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José Mariano Martín Buenaventura Ignacio Nepomuceno García de Arista y Nuez
b. 16 Jul 1802, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
d. 7 Aug 1855, at sea en route to France |
| Title: |
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Constitutional President of the Mexican United States) |
| Term: |
15 Jan 1851 - 6 Jan 1853 |
| Chronology: |
8 Jan 1851, election to the office of Constitutional President of the Mexican United States is declared upon counting electoral votes (cast 8 Sep 1850), session of the Cámara de Diputados [1] |
| |
15 Jan 1851, took an oath of office, session of the Congreso General, Mexico City [2] |
| |
6 Jan 1853, resignation accepted, concurrent resolution of the Congreso General, passed by the Cámara de Senadores (Chamber of Senators) and Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies) 6 Jan 1853 (promulgated as a decree 6 Jan 1853) [3][4] |
| Biography: |
| Son of a Spanish army officer, native of Lorca, Murcia; in the age of 11, he joined the royalist army as a cadet in Puebla (1813); began service alongside with his father; was involved in military actions against the insurgents since the summer of 1814; served with the lancers of Veracruz (1814-1816); transferred to a dragoon regiment of Mexico City in 1816; won promotion to the rank of porta-guión (guidon bearer) in 1818; promoted to alférez (1820), lieutenant (1821); defected to the Army of the Three Guarantees (11 Jun 1821) and joined the Libertad Battalion under Agustín de Iturbide; brevetted captain in 1821 (rank confirmed in 1824); supported the Plan of Casa Mata (1823); promoted to lieutenant colonel (1829); staying with the Reserve Army, he adhered to the Plan of Jalapa (4 Dec 1829); promoted to colonel (1831); brevetted brigadier general (1832); appointed commissioner on behalf of President Anastasio Bustamante to negotiate the Zabaleta accords (signed 23 Dec 1832); confirmed in the rank of brigadier general (1833); appointed commandant-general of Mexico City (1833); was made second in command of the forces raised by President Antonio López de Santa Anna to quell the rebellions led by generals Ignacio Escalada and Gabriel Durán; joined the rebellion and issued the Plan of Huejotzingo (8 Jun 1833), promising to defend the privileges of army and church and proclaiming Santa Anna as supreme dictator; after the refusal of Santa Anna to approve the pronunciamientos, he was besieged in Guanajuato and capitulated (8 Oct 1833); deprived of military rank and expelled from the territory of Mexico; moved to the United States; returned after an amnesty in 1835 and was restored to military service in 1836; appointed a member of the Supreme Tribunal of War and Marine (1836-1837); named a member of the committee for revision of the Military Code (1837); served on the consulting council of war (1837); appointed inspector of the active militia (1837-1838); was sent to combat the French invasion force in Veracruz (1838); captured by the French (5 Dec 1838) and imprisoned aboard La Gloria frigate; released on condition not to take arms against France (27 Jan 1839); appointed to the office of commandant-general of the Department of Tamaulipas (1839); served as commander of Auxiliary Division of the North (1839-1840); succeeded Valentin Canalizo as general-in-chief of the Army of the North (1840-1842); promoted to divisional general (1841); resigned his post in the Army of the North due to illness (1842); re-appointed general-in-chief of the Army of the North (1844-1845); general-in-chief of the Fourth Division of the Army and commandant-general of the departments of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas (1845-1846); dismissed for the lack of support to Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga (1846); was promptly recalled to become commander of the Division of the North (1846) in the war against the United States; defeated in the battles of Palo Alto (8 May 1846) and Resaca de Guerrero (9 May 1846) by General Zachary Taylor and retreated; was tried by a war tribunal and subsequently acquitted in 1848; appointed minister of war and marine (1848-1851) in the government of José Joaquín de Herrera; won the first genuinely contested presidential election since independence (1850); served as Constitutional President of the Mexican United States (15 Jan 1851 - 6 Jan 1853); set up a moderate government which attempted to restore stability to the Mexican economy; witnessing a growing support in favour of the Plan of Guadalajara (Plan del Hospicio, 20 Oct 1852), he decided to resign when the Congreso refused to give him emergency powers; transferred executive authority to constitutional successor, Juan Bautista Ceballos, and left the capital in the early hours of 6 Jan 1853; departed for Europe, sailing from Veracruz (5 May 1853); died on board the English steamer Tagus while traveling from Portugal to France. |
| Biographical sources: birth and baptismal record in Archivo de la Parroquia del Sagrario de la Iglesia Catedral de San Luis, San Luis Potosí, Bautismo de hijos españoles 1797-1805, fol. 160; "Datos para la biografía de D. Mariano Arista" by Enrique de Olavarría y Ferrari in Revista Nacional de Letras y Ciencias, vol. 2 (Mexico City: Imprenta de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1889), pp. 359-369, 401-412, 472-484, 497-514 (web site). |
| Elections: |
| Candidate |
Votes of States (8 Sep 1850) * |
| Mariano Arista |
12 ** |
| Juan Nepomuceno Almonte |
3 |
| Luis de la Rosa Oteiza |
2 |
| Manuel Gómez Pedraza y Rodríguez |
1 |
| Juan Múgica y Osorio |
1 |
|
| * The date of election for all states was fixed on 8 Sep 1850, except for the Federal District where electors cast ballots 4 Oct 1850 in accordance with a law of 13 Apr 1850 (Colección de las leyes, decretos y órdenes, expedidas por el Congreso Nacional, 1850, p. 44) |
| ** Arista received 13 votes of the states, but the vote of the State of Coahuila was disqualified. |
| Source of electoral results: Historia parlamentaria, 23:21-23; |
| |
| [1] |
Historia parlamentaria, 23:21-23. |
| [2] |
Periodico Oficial, No. 64, 27 Jan 1851, p. 2; Historia parlamentaria, 23:34-35. |
| [3] |
El Siglo Diez y Nueve, No. 1,471, 7 Jan 1853, p. 1. |
| [4] |
The resignation of Arista was dated 5 Jan 1853, Mexico City (El Siglo Diez y Nueve, No. 1,473, 9 Jan 1853, p. 2). Before it was submitted to the Congreso for consideration, Arista announced his imminent departure from Mexico City and invited Ceballos as President of the Supreme Court of Justice to assume executive authority in accordance with Art. 98 of the Constitution of 1824 (as amended). A private takeover ceremony was held about 01:00 6 Jan 1853 in the National Palace (El Universal, No. 265, 6 Jan 1853, Supplement; El Universal, No. 266, 7 Jan 1853, p. 3). |
