A period of reaction, or restoration as it was properly called, was now inaugurated. During several years the servile party had held undisputed control of public affairs in Guatemala, crushing out all opposition to the best of its ability. Its policy had been one of intolerance, and its downfall was hailed with joy. Morazan seemed to have been chosen by providence to inflict condign punishment on those who had so cruelly exercised a usurped power. Surrounded as he was by so many diverse elements, the severity of the blows he dealt must not be all laid to his account. The state assembly, which had been dissolved in 1826, having again met on the 21st of April, 1829,[V-86] with its old president, Nicolás Espinosa, was practically a tool in the hands of the victorious general, and enacted several vigorous laws against the vanquished party.[V-87] On the 4th of June the assembly passed an act, which was sanctioned by the consejo representativo on the 12th, and by Jefe Barrundia on the 13th, declaring null all elections made pursuant to the unconstitutional decree of the president of the republic dated October 31, 1826, and the subsequent ones of 1827 and 1828. It furthermore stamped as revolutionists and usurpers all persons who by virtue of those decrees had obtained and held office of the federation or the state of Guatemala, and as such guilty of high treason, and amenable to the death penalty.[V-88] On the same day was issued a so-called amnesty law; but the number of exemptions from its benefits made its name a piece of irony.[V-89] The position of the prisoners taken in Guatemala at the time of the capture of said city, and others, became a more complicated one, in consequence of a decree passed by the assembly of Salvador on the 9th of June, declaring that it would not recognize in the assembly of Guatemala any authority to grant, without the assent of the other states, amnesty to the factious disturbers of public order; and that the capitulation entered into between Morazan and Aycinena having been annulled, the captives were really prisoners of war of the allied states.[V-90] A number of the prisoners were, however, permitted to go into exile within fifteen days, paying first the expenses of their support while in prison, and one third of the value of their estates[V-91] into the federal treasury, as indemnification for the damages they had inflicted on the country. That privilege was not granted to the president and vice-president and their ministers, the former chief of Guatemala, and others. In fact, it was a proscription of all the principal men who had sided with the servile party.[V-92] It was also decreed that all salaries paid from October 1826 to April 1829 should be refunded. Harsh measures were used to force a compliance.