1857 Constitution of Mexico

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The 1857 Constitution was a liberal constitution drafted in Mexico during the presidency of Ignacio Comonfort. It instituted Liberal policies, including: freedom of speech; freedom of conscience; freedom of the press; freedom of assembly; and the right to bear arms. It guaranteed basic civil liberties for all Mexicans; reaffirmed the abolition of slavery; eliminated debtor prison and all forms of personal servitude; secularized education; and greatly curtailed the power of the Catholic Church. It eliminated all forms of cruel and unusual punishment, including the death penalty. It eliminated all internal tariffs. It abrogated government recognition of titles of nobility, hereditary honors, and monopolies, and it abolished special court systems outside of government control such as the Church courts for Catholic priests and military courts for soldiers that had been established under Spanish rule and were championed by conservatives. It provided that any slave who set foot on Mexican territory would become free by that fact alone, and would acquire the right to protection by the nation's laws, thus making Mexico a haven for African Americans escaping slavery in the United States.

This constitution, along with the Plan of Ayutla and other liberal reforms, polarized Mexican society and led to the War of Reform.

In terms of governmental organization, the constitution provided for a relatively weak presidency, a strong unicameral legislature, styled the Congress of the Union, and an eleven-member Supreme Court. Congressional representatives were to be elected directly, in districts of no more than 40,000 persons, for terms of two years. The president was to be elected indirectly (by electoral college) to a four-year. Supreme Court judges were also to be elected indirectly, to six-year terms. It established a federal, republican organization for the country, mandating that each state was to adopt a republican constitution with direct election of a state congress, and specifying that all powers not specifically given to the national government by the constitution were reserved for the states.

Adopted on February 12, 1857, the 1857 Constitution remained the supreme law of the land (or, during the War of the Reform and the War of French Intervention, of that portion of Mexico controlled by the Liberal government) until the current constitution was written in 1917. However, the exigencies of the wars made many of the Constitution's provisions impractical or unenforceable between 1858 and 1867, and in practice Juárez exercised supreme authority as commander of the army during this period. At the end of the French intervention, with the restoration of the Republic under Juárez in 1868, various projects were set in motion to amend the 1857 Constitution in order to retain the expanded executive power that the presidency had held during wartime. The principal amendment that came out of these plans (adopted on November 6, 1874) was the creation of a Senate, consisting of two senators elected indirectly (by electoral college) from each state, which shared legislative power with the Chamber of Deputies. This bicameral legislature would be retained in the Constitution of 1917.