been followed by the turmoil and bloodshed of the rebellion, and that,
in turn, was succeeded by the anarchy of a distracted republic.
Revolution has followed revolution so rapidly since then, that the
historian, at a loss to discover their causes, can scarcely detect
their pretexts. For twenty years past we have been so accustomed to hear
of a new military outbreak in Mexico that the familiarized act seems to
be only the legitimate order of constitutional change. Passion,
ambition, turbulence, avarice, and superstition, have so devoured the
country, that during the whole of this period, Mexico, whilst presenting
to foreign nations, the external appearance of nationality, has, in
fact, at home, scarcely ever enjoyed the benefit of a real or stable
government that could make an impression upon the character of the
people or their rulers. It is true that, at first, she sought to adopt
our federal system; but the original difference between the colonial
condition of things in the two countries, made the operation of it
almost impossible. The British provinces of North America, with their
ancient and separate governments, very naturally united in a federation
for national purposes, whilst they retained their freedom and laws as
independent States. But the viceroyalty of Mexico, when it
revolutionized its government, was forced to reverse our system,--to
destroy the original central power, and, subsequently to divide the
territory into departments, or states. Until the year 1824, nothing of
this kind existed in Mexico. The whole country from the Sabine to its
utmost southern limit, was under the central rule of a viceroy, with the
same laws, religion, priests, judges, and civil as well as military
authorities. The constitution of 1824, for the first time broke up the
consolidated nation into nineteen states, and then, by the same
legislative act, recomposed them in a federative union. The
constitutions of these nineteen states, consequently, were creative of
differences that never existed before, and the unity of power, will, and
action, which previously existed was destroyed forever. This was,
naturally the origin of jealousies, parties, and sectional feeling; and
the result was, that the revenues of the country became wasted whilst
their collection was impeded, and that a people unused to freedom and
chiefly composed of illiterate _creoles_, were confounded by a scheme of
government whose machinery was too intricate.[20]