“Immortality! God! The soul! What does all this mean?” Don Manuel de Mier y Teran asked a friend in a letter on Jul. 2, 1832. The presidency of Mexico was within his reach, but the tortured general was preoccupied with thoughts of suicide.
Gen. Mier y Teran stood head and shoulders above his corrupt contemporaries. Respected by the majority of his countrymen as the only honest lea...