CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS.
VARIOUS CHANGES OF THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION.--PRESENT ORGANIZATION
OF THE NATIONAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS.--CONSTITUTION OF
1847.--LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIARY--NATIONAL AND
STATE.--JUDICIARY--ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE--CIVIL AND CRIMINAL
PROCESS--MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF
JUSTICE.--PRISONS--CRIME--ACCORDADA.--CONDITION OF
PRISONS.--STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL--GARROTTE.--MEXICAN
OPINIONS.
Since the downfall of Iturbide the body politic of Mexico has passed
through many stages of revolutionary and factious disease. Four
constitutions have been formed and adopted by the people or their
temporary rulers independently of the Bases de Tacubaya, under which
Santa Anna ruled despotically until the month of June, 1843. These are
the Federal Constitution of 1824; the Bases y Leyes Constitutionales,
or, Central Constitution of 1836; the Bases Organicas de la Republica
Mejicana of 1843, and the restored Federal Constitution, with amendments
by an _acta de reformas_, in 1847. Five great organic changes, in
twenty-six years, have thus continually swayed the people between
Federation and Centralism; and we may hope that, after all these vital
alterations, besides all the minor military _pronunciamientos_ or
_gritos_, which, in the intervals have vexed the public tranquillity,
the country has, at length settled down firmly upon the reliable basis
of a great but balanced confederacy.
The Constitution of 1847 creates a Federal Republic; and, with the
exception of the intolerant articles in regard to religion upon which we
have commented in the preceding chapter, it is a document worthy of
freemen who desire to avoid consolidation and are anxious to preserve
the distinct, responsible activity of their states. This instrument,
after indicating the subdivision of the whole territory into the states
heretofore enumerated in Chapter 1st, deposes the national legislative
power in a Congress formed of a house of representatives and a senate,
the representatives being chosen every two years by the citizens of the
states, in the ratio of one for every fifty thousand souls or for any
fraction beyond twenty-five thousand, while the senate is composed of
two members from each state, elected by the legislatures, one-third of
that body being renewable every two years. There are now one hundred and
forty deputies, each of whom receives a salary of three thousand
dollars; and sixty-three senators, whose yearly pay is three thousand
five hundred each.
The executive power resides in a president, who is eligible every four
years, and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of four years.
There is no vice president; and, in case of the death or perpetual
incompetency of the president, congress, or in its recess the council of
government, shall call upon the state legislatures to fill his place by
election. The ordinary and regular election of the chief magistrate, of
deputies, senators and ministers of the supreme court of justice, is to
be regulated by general laws, and may be either by the people directly
or by electoral colleges; but in these indirect elections no one can be
named, either as a primary or secondary elector, who holds a political
office or exercises civil, ecclesiastical, or military jurisdiction in
the district he represents. The salary of the president is thirty-six
thousand dollars a year. During the recess of the general congress a
council of government is to be constantly in existence, composed of one
half of the senate, one member being retained from each state. The
duties of this council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over
the constitution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary
sessions of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the
president or by its sole act. The cabinet consists of a minister of
foreign and domestic affairs; a minister of justice; a minister of
finance; a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual
salary of six thousand dollars.
Each state government is independent within its local jurisdiction, and,
like the federal government has, executive, legislative and judicial
powers. The law making power of each of these governments resides in a
legislature composed of the number of members which may be determined by
its separate constituency, all of whom shall be elected by the people
and removable at the time and in the manner they may think proper to
decree. The persons to whom the sovereign states confide their executive
power, can only exercise it for a time fixed by each respective state
constitution. The power and jurisdiction of the national judiciary are
amply defined so as to avoid conflict. The state judicial power is to be
exercised by the tribunals created or appointed by the state
constitutions, and all civil or criminal causes recognized by those
courts shall be conducted in them to a final hearing and to the
execution of the sentence. Every male person either born in the republic
or naturalized, who attains the age of twenty years, possesses the means
of honest livelihood, and has not been sentenced by legal process for
any infamous crime, is declared to be a citizen of Mexico, and enjoys
the right to vote, to petition, to meet others in the discussion of
public affairs and to belong to the national guard. The exercise of
these rights of citizenship may however be suspended in consequence of
confirmed intemperance, professional gambling, a vagabond life, the
assumption of religious orders, by legal interdict, in virtue of crimes
which cause loss of citizenship, and by inexcusable refusal to serve in
public employment when appointed by the people.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.
The federal constitution of 1824, introduced into Mexico, as we have
seen, two general orders of tribunals; those of a _federal_ or
_national_ character, and those of the _states_. The power of these
judiciaries was deposited in a supreme court, and in circuit and
district courts; and causes were taken from one to the other, by
appeals, or in other words, passed by grades from the lowest to the
highest, according to the nature of the transactions they involved. The
jurisdiction of these courts was of course very extensive; yet it was
not paramount or universal over all classes of Mexican society, inasmuch
as large numbers of Mexicans were exempted by _fueros_ or special
privileged jurisdictions, from the control of the constitutional courts.
The _fueros_ were chiefly those of the military and ecclesiastics. There
was a common military _fuero_ in civil and criminal matters, which
authorized the parties to have their causes tried before the commanding
generals, and, on appeals, before the supreme tribunal of War and
Marine, whilst there was another right of trial, or jurisdiction for
military misdemeanors, before the council of war of general officers.
There were, besides these, three special _fueros_ of war;--one of
artillery, one of engineers, and another of the active militia. The
ecclesiastical _fuero_, gave an appeal from the bishop to the
metropolitan, or from the archbishop to the nearest prelate;--if the
metropolitan commenced a cause, an appeal lay to the bishop who was his
nearest neighbor; and, on a third trial, to another neighboring
episcopate. Notwithstanding these military and ecclesiastical _fueros_
were permitted to exist by special favoritism after the republic was
formed, the Mexicans suppressed, after 1824, the _fueros_ of the
consulados and of the mineria, or the mercantile and mining tribunals,
both of which were sanctioned by experience or convenience, and whose
foundations had been laid in the best principles of jurisprudence. To
compensate, however, for the destruction of such useful institutions, it
was determined that, in the federal districts and territories, suits
growing out of mercantile transactions should be decided, in the first
instance, by the "Alcaldes" or judges _de letras_, with whom were
associated two colleagues proposed by the parties, and from whom an
appeal might be taken to the supreme court. No special tribunal was
created for the mining interests. In the federal districts and
territories a primary tribunal was constituted for the trial of
culprits, before an Alcalde and two Regidores; from whom an appeal lay
to another _Alcalde_ or _Regidor_ and two associates, one of whom was
named by the Syndic, and the other by the criminal. This correctional
police, which has since been somewhat modified, disposed summarily of
the greater part of malefactors in Mexico, and was empowered to sentence
to the extent of six years imprisonment. The central constitution of
1836 modified this judicial system, and constituted judges _de
partido_,--_Jueces Departamentales_, and a supreme court. The federal
jurisdiction was confined to admirality cases, fiscal transactions, and
causes which concerned the public functionaries, while the military and
ecclesiastical tribunals were left untouched.
Santa Anna during his last administration suppressed the district and
circuit judiciary, and extended the jurisdiction of the common
tribunals. But he restored the mercantile and mining "_fueros_" which
were loudly demanded by public opinion. One of the few really good and
useful provisions of the Spanish constitution has always been preserved
in all the changes of Mexican legislation. This is the _judgment of
conciliation_, by which litigant parties were prohibited from
originating an action until they procured a certificate from an
Alcalde,--who was not a lawyer,--that a judgment by arbitration or
conciliation had failed before him on trial. This is an admirable device
and terminates multitudes of law suits in Mexico when men fear to
encounter the costs and procrastination of the courts. It might be
successfully grafted on our own system of tribunals, where it would
doubtless benefit the clients though it might impair the professional
revenue of the counsellors.
By the readoption of the federal constitution of 1824, in the year 1847,
the judicial system was brought back from the changes of 1836 and 1843
to its former condition. The laws of Mexico, founded upon the old
Spanish colonial legislation, and improved, in some measure, by the
modification of state and national legislatures under the republic,
constitute a vast and chaotic mass of principles, commentaries and
decisions, which require a life time of studious toil to master and
expound. The mixture of constitutional tribunals and specially
privileged jurisdictions, under the system of _fueros_,--created a
complication of judicial functions, which greatly narrowed the chances
of a pure administration of law. The Mexican advocates, among whom many
are distinguished for their learning and studious habits, are not, when
considered as a professional body, comparable, either in information or
ability, to their British, French, German or American brethren. The
cumbrous formalities of Spanish law form a prolific hot-bed of special
pleading, chicanery, and delay. A Mexican law suit is a proverb of
procrastination. There are cases in Mexico in which the first paper was
filed more than a hundred years ago. The suitor is not only impeded by
every device that cunning and exaction can throw in his way, but there
is cause to believe that the path of justice is sometimes impeded by the
barrier of a bribe. If a Mexican lawyer is unable to force his cause to
a final verdict, he is at least always prepared to assign plausible
reasons for the tedious delay with which it halts and lingers in the
forums. Nor is the value of legal costs unknown in Mexico, either by
judges, notaries, or clerks. In proportion as the litigants are wealthy,
or as it is necessary that their cause should be speedily decided, so
are the greedy officials slow in preparing it for a final hearing and
decree. The maxim in Mexico is--"_mas vale una mala composicion que un
buen pleito_,"--a bad compromise is better than a good law suit. "There
are men,"--said a member of the Mexican cabinet to congress, in
1830,--"who exercise the right of life and death over their equals, whom
the arm of justice does not venture to reach; and, thus, as the bonds of
society are effectually dissolved, individuals owe security, rather to
their personal power, than to the protection they have a right to expect
from the laws." There are many criminals throughout the republic who
have long offended with impunity while every species of chicanery has
been taken advantage of to secure their life and liberty. Witnesses are
sometimes intimidated, false oaths sworn, and terrible menaces whispered
in the ears of the timid; nor are these base threats always left
unexecuted if the victim is finally condemned and punished.
* * * * *
In the space of six months, during the end of 1841 and beginning of
1842, several horrible assassinations were perpetrated in Mexico. An
old Spanish porter was slain and cruelly mutilated in his dwelling, in
the capital. So scandalous a deed excited universal indignation. The
judicial authorities of the capital ordered rigorous proceedings against
the culprit, but, after the case had been tried, and the murderer
condemned to lose his life, he was pardoned in consequence of a threat
that he would make important or disagreeable revelations if the sentence
were executed. Another Spaniard,--a planter of standing in his
district,--was murdered by the servants of a neighboring _haciendado_,
with whom he had a dispute in regard to water-rights. The cause was
tried, and the instigator and his tools were imprisoned. Yet the arm of
justice was withheld by intrigue and corruption. Another Spanish
planter, in the south,--a physician by profession, and a man incapable
of injuring any one,--was foully killed by a band of Indians, nine of
whom were shot for the crime. These miserable wretches had been but the
instruments of higher criminals who were well known to the public,
nevertheless they were too powerful to be made responsible for their
shameful crime. At Tacubaya, in 1842, an English gentleman and his wife,
whilst indulging in an evening walk were assassinated and brutally
mutilated. But justice was for a long time foiled in its retributive
efforts. Nor is it likely that the culprits would ever have expiated
their guilt on the scaffold had not the foreign population loudly
demanded, and liberally paid for their conviction. In 1839, the Mexican
judges gave a striking example of firmness in the execution of a capital
sentence, decreed in a case which lasted four years against a colonel of
the army and his companions. It was proved that this scoundrel whilst
residing in the national palace as one of the aid-de-camps of the
president, had been the chief of a band of robbers who committed their
offences not only on the highway, but in the metropolis itself. The
honorable result in this case was chiefly owing to the firmness of the
attorney general, who resisted the threats and the bribes of the
criminal's powerful friends. Yet he, probably, paid for his firmness
with his life, for he died shortly after the execution, and there is
reason to believe, that he perished by foul means. During the
administration of Santa Anna in 1842 and 1843, the most energetic
efforts were made to free the country and the public roads, from the
hordes of robbers that thronged them. The highway from Vera Cruz to
Mexico was filled with thieves, whose favorite haunts were in the
neighborhoods of Perote and Puebla, within the hearing of whose
sentinels they almost daily exercised their vocation upon travellers in
the diligence. Santa Anna placed large bodies of cavalry on the route
as soon as he came to power, and numerous arrests were made which were
followed by the prompt conviction and execution of the bandits. No mercy
was shown. The robbers were _garroted_, in pairs, in the towns along the
road and in the capital; and thousands turned out morning after morning
to witness the tragic end of these merciless wretches. For a short time
the road was free; but, in a few months, new bands replaced the executed
robbers, and, since the war with the United States, the main highway of
Mexico has become as insecure as of old.
PRISONS--CRIME.
The prisons of the city of Mexico are in a wretched condition, and,
although it has often been proposed to introduce some of the modern
penitentiary systems of Europe and the United States, we are not aware
that any thing has been done to effect this desirable end. The ACCORDADA
is the common prison of Mexico. In front of one of its wings, at a low
window protected by stout iron bars, are laid, every morning, the dead
bodies that have been found throughout the city during the night. Every
day these frightful evidences of murder or violent death are exposed to
the gaze of citizens as they pass onward towards the western limits of
the city. Sometimes five dead bodies have been seen at one time in this
Morgue of Mexico;--and, on days succeeding festivals, the number is
sometimes largely augmented. These unfortunate wretches are the victims
of quarrels, or sudden fights;--and the front of the deadly window is
commonly crowded with women and children--the relatives of the victims
who come thither to seek after or to gaze their last on friend, father
or husband.
Loathsome as is this exhibition on the exterior of the Accordada, the
interior of this edifice is scarcely less frightful. Like all large
Spanish edifices it is quadrangular. A strong military guard watches the
gate, and a gloomy stairway leads to the second story, whose entrance is
guarded by a massive portal. Inside of this, a lofty room is filled with
the prison officers and a crowd of subalterns engaged in writing,
talking, smoking and walking, whilst the clank of chains, the shouts of
prisoners and the constant din of a disorderly establishment, add to the
disgusting sounds and demeanor within.
Passing through several iron and wood barred gates, you enter a lofty
corridor, running around a quadrangular court-yard, in the centre of
which, below, is a fountain of troubled water. The whole of this area is
filled with human beings,--the great congress of Mexican crime,--mixed
and mingling, like a hill of busy ants swarming from their sandy
caverns. Some are stripped and bathing in the fountain;--some are
fighting in a corner;--some making baskets in another. In one place a
crowd is gathered around a witty story-teller, relating the adventures
of his rascally life. In another, a group is engaged in weaving with a
handloom. Robbers, murderers, thieves, ravishers, felons of every
description, and vagabonds of every grade or aspect, are crammed within
this dismal court-yard; and, almost free from discipline or moral
restraint, form, perhaps, the most splendid school of misdemeanor and
villany on the American continent.
Below,--within the corridor of the second story,--another class of
criminals is kept; and yet, even here, men under sentence of death, are
pointed out who are still permitted to go about without restraint.
In one corner of the quadrangle is the chapel, where convicts for
capital offences are condemned to solitude and penance, during the
_three_ last days of their miserable life; and, at a certain hour, it is
usual for all the prisoners to gather in front of the door and chant a
hymn for the victim of the laws. It is a solemn service of crime for
crime.
The women are not generally seen in the Accordada, but their condition
is but little better than that of the males. About one hundred of the
men, chained in pairs like galley slaves, are driven daily, under a
strong guard, into the streets as scavengers; and it seems to be the
chief idea of the utility of prisons in Mexico, to support this class of
coerced laborers.
There can be no apology, at this period of general enlightenment in the
world, for such disgraceful exhibitions of the congregated vice of a
country or capital. Punishments, or rather incarceration or labor on the
streets, is in reality no sacrifice, because public exhibition deadens
the felon's shame, inasmuch as such inflictions cannot become
punishments, under any circumstances of a _lepero's_ life. Indeed, what
_object_ in existence can the Mexican _lepero_ propose to himself? His
day is one of precarious labor and income;--he thieves;--he has no
regular home, or if he has, it is some miserable hovel of earth and mud,
where his wife and children crawl about with scarce the instinct of
beavers. His food and clothing are scant and miserable. He is without
education or prospect of social improvement. He belongs to a class that
does not rise, for his class is ostracised by hereditary public opinion.
He dulls his sense of present misery by intoxicating drinks. His quick
temper stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep, after a debauch, is
unrefreshing, and he only wakes to encounter another day of uncertainty
and wickedness. What, then, is the value of life to him, or one like
him? Why toil? Why not steal? What shame has he? Is the prison, _with
certainty of food_, a greater punishment than the free air with
_uncertainty_? On the contrary, he regards it as a lighter punishment,
whilst he is altogether insensible to its moral degradation.
Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long as its
prison is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home to so large
a portion of its outcasts.[38]
STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL, 1826--1836--1842.
The following table exhibits the condition of the public prisons of
Mexico in 1826.
Inmates on the 31st Dec., 1825, 553
{For Homicides and their accomplices, 151}
Entered { " Robbery, " " " 1,090}
in 1826. { " Rioting and bearing arms, 2,011} 4,750
{ " Incontinence (incontinencia,) 543}
{ " Various crimes, 955}
-----
Total number of persons, 5,303
=====
Of these there were
Released, 4,155}
Sentenced to death by garrotte, 7}
" to prison for terms, 67}
" to public works, 159} 4,628
" to house of correction, 3}
" to service of the prison, 229}
" chained at various places, 8}
Remaining on the 31st December, 1826, 675
MILITARY TRIALS AND JUDGMENTS IN 1826.
Entered prison, to be judged by military tribunals, 462
Sentenced to punishment, 8}
" to prison, 48}
" to military service, 5}
" to public works, 55}
" to house of correction, 6} 362
Liberated, 212}
Escaped, 12}
Died 2}
Delivered to the ordinary tribunals, 14}
----
Remaining at end of 1826 100
A Mexican statistical bulletin, presents the following picture of the
criminal condition of the federal district, for the 8 first months of
the year 1836. During this period there were 255 _arrests_; 53 were
immediately released and 202 remained in prison. These were divided as
follows:
Homicide, 5
Wounding severely, 30
Robbery, 8
Attempt to rob, 12
Suspected of robbery, 30
Rioting, 37
Incontinence, 4
Counterfeiting money, 15
Forgery of documents, 1
Drunkenness, 17
Quarreling, 41
Resistance of authority. 2
---
Total, 202
which would give for the whole twelve months, at the same rate, 269 for
the number retained.
In this statement, fifteen individuals are reported as being imprisoned
for counterfeiting coin, yet it is notorious that, at this epoch, all
Mexico was converted into a manufactory of false money, for the country
was deluged with copper. It is boldly alleged that deputies, generals,
and merchants, participated in this scandalous and bold speculation.
Santa Anna, in order to check this national evil, decreed that
counterfeiting should be considered a _military crime_, and the
offenders made liable to the summary and severe trials which usually
take place when soldiers are both judges and jurymen.
* * * * *
The subjoined statistics bring these statements nearer our own period,
and afford means of comparison with antecedent dates:
IMPRISONMENTS IN THE CITY OF MEXICO FOR 1842.
In the first 6 months of 1842, there were imprisoned in
the city of Mexico, 3,197 men.
In the first 6 months of 1842, " " " 1,427 women.
In the second 6 months of 1842, " " " 2,858 men.
In the second 6 months of 1842, " " " 1,379 women.
-----
Imprisonment of both sexes this year, 8,861
We will not swell these tables by specifying each of the crimes for
which these 8861 individuals were incarcerated; but will merely note the
chief violations of law and the number of the respective offenders:
Men. Women. Total.
Robbery, 1,500 470 1970
Prostitution, adultry, bigamy, sodomy and incest, 312 179 491
Quarreling, wounding, 2,129 1,140 3,233
Rioting and bearing arms, 612 444 1,056
Homicide and attempt at ditto, and robbery and
homicide, 70 17 87
Rape and incontinence, 65 21 86
Forgery, 7 1 8
Gambling, 3 0 3
----
Total, 6934
High grades of crime, 6934
Misdemeanors, 1927
----
Total, 8861
====
$4,121 were expended for salaries in the Acordada; and $30,232 for the
maintenance of the prisoners. It should be stated, moreover that a large
number of the above criminals were committed and punished for throwing
vitriol on the dress and faces of persons in the street;--that 113 dead
bodies were found;--894 individuals sent to hospitals; and 17 executed
by the _garrotte_. The culprit who is sentenced to this mode of
expiating his crime is seated in a chair on the scaffold, whilst his
neck is embraced by an iron collar which may be contracted by a screw. A
sudden and rapid turn of the lever drives a sharp point through the
spinal marrow at the moment that the band closes around the throat and
strangles the victim.
NOTE.--In confirmation of all we have said in this chapter in
regard to the administration and condition of law in Mexico, and in
relation to the army, we refer to an able pamphlet published in
that country, in 1848, entitled "_Consideraciones sobre la
Situacion Politica y Social de la Republica Mejicaen el ano 1847_,"
written, we understand, by Don Francisco Lerdo. It presents a dark
picture of the country at that epoch; but the author's purpose was
to unmask the social and political diseases of his country, and his
patriotic task was the more needed because that country was on the
brink of ruin from war.
It is to be especially noted with commendation that the Mexicans
have recently become the severest critics not only of their
institutions but of themselves. The miserable, boasting
spirit,--the taste for grandiloquent proclamations,--the
indiscriminate laudation of Mexican virtue, talent, science, honor,
valor, and justice, which filled the papers and pamphlets of the
nation, but which were never sustained when the Mexicans came in
contact either with highly cultivated foreigners or were opposed by
foreign arms, have all been greatly qualified since the war. The
combined lessons of her unsparing but truthful satirists and of her
invading enemies, will not be lost on a people really sensible and
sensitive, though bewildered for more than a quarter of a century
during which bombast served for glory or consolation when anarchy
was not altogether triumphant. In confirmation of this growing
spirit of self-examination with a view to national reform, we would
also refer to the discreet and able memoir of Don Luis G. Cuevas,
minister of foreign and domestic relations, read by him before the
Chamber of Deputies, on the 5th of January, 1849.