Note XXI-30 — Chapter XXI · RENEWED EFFORTS FOR CENTRAL AMERICAN UNITY. 1873-1885.

Every principle won with the loss of so much blood was secured. The legislative authority was vested in a chamber of representatives, and the executive in a president, whose term of office was six years. Guat., Mem., Sec. Gobern., 1880, 7. Objections were made by foreign representatives, including the minister of Mexico, to art. 5th of the constitution respecting Guatemalan nationality. On this point a constituent assembly in 1885 authorized the government to settle it by treaties, which was equivalent to nullifying the clause. There were exceptions also to the 14th, intended to set down as a principle that neither citizens nor foreigners were entitled to indemnity for damages accruing to them during civil wars from the acts of revolutionary factions. The right of Guat. to insert in her fundamental law every principle or rule she might deem proper for her internal administration was fully recognized; but as regarded those dependent for their sanction on the consent of nations, in their intercourse with one another, the representatives reserved their respective country's rights. Mex., Correspond. Dipl., ii. 293-8; Guat., Mem. Sec. Rel. Est., 1880, 6.