1820. CHAPTER IV. Chapter IV. MEXICO, FROM THE CLOSE OF THE FIRST REVO- Subject of LUTION IN 1819, TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1824. duced upon establishment constitution. 1. 'The establishment of a constitutional government in 1. Effects proSpain, in 1820, produced upon Mexico an effect very Mexico by the different from what was anticipated. As the constitu- of the Spanish tion provided for a more liberal administration of government in Mexico than had prevailed since 1812, the increased freedom of the elections again threw the minds of the people into a ferment, and the spirit of independence, which had been only smothered, broke forth anew. Spaniards. of the clergy. 2. Moreover, divisions were created among the old 2. Divisions Spaniards themselves; some being in favor of the old among the old system, while others were sincerely attached to the constitution. Some formidable inroads on the property and 3. Alienation prerogatives of the church alienated the clergy from the new government, and induced them to desire a return to the old system. 'The Viceroy, Apodaca, en- 4. Designs of couraged by the hopes held out by the Royalists in Spain, although he had at first taken the oath to support the constitution, secretly favored the party opposed to it, and arranged his plans for its overthrow. 3. 'Don Augustin Iturbide, the person selected by the Viceroy to make the first open demonstration against the existing government, was offered the command of a body of troops on the western coast, at the head of which he was to proclaim the re-establishment of the absolute authority of the king. Iturbide, accepting the commission, departed from the capital to take command of the troops, but with intentions very different from those which the Viceroy supposed him to entertain. Reflecting upon the state of the country, and convinced of the facility with which the authority of Spain might be shaken off,-by bringing the Creole troops to act in concert with the old insurgents, Iturbide resolved to proclaim Mexico wholly independent of the Spanish nation. 4. 'Having his head quarters at the little town of Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, Iturbide, on the 24th of February, 1821, there proclaimed his project, known as the "Plan of Iguala," and induced his soldiers to take an oath to support it. This "Plan" declared that Mexico should be an independent nation, its religion Catholic, and its government a constitutional monarchy. The crown was the Viceroy. 5. Supposed Iturbide in of co-operation this scheme. Iturbide round plans ine in. deceives the dependence of Mexico. 1821. Feb. 24. 7. Open revolt of turbide. Generat the plan of features of Iguala ANALYSIS. offered to Ferdinand VII. of Spain, provided he would consent to occupy the throne in person; and, in case of his refusal, to his infant brothers, Don Carlos and Don Francisco. A constitution was to be formed by a Mexi can Congress, which the empire should be bound by oath to observe; all distinctions of caste were to be abolished; all inhabitants, whether Spaniards, Creoles, Africans, or Indians, who should adhere to the cause of independence, were to be citizens; and the door of preferment was declared to be opened to virtue and merit alone. 1. IrresoluMon and inac existing rally for in 5. 'The Viceroy, astonished by this unexpected move. tivity of the ment of Iturbide, and remaining irresolute and inactive government. at the capital, was deposed, and Don Francisco Novello, a military officer, was placed at the head of the govern. ment; but his authority was not generally recognized, and Iturbide was left to pursue his plans in the interior The general without interruption. "Being joined by Generals Guer. dependence. rero and Victoria as soon as they knew that the independence of their country was the object of Iturbide, not only all the survivors of the first insurgents, but whole detachments of Creole troops flocked to his standard, and his success was soon rendered certain. The clergy and the people were equally decided in favor of independence; the most distant districts sent in their adhesion to the cause, and, before the month of July, the whole country recognized the authority of Iturbide, with the exception of the capital, in which Novello had shut himself up with the European troops. 1821. 3. Advance of Iturbide to arrival of a new Viceroy. 10 Treaty of 6. 'Iturbide had already reached Querétaro* with his wards the troops, on his road to Mexico, when he was informed of capital, and the arrival, at Vera Cruz, of a new Viceroy, who, in such a crisis, was unable to advance beyond the walls of the 4. The fortress. "At Cordova,† whither the Viceroy had been Cordova allowed to proceed, for the purpose of an interview with Iturbide, the latter induced him to accept by treaty the Plan of Iguala, as the only means of securing the lives and property of the Spaniards then in Mexico, and of establishing the right to the throne in the house of BourAug. 24. bon. By this agreement, called the "Treaty of Cordova," the Viceroy, in the name of the king, his master, recognized the independence of Mexico, and gave up the Querétaro, the capital of the state of that name, is situated in a rich and fertile valley, about 110 miles N.W. from the city of Mexico. It contains a population of about 40,000 inhabitants, one-third of whom are Indians. It is supplied with water by an aqueduct ten miles in length, carried across the valley on sixty arches. The inhabitants of the state are employed mostly in agriculture: those of the city, either in small trades, or in woollen manufactories The city contains many fine churches and convents. † Cordova is a town about fifty miles 8.W. from Vera Cruz, on the east side of the foot of the volcano of Orizaba. capital to the army of the insurgents, which took posses- 1821. sion of it, without effusion of blood, on the 27th of September, 1821. Sept. 27. 1. A provi sional Junta 7. 'All opposition being ended, and the capital occupied, in accordance with a provision of the Plan of Iguala a provisional junta was established, the principal business of which was to call a congress for the formation of a constitution suitable to the country. At the same time a 2 4 Regency. regency, consisting of five individuals, was elected, at the head of which was placed Iturbide as president, who was also created generalissimo and lord high admiral, and assigned a yearly salary of one hundred and twenty thou sand dollars. 3. of Iturbide's The success plans, and his popularity revolution universal while the lasted. 8. Thus far the plans of Iturbide had been completely successful: few have enjoyed a more intoxicating triumph; and none have been called, with greater sincerity, the saviour of their country. While the second revolution lasted, the will of their favorite was the law of the nation; and in every thing that could tend to promote a separation from Spain, not a single dissenting voice had been heard. *But the revolution had settled no principle, and estab- The change lished no system; and when the old order of things had disappeared, and the future organization of the government came under discussion, the unanimity which had before prevailed was at an end. that soon followed. ment between gent chiefs. 9. When the provisional junta was about to prepare a 5. Disagree plan for assembling a national congress, Iturbide desired Iturbide and that the deputies should be bound by oath to support the thr Plan of Iguala in all its parts, before they could take their seats in the congress. To this, Generals Bravo, Guerrero, and Victoria, and numerous others of the old insurgents, were opposed; as they wished that the people should be left unrestrained to adopt, by their deputies, such plan of government as they should prefer. Although Iturbide succeeded in carrying his point, yet the seeds of discontent were sown before the sessions of the congress commenced. a 6 Parties in the neto Congress. Bourbons; and Iturbidists. 10. When the congress assembled, three distinct par- 1822. ties were found amongst the members. The Bourbonists, a Feb 24. adhering to the plan of Iguala altogether, wished a constitutional monarchy, with a prince of the house of Bourbon at its head: the Republican, setting aside the Plan of Republicans Iguala, desired a federal republic; while a third party, the Iturbidists, adopting the Plan of Iguala, with the exception of the article in favor of the Bourbons, wished to piace Iturbide himself upon the throne. As it was soon learned 7. Dissolution that the Spanish government had declared the treaty of bonist party. Cordova null and void, the Bourbonists ceased to exist as of the Bour b. (Feb 13) ANALYSIS. a party, and the struggle was confined to the Iturbidists and the Republicans. the army and the populace. 1 Iturbide 11. After a violent controversy the latter succeeded in proclaimed Emperor by carrying, by a large majority, a plan for the reduction of the army; when the partizans of Iturbide, perceiving that his influence was on the wane, and that, if they wished ever to see him upon the throne, the attempt must be made before the memory of his former services shoul! be lost, concerted their measures for inducing the army and the populace to declare in his favor. Accordingly, on the night of the 18th of May, 1822, the soldiers of the garrison of Mexico, and a crowd of the leperos or beggars, by whom the streets of the city are infested, assembled before the house of Iturbide, and amidst the brandishing of swords and knives, proclaimed him emperor, under the title of Augustin the First. May 18. 2. How the sanction of obtained. 12. 'Iturbide, with consummate hypocrisy, pretending congress as to yield with reluctance to what he was pleased to consi der the "will of the people," brought the subject before congress; which, overawed by his armed partizans who filled the galleries, and by the demonstrations of the rab ble without, gave their sanction to a measure which they 3 The choice had not the power to oppose. "The choice was ratified by the provinces without opposition, and Iturbide found himself in peaceable possession of a throne to which his own abilities and a concurrence of favorable circumstances had raised him. ratified with out opposition. 4. The course which to the mon arch elect. quent of his 13. Had the monarch elect been guided by counsels dence dicated of prudence, and allowed his authority to be confined within constitutional limits, he might perhaps have conCommenes tinued to maintain a modified authority; but forgetting reign. the unstable foundation of his throne, he began his reign The strug with all the airs of hereditary royalty. On his accession congress a struggle for power immediately commenced between him and the congress. He demanded a veto upon all the articles of the constitution then under discussion, and the right of appointing and removing at pleasure the members of the supreme tribunal of justice. gle him and the 6. Erents that led to the lution of the 14. "The breach continued widening, and at length a forcible disso. law, proposed by the emperor, for the establishment of assembly military tribunals, was indignantly rejected by the con a Aug. 96. gress. Iturbide retaliated by imprisoning the most dis tinguished members of that body. Remonstrances and reclamations on the part of congress followed, and Itur bide at length terminated the dispute, as Cromwell and Bonaparte had done on similar occasions before him, by b Oct. 30 proclaiming the dissolution of the national assembly, substituting in its stead a junta of his own nomination. and 1. The new assembly, and Itur ing popu larity. Νον. 2. Insurrec tion at the 15. The new assembly acted as the ready echo of the 1822. imperial will, yet it never possessed any influence; and the popularity of Iturbide himself did not long survive his assumption of arbitrary power. Before the end of bide's declinNovember an insurrection broke out in the northern provinces, but this was speedily quelled by the imperial troops. Soon after, the youthful general Santa Anna, a former supporter of Iturbide, but who had been haughtily dismissed by him from the government of Vera Cruz, published an address to the nation, in which he reproached the emperor with having broken his coronation oath by dissolving the congress, and declared his determination, and that of the garrison which united with him, to aid in reassembling the congress, and protecting its deliberations. north. 3. Revolt of Santa Anna. a. (Originally Santana, and San-tan-ya.) spelled pronounced b. Dec 6. the revolt 1823. Progress of disaffection of the imperial troops and abdication of Iturbide. Feb. 16. 'Santa Anna was soon joined by Victoria, to whom he yielded the chief command, in the expectation that his name and well known principles would inspire with confidence those who were inclined to favor the establishment of a republic. A force sent out by Iturbide to quell the revolt went over to the insurgents; Generals Bravo and Guerrero took the field on the same side; dissatisfaction spread through the provinces; part of the imperial army revolted; and Iturbide, either terrified by the storm which he had so unexpectedly conjured up, or really anxious to avoid the effusion of blood, called together all the members of the old congress then in the capital, and on the 19th of March 19. March, 1823, formally resigned the imperial crown; stating his intention to leave the country, lest his presence in Mexico should be a pretext for farther dissensions. "The congress, after declaring his assumption of the crown to have been an act of violence, and consequently null, willingly allowed him to leave the kingdom, and assigned to him a yearly income of twenty-five thousand dollars for his.support. With his family and suite he embarked for Leghorn on the eleventh of May. 17. On the departure of Iturbide, a temporary executive was appointed, consisting of Generals Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete, by whom the government was administered until the meeting of a new congress, which assembled at the capital in August, 1823. This body immediately entered on the duties of preparing a new constitution, which was submitted on the 31st of January, 1824, and definitively sanctioned on the 4th of October following. 18. 'By this instrument, modeled somewhat after the constitution of the United States, the absolute independence of the country was declared, and the several 5. Proceed gress, and Iturbide from ings of con departure of the country. May 11. 6. Temporary appointed executive new con gress-and onion formed. Aug. c (Na gra-ta. 1824. 7 The form of govern ment adopted |