states of the North, and Yucatan were already beginning to form their own prominent local identities during colonial times. The Mexican provinces of Central America broke away on their own during the fall of the First Mexican Empire. A de facto state of federalism already existed during the Supreme Executive Power, tasked with drafting the first constitution for independent Mexico. The arguments for integrating federation into the new constitution prevailed, motivated by the long struggle during the war of independence to seek as much autonomy as possible, and also an eagerness to reap the salaries that would accompany local bureaucracies. Federalism would end for the moment in 1836, when the Conservatives promulgated the Siete Leyes, which replaced the states with departments controlled from Mexico City. In response, many states revolted against such an arrangement which led to the secession of Texas and eventually Yucatan. Revolts to secede or to restore the Liberal system of federalism would continue to agitate the Conservative Centralist Republic of Mexico to its very end, and the Constitution of 1824 would be restored in 1846 after the outbreak of the Mexican American War. The Plan of Ayutla overthrew the dictatorship of Santa Anna and brought a Liberal government to power in 1853. A motion to once again restore the Constitution of 1824 failed by one vote, and work once again began on drafting a new constitution. The subsequent Constitution of 1857 would once again be federalist, and would remain in effect until the Mexican Revolution in the early twentieth century. Anti-Clericalism Liberal efforts at disestablishing the Catholic Church began with the liberal presidency of Valentín Gómez Farías in 1834. The government shut down church schools, assumed the right to make clerical appointments to the church, and shut down monasteries. It was at this point that the government began proposing the nationalization of church lands as well. The Liberal governor of Mexico State, Lorenzo de Zavala would also carry out anti-clerical measures, including the suppression of monasteries. Conservative backlash led to the fall of the Gómez Farías administration. The issue of nationalizing church lands was brought up again in 1847 by Gómez Farías once more who had once again found himself in the presidency during the Mexican–American War. This time Gómez Farías urged the nationalization of church lands as a means of funding the war effort, but the efficacy and prudence of such a measure was questioned