When the newly elected deputies and senators began to assemble in Mexico City for their preparatory sessions beginning on 14 December 1834, the first problem they encountered was the condition of their respective chambers, which had been closed since the previous May. Thieves had removed lead from the roof, rain had poured in and, with the carpets ruined and rotting papers scattered about the floors, there was an atmosphere of dampness and decay. Santa Anna's apparent hostility to constitutional reform had deterred many from travelling to the capital, and by the beginning of January, the Chamber of Deputies was barely quorate and the Senate still inquorate. Within a few days, more representatives had arrived, and Santa Anna duly performed the opening ceremony on 4 January 1835. In his address, he adopted the mantle of statesman and patriot, and in what was becoming his archetypal hyperbolic and bombastic style, he proclaimed that his government had conquered the ‘monster that is anarchy’. Extremists – ‘men without morals’ – had attacked the fundamental beliefs of the people, rooted in three centuries of tradition, but they had been soundly defeated. Their factions had been suppressed, their laws suspended or repealed, bishops had returned to their flocks and priests to their parishes. The doors had been closed forever to political fanaticism, and his government, having steadied the faltering ship of state, had opened the way to reason and progress.