Benito Juárez

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For other uses, see Benito Juárez (disambiguation).
This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family
name is Juárez and the second or maternal family name is García.

Benito Juárez

26th President of Mexico

In office
15 January 1858 – 18 July 1872

Preceded by Ignacio Comonfort

Succeeded by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada

President of the Mexican Supreme Court

In office

11 December 1857 – 15 January 1858

Preceded by Luis de la Rosa Oteiza

Succeeded by José Ignacio Pavón

Secretary of the Interior of Mexico

In office

3 November 1857 – 11 December 1857

President Ignacio Comonfort

Preceded by José María Cortés

Succeeded by José María Cortés

Governor of Oaxaca

In office

10 January 1856 – 3 November 1857

Preceded by José María García

Succeeded by José María Díaz

In office

2 October 1847 – 12 August 1852

Preceded by Francisco Ortiz Zárate

Succeeded by Lope San Germán

Secretary of Public Education of Mexico

In office

6 October 1855 – 9 December 1855

President Juan Álvarez

Preceded by José María Durán

 Succeeded by Ramón Isaac Alcaraz

Personal details

Born Benito Pablo Juárez García

21 March 1806

San Pablo Guelatao, Oaxaca, New Spain

Died 18 July 1872 (aged 66)

Mexico City, Mexico

Resting place Panteón de San Fernando

Nationality Mexican

Political party Liberal Party

Margarita Maza
Spouse(s) (m. 1826; died 1871)

Alma mater Sciences and Arts Institute of Oaxaca

Profession Lawyer, judge

Signature

Benito Pablo Juárez García (Spanish: [beˈnito ˈpaβlo ˈxwaɾes gaɾˈsi.a] ( listen); 21

March 1806 – 18 July 1872)[1][2] was a Mexican lawyer and politician, who served as
the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in 1872. Born in Oaxaca to a
poor rural family of Zapotec origin, he became a well-educated urban professional
and politician who married a socially prominent woman of Oaxaca City, Margarita
Maza.[3] He identified primarily as a Liberal and wrote only briefly about his
indigenous heritage.[4]
When moderate liberal President Ignacio Comonfort was forced to resign by
the Conservatives in 1858, Juárez, as head of the Supreme Court, assumed the
 presidency following the succession codified in the Constitution of 1857. He
weathered the War of the Reform (1858–60), a civil war between the Liberals and
the Conservatives, and then the French invasion (1861–1867), which was
supported by Conservative monarchists. Never relinquishing office although forced
into exile to areas of Mexico not controlled by the French, Juárez tied Liberalism to
Mexican nationalism and maintained that he was the legitimate head of the
Mexican state, rather than Emperor Maximilian. When the French-backed Second
Mexican Empire fell in 1867, the Mexican Republic with Juárez as president was
restored to full power.[5][6][7] For his success in ousting the European incursion, Latin
Americans considered his time in power as a "second struggle for independence, a
second defeat for the European powers, and a second reversal of the Conquest." [8]
Juárez is now revered in Mexico as "a preeminent symbol of Mexican nationalism
and resistance to foreign intervention." [9] Juárez was a practical and skilled
politician, controversial in his lifetime and beyond. He had an understanding of the
importance of a working relationship with the United States, and secured its
recognition for his liberal government during the War of the Reform. Although many
of his positions shifted during his political life, he held fast to particular principles
including the supremacy of civil power over the Catholic Church and part of the
military; respect for law; and the de-personalization of political life. [10] In his lifetime
he sought to strengthen the national government and asserted the supremacy of
central power over states, a position that both radical and provincial liberals
opposed.[11] He was the subject of polemical attacks both in his lifetime and beyond.
However, the place of Juárez in Mexican historical memory has enshrined him as a
major Mexican hero, beginning in his own lifetime. [12]
His birthday (March 21) is a national public and patriotic holiday in Mexico. He is
the only individual Mexican so honored.

Contents

 1Early life and education

 2Political career
o 2.1Early political career in Oaxaca
o 2.2The Liberal Reform
o 2.3Interim President (1857-1861)
o 2.4Constitutional Presidency (1861-1862)
 3French Intervention (1861–67)
 4Restored Republic (1867-1872)
 5Death
 6Legacy
 7Historical memory
 8Quotes
 9Ancestry
 10See also
 11Further reading
 12References
 13External links

Early life and education[edit]

Juárez with his sister Pe Nela (left) and wife Margarita.

Casa de Juárez, the Maza residence to which Juárez fled in Oaxaca City, now a museum

Juárez was born on 21 March 1806, in a small adobe house in San Pablo

Guelatao, Oaxaca, located in the mountain range now known as the Sierra Juárez.
His parents, Brígida García and Marcelino Juárez, were Zapotec peasants and
died of complications of diabetes when he was three years old. Shortly afterward,
his grandparents died as well, so after that his uncle raised him. [13][14] He described
his parents as "indios de la raza primitiva del país," that is, "Indians of the original
race of the country."[14] He worked in the cornfields and as a shepherd until the age
of 12, when he walked to the city of Oaxaca to attend school.[7] At the time, he could
speak only Zapotec. In the city, where his sister worked as a cook, he took a job as
a domestic servant for Antonio Maza.[7]
His formal education began when a lay Franciscan and bookbinder, Antonio
Salanueva, was impressed by Juárez's intelligence and desire for learning.
Salanueva arranged for his placement at the city's seminary so that he could train
to become a priest. His earlier education was rudimentary, but he began studying
Latin, completing the secondary curriculum too young to be ordained. Juárez had
no calling to become a priest and began studying law at the Institute of Sciences
and Arts, founded in 1827 in the state capital. It was a center of liberal intellectual
life in Oaxaca and Juárez graduated from it in 1834. Even prior to his graduation,
he sought political office, and was elected to the Oaxaca city council in 1831. In
1841, he was appointed a civil judge.[9]
In 1843, when he was in his late 30s, Juárez married Margarita Maza, the daughter
of his sister's patron. The family was of European origin and part of Oaxaca's
upper-class society. With the marriage Juárez gained social standing. Margarita
Maza accepted his proposal and said of Juárez, "He is very homely, but very
good."[15] Their ethnically mixed marriage was historically unusual, but not often
noted in standard biographies. However, Enrique Krauze notes: "In this uncommon
instance, a white woman had been conquered by an Indian, not a native woman by
a Spaniard."[16] Their marriage lasted until her death from cancer in 1871. Juárez
and Maza had twelve children together, five of whom died in early childhood;
Juárez also fathered two children with Juana Rosa Chagoya before he married;
Tereso, who was close to Juárez during his expatriations and fought in the Reform
War, and Susana, who was adopted and attended her step-mother's death. [17][18] His
wife's remains are buried in the Juárez mausoleum in Mexico City.

Political career[edit]
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Early political career in Oaxaca[edit]

Valentin Gómez Farías, who instigated a liberal reform in 1833, which Juárez supported.

Juárez's experiences in political life in Oaxaca were crucial to his later success as
a leader. His political affiliation with liberalism developed at the Institute of Arts and
Science and his ability to rise in Oaxaca state politics was due to the lack of an
entrenched political class of criollos, Mexicans of European descent. The relative
openness of the system allowed him and other newcomers to enter politics and
gain patronage.[19] He developed a political base and gained an understanding of
political maneuvering. Following Juárez's graduation as a lawyer in 1834 and
service as a civil judge in 1841, he became part of the Oaxaca state government,
led by liberal governor Antonio León (1841–1845). [20] He became a prosecutor in
the Oaxaca state court and was then elected to the state legislature in 1845.
Juárez was subsequently elected to the federal legislature, where he
supported Valentín Gómez Farías, who instigated liberal reforms including
limitations on the power of the Catholic Church. With the return to the presidency
of Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1847, Juárez returned to Oaxaca.[9][21] He was
elected governor of the state of Oaxaca from 1847 to 1852. During his tenure as
governor, he supported the war effort against the U.S. in the Mexican–American
War, but seeing the war was lost, he refused Antonio López de Santa Anna's
request to regroup and raise new forces. This, as well as his objections to the
corrupt military dictatorship of Santa Anna, led to his exile to New Orleans in 1853,
where he worked in a cigar factory.[22][23] Other Santa Anna opponents were also in
exile there, including Melchor Ocampo of Michoacan, who was fiercely anticlerical.
[24]
 In 1854, Juárez helped draft the liberals' Plan of Ayutla, a document calling for
Santa Anna's being deposed from power and the calling of a convention to draft a
new constitution. Faced with growing opposition, Santa Anna was forced to resign
in 1855.
The Liberal Reform[edit]

Juan Álvarez, liberal strongman, who formed a provisional government after the ouster of Santa Anna in
1855.

With Santa Anna's resignation, Juárez had returned to Mexico and became part of
the activist liberales (Liberals). A provisional government was formed under
General Juan Álvarez, inaugurating the period known as La Reforma, or Liberal
Reform. Juárez served as Minister of Justice and ecclesiastical affairs, and it was
during this time that Juárez drafted the law named after him, the Juárez Law, which
declared all citizens equal before the law and restricted the privileges (fueros) of
the Catholic Church and the Mexican army. President Álvarez signed the draft into
law in 1855.[25] The Reform laws sponsored by the puro (pure) wing of the Liberal
Party curtailed the power of the Catholic Church, confiscating Church land, and
restricting the military, while trying to create a modern civil society and capitalist
economy based on the model of the United States. The Ley Juárez was
subsequently incorporated into the Mexican Constitution of 1857, but Juárez had
no role in that document's drafting, since he had returned to Oaxaca where he
served again as governor.[25]
The new liberal Constitution of 1857 was promulgated and the new
President, Ignacio Comonfort, appointed Juárez as Minister of Government in
November 1857. He was then elected President of the Supreme Court of Justice,
an office that virtually put its holder as the successor to the President of the
Republic.[25] Conservatives led by General Félix María Zuloaga, with the backing of
the military and the clergy and under the slogan Religión y Fueros (Religion and
Privileges), launched a revolt under the Plan of Tacubaya on 17 December 1857.
Comonfort sought to placate the conservative rebels by appointing several
conservatives to the Cabinet, dissolving the Congress, and implementing most of
the Plan of Tacubaya. Juárez, Ignacio Olvera, and many other liberal deputies and
ministers were arrested. The actions did not go far enough for the rebels, and on
11 January 1858, Zuloaga demanded Comonfort's resignation. Comonfort then re-
established the Congress, liberated all prisoners, and then resigned as President.
The conservative forces proclaimed Zuloaga as President on 21 January.
Interim President (1857-1861)[edit]
Under the terms of the 1857 Constitution, the President of the Supreme Court of
Justice became interim President of Mexico until a new election could be held.
Juárez was thus acknowledged as president by liberals on 15 January 1858 and
assumed leadership of the Liberal side of the civil war known as the War of the
Reform (Guerra de Reforma), (1858–60), a bloody war that saw Mexico with rival
governments under Juárez and the conservatives under Félix María Zuloaga.
With the conservatives in control of Mexico City, Juárez and his government fled,
first to Querétaro and later to Veracruz, whose customs revenues were used to
fund the government's expenditure.
On 4 May 4 1858, Juárez arrived in Veracruz[26] where the government of Manuel
Gutiérrez Zamora was stationed with General Ignacio de la Llave. His wife and
children were waiting for his arrival on the dock of the Veracruz’s port, along with a
large part of the population that had flooded the pier to greet him.
Juárez lived many months in Veracruz without incident until conservative
General Miguel Miramón’s attack on the port on March 30, 1859. On April 6th,
Juárez received a diplomatic representative of the United States
Government: Robert Milligan McLane. Following this visit, a treaty between the
U.S. and Juárez's government, the McLane-Ocampo Treaty, was signed in
December 1859, although President James Buchanan was unable to secure
ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate.
For Juárez's later reputation, the failure of the U.S. to ratify the treaty meant that
Mexico's sovereignty was not undermined by giving free passage to the U.S.
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nevertheless, the aid received enabled the
liberals to overcome the conservatives' initial military advantage; Juárez's
government successfully defended Veracruz from assault twice during 1860 and
recaptured Mexico City on 1 January 1861.
On July 12 of 1859, Juárez decreed the first regulations of the "Law of
Nationalization of the Ecclesiastical Wealth." This enactment prohibited
the Catholic Church from having properties in Mexico.[27] Because of Juárez's Law
of Nationalization, the Catholic Church and the regular army supported the
Conservatives in the Reform War. On the other hand, the Liberals had the support
of several state governments in the north and central-west of the country, as well
as that of Buchanan's government.
Due to the initial weakness of the Juárez administration, conservatives Félix María
Zuloaga and Leonardo Márquez had the opportunity to reclaim power. To counter
this, Juárez petitioned Congress to give him emergency powers. The liberal
members of Congress denied the petition, with the main argument being that the
country was under a current constitutional government that had been achieved
only through a very bloody civil war. It was not consistent for Juárez, who had
implemented that constitution, now to wish to violate the legal functions of the
Constitution by giving himself dictatorial powers.
But, after two groups of conservatives ambushed and killed major liberal
politician Ocampo and later Santos Degollado in 1861, the liberals were outraged
and Juárez took "extreme measures" to deal with the conservatives. After the
scandal of Ocampo's murder, the liberal-majority Congress gave Juárez the money
and power that he needed to defeat the conservatives. [28]
Constitutional Presidency (1861-1862)[edit]

Picture of Benito Juárez, 1861-1862. Nacional History Museum. Castle of Chapultepec.

After the defeat of the Conservatives on the battlefield, in March 1861 elections
were held with Juárez elected President in his own right under the Constitution of
1857. However, the Liberals' celebrations of 1861 were short-lived. The war had
severely damaged Mexico's infrastructure and crippled its economy. Even though
the Conservatives had been defeated, they would not disappear, and the Juárez
government had to respond to pressures from these factions. He was forced to
grant amnesty to captured Conservative guerrillas still resisting the Juárez
government, even though they had executed captured Liberals, including Melchor
Ocampo and Santos Degollado.
In the wake of the civil war and the demobilization of combatants, Juárez
established the Rural Guard or Rurales, aimed at bringing public security,
particularly as banditry and rural unrest grew. Many brigands and bandits had
allied themselves with the Liberal cause during the civil war. With that conflict
concluded, many became guerrillas and bandits again, when the government jobs
they demanded as rewards for their services to the Republic were not forthcoming.
Juárez's Minister of the Interior, Francisco Zarco, oversaw the founding of
the Rurales. The creation of the police force controlled by the President was done
quietly because it violated federalist principles of traditional Liberalism, which gave
little power to the central government and much to Mexican states. The force's
creation was an indication that Juárez was becoming more of a centralist as he
confronted rural unrest. As a pragmatic solution, the force consisted of former
bandits converted into policemen.[29]

Official portrait of Benito Juárez as the President, 19th century.

Juárez's government also faced international dangers. In view of the government's

desperate financial straits, Juárez canceled repayments of interest on foreign loans
that had been taken out by the defeated conservatives. Spain, Britain and France,
angry over unpaid Mexican debts, sent a joint expeditionary force that seized the
Veracruz Customs House in December 1861. Spain and Britain soon withdrew
after they realized that the French Emperor Napoleon III intended to overthrow the
Juárez government and establish a Second Mexican Empire, with the support of
the remnants of the Conservative side in the Reform War. Thus began the French
invasion in 1861 and the outbreak of an even longer war, with Liberals attempting
to oust the foreign invaders and their Conservative allies and save the Republic.
French Intervention (1861–67)[edit]
Although republican forces under Ignacio Zaragoza won an initial victory over the
monarchists on 5 May 1862, the Battle of Puebla, celebrated annually as Cinco de
Mayo, forcing the French to retreat to the coast for a year, the French advanced
again in 1863, and captured Mexico City. Juárez and his elected government fled
the capital and became a government in exile, with little power or territorial control.
Juárez headed north, first to San Luis Potosí, then to the arid northern city of El
Paso del Norte, present day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and finally to the capital of
the state, Chihuahua City, where he set up his cabinet. There, he would remain for
the next two and a half years. Meanwhile, Maximilian von Habsburg, younger
brother of Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, was proclaimed Emperor
as Maximilian I of Mexico on 20 April 1864 with the backing of Napoleon III and a
group of Mexican conservatives.
Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his
presidency, which would go into effect in 1865, when his term expired, and would
last until 1867, when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated.

Sculpture of Juárez in the Historic Center of Oaxaca. Juárez holds a Mexican flag with one hand and
with the other is pointing at Maximilian's Crown which remains in the soil, representing the defeat of
imperialism.

In response to the French invasion and the elevation of Maximilian as Emperor of

Mexico with the support of Mexican conservatives, Juárez sent General Plácido
Vega y Daza to California to gather Mexican American sympathy for the plight of
republican Mexico. Maximilian offered Juárez amnesty and later even the post of
prime minister, but Juárez refused to accept a government "imposed by foreigners"
or a monarchy. The government of the United States was sympathetic to Juárez,
refusing to recognize Maximilian and opposing the French invasion as a violation of
the Monroe Doctrine, but its attention was entirely taken up by the American Civil
War. Juárez's wife, Margarita Maza, and their children spent the invasion in exile in
New York where she met several times with U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who
received her as the First Lady of Mexico. Although much has been made of a
connection between Juárez and Abraham Lincoln, as two presidents who shared
humble social origins, a law career, a rapidly-ascending political career in their
home states, and a presidency that began under the auspices of a civil war that
made long-lasting reform a necessity, they never met nor exchanged
correspondence.[30] Following the end of the war, U.S. President Andrew
Johnson demanded the French evacuate Mexico and imposed a naval blockade in
February 1866.
When Johnson could get no support in Congress, he allegedly had the Army "lose"
some supplies (including rifles) "near" (across) the border with Mexico, according
to U.S. General Philip Sheridan's journal account.[31][page  needed] In his memoirs, Sheridan
stated that he had supplied arms and ammunition to Juárez's forces: "... which we
left at convenient places on our side of the river to fall into their hands". [32]
Faced with US opposition to a French presence and a growing threat on the
European mainland from Prussia, French troops began pulling out of Mexico in late
1866. Maximilian's liberal views had cost him support from Mexican conservatives
as well. In 1867, the last of the Emperor's forces were defeated and Maximilian
was sentenced to death by a military court, a retaliation for Maximilian's earlier
orders for the execution of republican soldiers (although some historians point to
the fact that the original "Black Decree" was from Juárez – who had people
executed, without trial, for "helping" his enemies, whereas Maximilian often
pardoned people who had actually fought against him). Despite national and
international pleas for amnesty, Juárez refused to commute the sentence, and
Maximilian was executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867 at Cerro de las
Campanas in Querétaro. His last words had been "¡Viva México!". His body was
returned to Vienna for burial.

Restored Republic (1867-1872)[edit]

Daguerreotype of Benito Juárez as president of Mexico.

The period following the expulsion of the French and up to the revolt of Porfirio
Díaz in 1876 are now commonly known in Mexico as the Restored Republic. The
period includes the last years of the Juárez presidency and following his death in
1872, that of fellow civilian politician Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. Juárez did not
leave power following the end of the French invasion. He won in a relatively clean
election in 1867 and immediately requested and obtained special powers from
Congress to rule by decree.
In 1867, liberals' old nemesis, General Antonio López de Santa Anna and
President of the Republic multiple times, sought to return to Mexico from exile. The
U.S. had pledged support Juárez, and prevented him from disembarking in
Veracruz, his home region and political base. Veracruz was still in French imperial
hands when he attempted to land in June 1867, and the possibility that he might
liberate the port from them was a distinct possibility, which could have paved the
way for a political comeback threatening Juárez. Juárez diverted him and he
landed in Sisal, Yucatan, where Juárez had him arrested before a military court on
14 July 1867. He was accused of being a traitor to Mexico and Juárez sought the
use of the law of 25 January 1862 that mandated death for traitors, a fate for
Maximilian and two of his generals. The military tribunal decided that Santa Anna
should be sentenced to eight years of further exile. Juárez was fully expecting
Santa Anna to be executed. Juárez had all of Santa Anna's landed property
confiscated and sold off. Juárez issued a general amnesty for all political
opponents in October 1870, but explicitly excluded Santa Anna for its provisions.
Santa Anna responded angrily, listing his many heroic military deeds for the patria,
asking contemptuously where the civilian Juárez was then, calling him a "dark
Indian," a "hyena," and "a symbol of cruelty." Only when Juáárez died in office was
Santa Anna able to return to Mexico. [33]
He began instituting major reforms that had constitutional force because of the
Constitution of 1857 that could not be implemented due to the War of the Reform
1858–1860, and the French Intervention (1862–67). One such reform was in
education. An elite preparatory school was founded in Mexico City in 1868,
the National Preparatory School.
Juárez once again ran for re-election in 1871, but not without opposition, from
Lerdo de Tejada and from liberal General Porfirio Díaz under the Plan of la Noria.
Juárez's enemies also joined Díaz's revolt for their own reasons. [34] The 1871
election was thrown to congress to decide, and since it was packed with his
supporters, he prevailed. Amid fraud charges and widespread controversy, he was
re-elected for a new term in 1871. During his last two terms, he used the office of
the presidency to ensure electoral success, obtain personal gains and suppress
revolts by opponents.
On February 7, 1866, Juarez was elected as a Companion of the Third Class (i.e.
honorary member) of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). MOLLUS is a hereditary military
society originally composed of officers who served in the Union armed forces
during the American Civil War and now composed of their descedants. Juarez was
one of the very few foreigners to be elected to membership in the Order. He was
assigned MOLLUS insignia number 156.

Death[edit]

Tomb of Benito Juárez. The remains of his wife Margarita Maza are buried in the same mausoleum.

Juárez died of a heart attack on July 18, 1872, while reading a newspaper at his
desk in the National Palace in Mexico City, aged 66. He was succeeded
by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, the head of the Supreme Court and a close political
ally.

Legacy[edit]
Monument to Juárez in central Mexico City, built by his old political rival Porfirio Díaz to commemorate
the centenary of Juárez's 1806 birth.

Today Benito Juárez is remembered as being a progressive reformer dedicated to

democracy, equal rights for his nation's indigenous peoples, his antipathy toward
organized religion, especially the Catholic Church, and what he regarded as
defense of national sovereignty. He is also remembered for his brutality and his
executions of political opponents. The period of his leadership is known in Mexican
history as La Reforma del Norte (The Reform of the North), and constituted a
liberal political and social revolution with major institutional consequences: the
expropriation of church lands, the subordination of the army to civilian control,
liquidation of peasant communal land holdings, the separation of church and state
in public affairs, and also the almost-complete disenfranchisement of bishops,
priests, nuns and lay brothers, codified in the "Juárez Law" or "Ley Juárez".[35]
La Reforma represented the triumph of Mexico's liberal, federalist, anti-clerical, and
pro-capitalist forces over the conservative, centralist, corporatist,
and theocratic elements that sought to reconstitute a locally-run version of the old
colonial system. It replaced a semi-feudal social system with a more market-driven
one, but following Juárez's death, the lack of adequate democratic and institutional
stability soon led to a return to centralized autocracy and economic exploitation
under the regime of Porfirio Díaz. The Porfiriato (1876–1911), in turn, collapsed at
the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.