Benito Juárez

Valentin Gómez Farías, who instigated a liberal reform in 1833, which Juárez supported

Juárez's experiences in political life in Oaxaca were crucial to his later success as a leader. His political affiliation with liberalism developed at the Institute of Arts and Science and his ability to rise in Oaxaca state politics was due to the lack of an entrenched political class of criollos, Mexicans of European descent. The relative openness of the system allowed him and other newcomers to enter politics and gain patronage.[14] He developed a political base and gained an understanding of political maneuvering.

Juárez's graduated as a lawyer in 1834 and set up a law practice. As a lawyer, Juárez took cases of indigenous villagers. Community members of Loxicha, Oaxaca hired him for their denunciation of a priest, whom they accused of abuses. He did not win the case, and in fact was thrown into jail along with community members, "thanks to the collusion between Church and the state," writing later that it "strengthened in me the goal of working constantly to destroy the pernicious power of the privileged classes."[15] Juárez and other liberals saw equality before the law as a transformative principle for Mexico, which even in the post-independence era accorded special privileges to the Roman Catholic Church and the army, and continued some protections for indigenous communities.

He served as a civil judge in 1841, he became part of the Oaxaca state government, led by liberal governor Antonio León (1841–1845).[16] He became a prosecutor in the Oaxaca state court and was elected to the state legislature in 1845. Juárez was subsequently elected to the federal legislature, where he supported Valentín Gómez Farías, who instigated liberal reforms including limitations on the power of the Catholic Church. With the return to the presidency of Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1847, Juárez returned to his practice in Oaxaca.[6][17] He was elected governor of the state of Oaxaca, serving from 1847 to 1852. During his tenure as governor, Juárez supported the war effort against the U.S. in the Mexican–American War. Recognizing that the war was lost, he refused Santa Anna's request to regroup and raise new forces. This, as well as his objections to the corrupt military dictatorship of Santa Anna, resulted in his going into exile in New Orleans in 1853.

Melchor Ocampo, radical liberal whom Juárez met in their New Orleans exile

Like most liberals, Juárez looked to the U.S. as the model for Mexico, while conservatives looked to Europe, especially France and Britain.[18] When Santa Anna returned to power in 1853, many liberals went into exile in the U.S., including Juárez. In New Orleans Juárez was brought into a multifaceted and international new milieu. His day job was as a cigar maker in one of the city's factories.[19][20] His wife remained in Mexico with their children, and were looked after by liberal loyalists, Ignacio Mejía and Domingo Castro.[21] Since he had not enriched himself as governor of Oaxaca, both Juárez and his wife had economic hardships, but she managed to send him some of her own money there to help with his support.[22] Other Santa Anna opponents were also in exile there, including Melchor Ocampo of Michoacán, who was fiercely anticlerical.[23] The year and a half Juárez spent in New Orleans (1853–55) were important to Juárez's and other exiles' political formation. "They [the liberals] might never have met had not misfortune lumped them in the infested climate of New Orleans."[24]. The liberal exiles plotted a return to Mexico and the overthrow of Santa Anna. In 1854, Juárez helped draft the liberals' Plan of Ayutla, a document calling for Santa Anna's being deposed and for a convention to draft a new constitution. Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna was forced to resign in 1855.

Juárez's time in New Orleans broadened his horizons, meeting not just fellow exile Mexican liberals, but also Cuban separatist exile, Pedro Santacicilia, who was later to marry Juárez's oldest child. Cuba was still a Spanish colony, not gaining its independence until 1898, and Cuban nationalists sought independence. For Mexico, the existence of a Spanish colony geographically close to Mexico was a potential threat. It had been the springboard for Spain's unsuccessful attempt to reconquer Mexico. Santacicilia and his fellow Cuban business partner Domingo de Goicuría were important to the Mexican liberal cause, sending arms to Guerrero and acting on liberals' behalf in Veracruz in the War of the Reform. During the French Intervention (1862–67) Santacilia helped Juárez's wife and children in their New York exile.[25]

Juan Álvarez

Ignacio Comonfort

With Santa Anna's resignation, Juárez returned to Mexico from his exile in the U.S. and became part of the activist puro (pure) faction of Liberals. They formed a provisional government under General Juan Álvarez, the strong man of Guerrero state, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma, or Liberal Reform. Juárez served as Minister of Justice and ecclesiastical affairs. During this time, he drafted the law named after him, the Juárez Law, which declared all citizens equal before the law, and restricted the privileges (fueros) of the Catholic Church and the Mexican army. President Álvarez signed the draft into law in 1855.[26]

The Reform laws curtailed the power of the Catholic Church, under the Lerdo law forcing the sale of Church land as well as those of indigenous communities, and restricting the military. They tried to create a modern civil society and capitalist economy based on the model of the United States. The Ley Juárez was subsequently incorporated into the Mexican Constitution of 1857. Juárez had no role in drafting the constitution, since he had returned to Oaxaca, where he served again as governor.[26]

The new liberal Constitution of 1857 was promulgated in February and the new president, Ignacio Comonfort, who appointed Juárez as Minister of Government in November 1857. He was elected as President of the Supreme Court of Justice, an office that virtually put its holder as the successor to the President of the Republic.[26]

Juárez saved by Guillermo Prieto from assassination by Conservatives, 13 March 1858

Conservatives rejected the new constitution, promulgated on 11 March 1857, and sought to overturn it. Led by General Félix María Zuloaga, Conservatives sought to nullify the constitution and issued the Plan of Tacubaya on 17 December 1857. Recently elected president, Ignacio Comonfort, a moderate Liberal, saw flaws in the constitution, which gave most power to Mexican states and further curtailed the power of the executive by making Congress superior to it. Comonfort signed onto the Conservatives' plan, which called for nullifying the constitution, drafting a new constitution, and leaving Comonfort as president with extraordinary powers in the interim. Comonfort "felt that by temporarily assuming dictatorial powers he could hold the extremists on both sides in check and pursue a middle course, always his object. It soon became obvious that such an assumption was mere wishful thinking."[27] Juárez, Ignacio Olvera, and many other liberal deputies and ministers were arrested. For the conservatives, these actions did not go far enough, and on 11 January 1858, Zuloaga demanded Comonfort's resignation. Comonfort re-established the Congress, and liberated all prisoners including Juárez, before resigning as president. The conservative forces proclaimed Zuloaga as president on 21 January 1858.

Under the terms of the 1857 Constitution, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice became interim President of Mexico until a new election could be held. With Comonfort's resignation, Juárez was acknowledged as president by liberals on 15 January 1858 and assumed leadership of the Liberal side of the civil war known as the War of the Reform (Guerra de Reforma), (1858–61). During this war, Mexico had rival governments of the liberals under Juárez, in a constitutional succession, and the conservatives under Félix María Zuloaga. The contest would be decided on the field of battle. With the conservatives in control of Mexico City, Juárez and his government evacuated and moved first to Querétaro and later to Veracruz, whose customs revenues were used to fund the government.

On 4 May 1858, Juárez arrived in Veracruz[28] where the government of Manuel Gutiérrez Zamora was stationed with General Ignacio de la Llave. His wife and children were waiting for his arrival on the dock at Veracruz's port, along with a large part of the population that had flooded the pier to greet him.

Juárez lived many months in Veracruz without incident until conservative General Miguel Miramón's attack on the port on 30 March 1859. On 6 April, Juárez received a diplomatic representative of the United States Government: Robert Milligan McLane. The U.S. was seeking a route for transit from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean, and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was the narrowest crossing in Mexico between the bodies of water. With Juárez needing allies against the conservatives, Juárez went forward with a formal treaty between the two governments. Melchor Ocampo signed for Mexico on McLane-Ocampo Treaty in December 1859. Juárez was saved implementation of the treaty and undermining Mexico's sovereignty because U.S. President James Buchanan was unable to secure ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Despite the failure of the treaty, Juárez's government received aid from the US that enabled the liberals to overcome the conservatives' initial military advantage. Juárez's government successfully defended Veracruz from assault twice during 1860, and recaptured Mexico City on 1 January 1861.

On 12 July 1859, Juárez decreed the first regulations of the "Law of Nationalization of the Ecclesiastical Wealth." This enactment prohibited the Catholic Church from owning properties in Mexico.[29] Because of Juárez's Law of Nationalization, the Catholic Church and the regular army supported the Conservatives in the Reform War. On the other hand, the Liberals had the support of several state governments in the north and central-west of the country, as well as that of President Buchanan's government.

Due to the initial weakness of the Juárez administration, Conservatives Félix María Zuloaga and Leonardo Márquez had the opportunity to reclaim power. To counter this, Juárez petitioned Congress to give him emergency powers. The liberal members of Congress denied the petition, believing that they had to preserve their constitutional government achieved only after a damaging civil war. They did not believe that Juárez, who had implemented that constitution, should violate it by taking dictatorial powers.

But, after two groups of Conservatives ambushed and killed major liberal politicians and intellectuals Melchor Ocampo and later Santos Degollado in 1861, the liberals were outraged. Juárez took "extreme measures" to deal with the conservatives. After the scandal of Ocampo's murder, the liberal-majority Congress gave Juárez the money and power that he needed to defeat the conservatives.[30]

Benito Juárez, undated photo

After the defeat of the Conservatives on the battlefield, in March 1861 elections were held and Juárez was elected president in his own right under the Constitution of 1857. Juárez called for elections to be held in January 1861, but they were not held until March. At this point, Juárez had two liberal rivals in the election, Miguel Lerdo de Tejada and Jesús González Ortega. Melchor Ocampo supported Juárez and charged the Lerdo lacked the judgment to become President, pointing to Lerdo's statements late in the Reform War that the liberal republic could not win except with armed aid of the Americans. Ocampo was opposed to Lerdo Law and its implementation as unjust. Guillermo Prieto also attacked Lerdo and favored Juárez. As the Juárez government was attempting to regain control of the country's financial situation, it allowed conservative functionaries of the treasury to return to their positions under the liberals, for which Juárez drew criticism. Prieto countered that the conservative bureaucrats had the relevant expertise. In the midst of the campaign, Lerdo died of typhoid, leaving González Ortega as Juárez's only rival. González Ortega was a popular military hero who had delivered significant victories against the conservatives. He then served as Minister of War in Juárez's cabinet, while maintaining his command of the troops of the Zacatecas Division. He resigned from the cabinet, but despite civil unrest in the capital calling for his reinstatement, he did not rebel or allow his name to be used by armed supporters. The civilian government of Juárez prevailed and he won the 1861 election.[31]

Although the conservatives had been defeated on the battlefield, they did not disappear. As congress was reconvening for the first time since 1857, they received word that Melchor Ocampo had been executed in his home state of Michoacan by a conservative guerrilla band. Santos Degollado, who had been dismissed from his command, requested permission of congress to eliminate Ocampo's killers. He too was killed by the guerrillas on June 15. González Ortega took charge of routing the guerrillas there.[32] Conservative General Leonardo Márquez took refuge in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro and refused to recognize Juárez as President. He was blamed for the murders of prominent liberals Melchor Ocampo and Santos Degollado. In hiding in March 1861, Márquez declared that Juárez and his supporters were traitors and therefore subject to summary execution.[33]

In the wake of the civil war and the demobilization of combatants, Juárez established the Rural Guard or Rurales, aimed at bringing public security, particularly as banditry and rural unrest grew. Many brigands and bandits had allied themselves with the liberal cause during the civil war. When that conflict was concluded and they were unable to gain jobs, many became guerrillas and bandits again. Juárez's Minister of the Interior, Francisco Zarco, oversaw the founding of the Rurales. The creation of the police force controlled by the President was done quietly because it violated federalist principles of traditional liberalism, which gave little power to the central government and much more to Mexican states. The force's creation was an indication that Juárez was becoming a centralist as he confronted rural continuing unrest. As a pragmatic solution, the force consisted of former bandits converted into policemen.[34]

Juárez's government also faced international dangers. In view of the government's desperate financial straits, Juárez contemplated suspending payments on the foreign debt, which could trigger international intervention. The British government sent diplomat Sir Charles Lennox Wyke, previously posted to Central America, to find a solution to the financial crisis.[35] Juárez's Minister of Finance Zamacona negotiated an agreement with Wyke, concluded on 21 November 1861, but the treaty was repudiated by congress.[36] When Juárez suspended repayments of interest on foreign loans taken out by the defeated conservatives on 17 July it set in motion intervention from European powers. Spain, Britain and France, angry over unpaid Mexican debts, sent a joint expeditionary force that seized the Veracruz Customs House in December 1861. Spain and Britain soon withdrew. They realized that the French Emperor Napoleon III intended to overthrow the Juárez government and establish a Second Mexican Empire, with the support of remaining Conservatives. Thus began the French invasion in 1861 and the outbreak of an even longer war, with Liberals attempting to oust the foreign invaders and their Conservative allies and save the Republic.

The outbreak of this Mexican conflict came as the U.S. had to deal with its civil war, which broke out in April 1861. Despite that, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's government was aware of the liberals' peril. U.S. Secretary of State William Seward attempted to find a solution to the debt crisis, floating the possibility of the U.S. assuming the interest charges on the Mexican debt and placing a lien on public lands in Mexican northern states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Sonora and Sinaloa. Mexico's representative in the U.S. Matías Romero attempted to promote the resolution, but it was rejected by the U.S. Senate. The European powers invited the U.S. to join their coalition to force payment of the debt, but it declined given its adherence to the Monroe Doctrine.[37]

After much contention among the liberals and after it became clear that the European powers would indeed intervene, Juárez was granted extraordinary powers by congress to deal with the crisis. The sole restrictions on his taking any step necessary in the current crisis was that "he must maintain the nation's independence and territorial integrity, the form of government established by the constitution, and the principles of the laws of Reform."[38]

Sculpture of Juárez in the historic center of Oaxaca. Juárez holds a Mexican flag with one hand and with the other is pointing at Maximilian's Crown, which remains in the soil, representing the defeat of imperialism.

Juárez ordered Maximilian be put to death, depicted here by Eduard Manet, The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1868–69), oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Mannheim

During the French invasion following Juárez's decision to cancel debt payments to European powers, Juárez came to embody implacable Mexican nationalism against foreign invaders and during the crisis led a largely unified liberal republic. As with the Reform War, Mexico again had two governments, the conservatives with their French allies and that of the constitutional, elected president Juárez. The French invasion challenged the political order in Mexico, but Republican forces under Ignacio Zaragoza won an initial victory over the monarchists on 5 May 1862, the Battle of Puebla, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo. The French were forced retreat to the coast for a year, but they advanced again in 1863 and captured Mexico City on 10 June 1863. With the invasion, congress ratified the grant to Juárez of extraordinary powers on 27 October 1862 and again on 27 May 1863.[39]

Juárez left the capital to set up a government in internal exile, though the rump United Mexican States had very little authority or territorial control over most of the non-occupied territory. Juárez headed north, first to San Luis Potosí (9 June – 22 December 1863), Saltillo (9 January; 14 February – 2 April opposed by his old rival Santiago Vidaurri); then to the arid north of Chihuahua near the U.S. border, (12 October 1864 – 10 December 1866), with time in El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua) and finally to the capital of the state, Chihuahua City, where he set up his cabinet. Juárez deposed Vidaurri from his stronghold in Nuevo León-Coahuila, separating the states on 26 February 1863 and Vidaurri defected to the conservative monarchists on 7 September 1863.[40]

A conservative regency council comprising Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, natural son of José María Morelos; Bishop Pelagio Antonio de Labastida, and General Mariano Salas established a conservative, monarchist regime 18 June 1863. Maximilian von Habsburg, younger brother of Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, accepted the invitation to become emperor on 3 October 1863 and was proclaimed Emperor as Maximilian I of Mexico on 20 April 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III and Mexican conservatives.[39]

Juárez's term as president expired on 1 December 1865, and arguably the head of the Supreme Court would succeed as president. Jesús González Ortega could legally claim the presidency.[41] Juárez issued two decrees to undermine Ortega's claims and retain office. One decree extended the terms of the President and head of the Supreme Court until elections could be held. Juárez "believed he had the power to extend his term ... [and] became convinced that the nation would approve his continuing his term." Juárez exceeded his constitutional powers in remaining in office, but given the extraordinary times, he had considerable support.[42]

In response to the French invasion and the elevation of Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico, Juárez sent General Plácido Vega y Daza to California to gather Mexican American sympathy for republican Mexico. Maximilian offered Juárez amnesty and later the post of prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept a government imposed by foreigners, or a monarchy. The US government was sympathetic to Juárez, refusing to recognize Maximilian and opposing the French invasion as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Most of its attention was taken up by the American Civil War.[43]

Juárez's wife, Margarita Maza, and their children spent the invasion in exile in New York, where she met several times with U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who received her as the First Lady of Mexico. The careers of Juárez and Abraham Lincoln have been compared, because they were two presidents who shared humble social origins, a law career, a rapidly ascending political career in their home states, and a presidency that began under the auspices of a civil war that made long-lasting reform a necessity. But they never met nor exchanged correspondence.[44]

Following the end of the American Civil War and Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson succeeded to the US presidency. He demanded that the French evacuate Mexico and imposed a naval blockade in February 1866. When Johnson could not get sufficient support in Congress to aid Juárez, he allegedly had the Army "lose" some supplies (including rifles) "near" (across) the border with Mexico, according to U.S. General Philip Sheridan's journal account.[45] In his memoirs, Sheridan stated that he had supplied arms and ammunition to Juárez's forces: "... which we left at convenient places on our side of the river to fall into their hands".[46]

Faced with US opposition to a continuing French presence and a growing threat on the European mainland from Prussia, French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late 1866. Maximilian's liberal views had cost him support from Mexican conservatives as well. In 1867, the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated. Maximilian was sentenced to death by a military court, a retaliation for Maximilian's earlier orders for the execution of republican soldiers (although some historians point to the fact that the original "Black Decree" was from Juárez – who had people executed, without trial, for "helping" his enemies, whereas Maximilian often pardoned people who had fought against him). Despite national and international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence. Maximilian was executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867 at Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro. His body was returned to Vienna for burial.

Benito Juárez wearing the presidential sash (ca. 1872)

Alegoría de la Constitución de 1857, Petronilo Monroy, 1869.

The period following the expulsion of the French and up to the revolt of Porfirio Díaz in 1876 are now generally known in Mexico as the Restored Republic. The period includes the last years of the Juárez presidency and, following his death in office in 1872, that of fellow civilian politician Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada.

Under ordinary circumstances, Juárez's presidential term would have ended in 1865 and elections held, but during French invasion, he continued in the presidency as head of state in domestic exile. With the ouster of the French in 1867, other liberals now objected to Juárez's remaining in power without an electoral mandate. The broad liberal front against the French had splintered and rivals to Juárez emerged. Liberals had not been unified in their support of the Constitution of 1857, and with the exit of the French, the simmering conflicts between liberal factions in abeyance during the intervention, came to the fore. Juárez sought the legal means to extend his time in power, proposing that the Constitution be amended to allow for a third term and increase the power of the executive against that of the legislature. For Juárez's opponents, this was confirmation that Juárez wished to keep a personal grip on power.[47] The Constitution had been aimed at breaking the power of the Catholic Church and the army as an institution and invigorating the power of Mexican states against the power of the central government. The constitution also made the legislative branch superior to the executive, to forestall personalist power. During the intervention, the republic barely continued to exist and the structure of constitutional division of powers was inoperative. Juárez realized when he returned to the presidency in 1867 that presidential powers were diminished. In the face of opposition, Juárez built a set of alliances to strengthen the power of the central government and make the constitutional system work. His critics saw his actions as building a personal dictatorship.[48]

The Restored Republic was a politically unstable time in Mexico, with multiple insurrections.[49] A perceived challenge to Juárez came early. In 1867, the liberals' former nemesis, General Antonio López de Santa Anna and President of Mexico multiple times, sought to return to Mexico from exile. The U.S. had pledged to support Juárez, and prevented Santa Anna from disembarking in Veracruz, his home region and political base. Veracruz was still in French imperial hands when Santa Anna attempted to land in June 1867, and the possibility that he might seize the port from them was a distinct possibility. This could have paved the way for a political comeback threatening Juárez. Juárez's forces diverted the general, who landed in Sisal, Yucatán. He was arrested before a military court on 14 July 1867. He was accused of being a traitor to Mexico, and Juárez sought the use of the law of 25 January 1862 that mandated death for traitors, a fate for Maximilian and two of his generals. The military tribunal decided that Santa Anna should be sentenced to eight years of further exile. Juárez had been expecting a sentence of death and was proceeding to have all of Santa Anna's landed property confiscated and sold off. Juárez issued a general amnesty for all political opponents in October 1870, but explicitly excluded Santa Anna. The general responded angrily, listing his many heroic military deeds for his homeland, asking contemptuously where the civilian Juárez was then, and calling him a "dark Indian," a "hyena," and "a symbol of cruelty." But only after Juárez died in office was Santa Anna able to return to Mexico.[50]

The civil war of the Reform (1858–61) and the French Intervention (1862–67) had forestalled any serious implementation of the Liberal reforms. With the defeat of the French and their Mexican conservative allies the way seemed clear to institute changes. Juárez had turned the opposition to the French Intervention into a war of national liberation of the Republic from a foreign invader rather than as a victory of Mexican liberalism. For that reason, he had considerable political support which could be translated into actions.[51]

In a controversial move, Juárez ran for re-election in 1871. His loyal political ally, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada had expected to succeed Juárez in that election, since Juárez had already been criticized for apparently holding onto power. When Lerdo served in Juárez's cabinet post-1867 and had forged political alliances with a number of state governors and with congressmen. It became clear that Juárez was going to run for re-election, Lerdo resigned from the cabinet. Lerdo and Díaz ran for the presidency with none of them achieving a majority on his own, but rivals Díaz and Lerdo together got more votes than Juárez. Juárez got 5,837 electoral votes, Díaz 3,555, and Lerdo 2,874, throwing the outcome for congress to decide.[47] The decision in congress was for Juárez since it was packed with his supporters, and opponents considered the election fraudulent. Defeated opposition candidate Díaz issued the Plan of la Noria call to arms against Juárez. Díaz had not be involved in the many insurrections that broke out after 1867 and had it not gathered other opponents of Juárez it would just one more insurrection. Although Juárez was not whole heartedly supported, many political opponents did not want civil war as a means to power. Juárez kept the loyalty of key military figures and was able to outlast the rebellion. Díaz's plan was not a compelling argument for violence. Díaz showed himself at this juncture to be a flawed political and military leader.[52] Juárez called Díaz a "latterday Santa Anna", invoking the liberals' archenemy.[47] Juárez took the opportunity of the rebellion to attack entrenched groups within various states, using government forces to neutralize rebellious elements in state militias.[53] Having outlasted Díaz's serious rebellion, Juárez again tried to institute constitutional reform, but congress blocked it.[54]