Biography of Múzquiz, Melchor - Archontology
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Múzquiz, Melchor

José Ventura Melchor Ciriaco de Eca y Múzquiz de Arrieta

b. 6 Apr 1788, Santa Rosa de Lima [now Múzquiz], Coahuila
d. 14 Dec 1844, Mexico City

Title: Presidente Interino de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Interim President of the Mexican United States)
Term: 14 Aug 1832 - 27 Dec 1832
Chronology: 7 Aug 1832, elected, session of the Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies), Mexico City [1]
  14 Aug 1832, took an oath of office, session of the Congreso General, salon de la Cámara de Diputados, Mexico City [2]
  27 Dec 1832, ceased to exercise the functions of office [3][4]
Biography:
Born into a prominent family of the Province of Coahuila; attended local school in Santa Rosa; studied law at the College of San Ildefonso in Mexico City (1810-1811); abandoned his studies to join the struggle for independence (1811); promoted to lieutenant in insurgent army in 1812; progressed in ranks and was promoted to colonel in 1815; captured by the loyalists in 1815 and sentenced to death; pardoned and detained in Monterrey; proclaimed independence in Salinas, Nuevo León (2 Jul 1821); supported the Plan of Iguala; elected to the Congreso Constituyente (1822-1823) as a representative of the province of Mexico; appointed supreme political chief of the Province of Mexico (9 Dec 1823 - 4 Mar 1824); elected (3 Mar 1824) and sworn in (4 Mar 1824) as lieutenant governor of the State of Mexico; exercised the duties of governor during the absence of governor-elect Manuel Gómez Pedraza (resignation accepted 14 Sep 1824); declined the appointment as minister plenipotentiary to the United States (1824); elected and sworn in (17 Sep 1824) as governor of the State of Mexico (17 Sep 1824 - 9 Mar 1827); promulgated the first Constitution of the State of Mexico (26 Feb 1827); resigned as governor (accepted 8 Mar 1827, left office 9 Mar 1827); promoted to brigadier general (1827); named inspector general of the militia (1828); received two votes of the legislatures in the presidential election of 1 Sep 1828; appointed military commander of Puebla (1828); joined forces with Vicente Filisola to resist the pronunciamientos in favour of Vicente Guerrero in Puebla nd Oaxaca (1828); adhered to the Plan of Jalapa (4 Dec 1829) launched by the Reserve Army against President Guerrero; appointed interim governor of the State of Mexico (28 Apr 1830) and later elected by the legislature (1 Oct 1830) for the four-year term beginning 31 Mar 1831; elected Interim President of the Mexican United States (14 Aug 1832 - 27 Dec 1832) to serve during the absence of President Anastasio Bustamante; accepted the election (message dated 9 Aug 1832, Toluca) and handed the office of governor to lieutenant governor Manuel Muria (9 Aug 1832); despite the signing of the Zabaleta Accords (23 Dec 1832) which recognised Gómez Pedraza as legitimate president, he remained in office; facing a revolt of the garrison of Mexico City (27 Dec 1832), he left the presidency; discharged from military service for his opposition to the Zabaleta Accords (23 Feb 1833); reinstated as general (18 Jul 1834); served as director general of the artillery corps (1835-1836); during the centralist republic, he was appointed president of the Supreme Tribunal of War and Marine (1836-1837); elected a member of the Supreme Court Martial (1837-1839); elected a member of the Supreme Conservative Power (Supremo Poder Conservador, 1837-1841); president of the Supreme Conservative Power (1837-1841); named a member of the Junta de las representantes suplentes de los Departamentos (1841) as a representative for Coahuila, but refused to serve; promoted to divisional general (1842); elected a member of the Congreso Constituyente from the department of Mexico (1842), but declined to take seat; appointed president of the Supreme Court Martial (1842-1844); rejected an invitation to serve on the Junta de Notables (1842); unsuccessful candidate in the presidential elections of 1833, 1843, and the election of interim president in 1844.
Biographical sources: birth and baptismal record in Archivo de la Parroquia de Santa Rosa de Lima en Múzquiz, Coahuila, Bautismos 1738-1804, fol. 13/281; obituary: El Siglo Diez y Nueve, No. 1,120, 21 Dec 1844, p. 1.
Elections:

Candidate Votes of States (7 Aug 1832)
José Ventura Melchor Ciriaco de Eca y Múzquiz de Arrieta 15
Nicolás Bravo Rueda 1
Juan Ignacio Godoy 1
Source of electoral results: Registro Oficial, No. 104, 12 Aug 1832, pp. 421-423.

[1] Registro Oficial, No. 104, 12 Aug 1832, pp. 421-423; Registro Oficial, No. 100, 8 Aug 1832, p. 406.
[2] Registro Oficial, No. 107, 15 Aug 1832, p. 433; Registro Oficial, No. 112, 20 Aug 1832, p. 453.
[3] As a result of the mutiny of the garrison of Mexico City, he was forced to leave the presidency and "retired to his house" (Registro Oficial, No. 120, 29 Dec 1832, p. 490).
[4] Opposition of Múzquiz to the Zabaleta Accords and refusal to recognise Gómez Pedraza as legitimate president is documented in the decree of 23 Feb 1833 which stripped him of the rank of general. He was accused of having failed to report to general José Joaquín de Herrera on 27 Dec 1832 when the garrison of Mexico City supported the Accords (El Telégrafo, No. 51, 2 Mar 1833, p. 2).