Castelar declined General Pavia's offer to preside over the government because he was unwilling to remain in power through undemocratic means, so the presidency of the Executive Power of the Republic and the government was assumed by the leader of the Constitutional Party Francisco Serrano, Duke of la Torre, who set himself the priority objective of ending the cantonal rebellion and the Third Carlist War. In the Manifesto that he made public on 8 January 1874, he justified the Pavia coup, stating that the government that was going to replace Castelar's would have caused the dismemberment of Spain or the triumph of Carlist absolutism and then announced, leaving all possibilities open: Hereditary or elective Republic or Monarchy, which would convene an ordinary Courts that would designate the "form and manner in which they are to elect the supreme Magistrate of the Nation, marking their powers and electing the first to occupy such high office".