a federal union with the province of Mexico.10 A few days later news reached the capital that the governor of Texas had proclaimed the empire, and had been joined by several savage tribes. The bishop of Sonora refused his support to the plan of Casa Mata. This was of little consequence; but affairs in Guadalajara were assuming a serious aspect. The clergy was ridiculed in El Pensador Mexicano, a popular journal, and manifestations of disloyalty and disobedience to the govenment were daily occurring.

The diputacion and people of that city, seconded later by other provincial capitals, demanded the convocation of a congress to establish the federal system with a suitable constitution. On the 12th of May resolutions were passed in that city to suspend the enforcement of decrees and orders issued by the executive or congress until the popular demand was complied with. The chief authority within the province was then vested in the diputacion provincial, strengthened with the members of the ayuntamiento of Guadalajara.11

The congress, in its anxiety to allay the agitation, increased the powers of the provincial deputations in the nomination of public officers within the respective provinces, giving them also supervision over the administration of their revenue, and at the same time declared its willingness to accept the desired federal system. But these concessions did not satisfy the demands, and it finally became necessary to convoke a constituent congress to assemble in Mexico on the 31st of October. The decree was issued on the 21st of May,12 and the rules for the elections appeared on the 17th of June.

10 The matter was submitted April 21st. Id., Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 177. 11 Other provinces were urged to pursue the same course. Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 162-8, 172-4; Id., Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 175-7, 180-9; Mex. Dictámen de la Com., 1-22; Yuc. Represent., 3-5; Baqueiro, Ens. Yuc., iii. ap. 4-8; Suarez, Informe, 5-6; La Minerva, 1845, May 15, 1.

12 The ratio for the election was one deputy for every 50,000 inhabitants, every freeman of eighteen years and upwards being a voter without other restriction. Alaman, Hist. Méj., 760-5, 771-2; Bustamante, Cuad. Hist.,

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS.

7

In several provinces revolutionary movements against the government had been promoted, not only by those who in good faith desired the establishment of the federal régime, but in some of them by Iturbidists who hoped to secure, in the midst of the turmoil, the restoration of the empire. Guadalajara and San Luis Potosí presented the most formidable opposition. In the latter province Santa Anna with his troops 13 had established a protectorate to be maintained until the federation of states should be constituted; but the energetic resistance of the authorities, supported by General Armijo with the force placed under his command, soon compelled Santa Anna to abandon his plan, and report himself in Mexico to answer for his conduct." In Guadalajara the case was quite different; the cry for a federation was a mere pretext, the agitators' real aim being Iturbide's recall. The deputies from there had been instructed to demand that one person only should hold the executive authority, and that a strictly federal constitution should be framed. The authorities and people pretended a willingness to obey the government, but continued the opposition.15

The executive, therefore, resolved to check by force the insubordination of the Iturbidists, whose chiefs were generals Quintanar and Bustamante. Two thousand men under Bravo and Negrete marched to Guadalajara, and on approaching Nueva Galicia, Negrete in

MS., viii. 193-7, 201-3; Id., Hist. Iturbide, 174-80; Ward's Mex., i. 281; Mex. Col. Leyes, Ord. y Dec., ii. 121–35, 142–3, 146, 172-3, 180-1; Disposic. Var. iii. 118-23; Suarez y Navarro, Hist. Méx., 50; Lizardi, Advert., 1-8; Yuc. Manifiesto del Cong. del Est. 1-23.

13 After the declaration of the plan of Casa Mata, Santa Anna played no prominent part in subsequent events connected with the downfall of Iturbide. He remained in Vera Cruz when the army marched toward the capital, and soon afterward went to Tampico to promote the revolution in that region. He was later made comandante general of Yucatan.

His troops were transferred to Querétaro. Santa Anna, Manif., 41-4; Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 717, 738, 765-6, 781-2; Suarez y Navarro, Hist. Méx., 34-5.

15 The province, being called on for a quota of troops to serve in Vera Cruz against the Spaniards on San Juan de Ulúa, refused to furnish it unless Bravo and Negrete were removed from office. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 208.

16

duced Colima with all its district to refuse further recognition of the authorities at Guadalajara, and the troops stationed there under Colonel Correa joined Bravo's force. This action led to the erection of Colima as a federal territory, and brought about temporarily the settlement of affairs in that quarter, an arrangement being made at Lagos between Bravo and Quintanar. The former then retired with his army to Guanajuato and established his headquarters at Celaya, his troops acting as a corps of observation to be ready for possible disturbances in the future.

The absence of Victoria in Vera Cruz, and of Bravo and Negrete in Nueva Galicia, had left the executive in charge of the substitutes Michelena and Dominguez, and necessitated the appointment of a third substitute, the choice by the congress falling on General Vicente Guerrero. The government was then practically in charge of Michelena.17

The congress in its deliberations enacted measures for the improvement of the country's industries, and for the reorganization of the army. The frequency of conspiracies in favor of the ex-emperor, as well as of robberies on the public highways, prompted the adoption of a law giving the cognizance of such cases to the military courts, and fixing a very short and peremptory term for the termination of each cause. This law was used afterward as a weapon in the warfare of parties. The government was also authorized, October 2d, to confine at convenient places persons of whose guilt there was a moral certainty, even though it had not been actually proved by process of law. This last measure was adopted in consequence of the alleged discovery of a plot that was to be carried into

16 The authorities of Guadalajara in the latter part of 1823 made an unsuccessful attempt to bring Colima again under their control. Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 189, 217, 237-43; Id., Mem. Hist. Mex., MS., ii. 13; Id., Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 179, 192-3, 215, 229-30; Dispos. Var., iii. 55, 116; Colima, Represent., 7; Mex. Col. Leyes, Órd. y Dec., ii. 147-8, 159.

17 Dominguez was very aged. Guerrero, though possessed of much penetration and sound sense, was uneducated, and inexperienced in state affairs. The latter's appointment appears in Mex. Col. Leyes, Órd. y Dec., ii. 141-2.

HONORS TO DEAD HEROES.

execution on the fourth of that month, and in which were implicated several officers and bodies of troops, whose chief, General Andrade, though a deputy, was arrested, and finally exiled to Guayaquil, where he died.18

19

Congress did not neglect to pay due honor to the original heroes of national independence. On the 19th of July a law was enacted recognizing the services rendered in the first eleven years of the war as good and meritorious. Its promoters and leaders were declared "beneméritos de la patria en grado heróico," and their names were ordered to be inscribed in letters of gold in the hall of sessions of the national congress. Monuments to the memory of those who had suffered for the cause were ordered to be raised on the sites where they were executed, and their remains, such as could be found, were exhumed and brought to Mexico, where funeral honors on a magnificent scale were paid them at the cathedral, several of the very men who had caused them to be shot being present at the ceremonies. Their bones were placed in an urn and deposited in the vault of the Altar de los Reyes, and the two silver keys of the urn delivered, one to the congress, and the other to the executive. The latter was placed in charge of the department of relations.20 In the midst of these sol

18 About 50 persons were arrested; among them, besides Andrade, generals José Velazquez and the conde de San Pedro del Álamo, 5 colonels, 7 captains, and about 11 subalterns; schoolmasters, and even barbers, were imprisoned for complicity. Suarez y Navarro, Hist. Méx., 50; Alaman, Hist. Méj., 772-4; Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 183-5.

19 Hidalgo, Allende, Juan Aldama, Abasolo, Morelos, Matamoros, Leonardo and Miguel Bravo, Hermenegildo Galeana, Jimenez, Mina, Moreno, and Rosales. A little later were added to the list Nicolás Bravo, Victoria, Guerrero, Joaquin Leño, and others. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 768, 771; Mex. Col. Dec. Sob. Cong. Mex., 143, 175, 189.

20 On one occasion when the national palace was captured by revolutionists, this key was stolen, together with the silver seals of treaties with foreign powers. The monuments ordered were not all erected; one was raised in Puebla where Miguel Bravo was shot, and one in Morelia on the site of Matamoros' death. Abasolo having died in Cádiz, his bones were not obtained; and those of Galeana and Leonardo Bravo were not found. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 769; Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 202-3. A description of the funeral ceremonies may be found in the Gaceta Extraordinaria of September 20, 1823.

emn obsequies, the rabid haters of Spain and everything Spanish urged the Indians to fall upon Hernan Cortés' sepulchre, burn his bones, and throw the ashes to the winds. The disgraceful plan would have been accomplished had not the government averted it by causing the sepulchre to be opened in the night, and the remains to be deposited in a place of safety.

In the mean time the elections for the constituent congress were proceeding, and as was to be expected, the majority of the members chosen were federalists; there were also some centralists elected, equally hostile to Iturbide. The freemasons lost the preponderance they had in the preceding body, and the monarchists were wholly excluded, Fagoaga, Tagle, and others of their party not being reëlected. Had it not been for subsequent mistakes on the part of the republicans, the royalist party would have been forever dead in Mexico.

The old congress, after adopting measures for paying the deputies, and appointing a permanent deputation from its body, closed its sessions on the 30th of October, just one year from the date of its dissolution by Iturbide, thus ceasing to exist at the urgent demand of the very diputaciones provinciales that had revolted against Iturbide in order to force its reinstate

ment.

21

In the midst of so much agitation, the constituent congress was installed with great solemnity, and on the 7th of November, 1823, began its labors 2 to place the country under the most liberal institutions, according to the express national will. The most influential man among the federalists was Miguel Ramos Arizpe, deputy from Coahuila; he was aided by Rejon, Velez, Gordoa, Gomez Farías, García, Godoy, and others. Among the centralists figured prominently

21 The proceedings of installation, list of members, etc., appear in Mex. Col. Ley. Fund., 116; Id., Col. Leyes, Órd y Dec., iii. 1-2, 84-7; Id., Actas Cong. Constituc., 1-2; Prov. Mex. Lista Ciudad elej., 1.