Mexican newspaper founded at the end of 1841 and whose creation responded to the severe restrictions with which the government had subjected the press and to the establishment of a New Constituent Congress that returned power to Antonio López de Santa Anna in September of that year.
When the Diario del Gobierno accused the congress of "going back to the time of anarchy," the government repressed the liberals: on June 4, 1842, it issued a circular ignoring the fueros in crimes of the press; and in July Juan B. Morales, magistrate of the Supreme Court and constituent member, was imprisoned for an article on army organization published in The Nineteenth Century.
Morales had been publishing in his newspaper his famous series of anti-government satirical articles "El Gallo Pitágorico."
When Nicolás Bravo came to power in November 1842, he left the press without guarantees, his government was, however, brief because on December 18 of that same year, as established in the plan of San Luis Potosí, a Legislative Board it supplanted Congress. The main newspaper opposed to this fact was The Nineteenth Century with a foreseeable result: at the beginning of May 1843, Mariano Otero, Gómez Pedraza, Riva Palacio and Lafragua accused of sedition were arrested. They were held incommunicado for a month.
However, after a few months, Santa Anna was overthrown and replaced by Joaquín de Herrera, of moderate ideas. This government was supported by the following newspapers: The Constitutional Monitor, The National Union, The Defender of the Laws Y The Nineteenth Century.
In 1845, this republican newspaper reacted violently to the idea that Tagle and other conservatives had proposed for the country: return to the monarchy. The Nineteenth Century (which had been momentarily replaced by the Historical memorial and transformed in March of that year into The Republican, although it would later take its name again), El Espectador, la Reforma, and Don Simplicio, a satirical biweekly written by Ignacio Ramírez, Guillermo Prieto and other young liberals, led the anti-monarchist bloc, enlarged by a multitude of other pamphlets and publications.
By the year 1851 The Nineteenth Century It had become an organ of the Puro (liberal) Party - thanks to a timely change of wording in which Francisco Zarco appeared - and invited the entire press to participate in the reasoned discussion of the modifications to the fundamental law that had been proposed Mariano Arista, since the congress dealt with the country's foreign policy.
It was like this The Nineteenth Century evolved into opposition and suffered attacks from The Constitutional, official newspaper, and The hope. Francisco Zarco, editor-in-chief of The Nineteenth Century he was persecuted despite being a member of Congress.
The life of the newspaper began to shorten: on September 22, 1852, a decree by Arista was published to prohibit anything that directly or indirectly favored the rebels of the Jalisco revolution, or criticized in any way, from being written in the press to the authorities. The Nineteenth Century it appeared blank that day and the next and the government had to rectify and retrace its steps. The press of the province and the capital commented bitterly and unfavorably on the incident.
A year later, on April 25, the Lares Law on freedom of the press was issued, the most oppressive the country had ever known, and its effect was total: in the province only the official newspapers and The Nineteenth Century it was transformed into a simple newspaper of announcements and news.
