Order nullifying contracts of the Iglesias government, as well as those of President Lerdo., December 15, 1876

Order nullifying contracts of the Iglesias government, as well as those of President Lerdo.

[From The Two Republics, Mexico, Saturday, December 23, 1876.]

circular.

The citizen-general, second in command of the national constitutional army, provisionally in charge of the executive department of the union, has been pleased to direct, with the unanimous concurrence of the council of ministers, that your attention be called, which I now call, to the dispositions contained in the decrees of August 20 and September 26 last, issued in Oaxaca, which were reproduced in the first number of the Diario Oficial.

In said decrees, with the foresight natural in a regenerating movement, which has not had and does not have any object but to save the rights of the people, as much with relation to individual rights, Constantly encroached on by the former administration, as with respect to the common interests of the nation, which were neglected and sacrificed, all contracts made by Mr. Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada were declared null, void, and without value and the civil and criminal responsibility of all individuals who should intervene in any character whatever in said contracts was established, adding various dispositions that would in a measure prevent the serious damages that could be done and unfortunately were done by the said administration.

But said dispositions would be completely eluded, if, confining itself to the personnel of the administration that has disappeared, the government should fail to apply them to those persons who, although putting on new garments, are the same responsible persons, the same agents and functionaries against whom the people are contending, and of whom they demand reparation for the damages they have caused and continue to cause.

The same individuals who, during many years of service in high posts, had not the spirit to demand of the tyrant the rights of Mexicans and respect for the constitution, think the time has now arrived for a change of colors, and hold themselves up to the nation as the representatives and depositaries of the law, which, in the times of trial, did not merit from them the most insignificant effort or sacrifice.

In order to avoid a falsification, so illy concealed, which would postpone for a long time the satisfaction demanded by the people, the executive of the union directs that the dispositions contained in the decrees mentioned in the beginning of this circular be applied to the agents of the shadow of a government that was improvised for a few days in the city of Guanajuato, without any exception whatever of persons, as all of them are continuing the work of the downfallen tyrant, and by act are demonstrating that their principal object is to thwart the regeneration of the republic that could have been and should have been considered as assured after the triumph of the armed people in many combats over their gratuitous and implacable enemies.

Which I have the honor to communicate to you, in order that it may be applied and duly complied with.

Liberty in the constitution.