ten years, and resulted finally
in the formation of a party whose motto was opposition to all secret
societies, and who derived their name of Anti-Masons from the party of
the same name then flourishing in the United States.

When the Escoces had so far lost ground in popular favor, as to be in
the greatest apprehension from their prosperous but imbittered rivals,
the Yorkinos, as a last resort, to save themselves, and to ruin the
hated organization, they _pronounced_ against all secret societies.
Suerez y Navarro, in his "Life of Santa Anna," thus relates the history
of these Secret Political Societies:

"After the lodges had been established, crowds ran to initiate
themselves into the mysteries of Free-Masonry; persons of all
conditions, from the opulent magnates down to the humblest artisans. In
the Scotch lodges were the Spaniards who were disaffected toward the
independence; Mexicans who had taken up arms against the original
insurgents through error or ignorance; those who obstinately declared
themselves in favor of calling the Spanish Bourbons to the Imperial
throne of Mexico; those who disliked the Federal system; the partisans
of the ancient regime; the enemies of all reform, even when reforms
were necessary, as the consequence of the independence. To this party
(after the overthrow of the Empire) also belonged the partisans of
Iturbide; those who were passionately devoted to monarchy; and the
privileged classes.

"In the assemblages of the Yorkinos were united all who were
republicans from conviction, and those who followed the popular
current--the mass of the people having devoted themselves to this
organization. It is enough to say, in order to mark the position of
both parties, that among the Yorkinos figured, in great numbers, those
that believed the name of _republican_ was not a mere imagination.

"Some individuals of both associations had the same object and the same
identical end, and only differed in the modes of making their
principles triumphant. A great number of persons, who co-operated in
the creation of the new order, had belonged to the Scotch order, and
had labored for the overthrow of Iturbide. They knew the secrets of the
Scotch party, their projects, their tendencies; and the desertion of
such furnished a thousand elements to the new order to make war upon
the party they had abandoned. When parties were fully organized and
assailing each other, the contest became terrible, and its conse