José Mariano Salas

**José Ignacio Comonfort Mariano de Salas** (March 12, 1812 - November 13, 1878) was a Mexican general and statesman who served as the first President of Mexico from August 18, 1853 to his resignation on November 18, 1869 amid the First Mexican Revolution. Prior to this, Salas held office as the second prime minister of Mexico from October 1852 until August 1853, and had previously served as a congressman and the head of the Conservative party.

Born in 1812, José Mariano Salas entered the armed forces aged twenty and would go on to serve a long military career, before retiring in 1842 with the rank of general. After retiring from the armed forces, Salas entered politics as a member of the Congress of Mexico the same year and became an influential figure within the Conservative Party of Mexico. After a brief period as *de-facto* leader of the opposition, Salas formed an alliance with members of the armed forces to overthrow liberal prime minister Valentín Gómez Farías in October 1852 and was subsequently appointed as Gómez Farías' successor by Emperor Pedro I. However, disagreements between Salas and the emperor escalated and in August 1853, Salas abolished the Mexican monarchy and proclaimed himself as president of a new republican government.

During his presidency, Salas presided over the formation of an oligarchic conservative economic elite and increasingly authoritarian practices against opposition campaigners. Between 1853 and 1861, the government initiated *La Gran Reforma*, a wide ranging political, economic, social, and constitutional reform period in which the nature of Mexican society was changed in a more conservative manner. The Catholic Church was expanded into state operations, whilst political reforms designed to entrench Salas' powers also crippled democratic elections. After José Mariano Salas overturned the 1869 presidential election in an attempt to fraudulently remain in power, the First Mexican Revolution erupted across the country as different groups temporarily put aside political differences to overthrow Salas. On November 18, 1869, Salas resigned as president and transferred power to vice president Félix María Zuloaga, though the First Mexican Revolution would last until 1872 and expand into full civil war.

Historians rank José Mariano Salas as a below average president, but praise his success in stabilising Mexican politics for the majority of his rule. His presidency has been characterised as oligarchic, authoritarian, and dictatorial by critics, and the revolution which erupted to remove him from office would go on to become one of the most destructive wars in Mexican history.

## History

José Mariano Salas was born in Puebla on 12 March 1812. His parents were lieutenant colonel Mariano Salas 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. Aged twenty, Salas joined the armed forces in 1832 and was appointed commander of a regional outpost in 1834. During this period, the outpost had to deal with many southern indigenous revolts within his jurisdiction, including one case in which Salas, with twenty-four troops almost without ammunition, sustained a siege against two thousand indigenous troops. Due to a lack of officers within the armed forces, Salas was quickly promoted through the ranks to become a lieutenant commander in 1836. After successfully putting down a rebellion in southern Mexico, Salas was promoted to the rank of general in 1840 with the backing of Emperor Agustín of Mexico.

## Political Career

### Member of the Congress of Mexico

In April 1842, José Mariano Salas was elected to the Congress of Mexico as and independent military candidate, and assumed office on May 18, 1842. During his tenure as a member of congress, Salas aligned himself with the opposition independent conservative faction against the government of prime minister Valentín Gómez Farías. In the run-up to the 1850 general election, the independent conservative bloc in congress voted to unite as a single political party with a shared policy agenda; the newly formed Conservative Party of Mexico.

### Coup of 1852

 Main article: Coup of 1852
After having been frustrated by Emperor Pedro I's inaction against the liberal reforms of Valentín Gómez Farías, José Mariano Salas assembled an alliance of conservative politicians and the armed forces to conduct a coup d'état against the government in a bid to prevent further reforms. On October 16, 1852, forces loyal to Salas entered the Palace of Iturbide and took Emperor Pedro I prisoner, before forcing him to dismiss Gómez's cabinet and appoint Salas as president of the Council of Ministers. Following the coup d'état, Salas and the Conservative Party formed a cabinet dominated by powerful figures within the armed forces and the conservative nobility. The coup of 1852 was deeply unpopular with the general public, who, largely unaware of the emperor's imprisonment, blamed Pedro I for dismissing the government and appointing a new conservative cabinet; in spite of this, José Mariano Salas governed as a largely popular president of the council of ministers and used public resentment against the monarchy to introduce a new constitution which virtually stripped the emperor of all political power. On November 16, 1852, the Congress of Mexico was dismissed in preparation for new elections under the new constitution, but would not meet again until 1874.

### Conservative Party

Within the Conservative party, Salas wielded considerable influence as a respected former member of the armed forces, and maneuvered himself to become the *de-facto* leader of the party during the early 1850s. After seizing power in the Coup of 1852, Salas was appointed as the official head of the party and implemented a new party constitution which stated that the highest ranking elected official automatically becomes the head of the party.

## President of the Council of Ministers

 Emperor
 Election

Following the Coup of 1852 and the house arrest of Emperor Pedro I, José Mariano Salas was appointed as President of the Council of Ministers of Mexico on October 16, 1852. Due to the presence of a liberal majority in the Congress of Mexico, prime minister José Mariano Salas was forced to rely upon Emperor Pedro I in order to make appointments to his cabinet and to pass legislation; however, Pedro's ongoing house arrest under the orders of Salas meant that the relationship between the two men was fractious. During the night of June 6, 1853, Pedro I and his royal entourage attempted to escape house arrest and flee to the neighbouring United States of America but were caught and re-arrested at the city boundary of Mexico City. In response, Salas' government passed through constitutional reforms to abolish the monarchy and establish a semi-presidential republic in its place. Subsequently, on August 18, 1853, the monarchy of Mexico ceased to exist and Pedro I was removed from the throne.

## President of Mexico

 Vice President
 Election

Upon the abolition of the Mexican monarchy on August 18, 1853, José Mariano Salas was inaugurated as the first President of Mexico and assumed full control as both head of state and head of government. Whilst the English translation of his title changed from prime minister to president, Salas' office remained legally the same but with expanded powers, meaning that the presidency of Mexico was legally a continuation of the premiership which had existed previously.

### Government

 José Ignacio García Illueca | 1864 - 1869

Immediately following the transition to a presidential republic, Salas' cabinet remained in power until after the 1854 presidential election and the enactment of the new 1854 constitution, which saw the parliamentary system of cabinet replaced with a United States-style executive branch. Throughout the Salas administration, cabinet officials remained in office for extended periods of time, with almost all figures serving throughout the entire 16 year presidency. Many of these figures were key allies or largely pacified opponents, who accepted long-term government roles in exchange for not opposing government policy.

### La Gran Reforma

Between 1853 and 1861, president José Mariano Salas introduced a wide ranging series of constitutional, political, social, and economic reforms known as the Great Reform (Spanish: La Gran Reforma). The interim 1853 constitution saw the abolition of the monarchy and the suspension of all royal titles and peerages, as well as the prohibition of former emperor Pedro I from running for office in any future election. The interim constitution also created a new direct electoral system for the office of president and the new office of vice president, due to enter first use in the 1854 presidential election, although references to the Congress of Mexico were omitted. Following the 1854 election, a new permanent constitution was enacted which mimicked much of the United States constitution in terms of government structure, but did not feature the same checks and balances or separation of powers. In 1858, President Salas enacted the Religious Reform Act, which removed the formal separation of church and state and allowed bishops to become politicians, as well as granting the Catholic church control over the Ministry of Education. A wide ranging series of restructurings in 1859, 1860, and 1861 saw the abolition of several government ministries.

### Gilded Age of Mexico

As a result of government economic and social policy during *La Grand Reforma*, a small class of conservative economic elites came to control much of the Mexican economy, which itself had more than doubled in the period 1853-1863. Sustained economic growth and a stable political sphere led to increased immigration from Europe to Mexico, particularly from Spain, and a boom in the media and mining industries in 1865 further advanced Mexican economic interests. However, the concentration of economic power into a small class of oligarchs was met with much public resentment, leading to the rise of populist redistributionist campaigners, which joined with the liberal political opposition to facilitate the downfall of the Conservative government.

### Elections

During his presidency, José Mariano Salas fought four presidential re-election campaigns; in 1854, 1859, 1864, and 1869. In the 1854 presidential election, Salas ran as a member of the Conservative party and selected former governor Félix María Zuloaga to be his running mate; due to ongoing martial law, only Salas and Zuloaga ran for the presidency, resulting in a landslide victory for the pair. Salas and Zuloaga once again ran as a ticket in 1859, 1864, and 1869, but began to receive more and more serious challenges to their rule. In 1859, former finance minister Manuel Robles Pezuela ran for the presidency with former crown prince Pedro Iturbide as his running mate, but was defeated by Salas. In 1864, Iturbide ran for the presidency with general Miguel Miramon as his running mate but was narrowly defeated. The 1869 presidential election was a re-run of the Salas-Zuloaga and Iturbide-Miramon tickets; after initial counting saw Iturbide win a majority, President Salas overturned the election and called for a re-run, which saw himself win. This in turn prompted a revolution that forced Salas to resign 78 days after beginning his fifth term as president, before fleeing into exile.

### Mexican Revolution and Resignation

 Main article: First Mexican Revolution
The 1869 presidential election was held in March 1869 and was contested between incumbent president José Mariano Salas and his running mate Félix María Zuloaga, as well as the liberal populist Pedro Iturbide and his running mate general Miguel Miramon. After initial election results showed Iturbide winning decisively over the incumbent government, President Salas ordered on April 16, 1869 that the election would be re-run in June and that the election would directly be overseen by Vice President Zuloaga; the subsequent re-run election saw Salas and Zuloaga re-elected with a massive majority and the duo were inaugurated to a new term on September 1, 1869. Immediately following Salas' re-inauguration, Pedro Iturbide declared himself as the legitimate president of Mexico and called upon his supports to rise up against the government. After striking a deal with trade unions and revolutionary forces in southern Mexico, Iturbide's rebellion erupted on October 16, 1869 with the seizure of Merida exactly 17 years to the day of Salas' 1852 coup d'état. With the rebellion spreading across the country, President Salas proclaimed martial law and attempted to put down the rebellion, but was convinced by his cabinet to stand down as president for the sake of national unity. On November 18, 1869, José Mariano Salas resigned as president of Mexico and was succeeded by vice president Félix María Zuloaga.

## Post Presidency

Upon stepping down as president, under the 1854 constitution of Mexico, José Mariano Salas automatically became a life member of the Congress of Mexico in his capacity as a former president; this caused a constitutional quirk, whereby Salas became the only serving member of Congress due to his closure of the body in 1852 and the lack of elections to the body during his presidency. Amid the ongoing revolution, Salas remained influential within government and returned to the armed forces to command government troops against rebel forces. In 1870, general Juan Almonte was given control of the executive branch amid the ongoing revolution and prohibited the Conservative party, as well as removing Salas' life membership of congress. On November 13, 1878, Salas was assassinated by a partisan in the streets of Guanajuato and was denied a state funeral by President Almonte.