Pablo Benito Juarez

Mexican President, Statesman
1806-1872

"...as men we are nothing, principles are everything."

In 1806 and 1809 two boys were born on the borders of the wilderness in extreme poverty, one in America and one in Mexico. Both were deprived at an early age of the tender love of a mother. They also shared an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Although their youth was greatly disadvantaged, they gave much personal time and effort to learning. They loved their respective countries and became disciples of freedom. The only major difference between them was that one was tall and lanky, the other short and dark. They each experienced many defeats and setbacks throughout their lives, yet each as elected to the presidency of their countries. They presided and preserved their respective country through devastating civil wars, putting their lives in continual danger. Because of their devotion to principles, history was changed not only in their own countries, but throughout the entire world as well. These two boys were Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez.

Juarez and Lincoln had great admiration and respect for one another. Juarez was born by the providence of God to establish religious freedom and the sovereignty of Mexico, freeing it from any European nation. His life began on 21 March 1806, near the village of Ixtlan, high in the mountains above the city Oaxaca. He was a full blooded Zapotec Indian. "I had the misfortune" he wrote, "not to have known my parents, Marcelino Juarez and Brigido Garcia, Indians of the primitive race of the country, for I was hardly three years old when they died, leaving me and my sisters, Maria Josefa and Rosa, to the care of our paternal grandparents, Pedro Juarez and Justa Lopez, Indians also of the Zapotec nation."1 A few years later his grandparents died, his sisters married, and he was left under the care of an uncle.

In this remote mountain village he did not become familiar with or speak Spanish until about the age of twelve.

"In some idle moments my uncle taught me to read and
impressed on me how useful and helpful it was to learn the
Spanish tongue.... These promptings ... awoke in me a vehement
desire to learn, so much so indeed that when my uncle called
me to take my lesson, I myself brought him the whip to punish
me if I did not know it."2

Life in this mountain village was so strenuous that there was very little time for studies, and there was no school. Anxiously, Juarez awaited the time he could go to Oaxaca and advance his education. When the time came he sadly departed from his uncle, and left to satisfy his desire for more education.

Arriving in Oaxaca, he found shelter as a "house boy" in the home of Don Antonio Salanueva, a lay member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Salanueva often read the scriptures to young Juarez, and he was opened minded enough to support Juarez's education by paying his tuition for higher education.

In his attempts to gain an education Juarez experienced severe discrimination. Although it had been three hundred years since the conquest of Mexico by Spain, the treatment of the Indians remained cruel. In school, he and the other "poor" boys, mostly of Indian descent, were not allowed to sit inside the classroom. They had to sit in an outer room where an assistant treated them harshly. Juarez soon realized that he could learn more on his own and save his patron's tuition. He left the school and developed a plan to further his education. He worked late into the night reviewing old lessons by the light of a stump of resin which a woman in the next courtyard loaned him. Although he mastered his studies, he longed for more knowledge.

Because he was a poor Indian youth, the only educational opportunity opened to him was the seminary, which he was much disinclined to enter; however, because any education was better than no education, in 1821, he reluctantly entered the seminary.

His education there, as he had suspected it would be, was narrow and limited. But Juarez did not give up. He had a sense of the future and believed miracles had happened before and would again, so he remained in the seminary until Providence could intervene. Such patience was characteristic with him.

Providence did respond. In 1810, Mexico had begun its weaning process from Spain. Gradually, new educational opportunities began to open up outside the control of the clergy. In 1827, a Civil College, based on a liberal education, was opened in Oaxaca. Juarez was not long in leaving the seminary to take advantage of this new and open education. Here, too, Juarez found persecution, particularly from the clergy who referred to the college students and professors as "heretic". So great was the pressure on the students and their families that many left the college. Others remained under the threat of excommunication. Perhaps, it was now a blessing that he had no family who would have to suffer with him in his struggle for progress. In 1831, he entered a law practice and, in 1833, was elected to the state legislature.

During this time, Mexico produced a number of great men who made significant contributions, many among Juarez's circle of friends. Among these men were Father Hildago and Jose-Maria Morelos, whose efforts led in 1824 to the first constitution, originally patterned after the constitution of the United States. Unfortunately the church and the military, wielding heavy political power deleted many good principles and rights. Having to compromise, as our founders did on the slavery issue, these men voted religious freedom out of this constitution.

The authoritarian traditions of the church and the army made them answerable to no laws or courts but their own. In these conditions democracy was impossible, The control these two entities held during the next half century resulted in anarchy, revolution, and civil war.

As a young college student, Juarez was well aware of his country's struggle for freedom as well as the Indians' struggle to overcome the caste system the Spaniards had established. At this time, Juarez met Miguel Mendez, a "liberal" or pro-reform instructor. At a meeting of like-minded persons, Mendez singled out Juarez and prophetically declared: "And this one [Juarez], so serious and reserved, this one will be a great politician. He will rise higher than any of us, and he will be one of our great men and the glory of our country."3

It was about this time, 1829, that the well-known General Santa Anna was entertained one evening at the new Institute where Juarez was studying. This was the first time Santa Anna saw Juarez and all that he remembered about Juarez was that he was barefoot and waiting on tables. To see greatness in meekness was not one of Santa Anna's abilities. "He [Santa Anna] was a fortune-hunter, not a fortune-teller; and being one of the coming men of the country himself, he saw only the feet."4

In 1841 Juarez was appointed to the bench, and in 1843, he entered into a marriage that was to provide him a never-failing source of devotion and strength. His wife, Margarita Mazza, of Italian descent, was a tireless, devoted supporter of the role he was to play in the destiny of Mexico and to the establishment of freedom. She bore him ten children. She never failed him, nor did he fail her.5

About 1844, Juarez accepted the position as secretary to the governor. However, when it came time to sign an order from the governor to the courts, directing them to prosecute those who refused to pay ecclesiastical tithes, Juarez resigned. By 1846, he was elected a representative from the district of Oaxaca to the National Congress. Even as a newcomer he began pushing for freedom of religion. Juarez did not remain long in the capital. In 1847, he became the governor of Oaxaca. This position marked the beginning of his destiny.

Juarez was a good governor. His top priority was education. Remembering his lineage, he said: "As a son of the people, I will not forget them; on the contrary, I will uphold their rights, I will see to it that they become educated.... Education is the primary base of people's prosperity and at the same time the surest means for making abuses of power impossible."6 Juarez built over two hundred schools, and he encouraged the education of girls. "To form women with all the qualifications required by their necessary and lofty mission," he said, "is to form the fertile seed of social regeneration and improvement."7

Juarez's administration was an example to the country of what could be done with thrift and honesty. When he assumed office in 1847, the resources of the state were exhausted, a shortfall that resulted from the cost of several local revolts. When he retired in 1852, the deficit had been almost eliminated.

The oath of the governor's office bound Juarez to defend and preserve the Catholic religion. Juarez, true to this pledge, began his work of reform by cultivating the church in the areas of its original purpose and functions. He called upon church leadership to help during a cholera epidemic, and they established hospitals and provided nursing. He asked the church to bless and dedicate a newly built roadway and harbor which had been erected to stimulate the economy. Priests rallied, mobilizing their communities to help build badly needed roads. Juarez's efforts were not only beneficial to the government, but also to the church, which regained its "moral prestige" by coming out of its magistrative pursuits and doing good.8

During these years, Santa Anna used intrigue to become president of Mexico. Each of the five times he fell from being dictator/president, he fled the country. One time his flight took him southward towards Oaxaca. The former barefoot servant, Juarez, who was now governor, closed Oaxaca's borders to the deposed despot. However, in 1853, Santa Anna, through his covert activities, came again into power. As president, Santa Anna's first order of business was to rid the country of certain "undesirables." Benito Juarez's name was at the top of the list, and he, along with other reformers, was arrested and deported on a ship. They landed in Havana and eventually made their way to New Orleans. This small group of reformers in New Orleans began to mold the future of Mexico.

Most of the deposed reformers in New Orleans were anxious and impatient to return to Mexico and establish a lasting constitution. However, Juarez was calm and at ease, always studying, mostly constitutional law. One day he was invited by an American Court to sit in on a case involving a land claim in California, a proud day for his friends, one of whom fondly reported that "his opinion was unanimously approved by the members of the court, he was enthusiastically praised and showered with a thousand attentions to which he was justly entitled."9

When revolution broke out again in Mexico, the little group of reformers had high hopes. Juarez was very concerned that in attempting to place reformers in office, the country did not have enough patriotism and enlighrampling on some of freedom's precious principles.

The new revolutionary armies sent for the deported Juarez, Ocampo, and the others to join them and be their leaders. Juarez landed secretly in Acapulco. Arriving in the camp of General Alvarez, he was greeted by the general's son, a colonel. The colonel who did not recognize him in his shabby and bedraggled state, demanded, "What do you want?"

In his unassuming way, Juarez responded, "Knowing that men are fighting for freedom here, I came to see in what way I could be useful." The men of the camp found a pair of trousers and a cotton blanket for him. It was not until three days later, when a letter arrived addressed to Benito Juarez, that they discovered his true identity. When the colonel questioned his reason for not announcing his identity, he merely replied: "Why should I? What does it matter?"1O

When this revolution was successfully concluded and the reform government took over, Juarez was chosen to direct the ministry of justice and public education. The new president, Comonfort, proved to be weak and capitulated to the power of the clergy. Most of the cabinet resigned. But Juarez determined to remain in hope of even the slightest opportunity to effect change. Patient, as always, Juarez managed to have a new law passed that abolished the special judicial protection of the clergy and the military. This law became known as the Ley Juarez. It became the cornerstone of other freedoms, and in 1857 a new constitution was written. Juarez and his friends were able to establish most of the constitutional articles they wanted. This new constitution established freedom of religion, and freed Mexico from church control. All Mexicans were now free to gather for meetings, and free to speak and write what they wanted. The constitution also upheld the right to be tried in a public court of law.

The new constitution almost immediately ran into problems. The church forbade the faithful to swear allegiance to the constitution on threat of excommunication among those who did. Church officials were divided-those of the clergy who were preoccupied with power and dominion on one side, and those who were devoted to being servants of God and providing what was best for his children, on the other. As results of this division a new revolution began.

Another election was held, and this time Juarez was elected president of the Supreme Court, which, according to the new constitution, placed him next in line to succeed the president. The president eventually weakened to the opposition and had Juarez as well as other reformers in office placed under arrest. However, a coup took place, and Juarez escaped and made his way across the country waking alone until he arrived at Guanajuato. He and other deposed reformers reorganized the government according to the constitution with Juarez assuming the presidency.

There were many who saw this situation as hopeless. They reasoned that the old establishment--the church and the military-- had plenty of money and the guns. Those who gave up hope did not know the strength of the "little Indian" from Ixtlan. This new anti- constitution revolution began a hunt for all the reformers and attempted to eliminate their supporters.

Once when Juarez and his cabinet were meeting in Guadalajara, the soldiers inside the palace suddenly turned traitor. Juarez and the others were locked up. Loyal soldiers outside the walls attempted to break in, but the traitors inside decided to kill the prisoners. One of the cabinet members, a great man and poet by the name of Guillermo Prieto, wrote of that event in his diary:

The terrible column halted, with loaded guns, opposite the
door. We distinctly heard, "Shoulder arms! Present arms!
Ready Aim!" At the word "Aim!" Juarez grasped the latch of
the door, flung back his head and waited. The fierce faces of
the soldiers, their position ... my love for Juarez-what it was
that made me do it, I know not. Swift as thought I seized
Juarez by the shirt and thrust him behind me. I covered him
with my body, and flung out my arms. Drowning the word
"Fire" which rang out at that moment, I cried, "Down with
those guns! Brave men are not murderers." An old man lowered
his rifle and the others did the same, The soldiers wept,
Swearing they would not kill us, and vanished as if by magic.11

This anti-constitution revolution lasted three years. At the end of that time the constitutional government of Juarez returned to full power. This return was accomplished without any foreign aid or involvement. Throughout the revolution Juarez stubbornly refused to seek help from foreign powers. He felt the Mexican people could and should reclaim their liberty on their own.

A short time after the constitutionalists were back in power Juarez's good friend, Melchor Ocampo, often called "the author of reform," resigned because of critics' opposition to some of his efforts. He returned to his home in the country to retire. But there were yet in the countryside bandits from the revolt seeking to undermine the constitutional government.

These revolutionaries sought out the ranch of Ocampo and killed him. His death was a terrible loss for Juarez and the constitutional movement. But even in his own personal sorrow, Juarez's first thought was for justice. He ordered the prison guards doubled. Soon the people of the city began filling the streets seeking revenge and demanding that political prisoners be executed on the spot. Juarez would not permit this, ensuring the accused a public trial. Those who had sacrificed Ocampo were murderers, but Juarez was leading a people into a new and enlightened era. Upon this principle stood Juarez and his legacy--that government and law are a sacred trust. Even murderers must be treated as the law required.

Not long after Ocampos's death, the great patriot General Santos Degollado, whose untiring efforts had placed Juarez's constitutional government back in power, was also killed. Degollado's replacement, a young officer by the name of Leandro Valle, who had seen the new potential of his country, led the army to put down these insurrections. But he too was killed.

The loss of three top advisors by such tragic events would have shaken any government. Juarez declared a state of emergency and of necessity governed by decree. During this same time Spain, France, and England were demanding payment on the foreign debt that the anti-constitutional revolutionists had borrowed in their attempt to destroy Juarez's constitutional government. On 17 July, Juarez issued a decree suspending temporarily the payment of these debts. The three countries did not accept Juarez's explanation for the delay. They joined their military forces and proceeded to Mexico to force payment. Arriving in Vera Cruz, England and Spain became aware that it was the intent of France not only to force payment but to conquer Mexico. They wanted no part of such a scheme and returned to their own lands. However, the French, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, set about to expand the empire.

Napoleon III was so confident of his army's ability to succeed that he began looking for a monarch to rule the new empire. His choice fell on Maximilian, the great grandson of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. By now the mighty French army had pushed Juarez and his army out of the capitol and as far north as Monterey. Maximilian wanted to rule Mexico only if the people of Mexico voted that they wished to have him as their emperor. While the people voted their acceptance of him, the vote of allegiance had been taken, unknown to Maximilian, at the point of a French bayonet. The results of this vote were delivered to Maximilian by those Mexicans whom Juarez had exiled when he returned to power. They deluded Maximilian into believing that Juarez was a tyrant and that the people of Mexico were begging for a benevolent monarch to rule them.

Maximilian and Princess Carlota arrived in Mexico with the best of intentions, but they were seriously deceived. No country that has once set its hand upon freedom will voluntarily return to servitude. Maximilian did all in his power to become one with Mexico, and as long as the mighty French army gave him support, his position was secure.

The French Empire in Mexico might have lasted much longer, had it not been for the personality of one man--Benito Juarez. The French army had done all in its power to either capture Juarez or push him over the border so that they could say that Juarez no longer had any claim to authority in the country. They did manage to push Juarez as far north as Fl Paso, but he never left Mexico. He was willing to lose his life before crossing the border. "Show me the highest, most inaccessible, and driest mountain," he told his friends, "and I will go to the top of it and die there of hunger and thirst, wrapped in the flag of the Republic, but without leaving the national territory. That never!"12

During this time his life was always in peril, and on at least four occasions he was saved by divine intervention. On one occasion the enemy came within shooting distance of the famous black carriage, which had become the mark of Juarez. They filled the back of it with bullet holes. But there were no bullet holes in Juarez. Another time the town in which Juarez was staying received a surprise attack from the French soldiers. The soldiers searched the town and spied Juarez's black carriage a short distance out of town. The soldiers gave chase and caught the carriage, dragged the driver from his seat, and ripped open the door only to discover that for once Juarez had changed his method of traveling.

This incident was actually the last time the French sought Juarez. With the American Civil War, the threatening neighbor to the north during the days of Manifest Destiny had now become a fellow ally. Secretary of State William Seward had steadfastly refused to recognize Maximilian as the head of Mexico. In recognition of Juarez and his position as president of Mexico, Juarez's wife and his faithful representative Matias Ramirez, both of whom had been living in Washington for safety, were guests at a reception held in their honor by the president of the United States.

Now that the war was over, Secretary of State Seward began pressuring France to remove her troops from the American continent. Seward reinforced this diplomacy by placing the well trained U.S. troops under General Sherman along the Mexican border in a state of readiness. In France, Napoleon III had nearly drained his country's coffers in this imperialistic pursuit. All these events culminated in the almost immediate and complete recall of the French troops. As the French troops diminished, the territory Juarez actually controlled increased until Maximilian maintained control only of the capitol itself. Trapped with a few loyal troops at Queretaro, Maximillian surrendered.

Once again in control of the country, Juarez was flooded with pleas from heads of state and royalty from around the world to spare Maximilian's life. But Juarez had "met the orphans and widows of the patriots; he had seen the torn-up fields, the ruined towns, the wounded men. The pardon of Maximilian would cause the civil war to continue."13 Juarez had to make it clear that no foreign intervention was ever again to be waged. Maximilian had to suffer for the sins of others. His death was the resounding signal to all Europe that the Americas were permanently off limits.

After the exodus of the French, Juarez was promptly re-elected as president. His tenacity and endurance had withstood and won against the great power of France and her armies. Mexico had produced at a critical time its own David to fight Goliath.

As President Juarez set out to make his vision of what the country could be in reality, one of the first freedoms that Juarez restored was freedom of the press. This powerful shaper of public opinion was immediately turned with full force against Juarez. But, like Jefferson, he refused to respond or curtail this liberty. He also reestablished religious liberty.

He began an intensive program of road building, and continued construction of the Mexico City-Vera Cruz railroad. Just as in his days as governor of Oaxaca, Juarez put his energies into building up a national education system.

In 1870, the Prussian army under Otto Bismark crushed the army of France. The fall of Napoleon III was due in large measure to the defeat he suffered in Mexico. Juarez was one of the fIrst heads of state to sign a message of sympathy to the French people. He even gathered six hundred of his army and sent them to help the French in their struggle for freedom. Before they could arrive, an armistice was signed. Juarez was always the defender of liberty, even if it was he liberty of an old enemy. Like Lincoln, to whom he is often compared, Juarez was a true emancipator.

In 1869, Secretary of State William Seward visited Mexico. At a state dinner in a tribute to his host, Seward placed Juarez in the limelight of the American greats, comparing him with Washington, Lincoln, and Bolivar. Later, at a public gathering in Puebla, Seward described Juarez as the greatest man he had ever known. The most fitting tribute of all, however, is not to compare Juarez with others but to compare him with himself--great against ignorance, humble among greats. He is numbered among those apostles of freedom who suffered great persecution for the sake of principle and future.

ADDITIONAL READING

Viva Juarez!by Charles Alien Smart. Philadelphia: Lippincott Co., 1963. Written in story form. Interesting to read and a great book.

NOTES

1 Roeder, Ralph. Juarez and His Mexico. n.p.: Viking Press 1947, p. 5.
2 Ibid., p. 6.
3 Ibid., p. 49.
4 Ibid., p.
5 Blancke, Wendell. Juarez and His Mexico. Washington, D.C.: Praeger Publishers, 1971, p. 40. This is an excellent book on the life of Juarez well researched, written with the best of Juarez in mind and well done for children.
6 Ibid., p. 48.
7 Roeder, p.78.
8 Ibid., p. 81.
9 Ibid,. p. 112.
10 Ibid., p. 116.
11 Clarke, Junes Mitchell. "The People of Mexico, A History for Children." California State Department of Education: Sacramento, Calif., 1957, p. 303. Excellent and well written for children.
12 Roader, p. 602.
13 Johnson, Ada. "The Great Figures of the French Intervention." Masters thesis, University of Arizona, 1942.

This biography is written by Vicki Jo Anderson Copyright 1994 Published by Zichron Historical Research Institute Cottonwood Arizona 86326 and is part of a book entitled "The Other Eminent Men of Wilford Woodruff" ISBN- 0-964254-0-6