detained one day at the
port, while the government considered the expediency of permitting him
to visit the capital. Apartments were prepared for him at our hotel,
but he was taken to the house of the secretary of war, ostensibly to
save him from insult and violence by the populace, who were represented
as highly excited against Mexico, but in reality to prevent him from
holding communication with the partisans in favour of reunion. Great
dissensions had grown up. The revolution had been almost unanimous, but
two years of quasi independence bad produced a great change of feeling.
The rich complained of profligate expenditures, merchants of the
breaking up of trade by the closing of the Mexican ports, and while
many asked what they had gained by a separation, a strong "independent"
party was more clamorous than ever for breaking the last link that
bound them to Mexico.

I was in the Senate Chamber when the ultimatum of Santa Ana was read. A
smile of derision flitted over the faces of senators, and it was
manifest that the terms would not be accepted, yet no man rose to offer
a declaration of independence. In the lobby, however, an open threat
was made to proclaim it _viva voce_ in the plaza on the coming Sunday,
and at the mouth of the cannon. The condition of the state was pitiable
in the extreme. It was a melancholy comment upon republican government,
and the most melancholy feature was that this condition did not proceed
from the ignorant and uneducated masses. The Indians were all quiet,
and, though doomed to fight the battles, knew nothing of the questions
involved. It is my firm conviction that the constant and unceasing
convulsions of the southern republics more than from any other cause
grow out of the non-recognition or the violation of that great saving
principle known among us as state rights. The general government aims
constantly at dominion over the states. Far removed by position,
ignorant of the wants of the people, and regardless of their feelings,
it sends from the capital its military commandant, places him above the
local authorities, cripples the strength of the state, and drains its
coffers to support a strong, consolidated power. Such were the
circumstances which had placed Yucatan in arms against the general
government, and such, ere this, might have been the condition of our
own republic, but for the triumphant assertion of the great republican
principle that the states are sovereign, and their r