300

ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES.

zenship. All the inhabitants are citizens, and equal, and the door of advancement is open to virtue and merit.

ART. 12. — An army shall be formed for the support of religion, independence, and union, guaranteeing these three principles, and therefore shall be called the army of the three guaranties.

ART. 13.

It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental basis of this plan.

ART. 14. It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now in force.

ART. 15.

There shall be no other promotions than those which are due to seniority, or which are necessary for the good of the

service.

ART. 16. - The army shall be considered as of the line. ART. 17. The old partizans of independence who shall adhere to this plan, shall be considered as individuals of this army.

ART. 18. The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it hereafter, shall be considered as provincial militiamen.

ART. 19. The secular and regular priests shall be continued in the state which they now are.

ART. 20. All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesiastical, political and military, who adhere to the cause of independence, shall De continued in their offices, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

ART. 21. Those functionaries, of whatever degree and condition who dissent from the cause of independence, shall be divested of their offices, and shall quit the territory without taking with them their families and effects.

ART. 22. The military commandants shall regulate themselves according to the general instructions in conformity with this plan, which shall be transmitted to them.

ART. 23. No accused person shall be condemned capitally by the military commandants. Those accused of treason against the nation, which is the next greatest crime after that of treason to the Divine Ruler, shall be conveyed to the fortress of Barbaras, where they shall remain until congress shall resolve on the punishment that ought to be inflicted on them.

ART. 24. It being indispensable to the country, that this plan should be carried into effect, inasmuch as the welfare of that country is its object, every individual of the army shall maintain it, to the shedding (if it be necessary) of the last drop of his blood. Town of Iguala, 24th February, 1821.

ITURBIDE EMPEROR -HIS CAREER EXILED ΤΟ ITALY. ITURBIDE RETURNS ARREST EXECUTION HIS CHARACTER

AND SERVICES.

O'DONOJU, LXII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN,

ITURBIDE, EMPEROR OF MEXICO.-1821-1824

It will be seen by the Plan of Iguala, that Mexico was designed to become an independent sovereignty under Ferdinand VII. or, in the event of his refusal, under the Infantes Don Carlos and Don Francisco de Paula. Iturbide was still a royalist-not a republican; and it is very doubtful whether he would ever have assented to popular authority, even had his life been spared to witness the final development of the revolution. It is probable that his penetrating mind distinguished between popular hatred of unjust restraint, and the genuine capacity of a nation for liberty, nor is it unlikely that he found among his countrymen but few of those selfcontroling, self-sacrificing and progressive elements, which constitute the only foundation upon which a republic can be securely founded. His ambition had not yet been fully developed by success, and it cannot be imagined that he had already fixed his heart upon the imperial throne.

When the Plan of Iguala was proclaimed, the entire army of the future emperor, consisted of only eight hundred men, all of whom took the oath of fidelity to the project, though many deserted when they found the country was not immediately unanimous in its approval.

In the capital, the viceroy appears to have been paralized by the sudden and unexpected movement of his officer. He paused, hesitated, failed to act, and was deposed by the Europeans, who treated him as they had Iturrigaray in 1808. Don Francisco de Novella, an artillery officer, was installed temporarily in his stead, but the appointment created a dissension among the people in the

302

REVOLT

TREATY OF CORDOVA.

capital and the country, and this so completely prostrated the action of the central authorities, who might have crushed the revolution. by a blow, that Iturbide was enabled to prosecute his designs. throughout the most important parts of the interior of the country, without the slightest resistance.

He seized a million of dollars on their way to the west coast, and joined Guerrero who still held out on the river Zacatula with the last remnant of the old revolutionary forces. Guerrero gave in his adhesion to Iturbide, as soon as he ascertained that it was the general's design to make Mexico independent, though, in all likelihood, he disapproved the other features of the plan. Guerrero's act was of the greatest national importance It rallied all the veteran fighters and friends of Morelos and the Bravos. Almost all of the former leaders and their dispersed bands, came forth, at the cry of "independence," under the banner of Iturbide. Victoria even, for a while, befriended the rising hero; but he had fought for a liberal government, and did not long continue on amicable terms with one who could not control his truly independent spirit. The clergy, as well as the people, signified their intention to support the gallant insurgent; - and, in fact, the whole country, from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, with the exception of the capital, was soon open in its adhesion to him and his army. DON JUAN O'DONOJU,

LXII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.

1821.

We

Iturbide was now in full authority, and whilst preparing to march on the city of Mexico, in which the viceroy, ad interim, was shut up, he learned that Don Juan O'Donoju had arrived at San Juan de Ulua to fill the place of Apodaca as viceroy. Proposals were immediately sent by the general to this new functionary, and in an interview with him at Cordova, Iturbide proposed the adoption of the Plan of Iguala by treaty, as the only project by which the Spaniards in Mexico could be saved from the fury of the people, and the sovereignty of the colony preserved for Ferdinand. shall not pause to enquire whether the viceroy was justified or even empowered, to compromise the rights of Spain by such a compact. O'Donoju, though under the safeguard of a truce, was in truth a helpless man as soon as he touched the soil of Mexico, for no portions of it were actually under the Spanish authority except the castle of San Juan de Ulua and the capital, whose garrisons were chiefly composed of European levies. Humanity, perhaps, ultimately controled his decision, and in the name of his master, he

FIRST MEXICAN CORTES

ITURBIDE EMPEROR.

303

recognised the independence of Mexico and yielded the metropolis to the "army of the three Guaranties," which entered it peacefully on the 27th of September, 1821. A provisional Junta of thirty-six persons immediately elected a regency of five, of which Iturbide was president, and, at the same time, he was created Generalissimo, Lord High Admiral, and assigned a yearly stipend of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

On the 24th of February, 1822, the first Mexican Congress or Cortes, met; but it contained within it the germ of all the future discontents, which since that day, have harassed and nearly ruined Mexico. Scarcely had this body met when three parties manifested their bitter animosities and personal ambitions. The Bourbonists adhered, loyally, to the Plan of Iguala, a constitutional monarchy and the sovereignty of Ferdinand. The Republicans, discarded the plan as a device that had served its day, and insisted upon a central or federal republic; and, last of all, the partisans of the successful soldier, still clung to all of the plan save the clause which gave the throne to a Bourbon prince, for, at heart, they desired to place Iturbide himself upon it, and thus to cut off their country forever from all connection with Europe.

As soon as O'Donoju's treaty of Cordova reached Spain, it was nullified by the Cortes, and the Bourbon party in Mexico, of course fell with it. The Republicans and Iturbidists, alone remained on the field to contend for the prize, and after congress had disgraced itself by incessant bickerings over the army and the public funds, a certain Pio Marcha, first sergeant of the first regiment of infantry gathered a band of leperos before the palace of Iturbide on the night of the 18th of May, 1822, and proclaimed him Emperor, with the title of AGUSTIN THE FIRST. A show of resistance was made by Iturbide against the proffered crown; but it is likely that it was in reality, as faint as his joy was unbounded at the sudden elevation from a barrack room to the imperial palace. Congress, of course, approved the decision of the mob and army. The provinces sanctioned the acts of their representatives, and Iturbide ascended the throne.

But his reign was brief. Rapid success, love of power, impatience of restraint, all of which are characteristic of the Spanish soldier, made him strain the bonds of constitutional right. His struggles for control were incessant. "He demanded," says

-

Ward, "a veto upon all articles of the constitution then under discussion, and the right of appointing and removing, at pleasure, the members of the supreme tribunal of justice. He recommended

also the establishment of a military tribunal in the capital, with powers but little inferior to those exercised by the Spanish commandants during the revolution; and when these proposals were firmly rejected, he arrested, on the night of the 26th August, 1822, fourteen of the deputies who had advocated, during the discussion, principles but little in unison with the views of the government."

This high handed measure, and the openly manifested displeasure of congress, produced so complete a rupture between the emperor and the popular representatives, that it was impossible to conduct public affairs with any concert of action. Accordingly, Iturbide dissolved the assembly, and on the 30th of October, 1822, created an Instituent Junta of forty-five persons selected by himself from amongst the most pliant members of the recent congress. This irregularly formed body was intolerable to the people, while the expelled deputies, who returned to their respective districts, soon spread the spirit of discontent and proclaimed the American usurper to be as dangerous as the European despot.

In November, General Garza headed a revolt in the northern provinces. SANTA ANNA, then governor of Vera Cruz, declared againt the emperor. General Echavari, sent by Iturbide to crush the future president of Mexico, resolved not to stem the torrent of public opinion, and joined the general he had been commissioned to capture. Guadalupe Victoria, - driven to his fastnesses by the emperor, who was unable to win the incorruptible patriot, descended once more from the mountain forests, where he had been concealed, and joined the battalions of Santa Anna. And, on the 1st of February, 1823, a convention, called the "Act of CasaMata," was signed, by which the re-establishment of the National Representative Assembly was pledged.

The country was soon in arms. The Marques Vibanco, Generals Guerrero, Bravo, and Negrete, in various sections of the nation, proclaimed their adhesion to the popular movement; and on the 8th of March, 1823, Iturbide, finding that the day was lost, offered his abdication to such members of the old congress as he was able to assemble hastily in the metropolis. The abdication was, however, twice refused on the ground that congress, by accepting it, would necessarily sanction the legality of his right to wear the crown; nevertheless, that body permitted his departure from Mexico, after endowing him liberally with an income of twenty-five thousand dollars a year, besides providing a vessel to oear him and his family to Leghorn in Italy.

Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete entered the capital on the 27th of