Servando Teresa de Mier, Federalist
Thursday, December 11,1 1823, on the eve of the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an icy rain2 blanketed Mexico City. On this date in the spacious nave of the old temple of San Pedro y San Pablo, a historic speech was delivered to the members of the constituent congress of Mexico. Dr. Servando Teresa de Mier, the speaker, was a man of noble bearing and of distinguished appearance. His angular head with its pronounced featuresgray hair hanging in carefully arranged curls at his neckline and brushed forward to conceal partially a high broad forehead and a lean strong jaw, large black eyes sunk in a pallid face, a long straight nose and small mouth-was set on a tall slender frame clothed in a distinctive purple robe. His mind and actions well fitted his physical appearance. Rich in knowledge and erudition and of refined manners, he was an orator of no small repute, a man of fire and of undaunted courage. For over an hour he held the undivided attention of his audience. It has been generally held that his speech was made against federalism. To the present day, students of Mexican history, on the basis of this discourse, have characterized Mier as the leader of the centralists. But according to his own assertion, he was not a centralist but a federalist. Time after time in his speech he made this clear. His address was not made to protest the proposed establishment of federalism in Mexico but rather to oppose the adoption of a particular form of this system, one allowing greater sovereignty to the component parts than that of the United States. He even prefaced his dissertation with the statement that his remarks would concern Article 5,3 or the nature of