To the general hatred of this group on the part of the nation, Madero owed his success.  He was almost unknown, but the malcontents were determined to act, and to act at once, and they could not afford to pick and choose for a leader.  As a proof that the country thought less of the democratic principles invoked than of the destruction of the official “cientificos,” may be cited the fact that it at first placed all its trust and confidence in General Reyes, who is just as despotic and autocratic as General Diaz, but has at the same time, to them, a redeeming quality—­his avowed opposition to the gang.  Reyes refused to head the insurrection, and it was then Madero or nobody.

In the spring of 1910 Francis I. Madero came to the front.  He was a man of education, of fortune, of courage, and a lawyer by profession.  He had written a book entitled the Presidential Succession, and although without experience in the management of State affairs, he had shown that he had the courage of his convictions.  He consented to stand against Diaz in a contest for the Presidency of the Republic.

The malcontents had found their leader.  Madero not only accepted nomination, but began an active campaign, making speeches against the Diaz administration, denouncing abuses, more especially the retention of office by the Vice-President and the tactics of Limantour, and showing the people that as General Diaz was then eighty years of age, and his new term would not expire until 1916, Corral would almost certainly succeed to the inheritance of the Diaz regime.

Energetic, courageous, and outspoken, Madero had full command of the phraseology of the demagog.  His only shortcoming in the eyes of his own party was that he had not been persecuted by the Government.  The officials, alas, soon supplied this deficiency.  A few days before the Presidential election in July, 1910, when making a speech in Monterey, Madero was arrested as a disturber of the peace and thrown into prison, where he was kept until the close of the poll.

The election resulted, as usual, in a triumphant majority for General Diaz, though votes were recorded, even in the capital itself, for the anti-reelectionist leader.

As soon as opportunity offered, Madero escaped to the United States, and from that vantage-ground kept up a correspondence with his friends and partizans.  Though the election had been held in July, the inauguration of the President did not take place until December, 1910.  A fortnight before that date, a conspiracy, at which Madero probably connived, was discovered in Puebla.  The first victim was the Chief of the Police at Puebla.  He was shot dead by a woman who at his knock had opened the door of a house wherein the revolutionists were holding a meeting.  The revolution had begun.  Risings took place in different parts of the Republic, but were quickly quelled, with the exception of one in the State of Chihuahua, where the rebels had a special grievance against the all-powerful family of the great landowner, General Terrazas.  These large landed proprietors are a subject of hatred to the new Socialist party.