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Constitution and Government (Present Constitution of Mexico)

The present Constitution of Mexico bears date February 5, 1857, with subsequent modifications down to October 1887. By its terms Mexico is declared a federative republic, divided into States-19 at the outset, but at present 27 in number, with two territories and the Federal District-each of which has a right to manage its own local affairs, while the whole are bound together in one body politic by fundamental and constitutional laws. The powers of the supreme Government are divided into three branches, the legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative power is vested in a Congress consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate, and the executive in a President. Representatives elected by the suffrage of all respectable male adults, at the rate of one member for 40,000 inhabitants, hold their places for two years. The qualifications requisite are, to be twenty-five years of age, and a resident in the State. The Senate consists of fifty-six members, two for each State, of at least thirty years of age, who are returned in the same manner as the deputies. The members of both Houses receive salaries of $3,000 a year. The President is elected by electors popularly chosen in a general election, holds office for four years, and, according to an amendment of the Constitution in 1887, may be elected for two consecutive terms of four years each. In the event of a vacancy in the presidency otherwise than by lapse of time, the succession is vested in the President and Vice-President of the Senate and in the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Congress successively. Congress has to meet annually from April 1 to May 30, and from September 16 to December 15, and a permanent committee of both Houses sits during the recesses.

President of the Republic. - General Porfirio Diaz; installed President of the Republic, as successor of General Manuel Gonzales, December 1, 1884; re-elected and entered his second period of four years on December 1, 1888. The administration is carried on, under the direction of the President, by a council of seven Secretaries of State, heads of the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Justice and Public Instruction, Colonization, Industry, and Commerce, the Treasury and Public Credit, War and the Navy, and Public Works.