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Immigration and Religious Toleration: A Mexican Dilemma 1821–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Dieter Berninger
Dieter Berninger*
Affiliation:
Moorhead State University, Moorhead, Minnesota
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Extract

Three Weeks before the fall of Mexico City and the final victory over its conservative adversaries, the liberal government of Benito Juárez issued a law, on December 4, 1860, establishing freedom of religion in Mexico. Such a law had been a liberal objective throughout the early Reforma period and during the War of the Reform as well. In mid-1859 the Juárez government had issued a manifesto which stated that religious toleration was a requirement for national prosperity. The liberals saw toleration as an important precondition for foreign immigration—and immigration had been an established panacea for national problems since the achievement of independence in 1821. The 1860 law served to vindicate part of the Reforma program. It also sought to resolve almost four decades of debate on the relationship between foreigners, immigration, and religious toleration.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , April 1976 , pp. 549 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1976 

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References

1 Manifesto del Gobierno Constitucional de la Nación. Torre Villar, Ernesto de la, ed., El triunfo de la república liberal (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1960), pp. 100, 110.Google Scholar

2 Gaceta Imperial de México, 6 October 1821, pp. 21–22; 13 December 1821, p. 229.

3 Aquila mexicana, 10 December 1823, p. 3.

4 Ibid., 11 December 1823, pp. 1–2.

5 Ward, Henry George, Mexico in 1827 (London: Henry Colburn, 1828), I, 351–352.Google Scholar Ward thought that in Buenos Aires and Colombia the participation of foreign Protestants in the struggle for independence had been a decisive factor in fostering a more tolerant attitude. In Mexico the goals of the revolution had been reinforced with symbols of a Catholic nature.

6 Ward, I, 350 355.

7 Ritchie, Archivaldo Tucker, Expediente seguido an este santo obispado relativo a mi intentado matrimonio. (Guadalajara: Imprenta de Esteban Alatorre, 29 February 1828), pp. 1–21 Google Scholar passim.

8 Ward, II, 712–713.

9 El Sol, 19 March 1826, pp. 1111–1112.

10 Ibid., 23 June 1826, p. 1498. Since language was always a problem between foreigners and Mexicans, the paper suggested that an Irish priest named Muldoon be retained in the hope that some foreigners could be converted.

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35 Ibid., 25 January 1849, pp. 99–100.

36 Ibid., 31 August 1848, p. 2.

37 Ibid., 12 July 1848, pp. 3–4; 17 July 1848, pp. 3 4; 13 January 1849, pp. 1–2.

38 Ibid., 12 July 1848, pp. 3–4.

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43 Ibid.

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53 Ibid., 15 August 1848, pp. 171–174.

54 El Siglo XIX, 6 February 1849, p. 147.

55 La Voz, 14 October 1848, pp. 437–438.

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66 Ibid., pp. 562–564.

67 Ibid., p. 574. The Mesilla Valley was transferred to the United States through the Gadsden Purchase of 1854. The sale, which gained ten million dollars for Santa Anna, was a favorite target of liberals. Its loss was not even remotely due to intolerance.

68 Ibid., pp. 648 659. Mata claimed that in 1848 Sartorius had readied 30,000 Germans for immigration to Mexico, but when toleration could not be guaranteed they went to the United States instead. Sartorius was a promoter of immigration after the war. See Sartorius, Christian, Importancia de México para la emigración alemana (Mexico, 1852).Google Scholar Both Mata and Gamboa referred to another failure in attracting Germans, in this case to the State of Nuevo León. El Siglo XIX carried copies of the correspondence between representatives of German immigrant groups in the United States and state officials. The Germans asked for guarantees of religious toleration, but Governor Santiago Vidaurri replied that although he was in favor of toleration, the matter rested with the federal government. The plan failed. El Siglo XIX, 4 February 1856, pp. 2–3.

69 An immense number of pamphlets, editorials, petitions and demonstrations accompanied the debate in Congress. For the most part these reflected the content of the debate in the Congress. The anti-tolerationists appear to have had the majority of the printing presses at their disposal.