1839 Mexican elections

Miguel Huddleston of Durango.

The 1839 Mexican elections took place in August 1839 for the purpose of choosing the Congress of the United States of Mexico. The Liberty Party won a majority of seats in the Mexican Senate for the first time in the U.S.M.'s history, allowing the Libertarians to appoint their leader, Senator Miguel Huddleston of Durango, to the Presidency.

Huddleston became the leader of the Liberty Party in 1833, becoming the party's presidential nominee in the 1833 Mexican elections. Although he lost the election to incumbent President Andrew Jackson of the Continentalist Party, he was recognized as the most talented politician of his generation. He had accepted his defeat gracefully, and spent the following six years preparing for a second run at the presidency.

By 1839 Jackson was in poor health, having suffered a bout of typhoid fever in 1837, and it was clear to all concerned that he would not be running for a fourth term. This left the Continentalists without a popular leader going into the elections. Although Sobel makes no mention of factionalism among the Continentalists, it is clear that no figure in the party was able to command a majority of the Continentalist Congressional caucus. The Continentalists finally turned to a virtual unknown, John Mason, a former Jeffersonian plantation owner who had traveled to California in the opening months of the California Gold Rush and struck it rich.

John Mason of California.

Huddleston's tireless organizing had already secured Libertarian control of the Senate by the beginning of 1839, and it was widely assumed that the Libertarians would retain control and select him as president. Campaigning under the slogan "Progress Together," Huddleston pledged to remove legal barriers to the country's disenfranchised Mexicano majority, and to use revenue from the California gold fields to fund internal improvements in the majority-Mexicano states of Durango and Chiapas. On the other hand, although the Liberty Party had long opposed the institution of Negro slavery in the U.S.M., Huddleston rarely mentioned slavery on the stump, and notably did not campaign for its abolition.

For his part, Mason foreswore any connection to the slaveowning Jeffersonian cotton planters, calling himself "A Californian, by God, and proud of it!", even though he had been a Jeffersonian cotton planter himself only two years earlier. Mason's stand on the issues was similar to Huddleston's, as he vowed to assist the impoverished Mexicanos of the south and avoided taking a stand on slavery. However, Mason only succeeded in alienating the Jeffersonians without winning over the rest of Mexico's population.

The 1839 Mexican Senate Elections

State	Continentalist Party	Liberty Party
Arizona	1	3
California	0	4
Chiapas	0	4
Durango	0	4
Jefferson	4	0
Mexico del Norte	2	2
TOTAL	7	17

On election day, the Libertarians were able to increase the size of their majority in the Senate to seventeen, as against seven Continentalist members. Party discipline held in the Senate, with all of the Libertarian members voting for Huddleston, and all of the Continentalist members voting for Mason.

At his inauguration the next month, Huddleston said, "Progress Together is not a mere slogan, but the true goal of this administration. We have prospered in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. But this progress must be made together. All Mexicans must make their contributions and receive their fair share for work performed. Mexicano and Anglo, Indian and Hispano, are all equal and together in their efforts. Whether a man's origins can be traced to the Wilderness Walk or to the Conquistadores is of no importance today. He is not a dweller in the past, but in the present and the future. Viva Mexico! Long live the U.S.M.!"

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Sobel's source for the 1839 Mexican elections is Martin York's The Election of 1839 (Mexico City, 1970). Election results are from the 14 August 1845 issue of the Mexico City Tribune.