Ignacio Comonfort
Ignacio Gregorio Comonfort de los Ríos, also known as Ignacio Comonfort, was a Mexican politician and soldier who was also president during La Reforma.
He played a leading role in the liberal movement under the Plan of Ayutla to overthrow the dictatorship of Santa Anna in 1855; he then served in the cabinet of the new president, Juan Álvarez. Comonfort was a moderate liberal and assumed the presidency when Álvarez stepped down after only a few months. The Constitution of 1857 was drafted during his presidency, incorporating changes enacted in individual laws of the Liberal Reform. The constitution was met with opposition from conservatives as its forceful anticlerical provisions undermined the economic power and privileged status of the Catholic Church as an institution. Most notably the Lerdo law stripped the Church's ability to hold property. The law also forced the breakup of communal land holdings of indigenous communities, which enabled them to resist integration economically and culturally. The controversy was further inflamed when the government mandated that all civil servants take an oath to uphold the new constitution, which left Catholic public servants with the choice between either keeping their jobs or being excommunicated.
Comonfort considered the anticlerical articles of the constitution too radical, likely to provoke a violent reaction. He also objected to the deliberate weakening of the power of the executive branch of government by empowering the legislative branch. He had been dealing with revolts since the beginning of his administration and the new constitution left the president powerless to act. Hoping to reach compromise with the conservatives and other opponents of the constitution, he joined the Plan of Tacubaya, nullifying the constitution in December 1857. Congress was dissolved and Comonfort remained as president, only to be completely abandoned by his liberal allies. He backed out of the plan and resigned from the presidency. He was succeeded by the president of the Supreme Court, Benito Juárez. Comonfort went into exile as the bloody Reform War broke out, a civil war the conservatives lost in 1861. Comonfort returned to the country in 1862 to fight against the invasion by France that Mexican conservatives supported. Comonfort was killed in action in defense of the Republic on 13 November 1863.
Early life
Ignacio Comonfort was born in Puebla on 12 March 1812. His parents were lieutenant colonel Mariano Comonfort and Maria Guadalupe de los Rios. At the age of 14, he began his studies at the Carolino College in Puebla, a school run by Jesuits. He was twenty years old in 1832 when he took part in the liberal revolt which overthrew President Anastasio Bustamante and saw action at San Agustin del Palmar and Puebla. During the subsequent Siege of Mexico City, he was already a captain of the cavalry and fought at Tacubaya, Casas Blancas, Zumpango, San Lorenzo, and Posadas, and gave proof of his great military talent until Bustamante was overthrown and the Zavaleta Accords put an end to the revolution. He was named military commander of Izúcar de Matamoros.Centralist Republic of Mexico
When General Mariano Arista as part of a conservative revolt against the administration of Valentín Gómez Farías besieged Puebla with a vastly superior force, Comonfort defended one of its most exposed points. Arista was repulsed and Comonfort returned to his job as a military commander. In 1834, he returned to defend Puebla against the siege of General Guadalupe Victoria but lost. The victorious conservatives would turn the First Mexican Republic into the Centralist Republic of Mexico Comonfort left the city and returned to his family, where he remained for four years until he was named prefect and military commander of Tlapa in which he made many material improvements. He also had to deal with many southern indigenous revolts within his jurisdiction, including one case in which Comonfort, with twenty-four troops almost without ammunition, sustained a siege against two thousand indigenous troops.Involvement in politics
He was a deputy in Congress in 1842 and 1846. The 1842 Congress was dissolved by Santa Anna and the one in 1846 by Mariano Paredes. Comonfort took part in the revolt against the Paredes government in late 1846, during the early stages of the Mexican–American War which restored the federalist Constitution of 1824. He was elected to the presidency of the third ayuntamiento in the capital and was made prefect of western State of Mexico. He participated in the Mexican–American War, occupying the dangerous position of assistant to the commander-in-chief, and was part of the congress that met at Querétaro after the U.S. Army took the capital. He was elected senator the following year in 1848, and later made a customs official in the port of Acapulco, although he was removed from this position during the last dictatorship of Santa Anna in 1854.Plan of Ayutla
Comonfort's liberal sympathies, military office, and presence in the South would lead him to play a key role in the Plan of Ayutla, unifying liberal opposition to Santa Anna, formulated by the dissident on 1 March 1854. The plan proclaimed a revolutionary program in the town of Ayutla, Guerrero, condemning the dictatorship of Santa Anna, attacking measures such as military conscription, and the selling of the Mesilla valley to the U.S., known there as the Gadsden Purchase. The plan declared Santa Anna deposed and called for the convocation of a new president and a representative assembly to reorganize the government. The plan was ratified at Acapulco by Colonel Comonfort, among others, with some amendments, including a provision allowing changes to be made in accordance with the national will. Juan Álvarez was chosen as head of the movement.Comonfort, in charge of the fortress of Acapulco, resisted a siege by Santa Anna who appeared on 20 April 1854, but soon had to retreat. During the revolution, Comonfort went on an important mission abroad to gain war materiel. Comonfort later established his base of operations in Michoacan and prepared to march on Guadalajara. After months of fighting, Santa Anna resigned in August 1855, but Comonfort refused to recognize his government-appointed successor Martin Carrera, whom he viewed as an effort by the remainders of the administration to coopt the revolution. Comonfort entered Guadalajara on 22 August 1855 and published a circular arguing that only Juan Álvarez could be recognized as the leader of the revolution. By September, Comonfort was at Lagos conferring with the independent revolutionary leaders and Manuel Doblado, effecting their recognition of Álvarez's leadership. Álvarez assumed the presidency in August.
Role in Alvarez administration
Minister of War
President Alvarez proceeded to form a cabinet and chose Ignacio Comonfort as Minister of War. Melchor Ocampo was made Minister of Relations, Guillermo Prieto was made Minister of the Treasury, and Benito Juarez of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs. Miguel Lerdo de Tejada was made Minister of Development.On 16 October, a call was made for a congress to assemble at Dolores Hidalgo in February 1856, to organize the nation under the republican, democratic, and representative form, based upon a decree dating back to the - in 1841. Alvarez would step down before this date, and it was Comonfort who was destined to be president during that fateful session.
Due to the disorder, the military had caused throughout Mexican history, the idea began to be floated in the cabinet of dissolving the military and rebuilding it from the ground. Ocampo and Juarez were in favor while Comonfort was against, wishing instead to reform the military class, but not destroy it. This was just one example of the divisions that existed within the cabinet and Comonfort was publicly perceived as more moderate than his fellow ministers.
Alvarez, who had meanwhile been governing from Cuernavaca, now moved himself and his troops to Mexico City. The filth and brutality of his troops, known as 'pintos', caused general disgust and alarm and led to rumors that Alvarez would be overthrown in favor of Comonfort.
Ley Juárez
Álvarez's cabinet, which included the progressive state governors Benito Juárez and Melchor Ocampo, as well as the writer Guillermo Prieto, represented a new generation of liberals that had come of age since independence in 1821 and intended to pass unprecedented reforms in a period which began with the Álvarez administration and would eventually come to be known as the Liberal Reform. The reforms culminated in a new constitution in 1857, and open conflict with its opponents that did not entirely end until 1867.They began with the, which passed on 22 November 1855. Ecclesiastical courts were stripped of their right to judge civil law cases involving the Catholic clergy. They were allowed to continue judging clergy under canon law. Opponents of the measure accused government deputies of hypocrisy for claiming to support equality before the law while maintaining their immunity.
The Archbishop protested against the measure and suggested that the question of the ecclesiastical fuero should be submitted to the pope, a suggestion the government rejected. The conservative generals Santa Anna and Blanco were officially stripped of their ranks and the liberals Santos Degollado and Moreno were commissioned as generals. Comonfort was now threatening to resign and only keep the office of general in chief. Álvarez directed his secretaries to lay before him proposals on how to proceed. He also directed his council to prepare a draft of the statute. Meanwhile, the conservatives began to favor the moderate Comonfort for the presidency.
Assumption of the Presidency
Alvarez seriously considered stepping down from the presidency and handing it over to Comonfort, but the latter's enemies urged Alvarez to stay in office. On 4 December, Alvarez summoned a meeting of the most prominent members of the Liberal party for advice on how to proceed. He wavered on the matter and the following day accepted the resignation of his entire ministry and summoned Luis de la Rosa to organize another. The portfolios would remain empty for the rest of Alvarez's presidency.In Guanajuato, Manuel Doblado pronounced against the government of Juan Alvarez on 6 December, holding up the moderate Ignacio Comonfort as the new president. His proclamation accused Alvarez of attacking religion, the one thing that bound Mexicans together. This proved redundant, as before news of the revolt even reached the capital, the elderly President Alvarez, who was not enjoying administrative tasks or the climate of Mexico City, decided to step down and announced this on 8 December. Alvarez met with Comonfort and officially transferred the presidency to him on 11 December at four o'clock in the afternoon.