it; and that, in the new constitution, he would use his influence to give to the people of Texas a special organization, suited to their education, habits, and situation.”
Austin concluded with a toast: “The constitutional rights and the security and peace of Texas - they ought lo be maintained and jeopardized as they now are, they demand a general consultation of the people.”
That was September 8, 1835. The Constitution of 1824 was already on life support. Santa Anna sent Cos to Bexar. The surrender of a cannon at Gonzales to centralist troops? Come and take it. Many Texians didn’t buy into the premise that Santa Anna was their friend.
The reform-minded Mexican Congress was barred from convening. State and municipal officials were replaced with men loyal to Santa Anna, Tornel and the santanista regime. And then, ironically pointing to the Constitution of 1824 for authority to do so, the santanistas called for the election of a new Congress, who drafted the basic tenets of a centralist government.
Enter Las Siete Leyes, or The Seven Laws. They went into effect 190 years ago today, snuffing out the Constitution of 1824. Here are the nuts and bolts of it:
- Established who was a Mexican citizen and who could vote. If you were a literate male who made 100 pesos (later 200 pesos) per year, you were a voting citizen. Male domestic workers could be citizens but could not vote.
- The President could shut down Congress and the Supreme Court.
- Members of Congress were to be appointed by government officials authorized to do so.
- Select officials would nominate 9 candidates for the presidency. The lower house of Congress would choose the President and VP from that pool.
- The Supreme Court would be selected in the same way.
- States would become departments of the central government with leadership selected by the President.
- Things would stay this way for at least six years.
The head of steam that had been building gradually in Mexico City now erupted suddenly in Texas. Lorenzo De Zavala took up residence in Texas “to live among free citizens.” Heeding Austin’s advice, the Consultation convened in November. The provisional government was born. Cos was ejected from San Antonio. Santa Anna began a winter march to take back Bexar.
You know the subsequent events well.
Siete Leyes was formally ratified by Santa Anna in late December 1835 before he departed for Texas. But he’d functionally had the powers of a dictator since the Plan of Cuernavaca.
Rather than tearing up the Constitution of 1824 outright, he called on it when it was convenient or necessary. He and his advisors used it to assemble a Congress that would dispose of it for centralism.
October 23, 1835 was the death knell of diplomacy between Texas and Mexico, even for Stephen F. Austin. Perhaps it’s not a day you need to add to your events calendar, but the road to Mexico’s centralism adds context to the ones you do.