José María Iglesias

Career

Iglesias became a professor of jurisprudence at the College of San Gregorio and collaborated on a newspaper opposed to the regime of Antonio López de Santa Anna. In 1846 he served as a city councilman in Mexico City, and after the U.S. invasion that year he was named to the Supreme Military Tribunal. At the war's end, he took an important position in the Treasury Department under Mariano Arista. Elected to Congress in 1852, he gained a reputation for eloquence and constitutional law knowledge.

Political career

In 1856 he became chief clerk of the Treasury Department under President Ignacio Comonfort, then secretary of justice from January to May 1857, drafting the law barring the Church from holding landed property. From May to September 1857 he was secretary of the treasury, and on 16 September 1857 he was elected by popular vote a justice of the Supreme Court. Throughout the Reform War (1857–61) he defended the Liberal cause in the press. When Puebla fell to the French on 17 May 1863, President Benito Juárez abandoned Mexico City, and Iglesias accompanied him.

In Juárez's cabinet

In September, Juárez named him secretary of justice, a post he held until the Republican government returned to the capital in 1867; during this period he also served as secretary of the treasury for part of the time, moving constantly to avoid capture by Imperialists. After the return, he was again elected to Congress, became president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1867, served as secretary of the interior from September 1868 to October 1869, and later again as secretary of justice.

As interim president

In 1871 he retired for health reasons but returned in 1872, and in July 1873 he was elected president of the Supreme Court. When Congress declared President Lerdo re-elected on 26 September 1876, Iglesias declared the election illegal due to fraud and claimed the presidency as constitutional successor. Forced to flee the capital after his supporters were arrested, he went to Guanajuato, where Governor Florencio Antillón and other military commanders recognized him as president.

In Salamanca he issued a manifesto announcing his assumption of the government and named a cabinet. By December, the states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Jalisco and San Luis Potosí had recognized him. After Lerdo abandoned the capital following the Battle of Tecoac, Díaz and Iglesias negotiated, but talks broke down over Iglesias's refusal to recognize the Plan de Tuxtepec. Díaz marched against him; Iglesias installed his government in Guadalajara on 2 January 1877, but his forces under Antillón were defeated at Los Adobes.

Later life

He fled with his cabinet and General Ceballos to Manzanillo, Colima, and sailed for the United States on 16 January. In New York he wrote La Cuestión Presidencial de 1876 defending his claims. He returned to Mexico in 1878 without problems, declined several important government offers, and worked as editor-in-chief of various journals. He published Apuntes para la historia de la guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos (1848) and Revistas Históricas sobre la Intervención Francesa (1870); his autobiography appeared in 1893.

He died in Tacubaya, Mexico City, on 17 December 1891. In 1987 President Miguel de la Madrid ordered his remains transferred to the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres.