HISTORY OF MEXICO. CHAPTER I. REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION. 1823-1824. DEMORALIZED CONDITION OF THE ARMY-A BAD PRECEDENT-THE NEW LIBERTY, equality, fraternity: these words fall pleasantly on ears accustomed for three centuries only to the grinding of the chains of tyranny. But even now all is not sunshine; and what light there is dazzles rather than cheers. Many years must yet elapse before the full benefits of the long and bloody struggle for independence will be fully felt. But the more immediate infelicities, whence do they arise? After this manner. There is set in motion among men caring more for themselves than for their country the wheel of retribution, which scarcely stops turning for half a century. Somewhat as Iturbide had dethroned the viceroy Apodaca, Santa Anna and others had dethroned Iturbide. Made governor in Vera Cruz, Santa Anna revolted, and detached that VOL. V. 1 place from the emperor's control. Echávarri, the trusted friend, proclaimed the plan of Casa Mata at the head of the troops given him to put down Santa Anna. Other military officers enjoying Iturbide's confidence were equally perfidious. But the chief trouble was the faithlessness of his army. Iturbide had himself set a bad example to his troops. It was a pernicious lesson to teach soldiers; and unfortunately for Mexico's future, it was too well learned. Thenceforth all pretensions, whether personal or otherwise, found a ready support in that large and demoralized element of the army which had no respect for public opinion, personal rights, or any interest in the national welfare, and was always willing to fight for those who paid best, either in money or some species of personal advancement. The national congress, as heretofore narrated, having been reinstalled on the 29th of March, 1823,1 decreed on the 31st the cessation of the powers conferred on the executive created on the 19th of May, 1822, appointing in its place a triumvirate, consisting of generals Nicolás Bravo, Guadalupe Victoria, and Pedro Celestino Negrete. This selection of military men exclusively established a bad precedent. The next day Mariano Michelena and Miguel Dominguez were chosen substitutes to discharge the duties. of the regular triumviri in the event of absence, or inability to act from death or any other cause." The executive authority, now held by Bravo, Negrete, and Michelena in Victoria's absence, at once entered upon its duties. One of its first acts was the construction of a cabinet: Lúcas Alaman, minister of foreign and interior relations; Pablo de la Llave, of 'Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 135–51; Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 744–6, 759-60, 766-7; Gaz. de Mex., i., 1823, 171--4; Dispos. Var., iii. 122; Mex. Col. Dec. Sob. Cong. Mex., 92-3. 2 Mex. Col. Leyes, Órd. y Dec., ii. 89-91, 118; Mex. Col. Dec. Sob. Cong. Mex., 93-4; Bustamante, list. Iturbide, 149–50, 158; Id., Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 163-4; Ward's Mex., i. 281. MILITARY TRIUMVIRATE. 3 justice and ecclesiastical affairs; Francisco de Arrillaga, of the treasury; and José Ignacio García Illueca, of war and the navy; but this last department, on the death of the incumbent, July 12, 1823, was given to Brigadier José Joaquin de Herrera.3 The whole system of administration was soon changed: the capitanías generales instituted by Iturbide were reduced to mere comandancias in each province. The congress and government devoted their energies to repair the evils inflicted on the country during the last days of the empire. Political prisoners were liberated; the appointments for members of a supreme court were made null;" the council of state was suppressed. Every mark or badge of the late empire was done away with, it being taken for granted that the future form of government would be republican. The issue of paper money was discontinued, and other important commercial and financial measures were enacted. To provide resources for the current expenses and for other urgent obligations was a matter of paramount necessity. Orders were accordingly issued for the immediate sale at lower than regular rates of all tobacco and cigars in the govern "The four portfolios had been for a time in charge of Illueca; that of relations to the 15th of April; that of the treasury till the 30th of April; and that of justice till the 6th of June. Mex. Mem. Hacienda, 1870, 1027; Alaman, Apuntes Biog., 19, 21-2; Ramirez y Sesma, Col. Dec., 307; Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 150. 'That of Mexico was left in charge of the Marqués de Vivanco, detached from the civil government; Echávarri went back to that of Puebla; Victoria retained that of Vera Cruz, but having gone to Jalapa together with the Spanish commissioners, left the command with Colonel Eulogio de Villa Urrutia; Anastasio Bustamante resigned his position in the provincias internas, the eastern portion of which was again detached from the western, and its command given to Brigadier Felipe de la Garza. Bustamante became comandante general of Guadalajara, his native place. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 760. Mex. Col. Leyes, Ord. y Dec., ii. 115; Mex. Col. Dec. Sob. Cong. Mex., 95, 134, 147-8. This measure was decreed by the junta instituyente at the latter part of 1822. It was ordered that notes to the amount of $1,000,000 should be manufactured. From Jan. 1, 1823, one third of all public salaries was to be paid in this money, which was also made a legal tender, in the same proportion, in all commercial and retail transactions for amounts over three dollars. This currency was, however, received with disfavor. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 682-3. 'On the day the provisional government was 'nstalled there were only $42 in the treasury. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 811. ment warehouses, and for the disposal of the temporalities of the Jesuits, and of the property of the hos pitallers and inquisition. Money was borrowed from an English house, which was repaid later out of the proceeds of a loan of $16,000,000 negotiated in London. The government likewise, as a matter of policy, effected a second loan of an equal amount from the house of Barclay and Company in England, believing that the British government, for the protection of these interests, would have to recognize and uphold Mexican independence. The terms of the loans were indeed burdensome, a large part of the second being received in military supplies, such as armament, ships, and clothing, at exorbitant prices. However, the ships proved useful, for with them two years afterward was captured San Juan de Ulúa from the Spaniards. With the specie received the government met its most pressing obligations, such as paying for the Manila conducta, and for the one which had been seized at Perote, and cancelling a number of forced loans. Another measure of the congress, enacted on the 14th of April, 1823, was the establishment of the national coat of arms and flag. The former represented an eagle perched on a nopal growing on a rock rising from the waters of the lake; in his right claw he holds a snake, and is in the attitude of tearing it to pieces with his beak. The flag consists of three vertical bars, respectively green, white, and red, the first color being next to the flag-staff. These colors are symbolical of the three guaranties of the plan of Iguala. White denotes the purity of the Roman catholic religion; the green, independence; and red, the union of the Spanish element with the Mexican nation. The bars were originally horizontal, but were changed to vertical by the first congress. 8 I will now review the political condition of the country. The victorious republicans soon divided Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, ii. 145; Mex. Col. Leyes, Ord. y Dec., ii. 94. POLITICAL PARTIES. themselves into two distinct parties, namely, federalists and centralists. The former, as their name denotes, preferred a federal system of government, and to them the partisans of Iturbide attached themselves in order to be revenged on the men that overthrew him. This party had an organ in the press called at first the Archivista, but which later assumed the name of El Aguila Mexicana, and being edited under the influence of Juan Gomez Navarrete, Iturbide's attorney, and printed on his premises, added strength to the Iturbidists. The centralist party was formed of the masons of the Scottish rite, and the old monarchists, from whom it unjustly obtained the nickname of Bourbonists. To this party belonged the existing government and congress. Its press organ, El Sol, was ably supported by Santa María, the Colombian minister, who was honorably reinstated in his official position from which he had been dismissed by Iturbide's government. His writings were widely read, and appeared under the pseudonyme of Capitan Chinchilla. In some issues, with no small wit, he would criticise the occurrences of the day; in others he would censure with great bitterness the errors of the opposing party, or ridicule them as mercilessly as he had the ceremonials of the imperial court. The government had, however, most to fear from the exaggerated pretensions of the provincial juntas. These from the first kept the country in agitation; but timely rebuke put them down. Commissioners from Oajaca, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Valladolid, and Guanajuato demanded a new congress. The minister of relations laid before the chamber the information that in Monterey a junta of delegates had been organized, representing Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Texas, which desired This was on April 4th. Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 159-60. Bustamante, a member of the congress, and a centralist, calls those men demagogues wanting a legislature subservient to their will, as their schemes could find no favor with the one then sitting. |