Liberty in Mexico: Writings on Liberalism from the Early Republican Period to the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

9. Discourse on the Nature of Factions

88 The most perverse have the greatest power to stir up seditions and discords; peace and calm alone are conserved for the virtues. — Tacitus Liberal institutions bring with them differences of opinion, because with each person making use of the precious right to express an opinion freely, it would be impossible that all members of society would agree on how to view issues. Thus, with reason it has been said that this division and balance of opinions is the life of a republic , supports the vigilance of some authorities over others and of the people over all authorities; it examines the truth closely, and enlightenment is advanced, through which the legislatorand government discover appropriate means to carry out the high aims of their institution, and the craftiness and tortuousness of arbitrariness, natural enemy of free thought, cannot be hidden. But is this liberty indefinite, or are there bounds within which it must be confined? If there are, by what signs will we know when these bounds have been crossed or when the disputes degenerate into dangerous factions? What will the consequences be? Such are the points we propose to elucidate at a time in which abuse of words, anarchical doctrines , and political absurdities are growing into an intense force to lead the incautious astray and justify enormous crimes. In an already constituted society, the conflict of opinions can never be about the truly essential foundations of society, that is to say, about the agreements and laws that secure individual guarantees. For all men feel deeply embedded in their being the need to preserve, by all pos9 Discourse on the Nature of Factions Original title: “Discurso sobre los carácteres de las facciones.” Source: El Observador de la República Mexicana, Mexico, October 17, 1827. on the nature of faCtionS : 89 sible means, their security, their liberty, their property, because they left the forests and formed societies only with this preeminent goal.The unanimity of this feeling is thus immutable, and dissent will be only the most offensive degradation or the most foolish ignorance. Thus, all opinion that openly or deceitfully attacks it is criminal by its nature. Nor can there be differences over clearly constitutional laws, which are, according to Lanjuinais, “those which, created or agreed to by the representatives of the nation or by the nation itself, determine the nature , the extent, the limits of public powers, so that this code is truly the supreme law and has a special character of permanence that distinguishes it from ordinary laws.” The permanence that must be an essential characteristic of the constitution is contrary to discussion that tends to change it, for otherwise society would never have that firm and permanent repose indispensable for achieving its goals, and the continual fluctuation would end in destroying society and making it the prisoner of tyranny. Let us note that not all the articles of a constitution are constitutional, but rather only those that sanction national independence, the form of government, the division, limitation, and sphere of public powers. Such sanctions are a sanctuary where no one should go except to worship the protector deity of societies. Even when a better worked out constitution can be imagined, the one that exists, established by the vote and respect of the nation, will always be preferable, and the difficulties of the change can never be counterbalanced by whatever advantages are imagined, for a new constitution has been written only on the ruins and ashes of the nation that dictates it; and as long as the guarantees are respected , as long as the laws are observed and the constitution gives security to some and energy to others, the people are happy, they will live in tranquility, and they will not remember the terrible right of resistance, whose use should be so rare, it is even more unusual for altering the constitution , and so that resistance more often has restoration as its object than change.The classes that actually make up the nation will never risk their fate and well-being to the setbacks of an unfortunate commutation . Such desires are from those who, without industry or love of work, pursued relentlessly by poverty and provoked by fierce ambition, base their hopes on the upheaval and ruin of the patria. The very broad field of combat is in the methods of administration; in the management, investment, and good use of public revenues; in the 90 : joS...