SEBASTIÁN LERDO DE TEJADA: BIOGRAPHY - HISTORY - 2024

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada (1823 - 1889) was the first president of Mexico born as a Mexican, since he came to the world after the declaration of independence. Before him, all the top leaders of the country had been born under Spanish rule, in the viceroyalty.

Lerdo de Tejada was about to become a priest, but finally political life caught his attention and he was one of the protagonists of the convulsive decades that Mexico lived in the second half of the 19th century. In fact, he is considered one of the most brilliant politicians of the so-called generation of the Reformation.

He was a man with liberal ideas, who always fought to establish a republic that would follow the most advanced ideas that came from Europe. During his time as president, he incorporated the Reform laws into the Constitution, an attempt to modernize the nation legislatively and socially.

Among the political positions that he held are president of the Congress of the Union, head of various ministries, president of the Supreme Court, deputy and president of the Republic. Part of his career was developed alongside Benito Juárez, whom he accompanied on his journey during the French intervention.

Lerdo de Tejada lived through many of the most significant stages in Mexican history, including the Reform of 1854 that led to the Three Years War, the French intervention in 1863, and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire. He also witnessed the return and restoration of the liberal government of Juárez and was also in charge of succeeding the latter as president of Mexico.

The government of Tejada was even more successful than that of Benito Juárez in terms of pacifying the country and the strength that his regime brought to the Mexican state. He had such approval that after his first term as president he ran again and won the elections again.

However, he could not serve his second term because Porfirio Díaz and his accomplices staged a coup and seized the presidential power. Despite this, Lerdo de Tejada's actions earned him a place in history as one of Mexico's most successful presidents.

Childhood and early years

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada was born in the town of Xalapa, in Veracruz, on April 24, 1823. He was not the only one in his family who devoted himself to politics, since his brother Miguel was a prominent liberal leader and was in charge of writing the Lerdo Law, which removed the rights to own property from all types of corporations within the country.

Sebastián combined his grammar studies with working in his father's store. The good academic results made him get a scholarship to the Palafoxiano School, located in Puebla.

Sebastián studied theology for five years in Puebla and prepared to become a priest. However, he decided not to opt for celibacy and instead devoted himself to studying law. He graduated from the prestigious San Ildefonso College in Mexico City and even became the director of this institution with only 29 years old, from 1852 to 1863.

Lerdo de Tejada was a highly recognized student, studying a total of 15 years in which he received countless awards and honorable mentions.

Political beginnings

After graduating and becoming an expert in jurisprudence, Lerdo de Tejada was appointed attorney of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice and at the end of 1855, he also became a magistrate during the term of the interim president Juan Álvarez.

Although his brother was quite recognized, there is no record of the relationship they had with each other. In fact, they may not have hit it off very much. Both were important Mexican politicians and helped the legal growth of the country in the post-independence era.

At the end of 1856, a serious incident occurred that worsened relations between Mexico and Spain. A gang of thieves murdered five Spaniards by birth and the Spanish authorities demanded that they be punished promptly.

During these events, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada was appointed Minister of Foreign Relations, but he did not last long in office and was replaced shortly after his establishment.

Although short, his stay as Minister was not calm. With Comonfort in charge of the country after the interim presidency of Juan Álvarez, the US government made offers to annex Mexican territory near the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but Tejada rejected the offers with the support of President Comonfort.

Changes in the Mexican government

When Comonfort decided to renew all positions to have new advisers for his constitutional government in 1857, Lerdo de Tejada and all the members of the political cabinet abandoned their positions.

At the end of that same year, Comonfort accepted the Plan of Tacubaya led by Zuloaga and members of the conservative party to put aside the radical reforms of Benito Juárez.

After a year of the conservative government of Félix Zuloaga, at the end of 1858 the Ayutla Plan was carried out, to remove him from power. Zuloaga gave in to this plan after being exposed to a great deal of pressure, and Lerdo de Tejada took a position on the temporary governing board to select a new president.

However, Tejada did not show up for most of the board meetings. Lerdo de Tejada was openly liberal and refused to be part of a plan carried out by the conservatives.

He maintained a neutral posture throughout the development of the events leading up to the end of the Three Years' War, which has been going on since 1857. During this period of conflict, Lerdo de Tejada kept a low profile and did not take any specifically important action.

End of the civil war and return to politics

When the civil war ended and Benito Juárez returned to assume the absolute presidency of the country in 1861, Lerdo de Tejada was appointed deputy of Congress.

There he made a reputation as an upright and accurate speaker: every time he took the stand with the right to speak, he did not embellish his arguments and went straight to express his point. He was asked to speak very often and gained a large following in this period; while he was still director of the San Ildefonso school.

Lerdo de Tejada made a decision that was, indirectly, one of the causes of the second French intervention in Mexico and the subsequent creation of the Second Mexican Empire.

After the end of the civil war, Mexico owed a lot of money to Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. Benito Juárez and his government approved a reform that suspended the payment of taxes to these countries for two years, and when they were trying to reach an agreement (which did not favor Mexico), Lerdo de Tejada intervened and refused.

The French invaded Mexico and during the 6 years of the intervention; Lerdo de Tejada stayed in the company of Benito Juárez and the liberal politicians who accompanied him. In fact, Lerdo de Tejada was considered the main adviser of Juárez.

French expulsion from Mexico

Lerdo de Tejada had a fundamental role in expelling the French from Mexico. During the course of the war, he maintained contact and requested support from the United States Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The North American country helped Mexico get rid of the invaders, partly thanks to Tejada and partly because the Americans did not want any European presence in America.

In 1867, Mexico was able to completely repel the invaders with the help of American troops. In June of that same year, the Austrian Maximiliano I, who would have been in charge of governing Mexico if the French took the country, was executed. Nationalism was strongly accentuated after this event.

It is said that Juárez's main idea was to forgive Maximiliano I, but Lerdo de Tejada convinced him that the best they could do was execute him. However, this information could never be confirmed.

The Restoration

The political period that developed in Mexico after the end of the war against the French is called La Restauración, and includes the years from 1867 until Porfirio Díaz took power in 1876.

When the war ended, Díaz was an important general in the Mexican army under Benito Juárez. Lerdo de Tejada was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and held that position throughout Juárez's term.

In 1871, it would be time to return to the elections and Lerdo started as one of the three favorite candidates, the other being Porfirio Díaz and Juárez himself, who was seeking reelection.

Juárez obtained the majority and Porfirio Díaz, in disagreement with his victory, decided to implement the Plan de la Noria, which aimed to overthrow Juárez and change the flow of power in the country. However, this plan failed miserably and Díaz was sent into exile.

After the victory of Juárez in the elections of 1871, Lerdo de Tejada returned to the Supreme Court as president of the same. This meant that in 1872, when Benito Juárez died of a heart attack, Lerdo obtained the presidency on an interim basis, while new elections were called.

The Juárez government was marked by freedom of the press, of speech and of deed. Díaz was against this when he rose to overthrow the regime, because the military thought it was time to rule with a heavy hand after the French eviction from Mexico.

Presidency of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada

When he was assigned the position of interim president when Benito Juárez passed away, Lerdo de Tejada fit the bill perfectly. Shortly after, when the elections were held and now without a clear rival, Lerdo de Tejada won the victory and proclaimed himself constitutional president of Mexico.

He maintained practically the same presidential cabinet as Juárez during his presidency and sought to establish order and peace in the country, although he had to use military force to achieve it.

In fact, it is considered that he did manage to pacify Mexico during his presidency, and one of the main reasons for having done so was the military movement he executed against Manuel Lozada.

Lozada was a caudillo of the region who maintained strong ties with the French regime and had supported the Mexican Empire of Maximiliano I. Lozada had a lot of power in the area and it was impossible for Lerdo de Tejada to strip him for good.

When the federal troops attacked their territory, they managed to capture the caudillo; who was executed after the attack.

Plays

Lerdo de Tejada continued the works that Benito Juárez had started in his government, where it is worth highlighting the construction of rails throughout the national territory.

Lerdo is seen as having conflicting policies when it comes to areas that had rail construction priority: At first, he refused to bring rails to the US border, but at the end of his term he pushed for them to be built. Many saw this with bad eyes because they thought that Lerdo de Tejada had been "bought" by the Americans.

In addition, it incorporated the old Laws of the Reform (which would previously have led to the civil war of 1857) into the new constitution, promulgated by Lerdo de Tejada in 1873. It expelled various religious groups from the country and also reestablished the Senate in Mexico, who had not operated for several years.

One of his most important actions was his adherence to the law rather than to the parties. In fact, he walked away from several of his former beneficiaries because he did not want to get involved with any political party, but to remain neutral and support only the constitution.

Ironically, the Supreme Court that Lerdo himself presided over before coming to power was one of his main obstacles, since they prevented him from carrying out various reforms that he wanted. By then, the president of the Court was José María Iglesias.

Lerdo de Tejada wanted to do more for the country, but Mexico did not have sufficient monetary funds to pay for many of his plans and did not have the support of the Supreme Court.

Re-election and start of the Porfiriato

After Lerdo de Tejada ran for the elections of 1876, he again won a strong victory. This time, Porfirio Díaz started another revolution in Mexico and José María Iglesias, who was president of the Supreme Court, also rebelled against the power. Porfirio Díaz obtained the presidency after his uprising and Lerdo de Tejada left Mexico City.

He spent the rest of his life in self-imposed exile in New York. There he learned English on his own and practiced as a lawyer serving both Mexicans and Americans themselves.

Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada died on April 21, 1889. Porfirio Díaz requested that Lerdo's body be returned to Mexico, where he was buried with honors in the Dolores cemetery, in the Rotunda of Illustrious Men.

The lack of appreciation that Lerdo de Tejada had after his death is attributed to Porfirio Díaz himself and his followers, who did everything possible to keep his achievements low profile.

This measure was taken in order not to give importance to any other political figure but to focus the public's attention entirely on the Porfiriato.

References

1. Museum of the constitutions. Decree that incorporates the Reform Laws to the Constitution of 1857. By Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. Recovered from museodelasconstituciones.unam.mx
2. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. Retrieved from britannica.com
3. Soylent Communications. Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. Retrieved from nndb.com
4. Moody Wells, Deborah. Lerdo de Tejada, Sebastian. Retrieved from historicaltextarchive.com
5. Ford, Tom. Miguel Lerdo de Tejada. Retrieved from celebritybio.org