Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican Part 24

With the death of Morelos the hopes of the insurgents were crushed and their efforts paralyzed. This extraordinary man, so fertile in resources, and blending in himself the mingled power of priest and general, had secured the confidence of the ma.s.ses, who found among his officers, none upon whom they could rally with perfect reliance.

Besides this, the congress which had been conducted safely to Tehuacan by Bravo, was summarily dissolved by General Teran, who considered it an "inconvenient appendage of a camp." We cannot but regard this act of the general as unwise at a moment, when the insurgents lost such a commander as Morelos. By the dissolution of the congress the nation abandoned another point of reunion; and from that moment, the cause began to fail in all parts of the country.

The CONSt.i.tUTION, sanctioned by the Cortes in 1812, had, meanwhile, been proclaimed in Mexico, on the 29th of September of that year; and, whilst the people felt somewhat freer under it, they were enabled, by the liberty of the press, which lasted sixty-six days, to expend their new-born patriotism on paper instead of in battles. These popular excitements, served to sustain the spirits of the people, notwithstanding the losses of the army; so that when Apodaca, a.s.sumed the reins of the viceroyalty in 1816, the country was still republican at heart, though all the insurgent generals were either captured or hidden in the wilderness, whilst their disbanded forces, in most instances, had accepted the _indulto_, or pardon, proffered for their return to allegiance.

The remaining officers of Morelos spread themselves over the country, as there was no longer any centre of action; and each of them, occupying a different district, managed, for a while, to support revolutionary fervor throughout the neighborhood. "Guerrero occupied the west coast, where he maintained himself until the year 1821, when he joined Iturbide. Rayon commanded in the vicinity of Tlalpujahua, where he successively maintained two fortified camps on the Cerro del Gallo, and on Coporo. Teran held the district of Tehuacan, in Puebla.

Bravo was a wanderer throughout the country. The Bajio was tyrannized over by the Padre Torres, while Guadalupe Victoria occupied the important province of Vera Cruz."[61]

The chief spite of the royalists,--who hunted these republican heroes, among the forests and mountain fastnesses of Mexico, as the Covenanters had been hunted in Scotland,--seems to have fallen upon the last named of these patriot generals. Victoria's haunt was chiefly in the pa.s.ses near the Puente del Rey, now the Puente Nacional, or National bridge, on the road leading from the port of Vera Cruz to the capital. He was prepared to act either with a large force of _guerillas_, or, with a simple body guard; and, knowing the country perfectly, he was enabled to descend from his fastnesses among the rocks, and thus to cut off, almost entirely, all communication between the coast and the metropolis. At length, superior forces were sent to pursue him with relentless fury. His men gradually deserted when the villages that formerly supplied them with food refused further contributions. Efforts were made to seduce him from his principles and to ensure his loyalty. But he refused the rank and rewards offered by the viceroy as the price of his submission. At length he found himself alone in his resistance, in the midst of countrymen, who, if they would no longer fight under his banner, were too faithful to betray him. Yet he would not abandon the cause, but, taking his sword and a small stock of raiment, departed for the mountains, where he wandered for thirty months, living on the fruits of the forest and gnawing the bones of dead animals found in their recesses. Nor did he emerge from this impenetrable concealment, until two faithful Indians, whom he had known in prosperous days, sought him out with great difficulty, and, communicating the joyous intelligence of the revolution of 1821, brought him back once more to their villages where he was received with enthusiastic reverence as a patriot raised from the dead. When discovered by the Indians he was worn to a skeleton, covered with hair, and clad in a tattered wrapper; but, amid all his distresses and losses, he had preserved and treasured his loyalty to the cause of liberty and his untarnished sword!

Meanwhile another actor in this revolutionary army had appeared upon the stage. This was XAVIER MINA, a _guerilla_ chief of old Spain, who fled from his country, in consequence of the unfortunate effort to organize an outbreak in favor of the Cortes, at Pampeluna, after the dissolution of that a.s.sembly by the king. He landed on the coast of Mexico at Soto la Marina with a brave band of foreigners, chiefly North Americans, on the 15th of April, 1817. His forces amounted to only three hundred and fifty-nine men, including officers, of whom fifty-one deserted before he marched into the interior. Leaving one hundred of these soldiers at Soto la Marina under the command of Major Sarda, he attempted with the remainder, to join the independents in the heart of the country.

Mina pressed onwards successfully, defeating several royalist parties, until he reached Sombrero, whence he sallied forth upon numerous expeditions, one of which was against the fortified _hacienda_ or plantation of the Marques of Jaral, a creole n.o.bleman, from which the inhabitants and the owner fled at his approach. His troops sacked this wealthy establishment, and Mina transferred to the public chest one hundred and forty thousand dollars, found concealed in the house. This n.o.bleman, it is true, had given in his adhesion to the royal cause and fortified his dwelling against the insurgents who hitherto refrained from attacking him. Nevertheless, the unprovoked blow of an independent leader against a native of the country, and especially against a man whose extensive farming operations concentrated the interests of so large a laboring cla.s.s, was not calculated to inspire confidence in Mina among the ma.s.ses of the people.

Whilst the guerilla chief was thus pursuing his way successfully in the heart of the country, and receiving occasional reinforcements from the natives, the garrison he left at Soto la Marina fell into the hands of Spanish levies, two thousand of whom surrounded the slender band. Notwithstanding the inequality of forces between the a.s.sailants and the besieged, the royalists were unable to take the place by storm; but, after repeated repulses, General Arredondo proposed terms which were accepted by Major Sarda, the independent commander. It is scarcely necessary to say that this condition was not fulfilled by the Spaniards, who sent the capitulated garrison in irons, by a circuitous journey, to the sickly Castle of San Juan de Ulua at Vera Cruz, whence some of the unfortunate wretches were marched into the interior whilst others were despatched across the sea to the dungeons of Cadiz, Melilla and Ceuta. This was a severe blow to Mina, who nevertheless was unparalyzed by it but continued active in the vicinity of Sombrero to which he retreated after an illjudged attempt upon the town of Leon, where the number of his troops was considerably diminished.

Sombrero was invested, soon after, by a force of three thousand five hundred and forty soldiers, under Don Pascual Linan, who had been appointed Field Marshal, by Apodaca, and despatched to the Bajio. This siege was ultimately successful on the part of the royalists. The fresh supplies promised to Mina did not arrive. Colonel Young, his second in command, died in repulsing an a.s.sault; and, upon the garrison's attempting to evacuate the town, under Colonel Bradburn, on the night of the 19th of August, the enemy fell upon the independents with such vigor that but fifty of Mina's whole corps escaped. "No quarter," says Ward, "was given in the field, and the unfortunate wretches who had been left in the hospital wounded, were by Linan's orders, carried or dragged along the ground from their beds to the square where they were stripped and shot!"

Mina, as a last resort, threw himself into the fort of Los Remedios, a natural fortification on the lofty mountain chain rising out of the plains of the Bajio between Silao and Penjamo, separated from the rest by precipices, and deep ravines.

Linan's army sat down before Remedios on the 27th of August. Mina left the town so as to a.s.sail the army from without by his _guerillas_, whilst the garrison kept the main body engaged with the fort. During this period he formed the project of attacking the town of Guanajuato, which, in fact, he accomplished; yet, after his troops had penetrated the heart of the city, their courage failed and they retreated before the loyalists who rallied after the panic created by the unexpected a.s.sault at nightfall. On retreating from Guanajuato, our partizan warrior took the road to the Rancho del Venadito where he designed pa.s.sing the night in order to consult upon his future plans with his friend Mariano Herrera. Here he was detected by a friar, who apprised Orrantia of the brave Mina's presence, and, on the morning of the 27th of October, he was seized and conveyed to Irapuato. On the 11th of November, 1817, in the 28th year of his age, he was shot by order of Apodaca, on a rock, in sight of Los Remedios.

At the end of December the ammunition of the insurgents in this stronghold was entirely exhausted, and its evacuation was resolved on.

This was attempted on the 1st of January, 1818, but, with the exception of Padre Torres, the commander, and twelve of Mina's division, few or none of the daring fugitives escaped. The wretched inmates of the fort, the women, and garrison hospitals of wounded, were cut down, bayoneted, and burned. On the 6th of March, the fort of Jauxilla, the insurgents' last stronghold in the central parts of the country, fell, while, towards the middle of the year, all the revolutionary chiefs were dislodged and without commands, except Guerrero, who still maintained himself on the right bank of the river Zacatula, near Colima, on the Pacific. But even he was cut off from communication with the interior, and was altogether without hope of a.s.sistance from without. The heart of the nation, and the east coast,--which was of most importance so far as the reception of auxiliaries by the independents was concerned,--were, thus, in complete possession of the royalists; so that a viceroy declared in his despatches to Spain, "that he would be answerable for the safety of Mexico without a single additional soldier being sent out to reinforce the armies that were in the field."

But the viceroy Apodaca, confident as he was of the defeat of the insurrection, did not know the people with whom he dealt as well as his predecessor Calleja,[62] who, with all his cruelty, seems to have enjoyed sagacious intervals in which he comprehended perfectly the deep seated causes of revolutionary feeling in Mexico, even if he was indisposed to sympathize with them or to permit their manifestation by the people. In fact, the revolution was not quelled. It slept, for want of a leader;--but, at last he appeared in the person of AGUSTIN DE ITURBIDE, a native Mexican, whose military career, in the loyalist cause had been not only brilliant but eminently useful, for it was in consequence of the two severe blows inflicted by him upon the insurgents in the actions of Valladolid and Puruaran that the great army of Morelos was routed and destroyed.

In 1820, Apodaca, who was no friend of the const.i.tution, and who suffered a diminution of power by its operation, was well disposed to put it down by force, and to proclaim once more the absolute authority of the king. The elective privileges, which the const.i.tution secured to the people, together with the principles of freedom which those elections were calculated to foster among the ma.s.ses, were considered by the viceroy as dangerous in a country so recently the theatre of revolution. The insurrection was regarded by him as ended forever. He despised, perhaps, the few distinguished persons who yet quietly manifested their preference for liberalism; and, like all men of despotic character and confident of power, he undervalued the popular ma.s.ses, among whom there is ever to be found common sense, true appreciation of natural rights, and firmness to vindicate them whenever they are confident of the leaders who are to control their destiny when embarked upon the stormy sea of rebellion.

Apodaca, in pursuit of his project to restore absolutism on this continent, fixed his eyes upon the gallant ITURBIDE, whose polished manners, captivating address, elegant person, ambitious spirit, and renowned military services, signalized him as a person likely to play a distinguished part in the restoration of a supreme power whose first favors would probably be showered upon the successful soldier of a crusade against const.i.tutional freedom.

Accordingly the viceroy offered Iturbide the command of a force upon the west coast, at the head of which he was to proclaim the re-establishment of the king's _absolute_ authority. The command was accepted; but Iturbide, who had been for four years unemployed, had, in this interval of repose, reflected well upon the condition of Mexico, and was satisfied that if the creoles could be induced to co-operate with the independents, the Spanish yoke might be cast off.

There were only eleven Spanish expeditionary regiments in the whole of Mexico, and although there were upwards of seventy thousand old Spaniards in the different provinces who supported these soldiers, they could not oppose, effectually, the seven veteran and seventeen provincial regiments of natives, aided by the ma.s.ses of people who had signified their attachment to liberalism.

Instead, therefore, of allying himself with the cause of a falling monarchy, whose reliance must chiefly be confined to succors from across the ocean, Iturbide resolved to abandon the viceroy and his criminal project against the const.i.tution, and to throw himself with his forces upon the popular cause of the country. It was a bold but successful move.

On the 24th of February, 1821, he was at the small town of Iguala, on the road to Acapulco; and on that day, at his headquarters, he proclaimed the celebrated PLAN OF IGUALA, the several principles of which are:--"Independence, the maintenance of Roman Catholicity, and Union;"--whence his forces obtained the name of the "Army of the three Guaranties."

As this is probably one of the most important state papers in the history of Mexico, and is often referred to without being fully understood, we shall present it to the reader entire:

PLAN OF IGUALA.

ARTICLE 1.--The Mexican nation is independent of the Spanish nation, and of every other, even on its own continent.

ART. 2.--Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its inhabitants profess.

ART. 3.--They shall all be united, without any distinction between Americans and Europeans.

ART. 4.--The government shall be a const.i.tutional monarchy.

ART. 5.--A Junta shall be named, consisting of individuals who enjoy the highest reputation in different parties which have shown themselves.

ART. 6.--This Junta shall be under the presidency of his excellency the Conde del Venadito, the present viceroy of Mexico.

ART. 7.--It shall govern in the name of the nation, according to the laws now in force, and its princ.i.p.al business will be to convoke, according to such rules as it shall deem expedient, a congress for the formation of a const.i.tution more suitable to the country.

ART. 8.--His Majesty Ferdinand VII. shall be invited to the throne of the empire, and in case of his refusal, the Infantes Don Carlos and Don Francisco De Paula.

ART. 9.--Should his Majesty Ferdinand VII. and his august brothers, decline the invitation, the nation is at liberty to invite to the imperial throne any member of reigning families whom it may choose to select.

ART. 10.--The formation of the const.i.tution by the congress, and the oath of the emperor to observe it, must precede his entry into the country.

ART. 11.--The distinction of castes is abolished, which was made by the Spanish law, excluding them from the rights of citizenship. 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 be 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.

[Footnote 61: Ward vol. i, 221.]

[Footnote 62: See Calleja's confidential letter to the Spanish minister of war, with a private report on the Mexican Revolution.

Ward, vol. i, p. 509--Appendix.]