Note 4 — II THE POLITICAL EDUCATION OF MEXICO 1800–1845

It has recently been denied that our Constitution was imitated, but this was stated by Poinsett (no. 166, March 10, 1829), Bocanegra (Mems., i, 329), Tornel (Reseña, 14), Otero (Cuestión Social, 121), and 261Mémoire; and the Congress itself, in an address to the nation, said, “In all our proceedings, we have taken for a model the happy Republic of the United States of the North.” The Spanish constitution of 1812 and that of the French Republic were also in view. There was a supreme court, but it had no power to hold the balance between the states and the central government.