GIFT or 
 
 MICHAEL REESE 
 
 t 
 
/ 
 
 ' A / / ^ 
 
 A 
 
 'Pl^ 
 
 STATE M E N T . 
 
 OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN THE 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE OF 
 
 AGUSTIN DE ITURBIDE, 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 
 
 WITH 
 
 A PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR, AND AN 
 APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS. 
 
 I €■ I •? 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXIV. 
 
 /{\ 
 
HBSSE 
 
 <^<^<f, 
 
 * y 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by William Clowes, 
 
 Northnmberland-court. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The work^f which the following '* Statement" is a trans- 
 lation, was written by General de Iturbide while he was 
 in Italy, and was framed as a manifesto addressed to 
 the Mexicans. His chief object was to explain the 
 motives by which his career was guided, from the hour 
 when he proclaimed the independence of his country, 
 until he resigned the throne to which the spontaneous 
 voice of that country had raised him. Speaking to Mex- 
 icans he did not deem it necessary to his purpose to go 
 into any minute detail of facts with which they were ac- 
 quainted, or to comment upon the conduct of all the indi- 
 viduals who took a share in the revolution. He alludes 
 briefly to those events which immediately aided or opposed 
 his own proceedings, touches the leading characteristics 
 of those men who betrayed the confidence which he re- 
 posed in them, and justifies, with equal force of argu- 
 ment, his acceptance and his abdication of the Mexican 
 
 sceptre. 
 
 a 2 
 
 21 ^'■^OQ 
 
'V PREFACE. 
 
 When he wrote this work, he believed that his political 
 career was closed. He had scarcely concluded it, how- 
 ever, when information reached him from various quar- 
 ters of the distracted state of that country from which 
 he was an exile. By descending from the throne he had 
 left the plan of Mexican independence abruptly unfi- 
 nished, and in the hands of men who did not understand 
 how to complete it. Seduced by the neighbouring ex- 
 ample of the United States, those men supposed, and 
 probably some of them were sincere in their opinions, 
 that a Federal Republic was that form of government 
 which would be most conducive to the union and pros- 
 perity of the different provinces of Mexico. But being 
 none of them individuals of much experience in political 
 affairs, or of any considerable acquaintance with the his- 
 tory of foreign countries, they conceived that in order to 
 found a government purely democratical, they had no 
 more to do than to pronounce the word, and decree a 
 constitution. They forgot that the Mexicans had been 
 little removed from the condition of negro slaves from the 
 period of their submission to Spain, until the year 1820, 
 and that neither history or tradition disclosed to them a 
 period when they had been governed only by law. All 
 their habits and associations were connected with servi- 
 tude on one side, and tyranny on the other. They 
 knew no medium, nor variation, except that in those par- 
 
PREFACr.. V 
 
 tial explosions vvhicir took place within the last (it'teen 
 years, the slave sometimes became a tyrant, and the tyrant 
 a slave. To superficial statesmen it seemed enough to 
 alter the political idiom of the country, whereas it was 
 previously indispensable to change the sentiments, to root 
 out the prejudices and the ignorance of centuries. It is 
 easy to speak of reforms, and to enact them in the legis- 
 lature, but it is a very different thing to shape them to the 
 aptitudes of the community for which they are intended. 
 A republican form of government constitutes every 
 individual under it a public functionary; and unless it 
 be intended to deceive the people, and to throw the ac- 
 tual manascement of the state into the hands of a few 
 demagogues, every individual who has a political duty to 
 discharge, such for instance as that of contributing to 
 the election of a representative, or the imposition of a 
 tax, ought to be acquainted with his own attributes and 
 the relation which they bear to the general system. Un- 
 der the federal republic the elections would be frequent, 
 and it would require a large body of well-informed men, 
 in order to keep up a succession of effective representa- 
 tives. But where can be found in Mexico electors, or 
 candidates, of this description ? Education has been so 
 limited in that country, that few^ are to be met with, except 
 the clergy, who can either read or write. As to politics and 
 legislation, the study of them was not only useless, but 
 
VI _ - PREFACE. 
 
 dangerous, to a Mexican under the Spanish rule. Now 
 and then, indeed, a few men of enlightened minds emerged 
 from the forests and recesses of the mountains, where 
 obscurity and solitude protected their studies. But what 
 are these in a republic of seven millions of people ? 
 
 *' After education," says an able Peruvian writer *, 
 ** nothing determines so much as wealth the kind of go- 
 vernment which is fit for a community. When the 
 greater number of the inhabitants of a country can live 
 independently upon the produce of their capital, their 
 estates, or their industry, each individual possesses more 
 freedom of action, and is in less danger of renouncing 
 his rights through fear, or corruption. It is true, indeed, 
 that those who live in abundance may sometimes be as 
 liable to be corrupted as those who pine in misery ; but it 
 is not probable that all those who have a secure subsis- 
 tence would sell their votes in the assemblies of the 
 people ; would prostitute their characters in the bosom 
 of the national congress ; would basely seek for public 
 employments only to abuse them, or endeavour to excite 
 the people to insubordination. He who possesses a ca- 
 pital, of whatever sort it be, with which he can satisfy his 
 wants, is anxious only for the preservation of order, 
 
 * M. Monteagudo, who was lately minister for foreigri affairs in Peru. 
 The above passage is quoted from his *' Memoria sobre los principios 
 politicos que segui en la administracion del Peru," a little pamphlet 
 full of sound political and practical wisdom. 
 
PREFACE.. VII 
 
 which is the principal agent of production ; the habit of 
 thinking upon what injures, or promotes, his interests, 
 suggests to him exact notions of the rights of property, 
 and though he be ignorant of the theory of all other rights, 
 he soon becomes practically acquainted with them from 
 reflection. Where such elements exist, it would not be 
 difficult to form a democracy." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to observe that, though Mexico 
 is naturally the richest country perhaps in the world, yet 
 its circulating wealth is very limited, and even that does 
 not belong to the people. They possess as yet neither in- 
 dividual independence, education, or political spirit, and 
 a scheme of government must be wholly unsuited to their 
 genius, which depends upon the free and enlightened 
 exertions of the community, and in every department 
 of it stands in need of the powerful control of public 
 opinion. 
 
 What M. Monteagudo further observes of Peru is 
 equally applicable to Mexico. '* The diversity of condi- 
 tions, and the multitude of castes, the strong aversion 
 which they entertain towards each other, the diametrical 
 opposition of their character, the difference between 
 them in their ideas, their usages, their customs, and their 
 wants, and as to the means of satisfying them, present a 
 mass of antipathies and of hostile interests, which threaten 
 the subversion of all social order, unless a wise and 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 t 
 
 vigorous government restrain them by its influence. This 
 danger is now the more to be apprehended, since those 
 considerations and habits have been relaxed, vs^hich had 
 hitherto served to curb their mutual animosities : those 
 animosities w^ill become more active and destructive in 
 proportion as democratic notions' become more general ; 
 and the very persons who are now fomenting such ideas, 
 will perhaps be their first victims. 
 
 ** In such a state of things, and without any other 
 criterion than that of which men long accustomed to 
 insult and outrage are susceptible, they naturally believe, 
 on hearing liberty and equality proclaimed, that obedi- 
 ence at once ceases to be a duty ; that respect for the 
 magistrates is a favour conferred upon the individuals, 
 and not a homage due to the authority which they exer- 
 cise; that all conditions are equal, not only before the 
 law, for this is a qualification which they do not compre- 
 hend, but also to the most absurd extent to which the 
 term equality can be supposed to apply, and that if those 
 chimerical rights are denied them, the time is arrived 
 when they are at liberty to assert them by the physical 
 strength of those arms which have been so long enured 
 to the fatigues of servitude. The necessary inference is, 
 that the relations which subsist between masters and 
 slaves, between classes which hate each other, and be- 
 tween men who form as many social subdivisions as there 
 
PHEFACE. IX 
 
 are shades in their colour, are incompatible with the 
 idea of a democracy.'* 
 
 ** Those who believe that it is possible to apply to 
 such a country the constitutional reforms of North Ame- 
 rica, either know not, or forget, the point from which 
 both countries have set out. There is not, nor can there 
 be, any analogy between provinces thinly peopled, very 
 remote from each other, and whose moral and physical 
 resources are of no value unless they are concentrated 
 under a beneficent system, and the United States, which 
 at the time of their emancipation, had already a more dense 
 and a more independent population, which were accus- 
 tomed to the exercise of legislative (though limited) 
 functions, and possessed a form of government which 
 traced out the ground-work of their present institutions." 
 
 Th6 consequences of endeavouring to force upon a 
 people ideas for which they were not prepared, and of 
 calling them to the exercise of duties which they did not 
 comprehend, were anarchy, and the immediate separation 
 of the greater number of those provinces which, under 
 Iturbide,had been united. He was not, however, diverted 
 from his pursuit of retirement by the information wl^ich 
 he received in Italy upon that subject, accompanied as it 
 was by the most pressing solicitations for his return to 
 Mexico. He had taken a house for his family in the vicinity 
 of Leghorn, but he was not long there before he had 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 . reason to believe that he became an object of jealousy 
 to the Holy Alliance. As soon as the constitution was 
 overthrown in Spain, the Allies bent their thoughts to 
 South America, and Iturbide received private intima- 
 tions which informed him that they were anxious to 
 place him in the hands of Ferdinand, either for the pur- 
 pose of avenging the leading part which he took in 
 achieving the independence of Mexico, or of rendering 
 him an instrument for the restoration of that country to 
 the Spanish yoke*. After visiting Florence, where he 
 had an interview with Lord Burgersh, he resolved to 
 proceed to England, where alone he could expect safety. 
 He left Leghorn on the 20th of November last in an 
 English merchant ship, but after being a few days at 
 sea he was compelled by adverse weather to put back to 
 the same port, and in the beginning of December he set 
 out for England by land. His departure was no sooner 
 known at the Tuscan court, than the French minister 
 sent his secretary after him, in order to procure his 
 detention. Iturbide, however, passed rapidly through 
 
 * These intimations have been since fully confirmed by Ferdinand's 
 act of amnesty, which, however, would be more properly designated an 
 act of proscription, so numerous are its exceptions. The 13th article 
 expressly excepts from pardon " those European Spaniards who took 
 a direct part, and efficaciously contributed in forming- the convention or 
 treaty of Cordova, which Don Juan O'Donoju, of hateful memory, signed 
 with Don Agustin Iturbide, who headed the insurgents in New Spain." 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 Piedmont, and instead. of entering France he turned oft' 
 to Geneva, and from thence proceeded along the Rhine 
 to Ostend. He there embarked for this country, where 
 he arrived on the 31st of December. 
 
 The information, (from whatever quarter it pro- 
 ceeded,) which Iturbide received, was borne out by the 
 fact, that the Tuscan authorities would not permit the 
 work, of which the following ** Statement" is a trans- 
 lation, to be printed at Florence. But it was still 
 further strengthened by the conduct of the authorities at 
 Leghorn to Madame de Iturbide, after his departure. 
 It was arranged that she should join her husband in 
 England as soon as possible, but she was not able to 
 eff'ect her object without a great deal of difficulty, though 
 it is due to M. Chateaubriand to say, that when she and 
 her family reached Paris, he personally interested him- 
 self in order to facilitate her journey, feeling, perhaps, 
 that it would certainly be inhuman, and might be impo- 
 litic, to detain her. 
 
 This translation was finished before the end of 
 February, but a question then arose whether it ought 
 to be immediately published. Mexico became every day 
 more and more distracted, and it occurred to the sensi- 
 tive mind of General de Iturbide, that as this work, if 
 given to the world, would necessarily reach his country- 
 men, it might operate, or at least seem intended to operate, 
 
XII PREFACE. 
 
 as a fresh torch of discord amongst them. Iiilhienced by 
 this and other considerations, he desired the publication 
 to be postponed. 
 
 In the mean time, almost every vessel which came to 
 England from Mexico, brought the most earnest entreaties 
 that he would return to that country. The letters stated 
 that the Federal Republic held only a few of the provinces 
 by a fragile bond ; that the royalist, or Bourbon party , was 
 exerting every art of intrigue to foment the intestine di- 
 visions to which the counter-revolution gave birth ; and 
 that amongst the republicans there was not sufficient 
 energy, or talent, to organize a government that could 
 endure, nor sufficient personal influence, even if it could 
 endure, to render it popular. These letters deplored the 
 miseries of a people without confidence in their rulers, the 
 destinies of the nation clouded, the channels of public 
 happiness obstructed, and the empire of religion hast- 
 ening to dissolution ; they called upon Iturbide by the 
 ties of his birth, his friendships, and kindred, by the re- 
 membrance of his aged father, who was still in Mexico, 
 and by the more solemn obligations which he contracted 
 towards his country, by giving it the boon of independ- 
 ence, to return to that country, and once more redeem it 
 from destruction. 
 
 General de Iturbide had besides peculiarsources of com- 
 munication, which left no doubton his mind that Ferdinand 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 would make another desperate attempt to press back the re- 
 jected yoke of Spain upon at least a portion of her former 
 colonies. He had unequivocal reasons for knowing that 
 this attempt would be favoured by every member of the 
 Holy Alliance, and that the refusal of England to dis- 
 cuss the question in a new Congress, was the only obstacle 
 which prevented them from declaring tlieir views, and 
 from acting upon them, in the face of day. He was not 
 ignorant how much might, and would, be done by secret 
 intrigue and dexterous corruption ; that though France 
 might not dare to lend her transports and legions to 
 Spain, as she had prematurely promised, yet, that she 
 might have a perfect understanding with the other Con- 
 tinental Powers, for privately supplying Ferdinand with 
 the means to fit out new expeditions, at the same time' 
 that the allied agents in the American provinces would 
 carry on the work of discord. 
 
 Under these circumstances it was that, towards the 
 beginning of April, Iturbide received at Bath fresh so- 
 licitations, more earnest than ever, for his return to 
 Mexico. He felt that he could no longer refuse these 
 entreaties without sacrificing his duties to his country. 
 Uninfluenced by any views of personal aggrandizement, 
 he looked only to the independence of Mexico, which 
 he had the glory to achieve, and he determined, even if 
 he were to join the ranks as a private soldier, to take a 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 musket in his hand, and shed the last drop of his blood 
 in battle for that sacred cause. / 
 
 He came up to town, consulted with his friends, ar- 
 ranged every thing for his departure, which was fa- 
 voured by an extraordinary combination of circumstances, 
 and after placing six of his children* at different 
 schools, he sailed with Madame de Iturbide, his two 
 infant children, and a small suite from Cowes on 
 the 1 1th of May — a day which curiously enough hap- 
 pened to coincide with that on which twelve months 
 before he sailed from Mexico for Italy. Before his de- 
 parture from town he left the following letter as expla- 
 natory of his views. 
 
 '* My dear Sir, — It is probable that as soon as my departure is 
 known, different opinions may be expressed, and that some of them 
 may be falsely coloured. I wish, therefore, that you should know the 
 truth in an authentic manner. 
 
 *' By a misfortune that is much to be deplored, the principal pro- 
 vinces of Mexico are at this moment disunited : all those of Goatemala, 
 New Galicia, Oajaca, Yacatecas, Queretro, and others, sufficiently 
 attest this fact. 
 
 ** Such a state of thing's exposes the independence of the country 
 
 * The eldest son, a fine youth of sixteen, is at Ampleforth Colleg-e, 
 near York: the second, now about six years old, is at a preparatory 
 school at Hampstead ; the two eldest g-irls, under twelve, are at the 
 Convent of Taunton ; and the two young^est at Spetisbury-house, near 
 Blaudford, Dorsetshire. 
 
PREFACE XV 
 
 to extreme peril. Should she lose it, she must live for agfes to come in 
 frightful slavery. 
 
 •* My return has been solicited by different parts of the country, 
 which consider me necessary to the establishment of unanimity there 
 and to the consolidation of the Government. I do not presume to form 
 such an opinion of myself ; but as I am assured that it is in my power 
 to contribute in a great degfree to the amalg-amation of the separate 
 interests of the provinces, and to tranquillize in part those angry pas- 
 sions which are sure to lead to the most disastrous anarchy, I go with 
 such an object before me, uninfluenced by any other ambition than the 
 glory of effecting the happiness of my countrymen, and of discharging 
 those obligations which I owe to the land of my birth — obligations 
 which have received additional force from the event of her independ- 
 ence. When I abdicated the Crown of Mexico, I did so with plea- 
 sure, and my sentiments remain unchanged. 
 
 (j^ If I succeed in realizing my plan to the extent which I desire, 
 Mexico will soon present a government consolidated, and a people act- 
 ing upon one opinion, and co-operating in the same object. They will 
 all recognise those burdens, which, if the present government con- 
 tinued, would only fall upon a few ; and the mining and commercial 
 transactions of the country will assume an energy and a firmness of 
 which they are now deprived. In anarchy nothing is secure, j 
 
 *' I have no doubt that the Englislr -nation, which knows how to 
 think, will easily infer from this statement the probable political situa- 
 tion of Mexico. 
 
 ** I conclude with again recommending to your attentions my chil- 
 dren, in my separation from whom will be seen an additional proof of 
 the real sentiments which animate the heart of your very sincere friend, 
 
 " AGUSTIN DE YTURBIDE. 
 
 " Michael Joseph Qutn, Esq., Grafs fnn."' 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 > 
 
 A duplicate of this letter was placed by General de 
 Iturbide in the hands of his commercial agent, Mr. 
 Matthew Fletcher, a merchant in the city. 
 
 This letter is a clear indication of Iturbide's intention 
 not to interfere with any existing engagements, which 
 have been formed by the Republican government with 
 this country. Should his plan succeed, as he states 
 above, " all the provinces will recognise those burdens, 
 which if the present government continued, would fall 
 only upon afeiv.'' When in this country, he witnessed, 
 and frequently expressed approbation of the conduct of 
 Mr. Hurtado, with regard to the admission of the Co- 
 lumbian loan : he avowed the injustice, and strongly con- 
 demned the refusal of Ferdinand to acknowledge the 
 engagements of the Spanish Cortes. Principle is with 
 Iturbide an adequate motive, but interest must likewise 
 oblige him to allow the existing loan of Mexico, for he 
 foresaw, and even somewhat prepared for, the necessity 
 which the Mexican state might have of a further loan, 
 so soon as the conditions of the one already negotiated 
 would admit. 
 
 General de Iturbide, on his departure, confided it to the 
 discretion of his friends to publish the following ** state- 
 ment," and as the reasons which induced him ori- 
 ginally to suspend the publication, have been in a great 
 measure removed by the circumstance of his departure 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 for Mexico, those friends conceive that they ought no 
 longer to detain from the Public a work, which, though 
 limited in its extent, sheds light upon an interesting 
 epoch of South American history. 
 
 In order to render some parts of it intelligible to the 
 English reader, it may be useful to recapitulate some of 
 the leading events of the Mexican Revolution, which 
 preceded Iturbide's appearance on the scene. Ever 
 since the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, the me- 
 mory of their cruelties had remained deeply engraven on 
 the hearts of the natives, and nothing but the sword 
 kept them in subordination. At the period of that con- 
 quest the natives were, and still remain, composed of 
 different castes, who, whatever may be their mutual 
 antipathies, always concentrated them against the Euro- 
 pean Spaniards. The separation of the North Ameri- 
 can States from the dominion of England, caused a 
 strong sensation amongst the Creoles of Mexico, as 
 well as of other parts of South America ; they were the 
 classes next in society to the Spaniards, and, therefore, 
 bore a more intense animosity against them. The Creoles 
 saw the Spaniards raised to every office of trust and emo- 
 lument in the country, while they, the natives of the soil, 
 were the victims of every sort of injustice and oppression. 
 Yet, as soon as they heard that the Junta of Seville, in 
 1808, proclaimed war against France, they forgot their 
 
 b 
 
XVlll PREFACE. ] 
 
 ) 
 
 wrongs, they firmly refused to transfer their allegiance 
 to Joseph Buonaparte, and resolved to hold their country 
 for Ferdinand. The viceroy at that period was Iturri- 
 gary ; he was popular amongst the Americans, on account 
 of his conciliatory conduct towards them, and for the same 
 reason he was hated by the Spaniards, who were from 
 interest mostly in favour of the new King Joseph. The 
 Europeans, aided by French intrigue, deposed Iturrigary, 
 and he was succeeded by Venegas, whose administration 
 rendered him peculiarly odious amongst the Americans. 
 The latter had already felt their strength in the commu- 
 nity of their feelings towards Ferdinand, their resistance 
 against the acknowledgment of Joseph, and the influence 
 which they possessed with Iturrigary. His deposition 
 and the conduct of Venegas, operated powerfully on their 
 minds, and conspiracies were formed for the purpose of 
 exterminating the Spaniards. A simultaneous insurrec- 
 tion was concerted to take place throughout the kingdom, 
 but it was frustrated by accident. A curate of Dolores, of 
 the name of Hidalgo, was the head of the conspiracy in 
 Guanaxuato, one of the richest and most beautiful pro- 
 vinces of Mexico. He opened his plans to Iturbide, who 
 was then a young man, but they appeared to him to offer 
 little chance of success, and he refused to aid them. 
 Hidalgo and his undisciplined followers traversed differ- 
 ent provinces, and every where marked their course by 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 plunder and blood. He was at length destroyed ; but his 
 exertions had excited many imitators, and for nine or ten 
 years the provinces were harassed, and industry inter- 
 rupted, by a succession of ignorant adventurers, whose 
 only object was to acquire wealth by robbery, and a bar- 
 barous preeminence by unrelenting massacre. One of the 
 most distinguished leaders of those banditti, after Hi- 
 dalgo, was another priest of the name of Torres. In Mr. 
 Robinson's Memoirs of the American Revolution, there is 
 a portrait of this chieftain, drawn with great power, 
 and it seems to be a correct specimen of the insurgent 
 leaders of that period. 
 
 *' Torres had under his command an immense extent of 
 country, which had been parcelled out, like the feudal 
 system of old, into districts or comandancias. It was 
 a prominent feature of his policy, to select for the go- 
 vernment of these districts, men whose gross ignorance, 
 he conceived, would render them subservient to his will, 
 and proper subjects to promote his views of sole domi- 
 nion. Many of these commandants followed the ex- 
 ample set them by Torres, directing their principal atten- 
 tion to personal enjoyments. Without a government ca- 
 pable of enforcing obedience, they were uncontrolled in 
 their proceedings, and acted according to their own 
 pleasure in their respective comandancias. The re- 
 venues of the state they looked upon, not as belonging to 
 the public, but as their individual property, and consi- 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 dered they were conferring an obligation on the republic, 
 when any of its resources were devoted to its service. 
 The forces raised were only such as they thought proper, 
 and were taught to look upon their commandants as 
 masters, whose mandate alone they ought to obey. The 
 peasantry were regarded as vassals devoid of every pri- 
 vilege, upon whom they had a right to heap injuries, and 
 the soldiery to prey with impunity. Each commandant 
 became a petty tyrant in his district ; the interests of the 
 country were no longer viewed as primary objects, but were 
 supplanted by a devotion to self -gratification ; while the 
 chief aim and end of exertion, was to preserve the good- 
 will of the Sultan Torres. On his part, he was a profi- 
 cient in the arts necessary to ingratiate himself into the 
 good opinion of these men. He would gamble and 
 drink with them; would run races, and fight gamecocks, 
 in which science Torres was extremely dexterous, till 
 they were stript of their money. In short, as long as 
 tiie commandants conformed to his instructions, he 
 neither investigated nor cared what was their conduct. 
 It was therefore by no means extraordinary, that Torres, j 
 
 after being appointed commander-in-chief, maintained 
 an absolute power ; that his orders were implicitly and 
 promptly obeyed. Had they emanated from a man ce- 
 lebrated for correct and upright conduct, more awe and j 
 reverence could not have been attached to them. His 
 head-quarters were fixed on the top of the mountain of 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 Los Remedios, which he fortified, at the cost, and to the 
 ruin of many families round its base. There, surrounded 
 by women and all the luxuries the country afforded, he 
 became indolent and capricious, issuing the most arbi- 
 trary decrees, and like a demi-god, from his lofty seat, 
 smiled at the effects of his imperious mandates upon the 
 faithful Americans by whom he was upheld. When in 
 the zenith of his glory, he was to be seen surrounded by 
 sycophants and women, singing the most fulsome songs 
 in his praise, while, extended on a couch, and fanned by 
 one of his females, he would listen with rapture to the 
 grossest adulation, and indulge in loud bursts of laugh- 
 ter, arising from his heart-felt satisfaction : swelling 
 and exulting with vain glory, he would often exclaim, 
 " Yo soy xefe de todo el mundOi'' (I command the world). 
 Such was the character of the leader of the revolutionists 
 in the western provinces." 
 
 During the interval between 1810 and 1816, Iturbide 
 held a high command under the viceroys, and made se- 
 veral successful expeditions against the insurgents, who 
 were little more than roving banditti, and who became 
 the terror of the country. They were at length dispersed 
 in a great measure about the close of 1819 ; and in 1820, 
 soon after the proclamation of the Constitution in Spain, 
 a fresh ferment commenced. This is depicted in the fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
 The writer of those pages. General de Iturbide, is now 
 
XXU PREFACE. 
 
 about forty years of age ; his frame is of the middle size, 
 well proportioned, and, from his military experience, 
 capable of enduring hardship and privation. His coun- 
 tenance possesses benignant expression, and his manners 
 are simple and frank. It is impossible to know him with- 
 out feeling attachment for him. By a good fortune, 
 which is not common in South America, his education 
 was attended to early in life. He is versed in classic 
 literature, and his ordinary conversation is marked by a 
 peculiar conciseness and strength of expression. When 
 engaged on any subject of importance, his language rises 
 into a natural eloquence, and becomes flowing, graceful, 
 and impressive. His mind is of a profound and noble 
 order, and from the foresight, comprehensiveness, and 
 happy truth of his views, admirably adapted for the orga- 
 nization of an infant country. His talents as a soldier, 
 and his uniform success in the field, have caused him to 
 be idolized by the army. His heart was softened in early 
 life by an affection for the lady who became his wife, 
 while both were still young, and who is now the mother 
 of a numerous family. It is in the circle of that family, 
 while his children are around him, that Iturbide is seen 
 most delighted; it is from that circle that his public 
 virtues have derived their finest impulse, and in which 
 they meet their best reward. With respect to his power 
 of conciliating the opinions of those who differ from him, 
 a gentleman who has recently come from South Ame- 
 
PREFACE. XXlll 
 
 rica, and whose testimony is beyond all suspicion, says 
 that, " Such was Iturbide's address, that in every case of 
 conquest, he converted into active friends all those who 
 had been indifferent before, and seldom failed to gain 
 over to his cause, the most powerful of his enemies ; 
 while, at the same time, he won the confidence and 
 esteem of every one, by his invariable moderation, hu- 
 manity, and justice*." 
 
 General Iturbide has declared, that if he obtain any 
 influence upon his return to Mexico, he will use it in 
 introducing, as far as the genius of that country will 
 permit, the political institutions of England. While he 
 was here he made himself acquainted with those insti- 
 tutions, and felt for them the greatest admiration. He 
 has declared also his earnest desire to cultivate the 
 closest political and commercial relations with our Go- 
 vernment, and there can be little doubt that the restora- 
 tion of his influence would be attended with peculiar 
 advantages, not only to the Mexican but to the British 
 people. 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 London J 3d June, 1824. 
 
 * See extracts from a journal written on the coasts of Chili, Peru, 
 and Mexico, by Captain Basil Hall. 
 
STATEMENT 
 
i 
 
STATEMENT, 
 
 The epoch in which I have lived has been a 
 critical one ; equally critical is the moment at 
 which I am about to submit to the world a sketch 
 of my political career. The public are not unin- 
 formed of my name, or of my actions ; but they 
 have known both through a medium greatly dis- 
 coloured by the interests of those persons who have 
 transmitted them to distant countries. There is 
 one great nation* particularly, in which several 
 individuals have disapproved of my conduct, and 
 
 * Although the Spanish nation, when it declared for the Con- 
 stitution, gave an example of the high value which a people 
 ought to set upon their liberties, yet at the same moment it con- 
 demned in the Mexicans that freedom of sentiment, which at 
 home it considered as an invaluable blessing. Such is the effect 
 of human passions! We know what is for our good, we wish to 
 possess it, and we are displeased that others should seek it 
 when their desire is incompatible with our own real or apparent 
 interests ! 
 
 B 2 
 
 « *, » » » 
 
have misrepresented my character. It becomes 
 my duty, therefore, to relate my own history. I 
 shall tell with the frankness of a soldier, both 
 what I have been, and what I am. My actions 
 and their motives may thus be fairly judged by 
 every impartial person of the present age, still 
 more by posterity. I know no other passion or 
 interest save that of transmitting to my children a 
 name which they need not be ashamed to bear. 
 
 It would be an idle waste of time to set about 
 refuting the various attacks which have been cir- 
 culated against me; they are framed in terms cal- 
 culated only to reflect dishonour upon their 
 authors. 
 
 ^ It was my good fortune to break the chains 
 which enthralled my country : I proclaimed her in- 
 dependence : I yielded to the voice of a grateful 
 and a generous people, and allowed myself to be 
 seated on a throne which I had created, and had 
 destined for others ; I repressed the spirit of in- 
 trigue and disorder. These are my crimes ; not- 
 withstanding which I now appear and shall continue 
 
to appear, with as serene a countenance before the 
 Spaniards and their-^ing, as I have worn before 
 the Mexicans and their new rulers. To both coun- 
 tries I have rendered important services, though 
 neither knew how to profit of the advantages which 
 I acquired for them. ^ 
 
 In the year 1810, I was simply a subaltern offi- 
 cer ; a lieutenant in the provincial regiment of Val- 
 ladolid^, my native city. It is well known, that 
 the individuals who serve in those troops receive 
 no pay. The military profession was not the 
 principal object of my pursuit. I possessed an 
 independence, and attended to the improvement of 
 my property, without disturbing my mind with the 
 desire of obtaining public employments. I did not 
 stand in need of them, either for the purpose of af- 
 fording me a subsistence, or of adding distinction 
 to my name, as it pleased Providence to give me 
 an honourable origin, which my forefathers have 
 never stained, and which down to my time all tny 
 kinsmen have supported by their conduct. 
 
 * About sixty Icagucb from Mexico. 
 
6 
 
 When the revolution, set on foot by Don Miguel 
 Hidalgo, curate of Dolores, broke out, he offered me 
 the rank of lieutenant-general *. The offer was one 
 that might have tempted any young man without 
 experience, and at an age when his ambition might 
 be excited. I declined it, however, because I was 
 satisfied that the plans of the curate were ill con- 
 trived, and that they would produce only disorder, 
 massacre, and devastation, without accomplishing 
 the object which he had in view. The result de- 
 monstrated the truth of my predictions. Hidalgo 
 and those who followed his example, desolated the 
 country, destroyed private property, deepened the 
 hatred between the Americans and Europeans, sa- 
 crificed thousands of victims, obstructed the foun- 
 tains of public wealth, disorganized the army, an- 
 nihilated industry, rendered the condition of the 
 Americans worse than it was before, by exciting the 
 Spaniards to a sense of the dangers which threat- 
 ened them ; they, moreover, corrupted the manners 
 
 * Don Antonio Lavarrietta, in a report which he sent to the 
 Viceroy against me, admits that I might have held one of the 
 principal ranks in that revolution, if I wished to participate in it. 
 Lavarrietta was well acquainted with the propositions which were 
 made to me. 
 
of the people, and far from obtaining independence, 
 increased the obstacles which were opposed to it 
 
 If, therefore, I took up arms at that epoch, it wa^. 
 not to make war against the Americans, but against 
 a lawless band who harrassed the country. The 
 Mexican Congress, at a later period, proposed that 
 statues should be erected to the leaders of that in- 
 surrection, and that funeral honours should be paid 
 to the ashes of those who perished in it. I have 
 warred with those chiefs, and I should war with 
 them again under similar circumstances. The word 
 insurrection in that instance did not mean inde- 
 pendence and equal liberty ; — its object was, not ' 
 to reclaim the rights of the nation, but to extermi- / 
 nate all the Europeans, to destroy their possessions, 
 and to trample on the laws of war, humanity and 
 religion. The belligerent parties gave no quarter : 
 disorder presided over the operations on both sides, 
 though it must be acknowledged, that one party 
 are censurable, not only for the evils which they 
 caused, but also for having provoked the other 
 party to retaliate the atrocities which were perpe- 
 trated by their enemies. 
 
8 
 
 About the month of October in the year 1810, 
 I was offered a safe conduct for my father and 
 family, together with assurances that his property 
 and mine should be exempted from conflagration 
 and plunder, and that the people attached to them 
 should not be subject to assassination (which was 
 at that time a matter of ordinary occurrence), on 
 the sole condition that I should quit the standard of 
 Sthe king and remain neutral. These propositions 
 'were made to me by the leaders of that disastrous 
 insurrection, and are well known to the Mexicans. 
 I was then at San FeUpe del Obraje, commanding a 
 small detachment of infantry, and at a distance of 
 four leagues from me was Hidalgo with a consider- 
 able force. I gave the same answer to these over- 
 tures as to the propositions already mentioned. I 
 always looked upon that man as criminal, who in a 
 season of political convulsions, sheltering himself in 
 cowardly indolence, remained a cold spectator of 
 the evils which oppressed his country, and made 
 no effort to mitigate, at least, if he could not remove, 
 the sufferings of his fellow citizens. I therefore 
 kept the field, with a view equally to serve the 
 king, the Spaniards, and the Mexicans. 
 
9 
 
 I was in consequence engaged in several expedi- 
 tions, and had the good fortune to see victory never 
 desert the troops under my command, except on one 
 inconsiderable occasion (in 1815), when I made an 
 attack on Coporo, a military point, which was well^ 
 fortified, and inaccessible, from the nature of the 
 ground. I then served under the orders of Llanos, a 
 Spanish general. He commanded me to attack the ' 
 place ; delicacy forbade me to offer any opposition to 
 his mandate, though I was fully convinced that the 
 result could not be favourable. As soon as I was 
 on the march, I communicated my opinion to the 
 general by despatch : I retreated as I had foreseen 
 I should do, but I had the good fortune to preserve 
 four-fifths of my force, in an action in which I 
 apprehended that I should have lost the whole. 
 
 I engaged with the enemy as often as he offered 
 battle, or as I came near him, frequently with in- 
 ferior numbers on my part. I led the sieges of 
 several fortified places, from which I dislodged the 
 enemy, and I rendered them incapable of serving 
 afterwards as asylums for the discontented. I had 
 no other opponents than those of the cause which I 
 
10 
 
 defended, nor any other rivals than those who were 
 envious of my success. 
 
 In 1816 the provinces of Guanajuato and Valla- 
 dolid, and the army of the north were under my 
 command ; but I resigned my office through a sense 
 of delicacy, and retired to pursue my natural dis- 
 position, in the cultivation of my estates. The 
 reason of my resignation was this : two inhabitants 
 of Queretaro, who were subsequently assisted by 
 four or five families in Guatiajuato, three of which 
 consisted of the families of three brothers, and ought 
 therefore to be considered as one, sent a memorial 
 against me to the viceroy. Many were the crimes 
 of which they accused me ; they could not, however, 
 find one witness to support their charges, though I 
 had resigned for the purpose of removing every 
 obstacle to their coming forward, by taking away 
 the motives of hope on the one side, or of fear on 
 the other. The families of the Countess Dowager 
 of Rul, and of Alaman, gave proof, by abandoning 
 the accusation, that they had been taken by surprise, 
 and that they had been deceived. The Viceroys, 
 Calleja and Apodaca took cognizance of the matter, 
 
1 
 
 n 
 
 and after hearing the reports of the Ayuntamientos, 
 the curates, the poUtieal chiefs, the commandants 
 and mihtary chiefs, and of all the most respectable 
 persons in the two provinces, and the army (who 
 not only made my cause their own, but gave me 
 tokens of their unqualified approbation),they affirmed 
 the dictamen of their auditor, and of the two civil 
 ministers, declaring that the accusation was false and 
 calumnious in all its parts, that I had permission to 
 institute an action of damages against the slanderers, 
 and that I might return to discharge the functions of 
 the office which I had resigned. I did not choose to 
 resume the command, nor to exercise my right of 
 action, and I gave up the pay which I enjoyed. 
 
 The ingratitude which I experienced from men 
 had wounded my feelings deeply ; their insince- 
 rity, to call it by no severer name, made me shun 
 every opportunity of again becoming the object of 
 their attacks. Besides, the anger of the contend- 
 ing parties having expended itself, and the country 
 having returned to a state of comparative tran- 
 quillity, I was relieved from that sense of obliga- 
 tion which six years before had compelled me to 
 
12 
 
 have recourse to arms. My country no longer 
 stood in need of my services, and v^^ithout betray- 
 ing my duty, I thought that I might now rest from_ 
 the toils of the camp. 
 
 In 1820 the constitution was re-established in 
 Spain. The new order of things, the ferment in 
 which the Peninsula was placed, the machinations 
 of the discontented, the want of moderation amongst 
 the supporters of the new system, the vacillation of 
 the authorities, and the conduct of the government 
 and Cortes at Madrid, (who, from the decrees 
 which they issued, and the speeches which some of 
 the deputies pronounced, appeared to have deter- 
 mined on alienating the colonies,) filled the heart of 
 every good patriot with the desire of independence, 
 ^ and excited amongst the Spaniards established in 
 the country, the apprehension that all the horrors 
 of the former insurrection were about to be re- 
 peated. Those who exercised the chief authority, 
 and had the forces at their command, took such 
 precautions as fear naturally dictated ; and those 
 persons who at the former epoch had lived by dis- 
 order, made preparations lor again turning it to 
 
13 
 
 advantage. In such a state of things the richest 
 and most beautiful pai:t of America was about to 
 become again the prey of contending factions. In 
 every quarter clandestine meetings took place, for 
 the purpose of discussing the form of government 
 which ought to be adopted. Among the Europeans, 
 and their adherents, some wished for the establish- 
 ment of the Spanish constitution. They succeeded 
 in reahzing their views to a certain extent, but the 
 system was badly understood, and the loose man- 
 ner in which it was obeyed, indicated the shortness 
 of its duration. There were some who conceived 
 that it ought to undergo modifications, inasmuch as 
 the constitution framed by the Cortes at Cadiz was 
 inapplicable to " New Spain." Others there were 
 who sighed after the old absolute government, as 
 the best support of their lucrative employments, 
 which they exercised in a despotic manner, and by 
 which they had gained a monopoly. The privileged 
 and powerful classes fomented these different par- 
 ties, attaching themselves to the one or the other, 
 according to the extent of their political information, 
 or the projects of aggrandizement which their ima- 
 ginations presented. The Americans wished for 
 
14 
 
 independence, but they were not agreed as to the 
 mode of effecting it, still less as to the form of go- 
 vernment which they should prefer. With respect 
 to the former object, many were of opinion that in 
 the first place, all the Europeans should be exter- 
 minated, and their property given up to confisca- 
 tion. The less sanguinary would have been con- 
 tented with banishing them from the country, thus 
 reducing thousands of families to a state of orphan- 
 age. The moderate party suggested only that they 
 should be excluded from all public offices, and de- 
 graded to the condition in which they had kept the 
 natives of the country for three centuries. As to 
 the form of government, one party proposed a mo- 
 narchy, tempered by the Spanish, or some other 
 constitution; a second party wished for a federative 
 republic ; a third for a central republic ; and the par- 
 tisans of each system, full of enthusiasm, were impa- 
 tient for the accomplishment of their different objects. 
 
 I had friends in the principal towns, many of 
 whom had been long connected with my family ; 
 others I had known in my expeditions, and during 
 the period when I held my command. The army, I 
 
 4 
 
15 
 
 had reason to believe, was strongly attached to 
 me. All those who knew me did their utmost to 
 supply me with information. I had visited the best 
 provinces, obtained accurate information as to the 
 nature of the country and the character of the inha- 
 bitants, the points capable of being fortified, and the 
 resources upon which dependence might be placed. 
 I saw new revolutions on the eve of breaking out ; 
 my country was about to be drenched in blood ; I 
 was led to believe that I had the power to save her, 
 and I did not hesitate to undertake so sacred a duty. 
 
 I formed my plan*, known under the title of 
 ** the Plan of Iguala." A pamphlet, which I have 
 seen, has asserted that that project was the work of 
 a club of serviles, who held their meeting at t^e 
 Profesa, a building belonging to the congregation 
 of St. Philip, in Mexico. Any person who reads 
 the document must be convinced, from its contents 
 alone, that it could not have been dictated by ser- 
 vilism ; I put out of the question the opinions of 
 those persons to whom it is attributed, and shall 
 only say that they are matters upon which the mul- 
 
 * See the Appendix of Documents, No. 1. 
 
16 
 
 titude is very commonly mistaken. For me, I look 
 upon those persons as men eminently respectable 
 for their virtues and their knowledge. After the plan 
 had been drawn out, I consulted upon it with distin- 
 guished individuals of different parties ; not one of 
 them disapproved of it ; it was not modified in any 
 manner ; nothing was added or erased. 
 
 In tracing out this project, my aim was to give 
 independence to my country, because such was 
 the general desire of the Americans ; a desire 
 founded on natural feelings, and on principles of 
 justice. It was, besides, the only means by which 
 the interests of the two nations could be secured. 
 The Spaniards would not allow themselves to be 
 convinced that their decline began with their ac- 
 quisition of the colonies, while the colonists were 
 fully persuaded that the time of their emancipation 
 had arrived. 
 
 The plan of Iguala guaranteed the religion 
 which we inherited from our ancestors. To the 
 reigning family of Spain, it held out the only 
 prospect which survived for preserving those ex- 
 
 II 
 
17 
 
 tensive and fertile 4)rovinces. To the Mexicans, 
 it granted the right of enacting their own laws, 
 and of having their government established within 
 their own territory. To the Spaniards, it offered 
 an asylum, which, if they had possessed any fore- 
 sight, they would not have despised. It secured 
 the rights of equality, of property, and of liberty, 
 the knowledge of which is within the reach of every 
 one, and the possession of which, when once ac- 
 quired, every man would exert all his power to pre- 
 serve. The plan of Iguala extinguished the odious 
 distinction of castes, offered to every stranger 
 safety, convenience, and hospitality ; it left the 
 road to advancement open to merit ; conciliated the 
 good opinion of every reasonable man ; and op- 
 posed an impenetrable barrier to the machinations 
 of the discontented. 
 
 The operation of putting the plan into execution 
 was crowned with the happy result which I had 
 anticipated. Six months were sufficient to untwist 
 the entangled knot which had bound the two worlds. 
 Without bloodshed, without fire, robbery, devasta- 
 tion, without a tear, my country was free, and trans- 
 
18 
 
 formed from a Colony into an Empire *. In order 
 to render the work conformable to received customs, 
 
 * All the Europeans who were willing to follow the fate of 
 the country, preserved the offices which they had obtained, and 
 were promoted successively to those to which they had a right 
 by their services and merits. Subsequently they were called 
 to take upon them the higher offices, and to discharge the most 
 important commissions. In the Congress, in the Council of 
 State, in the departments of the ministry, in the army, in the 
 commands of the provinces, there were Spaniards in no little 
 number. Those who did not choose to be citizens of Mexico, 
 had full liberty to remove themselves, together with their families 
 and effects, to such places as they deemed most convenient. 
 Pecuniary assistance for their journey was given to such of the 
 public functionaries as asked for it, to the extent of the fourth 
 part of the stipends which they had enjoyed. To the military 
 men, the expenses of their voyage to Havannah was advanced ; 
 and this kindness was shewn even to those persons who, after the 
 government was established, and after they had given their parole 
 not to oppose it, attempted, with arms in their hands, to over- 
 throw it, and were defeated and disarmed. At such a crisis, this 
 conduct on my part gave rise to an opinion, that I was secretly in 
 concert with the expeditionary troops (of Spain) ; but if such had 
 been the fact, they doubtless would have declared it, if for no 
 other purpose than that of shifting upon me the blame of an 
 attempt, which dishonoured themselves and their officers ; which 
 personally disgraced them and reduced them to the degradation of 
 being defeated, disarmed, taken prisoners, and prosecuted. The 
 result of these proceedings would necessarily have been fatal to 
 them ; but here also they met with indulgence, and were pardoned. 
 Not one Spaniard was harshly treated, during the war for inde- 
 pendence which I directed. 
 
 
 I 
 
19 
 
 only one additional drcumstance was required — a 
 treaty, which the diplomatists would add to the long 
 catalogue of those which they already possess, and 
 which commonly turn out to be only so many 
 proofs of the bad faith of men, as they are not 
 seldom violated when it is the interest of one of 
 the parties^ and he happens to be the strongest. 
 Nevertheless, it is right to follow the laws of 
 custom. On the 24th of August*, I had an inter- 
 view with that most worthy Spanish General, 
 Don Juan de O Donoju ; and on the same day was 
 concluded between us a treaty, which bears the 
 name of the place where it was signed f, and was 
 sent off to His Majesty, Ferdinand VII., by an 
 officer of O Donoju's suite. 
 
 The treaty of Cordova opened to me the gates of the 
 capital, which otherwise I could have forced. But it 
 is always delightful to me to be spared the neces- 
 sity of exposing my men, and of shedding the blood 
 of those who had been my companions in arms. 
 
 There were persons who raised questions on the 
 
 * 1821. t See the Appendix of Documents, No. If. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 treaty of Cordova, by doubting my authority, as 
 well as that of O Donoju, to enter into a compact 
 upon a matter of so much delicacy. It would be 
 easy to answer them, by saying that in me was de- 
 posited the will of the Mexican people at that period ; 
 in the first place, because that which I signed in their 
 name was conformable to what they must have de- 
 sired ; and secondly, because they had already given 
 proofs of their sentiments; such as were able to 
 bear arms, by joining me, and others by assisting 
 me in every way which lay in their power. In every 
 place through which I passed, I was received in the 
 most enthusiastic manner. Seeing that no one was 
 forced to exhibit these demonstrations, it is to be 
 inferred that they approved of my intentions, and 
 that their ideas accorded with mine. With respect 
 to General O Donoju, he was the principal authority 
 furnished with credentials from his government, and 
 even though he might not have received specific in- 
 structions for that particular case, the circumstances 
 authorized him to do the best he could for his country. 
 
 Had this general commanded an army superior 
 to mine, and possessed resources sufficient to enable 
 
•21 
 
 him to carry on war against me, he might have 
 properly refused to sign the treaty of Cordova, 
 without first communicating with his government, 
 and receiving its answer. But attended as he was 
 with scarcely a dozen officers, the whole country 
 being in my power, his mission being adverse to 
 the sentiments of the people, unable to procure in- 
 telligence of the state of things, without any know- 
 ledge of the localities, shut up in a weak fortress, 
 which was exposed to our fire, with an army in 
 front of him, and the few troops of the king who had 
 remained in Mexico, commanded by an intrusive 
 chief* ; under such circumstances, let those per- 
 sons who disapprove of the conduct of O Donoju 
 say what they would have done if they had been in 
 his place, or what they imagine he ought to have 
 done ? He must have signed the treaty of Cordova, 
 or have become my prisoner, or have returned to 
 Spain ! he had no other alternative. If he had 
 chosen either of the latter, all his countrymen would 
 have been compromised, and the government of 
 
 * Don Francisco de Novella, Field Marshal and Inspector of 
 Artillery in Mexico, who by means of a military commotion, pos- 
 sessed himself of the bui)rcme authority after deposing the N''iceroy 
 Apodaca. 
 
Il 
 
 22 
 
 • 
 
 Spain would have lost every hope of those advan- 
 tages which it then obtained ; advantages which it 
 never would have acquired, if I had not been in the 
 command, and if O Donoju had not been an able 
 politician as well as a faithful Spaniard. 
 
 I entered Mexico on the 27th September, 1821 ; 
 on the same day was installed the Junta of govern- 
 ment which is spoken of in the plan of Iguala, and 
 the treaty of Cordova. It was nominated by me, 
 but not according to my arbitrary choice, for I wished 
 to assemble together such men of every party, as 
 enjoyed the highest reputation amongst their friends. 
 This was the only means which could be resorted 
 to in such extraordinary circumstances for consult- 
 ing the public opinion. 
 
 Up to this point my measures gained general 
 approbation, and in no instance were my hopes de- 
 ceived. But as soon as the Junta began to exercise . 
 its functions, it perverted the powers which had 
 been granted to it ; and within a few days after its 
 installation, I saw what was likely to be the issue. 
 From that moment I shuddered for the fate that 
 
 
23 
 
 awaited my fellow citizens. It was in my power 
 to resume the whole authority, and I asked myself, 
 ought I not to resume it, if such a step be essential 
 to the safety of my country ? I considered, how- 
 ever, that it would have been rash of me to resolve 
 on undertaking such an enterprise, relying solely 
 on my own judgment. If I were to consult with 
 others, my design might transpire, and intentions, 
 which had sprung solely from my love for my coun- 
 try, and from a desire to promote its happiness, 
 might be attributed to ambitious views, and con- 
 strued into a violation of my promise. Besides, 
 even if I were to accomplish every thing which I 
 proposed, I could not have done it without infringing 
 on the plan of Iguala, which it was my great object 
 to maintain, because I looked upon it as the aegis 
 of the public welfare. These were the true reasons 
 which, together with others of less importance, re- 
 strained me from taking any decisive measures. 
 They would have brought me into collision with 
 the favourite feelings of the cultivated nations of the 
 world, and have rendered me, for some time, an 
 object of hatred to a set of men, who were infa- 
 tuated by chimerical ideas, and who had never 
 learned, or had soon forgotten, that the republic 
 
24 
 
 which was most jealous of its liberty, possessed 
 also its dictators. I may add, that I have always 
 endeavoured to be consistent in my principles ; 
 and as I had proposed to form a Junta, I fulfilled my 
 promise, and was reluctant to undo the work of my 
 own hands. 
 
 There were at this time some deputies in Mexico 
 who set little value on the public happiness, when 
 it is opposed to their private interest, and who had 
 acquired reputation by some actions that appeared 
 generous to those who were benefited by them 
 without knowing the secret views by which they 
 had been prompted. They were well acquainted 
 with the mysteries of intrigue, ever ready to stoop 
 to servility when they found it expedient, and to 
 assume insolence when their star was in the as- 
 cendant. These men disliked me because I had 
 hitherto been successful in my career, and they 
 began to foment those parties which were after- 
 wards known under the titles of Republicans and 
 Bourbonists, and which, however they differed on 
 other points, were united in their opposition to me. 
 
 The Republicans were hostile to me, because 
 
25 
 
 they well knew that they could never bring me to 
 contribute to the establishment of a government, 
 which, whatever might be its attractions, did not 
 suit the Mexicans. Nature produces nothing by 
 sudden leaps ; she operates by intermediate de- 
 grees. The moral world follows the laws of the 
 physical. To think that we could emerge all at 
 once from a state of debasement, such as that of 
 slavery, and from a state of ignorance, such as had 
 been inflicted upon us for three hundred years, 
 during which we had neither books nor instructors, 
 and the possession of knowledge had been thought 
 a sufficient cause for persecution ; to think that we 
 could gain information and refinement in a moment, 
 as if by enchantment ; that we could acquire every 
 virtue, forget prejudices, and give up false preten- 
 sions, was a vain expectation, and could only have 
 entered into the visions of an enthusiast *. 
 
 The Bourbonists, on the other hand, wished for 
 
 * Many are the reasons which might be alleged against the 
 boasted republic of the Mexicans. Those persons add little to the 
 arguments in its favour, who compare New Sjmiii, as it was called, 
 with the United States of America. Misfortune and time only, 
 I fear, can impart to my countrymen every thing which they 
 want. Would that I may be mistaken ! 
 
I 
 
 t; 
 
 26 
 
 my fall, because as soon as the decision of the go- 
 vernment of Madrid was made known, through its 
 decree of the 13th of February *, which was subse- 
 quently transmitted by the minister for the colo- 
 nies, and in which the conduct of O Donoju was 
 formally disapproved, the treaty of Cordova became 
 null and void, as to that part of it which invited the 
 Bourbons to the crown of Mexico, and effective 
 with respect to the nation's entering into the full 
 enjoyment of its right to elect as sovereign the 
 individual whom it would deem most worthy of 
 that high office. The Bourbonists, therefore, no 
 longer expecting that a Bourbon would reign in 
 Mexico, thought only of our returning to our for- 
 mer state of dependence ; a retrogression which 
 was impossible, considering the impotence of the 
 Spaniards, and the determination of the Americans. 
 
 Hence I became the object of attack to both 
 these parties, because as I had the public force 
 at my command, and was the centre of general opi- 
 nion, it was necessary to the preponderance of 
 \ either party that I should cease to exist. 
 
 * Sec Appendix, No. 111. 
 
27 
 
 The leaders of the^factious spared no pains to 
 gain proselytes ; and certainly they found many to 
 adhere to them. Some who were the least experi- 
 enced, suffered themselves to be easily led away ; 
 because they saw nothing more in the projects on 
 foot than what was represented to them, and there 
 is no design of which different views may not be 
 given ; some hoped that by the subversion of the 
 government, they might advance their own fortunes; 
 and others, the natural enemies of established order, 
 in whatever system it prevails, were anxious only 
 for a change. Among the latter, one might be 
 named who values himself on his literary accom- 
 plishments, and has made himself conspicuous in the 
 revolution. 
 
 The first duty of the Junta after its installation, 
 was to frame the Convocatoria, or proclamation for 
 the assemblage of a Congress*, which was to give 
 a constitution to the Monarchy. The Junta took 
 
 * This Convocatoria contained instructions prescribing the 
 mode of election, and apportioning the number of deputies to be 
 returned by each district. It was addressed in the first instance 
 to the provincial deputations, and they distributed it through their 
 jurisdictions. 
 
28 
 
 more time to perform this duty than the urgency of 
 the case permitted, and committed several errors 
 in framing the Convocatoria. It was extremely de- 
 fective, but with all its imperfections it was accepted ; 
 I could do no more than perceive the evil, and lament 
 it. The census of the provinces was not consulted ; 
 hence, for instance, one deputy was appointed for a 
 province containing a hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 and four for a province scarcely peopled by half 
 that number. Nor did it at all enter into the cal- 
 culations of the Junta, that the representatives ought 
 to be in proportion to the civihzation of the repre- 
 sented. Three or four individuals might be easily 
 selected from among an hundred well-educated 
 citizens, who might possess the qualifications ne- 
 cessary to constitute good deputies ; whilst among 
 a thousand, who are without education, and are 
 ignorant of the first rudiments, scarcely one man 
 can be met with of sufficient ability to know what 
 is conducive to the public welfare — whose mind is 
 sufficiently enlarged to take accurate views of public 
 affairs, or at least to save him from extravagant 
 errors respecting them ; who has sufficient firmness 
 of character to vote according to what he thinks 
 
•29 
 
 best, and not to deviate from his opinion when once- 
 convinced of its truth ; and whose experience en- 
 ables him to perceive the grievances which afflict 
 his province, as well as the remedy which they 
 require. For, although that remedy might not 
 always be within his reach, such experience would 
 enable him, on hearing others proposed, to form a 
 sound judgment upon them. 
 
 These defects were quite sufficient to extinguish 
 every hope, that any benefits would be derived from 
 the Convocatoria of the Junta. It had many other 
 faults which I have not mentioned, as I do not mean 
 to comment upon them. But there is one which I 
 cannot pass over in silence, that of having the 
 deputies nominated at the will, not of a district 
 (Partido), for that would be of a majority of the 
 citizens, but of the Ayuntamientos of the principal 
 towns. See the injury thus done to the country 
 people at large ! In the elections, a vote was given 
 by the Junta, to the electors chosen by the country 
 people ; and a voice was also given to the indi- 
 viduals who composed the Ayuntamiento of the 
 principal town of each department. But in electing 
 
30 
 
 the Ayuntamientos, it was possible to get into them 
 by a little management, as was in fact frequently 
 done ; because the wish of aspiring to the functions 
 of these bodies, was not so general as the ambition 
 of obtaining a seat in Congress. The Ayuntamien- 
 tos were, therefore, filled up at their own pleasure, 
 and were consequently vitiated ; and as all the 
 members possessed a vote in the elections for de- 
 puties, the Ayuntamientos became almost the only 
 electors. This is evident to any one who knows 
 how thinly the population is distributed over that 
 country, and how great a disproportion exists be- 
 tween the number of inhabitants in a town, and in 
 its dependencies. 
 
 To render this clearer, let it be supposed that 
 a principal town of a province contains four, eight, 
 or ten thousand inhabitants, leaving out of the 
 question the city of Mexico, the population of which 
 exceeds one hundred and seventy thousand souls, 
 and other cities densely inhabited.. The Ayunta- 
 miento of such a town consists, perhaps, of fifty or 
 sixty members ; the departments which have to 
 send electors to the principal town, name no more 
 
31 
 
 than eight or ten. Tliis small number, therefore, 
 acting in conjunction with all the members of the 
 Ayuntamiento, is reduced to a cipher, and the elec- 
 tion terminates according to the pleasure of that 
 body. Thus the people were deceived by being 
 told, that in them resided the sovereignty, which 
 they were to delegate to the deputies whom they 
 were about to name ; when in fact there was no 
 such nomination, except on the part of the Ayun- 
 tamiento, or rather, indeed, of the directors of the 
 Junta, who, after the dissolution of that body, passed 
 into the Congress, in order to continue their ma- 
 noeuvres. 
 
 To this system, so framed, was added intrigue 
 in the elections ; the most worthy men were not 
 sought for, nor even those who were decided for 
 any particular party. It was quite sufficient if the 
 candidate were my enemy, or so ignorant * that 
 
 ♦ In order to give some idea of the political information of 
 some of the deputies, it is sufficient to adduce the example of one 
 of those who were concerned in the accusation for a conspiracy, 
 which shall be mentioned in a subsequent page. He claimed 
 inviolability, as the diplomatic agent of what he called the Re- 
 public of St. Salvador; which was nothing more than apart of a 
 
32 
 
 he might easily be persuaded to become so. If he 
 possessed either of these requisites, he was deemed 
 competent to discharge the sacred functions which 
 were to be entrusted to him. 
 
 If the archives of State have not been spoliated, 
 remonstrances may be found amongst them from 
 almost all the provinces, pointing out the nullity of 
 the powers conferred on the deputies. Several 
 individuals were elected who had been accused of 
 conduct notoriously scandalous ; some had been 
 prosecuted as criminals : others were men of broken 
 fortunes, tumultuous demagogues, officers who had 
 capitulated, and who, violating the laws of war and 
 their paroles, -had again taken up arms against the 
 cause of liberty, and after suffering defeat had sur- 
 rendered a second time. Some of the new deputies 
 were obstinate anti-independents, and one was an 
 
 province in the kingdom of Goatemala, then in insurrection, but 
 soon after tranquillized. He was persuaded, that there was 
 nothing incompatible in his being a deputy of Congress, and at 
 the same time the diplomatic agent of a foreign power to the 
 nation of which he was a legislative representative ! This is a 
 fact, which appears from the proceedings that were instituted in the 
 office of the first ministry of state. 
 
 m 
 
33 
 
 apostate monk*, although by law no member of 
 the religious orders could have a seat in congress. 
 The authors of the remonstrances offered also to 
 prove, that the rules for the conduct of the elections, 
 as they were laid down in the Convocatoria, had 
 been infringed ; and that the persons returned 
 were not those whom the majority approved, but 
 those who were the most skilful in intrigue. These 
 documents were all sent to my department, when I 
 was Generalissimo and Admiral- in-Chief ; when I 
 became Emperor, I directed them to be transmitted 
 to the department of the Interior, for the purpose 
 of being deposited in the archives. I did not wish 
 to lay them before the Congress, because even if 
 justice were done, which could hardly be expected, 
 I saw that they would be productive only of odium, 
 and of legal prosecutions. I considered that time 
 would be lost in new elections, as it would be ne- 
 cessary to have the most of them renewed, and I 
 felt that our most important care was first to or- 
 ganize the government. Besides, I thought that the 
 errors into which this Congress might fall, might be 
 corrected by that which should succeed it. This 
 
 * Such be was generally believed to be. 
 
 U 
 
1 
 
 34 
 
 mode of reasoning, which would have been question- 
 able perhaps under any other circumstances, was 
 suitable to those which then existed, because the 
 object was to avoid greater evils. 
 
 The result of the elections, therefore, was the 
 formation of a congress, perfectly conformable to 
 the wishes of the party who influenced its nomina- 
 tion. A few men of undoubted virtue and wisdom, 
 and of the purest patriotism, whose fair reputation 
 was so widely extended that no machinations could 
 prevent them from having a majority of suffrages, 
 found themselves confounded with a multitude of 
 intriguers, of assuming manners, and sinister inten- 
 tions. I do not desire to be credited on my mere 
 assertions; examine the acts of the congress 
 during the eight months that elapsed from its 
 installation until its suspension. The principal | 
 object of its assembling was to draw up a constitu- , 
 tion for the empire : not a single line of it was 
 written. In a country, naturally the richest in the 
 world, the treasury was exhausted ; there were no 
 funds to pay the army or the public functionaries ; 
 there was no revenue, nor even a system of finance 
 
35 
 
 established, as that which had existed in the time 
 of the Spanish rule,_Jiad been abolished, without 
 any other system having been substituted for it. 
 The congress would not occupy itself in matters of 
 such essential importance, notwithstanding the 
 repeated and urgent solicitations which 1 made to 
 it in person, and through the secretaries of state. 
 The administration of justice was wholly neglected ; 
 in the changes which had taken place some of the 
 officers had left the empire, some died, others had 
 embraced new avocations, and the offices and tri- 
 bunals were nearly deserted. Upon this subject 
 also the congress declined to take any steps : in 
 short, although the empire was in the weakness of 
 infancy, and wanted their assistance at every point, 
 they did nothing. The speeches which were pro- 
 nounced, turned on matters of the most trifling 
 description, and if any of them happened to touch 
 on topics deserving of consideration, they were, 
 to say the least of them, foreign to the exigencies 
 of the moment. What honours should be paid to 
 the chiefs of the insurrection, who had fallen ? 
 What should be the form for the oath of an arch- 
 bishop ? Who ought to nominate the supreme 
 
■ 36 
 
 tribunal of justice ? Such, together with a demand 
 for an apostate friar who was a prisoner in the 
 castle of S. Juan de Ulua, and other similar sub- 
 jects, formed the grave occupations of a body, so 
 august in its institution ! Add to this, that not a 
 single regulation was made for the government of 
 the interior. The result was^ that the congress 
 became the opprobrium of the people, and fell into 
 a state of abject contempt. The pubhc prints ex- 
 posed its defects, and even one of the deputies* 
 stated his opinion that it stood in need of re- 
 formation. 
 
 It soon became manifest that the object of those 
 who gave all its movements to that machine, was 
 only to gain time, and to deceive each other until 
 they found an opportunity, for the arrival of which 
 they secretly laboured, in order to throw off the 
 mask. Notwithstanding the cunning which they 
 used, and the dissimulation with which they en- 
 
 * Don Lorenzo Zabala, deputy for the province of Merida and 
 Yucatan, at that time as well as upon other occasions, publicly 
 expressed himself favourable to a reform of the congress, but after 
 the scene was changed, he was one of those who murmured 
 loudest against the government. 
 
37 
 
 deavoured to carry on their designs, the people 
 and the army saw through their real views. — 
 Neither the army nor the people desired slavery 
 on one hand, or republicanism on the other; nor 
 did they wish to see me deposed, or even in any 
 manner offended, and from these feelings arose 
 that distrust with which the whole nation received 
 all the resolutions that originated in so vitiated a 
 body. 
 
 About the month of April, 1822, a state of agita- 
 tion was observable, which threatened to end in 
 anarchy. A public measure, effected in a scanda- 
 lous manner, discovered the hypocrisy of its authors. 
 The congress deposed three of the Regents, leaving 
 in office with me only one, who was well known to 
 be my enemy, for the purpose of reducing my vote 
 in the executive to a nullity*. They did not 
 attempt to depose me, from an apprehension that 
 they would be resisted by the army and the people, 
 of my influence with whom they were well aware. 
 
 * The Regency consisted of five members — Don Manuel de la 
 Bareena, Don Ysidro Yanez, Don Manuel Velasco de Leon, Don 
 5ose Antonio Perez, and myself as President. 
 
38 
 
 This resolution was passed in the most precipitate 
 and singular manner. The question was proposed, 
 discussed, agreed to, and carried into execution in 
 one sitting, whereas it had been previously settled 
 by decree that every proposition which was sub- 
 mitted to the congress, should be read three times, 
 at three distinct sittings, before it should be dis- 
 cussed. After this step they proposed another ; a 
 commission, appointed for that purpose, presented 
 a regulation concerning the regency, in which the 
 command of the army Was declared incompatible 
 with the functions of the executive power. They 
 were jealous of my having the soldiery at my dispo- 
 sal : to such men fear was very natural. This re- 
 gulation, although it did not receive the sanction of 
 the legislature on account of the want of time, left 
 no doubt of the designs which were entertained 
 against me, and was the immediate cause which ac- 
 celerated the event of the 18th of May. At ten 
 o'clock on that memorable night the people and 
 garrison of Mexico proclaimed me emperor. " Live 
 Agustin the First," was the universal cry ! In- 
 stantly, as if all were actuated by the same senti- 
 ment, that extensive capital was illuminated ; the 
 
 I 
 
39 
 
 balconies were decorated, and filled with the most 
 respectable inhabitants, who joyously echoed back 
 the acclamations of the immense crowds of people 
 which thronged all the streets, especially those near 
 the house where I resided. Not one citizen expres- 
 sed any disapprobation, a decided proof of the 
 weakness of my enemies, and of the universality of 
 the public opinion in my favour. No accident or 
 disorder of any kind occurred. The first impulse of 
 my mind was to go forth and declare my determi- 
 nation not to yield to the wishes of the people. If I 
 restrained myself from appearing before them for 
 that purpose, it was solely in compHance with the 
 counsel of a friend who happened at the moment 
 to be with me. " They will consider it an insult," 
 he had scarcely time to say to me, " and the people 
 know no restraint when they are irritated. You 
 must make this fresh sacrifice to the public good : 
 the country is in danger ; remain a moment longer 
 undecided, and you will hear their acclamations 
 turned into death- shouts." I felt it necessary to 
 resign myself to circumstances ; and I spent the 
 whole of that night in allaying the general enthu- 
 siasm, and persuading the people and the troops to 
 
40 
 
 give time for my decision, and in the meanwhile to 
 render obedience to the Congress. I went out re- 
 peatedly to harangue them, and wrote a short pro- 
 clamation, which was circulated the following morn- 
 ing*, and in which I expressed the same sentiments 
 as those I addressed to the people. I convened the 
 Regency, assembled the generals and superior offi- 
 cers, communicated what had occurred by despatch 
 to the President of the Congress, and requested him 
 to summon immediately an extraordinary sitting.— 
 The Regency was of opinion that I ought to yield 
 to public opinion ; the superior officers of the army 
 added that such also was their unanimous opinion, 
 that it was expedient I should do so, and that I was 
 not at liberty to act according to my own desires, as 
 I had dedicated myself entirely to my country ; that 
 their privations and sufferings would be useless if I 
 persisted in my objections ; and that having com- 
 promised themselves through me; and havingyielded 
 me unqualified obedience, they had a claim to my 
 compliance. They subsequently drew up a memo- 
 rial which they presented to the Congress, request- 
 ing it to take this important matter into their consi- 
 
 * Sec Appendix, No. IV. 
 
 « 
 
41 
 
 deration. This paper was signed also by the indi- 
 vidual who subsequently officiated as President of 
 the act of Casa-Mata*, and by one of the present 
 members of the executive body. 
 
 The Congress met on the following morning ; the 
 people crowded to the galleries and the entrance to 
 the chamber : their applauses were incessant ; a 
 joyous agitation was observable in every face ; the 
 speeches of the deputies were interrupted by the 
 impatience of the multitude. It is difficult to obtain 
 order in moments like these ; but such an impor- 
 tant discussion required it, and in order to attain 
 that object, the Congress required that I should be 
 present at the sitting. A deputation was appointed, 
 who communicated the invitation to me. I declined 
 it, because as they were about to treat of me per- 
 sonally, my presence might be considered as a 
 restraint on the freedom of debate, and an impedi- 
 ment to the clear and frank expression of each in- 
 dividual's opinion. The deputation and several 
 general officers, however, prevailed on me to ac- 
 
 * Sec Appendix, No. XI. 
 
42 
 
 cept the invitation*, and I immediately went out in 
 order to proceed to the place where the Congress 
 was assembled. The streets were scarcely passa- 
 ble, so crowded were they with the inhabitants of 
 the capital ; they took the horses from my carriage, 
 and I was drawn by the people, and amidst their 
 enthusiastic acclamations, to the palace of the Con- 
 gress. On entering the hall where the deputies 
 were assembled, the vivas! were still more enthu- 
 siastic, and resounded from every quarter. 
 
 The question of the nomination was discussed, 
 and there was not a single deputy who opposed my 
 accession to the throne. The only hesitation ex- 
 
 * One of those who were the most pressing that I should at- 
 tend the sitting of that day, was Lieutenant-General Don Pedro 
 Celesttno Negrete, now a member of the executive. This Ge- 
 neral had been previously my friend, appeared so then, and con- 
 tinued to conduct himself as such until the last moment of my 
 abdication, when he rendered it but too apparent that his profes- 
 sions never had been sincere, and that he is one of those men who 
 shape themselves without any difficulty to circumstances. Self- 
 love often makes us believe that we have some good quality, ca- 
 pable of fixing the levity of those who having been false friends to 
 others, still may, we flatter ourselves, be true to us. Negrete had 
 been faithless to General Cruz, to whom he owed his success in 
 his profession, and it was not difficult to foresee that he might act 
 with respect to me, as he had already done towards his benefactor. 
 
43 
 
 pressed by a few, arose from a consideration that 
 their powers were not^ extensive enough to autho- 
 rize them to decide on the question. It appeared 
 to them that it would be necessary to notify the 
 subject to the provinces, and to require from them 
 an enlargement of the powers already granted, 
 or new powers specifically applicable to this case 
 alone. I supported* this opinion, as it afforded 
 me an opportunity of finding out some means 
 for evading the acceptance of a situation which 
 I was most anxious to decline. But the majority 
 were of a contrary opinion, and I was elected by 
 seventy-seven voices against fifteen f. These latter 
 did not deny me their suffrages ; they confined 
 themselves simply to the expression of their belief, 
 that the provinces ought to be consulted, since they 
 did not think their powers ample enough, but at the 
 
 * I addressed the people three times in favour of the arguments 
 urged by the deputies who inclined to this opinion ; enforcing as 
 well as I could the principles on which they were founded, and 
 enforcing them with the more warmth, as I was deeply interested 
 that their counsel should be followed. 
 
 t There were ninety-four deputies present, two of whom went 
 out without voting, which, however, would not prevent them from 
 being counted ; although, without them the requisite number 
 was complete, as will be seen in the sequel. 
 
44 
 
 same time they said that they were persuaded, that 
 their constituents would agree with the majority, 
 and think that what was done was in every respect 
 conducive to the public welfare. Mexico never 
 witnessed a day of more unmixed satisfaction; 
 every order of the inhabitants testified it. I re- 
 turned home as I had proceeded to the Congress, 
 my carriage drawn by the people, who crowded 
 around to congratulate me, expressing the pleasure 
 which they felt on seeing their wishes fulfilled. 
 
 The intelligence of these events was trans- 
 mitted to the provinces by express, and the an- 
 swers which successively came from each of them, 
 not only expressed approbation of what had been 
 done, without the dissent of a single town, but 
 added that it was precisely what they desired, 
 and that they would have expressed their wishes 
 long before, if they had not considered themselves 
 precluded from doing so by the plan of Iguala and 
 the treaty of Cordova, to which they had sworn =^. 
 
 * At the time they felt themselves so bound, they did not 
 know that the treaty of Cordova was rendered null and void as 
 to the invitation given to the Bourbons, by its having been dis- 
 approved of at the court of Madrid. 
 
45 
 
 I received also the congratulations of an individual 
 who commanded a regiment, and exercised great 
 influence over a considerable part of the country. 
 He told me that his satisfaction was so much the 
 greater, as he was anxious to avoid making himself 
 remarkable ; but, at the same time, that he had 
 made arrangements for proclaiming me, in case it 
 had not been done in Mexico*. 
 
 The authors of the libels which have been writ- 
 ten against me, have not passed over the occur- 
 rences of the 18th and 1 9th of May, amidst which 
 they represent me as acting the part of an ambi- 
 tious tyrant, attributing the proceedings which 
 took place, to secret management on my part, and 
 the intrigues of my friends. I feel assured, that 
 they never can prove the truth of these assertions, 
 and that they will receive no credit from those who 
 know, that on my entry into Mexico, on the 27th of 
 September, as well as on my swearing to our 
 
 * Brigadier Santana, Colonel of the Infantry Regiment, No. 8, 
 the first who subsequently proclaimed the Republic in the city 
 of Vera Cruz, and one of those who afterwards declaimed tl»e 
 loudest against my elevation to the throne. 
 
46 
 
 Independence, on the 27th of October, it was Hke- 
 wise generally wished that I should be proclaimed 
 Emperor. If I was not so proclaimed at that time, 
 it was because I did not wish it*, and it was with 
 no small difficulty that I prevailed on those who 
 were then raising the shout, to desist from their 
 purpose. 
 
 If, as has been imputed to me, I at that time 
 conceived any intention of assuming the crown, I 
 should not have declared the very reverse in the 
 plan of Iguala, adding this difficulty to those with 
 which the enterprise was already attended. Nay, 
 if that plan had been framed for the purpose of 
 deluding the country, as some persons have been 
 pleased to assert, what reason was there for re- 
 peating the same clause in the treaty of Cordova, 
 when I was under no necessity of dissembling? 
 If even up to that period I wished for some parti- 
 cular cause to conceal my design, what occasion 
 could I have found more favourable to its accom- 
 pUshment than the 27th of September and the 27th 
 
 * See what the Congress states in its manifesto of the 2 1st of 
 May, which will be found amongst the Documents, No. V. 
 
47 
 
 of October in that year* ? The whole empire was? 
 then actually ruled by^my voice ; there were no 
 troops except those which were under my command ; 
 I was Generalissimo of the army ; the soldiers 
 were all attached to me, and the people called me 
 their liberator ; no enemy threatened me on any 
 side, and there were no longer any Spanish troops 
 in the country. The cabinet of Madrid had not 
 an individual throughout all New Spain, to whom 
 it could address its decrees ; the exertions of that 
 court did not alarm me, as I was not ignorant of 
 the extent to which they could reach. If I did 
 not grasp the sceptre at a time when I not only 
 could have been emperor, but had to vanquish a 
 thousand difficulties in order to prevent being so, 
 how can it be said that I obtained it afterwards 
 only by intrigue and cabal ? 
 
 It has been asserted also, that there was not 
 sufficient freedom in the congress for my election f , 
 
 * 1821. 
 
 t If they had not freedom on the 19th of May, 1822, how 
 could they have possessed it on the 2d of April, 1823, when they 
 declared all the acts of my government null and void ? Oji the 
 19th of May, 1822, the scrutiny was secret ; on the 2d of April, 
 
48 
 
 inasmuch as I was present while it was carried 
 on. It has been already seen that I attended 
 because the congress itself invited me. That the 
 galleries did not allow the deputies to deliver 
 their sentiments, is untrue ; each member, who 
 chose to rise, expressed his opinion without more 
 than some few interruptions, which always hap- 
 pens where matter of such importance is under 
 deliberation, without the decrees so discussed, 
 being therefore considered less binding than those 
 which are passed at a secret sitting. It has been 
 further alleged that some superior officers accom- 
 panied me on that occasion. The office which I 
 then held, and the object for which I had been 
 
 1823, the scrutiny was carried on in public, in the presence of 
 the chiefs of the revolution, and of many military young men 
 who had already lost all discipline, and all respect for the con- 
 stituted authorities. On the I9th of May they had my assist- 
 ance and support; T explained myself to that effect at the sitting 
 I mentioned the same thing in my proclamation of that day, and 
 took every opportunity of repeating it. They had proofs of my 
 adherence to ray word. But to whom did they intrust their free- 
 dom of deliberation, when they framed the decree of nullification ? 
 To an army commanded by men who refused to acknowledge 
 them after their re-installation, and who said that they would sub- 
 mit only to such of their decisions as were adverse to me. This 
 appears from a document drawn up at Puebla, which has appeared 
 in the public journals. 
 
49 
 
 invited to attend, required that I should have around 
 me those to whom I could communicate my orders 
 in case of necessity. However vehemently they 
 may assert that my retinue imposed restraint on the 
 congress, the very persons who state this are con- 
 vinced that it is not true. Four aides-de-camp and 
 the commanding officer of my escort accompanied 
 my suite ; besides these I saw six or eight captains 
 and subalterns, who were first mingled with the 
 crowd that thronged the entrance of the hall ; these 
 did not go in with me, and were, therefore, no more 
 than so many spectators, wishing to gratify their 
 curiosity ; but neither the latter nor the former, nei- 
 ther the soldiers nor the people, said, or did any 
 thing which could be construed to menace, or in any 
 manner restrain the congress, even if it had been 
 composed of the most timid characters, and had 
 been electing the weakest of mankind. It is equally 
 false that the hall had been filled with the people, 
 and that the deputies were confounded amongst 
 them. Unfortunately this has been affirmed by the 
 congress itself; thus proving that it was composed 
 of men as changeable as they were weak, who were 
 not ashamed to declare in the face of the world, 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 that they voted under the influence of fear against 
 their conscientious opinions, on a question of the 
 gravest importance which could be presented for 
 their deliberation. What confidence can the pro- 
 vinces repose in them ? What duties can be con- 
 fided to their care with the hope of an auspicious 
 result ? What laws can be dictated by a legisla- 
 ture devoid of probity ? And what opinion can be 
 formed of a body which has no firmness, and blushes 
 not to proclaim its servility? I should have con- 
 sidered as a libeller, any man who said that the 
 congress had not acted from its own free will ; but 
 as it has itself declared the same thing, and as I am 
 not in a situation to give judgment on the matter, 
 those who have heard both sides will decide accord- 
 ing to what appears to them, and posterity, I doubt 
 not, will form an opinion of that assembly little 
 honourable to its reputation. 
 
 It has been further alleged that the number of de- 
 puties present was not suflicient to give validity to 
 the election. Ninety-four attended, one hundred 
 and sixty-two was the total number for that portion 
 of the empire which was previously called the vice- 
 
51 
 
 royalty of Mexico : from the kingdom of Goatemala 
 which was subsequently added to it, deputies could 
 not be received, because in some of the districts the 
 elections were carried on conformably to the Spanish 
 constitution, and in others according to a particular 
 convocatoria which they framed. An exception must 
 also be made as to the deputies who were to have 
 come for the provinces of San Salvador, who are in- 
 cluded in the calculation of my adversaries, but who 
 ought not to be enumerated, because that country had 
 declared a government independent of Mexico. How- 
 ever, taking even the twenty-four deputies for Goa- 
 temala into account, the total number would be one 
 hundred and eighty-two, the half of which is ninety- 
 one. The sitting was attended by ninety-four de- 
 puties, although only ninety-two voted ; whence it 
 follows that allowing all the restrictions which are 
 demanded, there were still the half and one more 
 present, according to the rule of the Spanish consti- 
 tution, which, it was agreed, should be observed 
 upon this point; although many decrees had the 
 force of law, at the passing of which no more than 
 seventy or eighty deputies had been present. And 
 what will the supporters of the nullification say to 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 the fact, that on the 22d of June, 1822, without any 
 desire on the part of the Government, without any 
 extraordinary assemblage of the people which might 
 overawe the deputies, without being pressed for 
 time in their deliberations, without my presence 
 serving as an obstacle, without any agitation in the 
 capital, and the whole garrison being in profound 
 tranquillity, the congress of its own accord resolved, 
 with the entire unanimity of one hundred and nine 
 deputies who were present *, that the crown should 
 be hereditary in my family in lineal succession, 
 giving the title of Prince of the Empire to my eldest 
 son, whom they designated as the heir- apparent, of 
 Mexican Princes to the rest of my sons, Prince of 
 the Union to my father, and Princess de Iturbide to 
 my sister? They also prescribed the regulations 
 for my inauguration, and all this they did without its 
 having been preceded, or attended, by any of those 
 causes which compelled them, as they alleged, to 
 
 * It was proposed to express in the act that the declaration of 
 the dynasty had been made by acclamation, and the reason that it 
 was not so expressed was, that a deputy observed that the question 
 had been discussed and was now at an end. This circumstance 
 alone pi^vented it from being said that it had been by acclamation, 
 although there was not one dissenting voice. 
 
53 
 
 join in the first acclamation. I mention this, not for 
 the purpose of establishing rights, which I have re- 
 nounced with the most perfect good will, but to an- 
 swer the cavils which have been thrown out against 
 me, and to shew the bad faith with which I have 
 been treated. 
 
 In order to avoid murmurs, I did not, after my 
 election, bestow those favours which are usually 
 lavished on such occasions*. It is not true that I 
 distributed money, or that I gave away any ap- 
 pointments, except that of a captain to a Serjeant, 
 not for his having contributed to my elevation, but 
 because he bore the best character in his regimentj 
 and I wished to give the soldiers a proof of my at- 
 tachment for them, by promoting an individual 
 whom they considered worthy of a superior rank f . 
 
 * The Brigadier Santana, who had made preparations for pro- 
 chiiming me without consulting the congress, oflered and gave pro- 
 motions to the officers upon whose co-operation he depended, and 
 I disapproved of them. 
 
 t Sec in the Appendix, No. V. what the congress said to the 
 Mexicans, after having elected me, and compare it with what the 
 same congress stated in its decree and declaration (No. \'I. and 
 VII.) of the 8th of April, 1823 ; such conduct on the part of the 
 Mexican government, as' is displayed in those documents, furnishes 
 
54 
 
 I have already frequently said, and I cannot too 
 often repeat it, that I accepted the crown only with 
 the view to serve my country, and to save it from 
 anarchy. I was well persuaded that my personal 
 situation was any thing but improved ; that I should 
 be persecuted by envy ; that the measures which I 
 could not avoid adopting, would dissatisfy many ; 
 that it was impossible to please all ; that I was about 
 to clash with a body which was full of ambition and 
 pride, and which, at the very moment it was 
 declaiming against despotism, laboured to concen- 
 trate within its own circle all the power of the State, 
 leaving the monarch reduced to a mere phantom, 
 and assuming to itself not only the enactment, but 
 the administration and execution of the laws ; a ty- 
 ranny which is always more intolerable when in the 
 hands of a numerous body, than when deposited in 
 those of a single individual. The Mexicans would 
 have been less free than the inhabitants of Algiers, 
 if the Congress had carried all its designs into effect. 
 At one time or other they will be undeceived ; may 
 
 sufficient proof that the persons who placed themselves at the head 
 of the republican party, were devoid of the virtues indispensable 
 to that form of government. 
 
55 
 
 it not be so late as that the difficulties which sur- 
 round them shall be found insuperable ! I was well 
 aware that I was about to become the slave of busi- 
 ness ; that the duties which I undertook would not 
 be looked upon with a favourable eye by all parties ; 
 and that by a fate which some would consider for- 
 tunate, but which I would have always avoided if it 
 were possible, I was about to abandon every thing 
 which I had inherited and acquired, and with which 
 my children would have been enabled to live inde- 
 pendently, wherever they chose. 
 
 Upon my accession to the throne, it appeared as 
 if all dissensions had subsided into repose. But 
 the fire, though latent, continued to burn ; the dif- 
 ferent parties, though they dissembled for a short 
 time, still carried on their machinations ; and the 
 conduct of the Congress became the scandal of the 
 people. I repeatedly received information of clan- 
 destine meetings, which were held by several de- 
 puties, for the purpose of devising the subversion of 
 the government — a government, be it remembered, 
 that was sworn to by the whole nation, which solemn 
 act was performed in different provinces solely upon 
 
56 
 
 the intelligence being transmitted through private 
 letters, without waiting for official advices. The 
 conspirators were fully aware that they were pro- 
 ceeding in direct contradiction to the general will ; 
 and, in order to have a pretext for their treasons, 
 they found it necessary to propagate a report that I 
 was desirous of becoming an absolute monarch. 
 Not a single reason did they ever allege in proof 
 of such an accusation. Indeed, how could they 
 bring any proof against one who twice refused to 
 accept the crown that was offered him ; who, at a 
 time when he knew no rival in the opinion of the 
 people or army, not only did not seek to preserve 
 the unlimited power which he had obtained, but 
 dismembered and parted with it ? When 1 entered 
 Mexico, my will was law ; I commanded the public 
 forces ; the tribunals possessed no attributes, save 
 those which emanated from my authority. Could 
 I be more absolute ? And who compelled me to di- 
 vide my power ? I, and I alone ; because I con- 
 sidered it just. Then, at least, I did not wish to 
 be absolute ; could I have desired it afterwards > 
 How can they reconcile my adoption of such oppo- 
 site extremes ? 
 
57 
 
 The true cause of the conduct pursued by the 
 Congress is that this machine was set in motion by 
 the impulse received from its directors ; and these 
 persons saw with secret aversion, that I achieved 
 the independence of the country, without the as- 
 sistance of any one of them ; whereas they desired 
 that every thing should be ascribed to themselves. 
 Although they had not the resolution to act in the 
 season of peril, they sought to render themselves 
 conspicuous by deluding the multitude with school- 
 boy disputations, and by setting themselves up as 
 sages to whom the ignorant were to look up with 
 reverential respect ! 
 
 In the mean time, so many denunciations, com- 
 plaints, and remonstrances, reached my hands, 
 that I could not avoid attending to them, both 
 because the public tranquillity and safety were 
 exposed to danger, and because documents of 
 the same description were sent to me by the 
 different departments of government ; and if any 
 misfortune occurred, (and misfortunes of the most 
 formidable kind were on the eve of happening,) 
 I should have been responsible to the nation and 
 the world. 
 
 li 
 
K 
 
 I resolved, therefore, on proceeding against those 
 who were implicated, as I was authorized to do by 
 the attributes which I possessed ; if any person 
 dispute their extent, he may see them defined in 
 the 170th article of the Spanish Constitution, which 
 so far was in force *. On the 26th of August f , I 
 ordered the apprehension of the deputies who were 
 comprised in the denunciations, and charged with 
 being conspirators J. In order to see if that charge 
 
 * " The power of causing the laws to be executed resides ex- 
 clusively in the King ; and his authority extends to every thing 
 which conduces to the conservation of public order at home, and 
 to the security of the state against any foreign attack, conformably 
 to the constitution and the laws." — Article 17O of the Spanish 
 Constitution. tl822. 
 
 I Those who were most urgent with me to arrest the deputies, 
 those who at that time did nothing less than implore that capital 
 punishment should be inflicted on the prisoners, those who com- 
 municated the orders and executed them, — are the same persons 
 who have been most conspicuous in the last revolution, and 
 were among the earliest converts to Republicanism. Santana 
 has, in person and by writing, importuned me a thousand times to 
 dissolve the Congress, offering to go himself and expel the depu- 
 ties from the hall at the point of the bayonet. Echavarri ar- 
 ranged the places where they were to be arrested, and, through 
 the officers of his regiment, executed the order of arrest against se- 
 veral deputies. Negrete some time before told me that it was ne- 
 cessary for me to take my resolution, for that the Congress was an 
 obstacle to the public happiness. Calvo took the summary (sw 
 
59 
 
 were founded on circumstances sufficient, in point 
 of law, to sustain it, and whether I had reason to 
 urge me to take a step which has been called 
 violent and despotic, reference must be made to 
 the report of the Fiscal of the Swnaria *, which 
 was approved in all its parts by the Council of 
 State f . 
 
 The Congress demanded, in an imperious man- 
 ner, that the deputies should be given up to them, 
 and required to be informed of the causes of their 
 detention, in order that they might be tried by 
 the tribunal of Cortes. I resisted giving them up 
 until the Sumaria was concluded, and until it was 
 
 marid) of the proceedings, and communicated it to Brigadier Par- 
 res : and all, or almost all, these hastened to congratulate me on 
 the important service which I had rendered the country. 
 
 * The Sumaria is equivalent to the Proces verbal in France, or 
 to the examinations before a magistrate in Enghuid, with the 
 exception that, in the latter country, the accused is not obliged to 
 give evidence against himself. — Translator. 
 
 t One of the Councillors of State, who approved of the Fiscal's 
 report, a copy of which will be found among the documents. 
 No. VIII., was the Brigadier Bravo, now a member of the execu- 
 tive power, and who was one of the leading chiefs of the late re- 
 volution ; one of the pretexts put forward for which, is the deten- 
 tion of the deputies. 
 
60 
 
 decided by what tribunal they were to be tried. I 
 could not agree that they should be sent before 
 the tribunal just mentioned, which was composed 
 of individuals of the Congress, who were suspected 
 of being connected with the conspiracy. They 
 were, besides, partial members of an assembly, 
 the majority of which was in bad repute ; and 
 which, amongst other proofs of its bad faith, had 
 treated with indifference the disclosures which 
 I had made to it on the 3d of April, respect- 
 ing the secret manoeuvres of some of their own 
 body*. 
 
 The interval, until the 30th of October, was 
 spent in mutual contention. At that period the 
 discontent of the people increased, and they 
 threatened to put an immediate end to their suf- 
 ferings which had been so much abused ; the 
 public writers repeated their invectives against the 
 Congress with more vehemence than ever, and the 
 provinces refused to contribute to the stipends of 
 
 * On that occasion, those who were comprehended in the dis- 
 closures here alluded to, evinced such a want of delicacy as to 
 attend at the sitting ; amongst them was the then President. 
 
61 
 
 delegates, who did not discharge the duties in- 
 trusted to them*. The national representation had 
 already brought itself into contempt, by its apathy 
 in all that related to the public welfare, by its ac- 
 tivity in creating evils, by its insufferable insolence, 
 and by its permitting some of its members to main- 
 tain in public sittings, that no respect was due to 
 the plan of Iguala, or the treaty of Cordova, 
 although they had sworn to observe both upon their 
 admission into the sanctuary of the laws, and al- 
 though those documents formed the basis given 
 them by their constituents for the guidance of their 
 conduct. 
 
 They endeavoured at that time merely to depre- 
 
 * The deputies, who had no other subsistence than their stipends, 
 although they were assisted from the general treasury with con- 
 siderable sums besides, on condition of re-payment, lived, never- 
 theless, in poverty, and involved in debt. Those who possessed 
 landed property, or other income, sufficient for their subsistence, 
 did not disdain to receive the stipends from their respective pro- 
 vinces, when the latter could contribute them ; and they received 
 also the sums which were distributed from the stock of the treasury, 
 thus proving how little they were actuated by generosity, or by a 
 desire to promote the general welfare either of the community at 
 large, or of the particular body to which they belonged. 
 
62 
 
 ciate the plan of Iguala, because they could do no 
 more, while I supported it as the expression of 
 the will of the people. But since my abdication, 
 they have not been content with speaking against 
 it ; relying on a mere sophism they have annulled 
 one of its fundamental principles, and under the 
 pretence of doing away with the invitation given 
 to the Bourbons, they have abolished the Hmited 
 monarchy altogether. What connexion was there 
 between one and the other? On the 8th of April, 
 1823, the congress passed a decree, in which * they 
 declared that the plan of Iguala, and the treaties 
 of Cordova ceased to have force, as to those parts 
 which referred to the form of government, and the 
 calling in of the Bourbons, and that the nation was 
 fully at liberty to constitute itself. In fact, those 
 documents had already ceased to have force as to 
 that portion which the Congress annulled, relating 
 to the invitation given to the Bourbons ; but they 
 lost their effect thus far, not because such was the 
 will of the people, when conferring their powers on 
 the deputies, but because the government of Ma- 
 
 * See a literal copy of this decree ami declaration in the Ap- 
 pendix, No. VI. and VII. 
 
63 
 
 drid did not choose to ratify the treaty signed by 
 O Donoju, nor to accept the invitation which the 
 Mexicans freely offered to that family. It was not 
 competent to the congress to say that at no time 
 did there exist any right to bind the Mexican 
 nation by any law or treaty, except through the 
 nation itself, or its representatives. For although 
 the proposition, taken by itself, is true, it is false 
 if it be taken with reference to the plan of Iguala 
 and the treaty 'of Cordova ; first, because both 
 were the, expression of the general will of the 
 Mexicans, as I have already said, and secondly, 
 because the powers which were conferred on the 
 deputies * as well as their oath f , were founded 
 on the principles, and supported on the bases, of 
 both these documents. They were instructed by 
 their constituents to organize the government of 
 the empire, as to its fundamental bases, conform- 
 ably to the plan of Iguala, and the treaty of Cor- 
 dova. If, therefore, these bases were not conform- 
 able to what the public right of every free nation 
 requires, whence did the deputies derive their au- 
 thority to create a Congress, and whence could 
 
 * See Appendix, No. IX, t Appendix, No. X. 
 
64 
 
 such a body have received its attributes of legisla- 
 tion ? Numerous are the decrees of that assembly, 
 which evince a similar absence of discernment. 
 They might have very properly said that the in- 
 vitation given to the Bourbons was null, because 
 those princes declined to accept it. But to assert 
 that, therefore, the plan of Iguala and the treaty 
 of Cordova were null, in every part, is the extreme 
 of absurdity. And it is the extreme of ignorance 
 or of malice to add, that the legislativ^e body could 
 not be bound to adhere to the basis of that form 
 of government, which was considered most expe- 
 dient by those who gave to the congress its ex- 
 istence as a Congress. If that assembly had 
 known its duty, and had proceeded with honour 
 and good faith, it would have respected the plan 
 of Iguala as the source of its own authority, and 
 the foundation of the edifice of the state. But it 
 took an opposite course. 
 
 For such an abuse of their authority as this, no palli- 
 ation was sufficient, and no remedy could be found. 
 Such a congress neither could nor ought to continue. 
 This was not only my opinion, but that of every 
 
G5 
 
 This was not only my opinion, but that of every 
 one whom I consulted on the subject, particularly 
 of a meeting which I held publicly in my palace, 
 and to which I summoned such persons as were 
 most distinguished by the respectability of their 
 character, the ministers, the council of state, the 
 generals and other superior officers, and seventy- 
 two deputies. 
 
 On the 30th of October, I transmitted a despatch 
 to the president of the congress through a superior 
 officer, informing him that that body had ceased to 
 exist*, and without any other formality, without 
 violence or further occurrence of any sort, the con- 
 gress was closed at noon on that day. No person 
 sympathized with them in their fall ; on the con- 
 trary, I received congratulations from all quarters, 
 and in consequence of this proceeding I w^as again 
 
 * This despatch was delivered into the president's hand by the 
 Brigadier Cortazar, who at that time expressed his thanl<s for 
 having been honoured with such a commission. It was he who 
 shut the doors of the edifice, after which he returned highly satis- 
 fied with having performed a task, which was so agreeable to him. 
 He was one of the first who declared for the republic. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 called the " Liberator of Anahuac," and " the 
 father of the people." 
 
 In order that a body so respectable by its in- 
 stitution should not be entirely wanting to its duty, 
 and lest it should be supposed that I arrogated to 
 myself the power of making the laws, I formed 
 the same day, an assembly which I called the 
 " Instituent Junta," consisting of members of the 
 Congress, and selected from all the provinces. 
 They amounted to forty-five in number, exclusive 
 of eight supplemental deputies. 
 
 All of these had been elected by their respective 
 provinces, and for all the provinces there were re- 
 presentatives. Their duty was confined to the for- 
 mation of a new convocatoria, and they exercised 
 the functions of the legislative power only in cases 
 of urgent necessity. They understood that with 
 respect to the convocatoria, they were to avoid 
 those defect^ which the first junta of government 
 had interwoven in it, and particularly to attend to 
 the rights of the people to whom they were to 
 
 
6? 
 
 leave the full measure of their liberty, and whom 
 they were, at the same time, to protect as much 
 as possible from the intrigues and cabals of those 
 who would not hesitate to abuse their simplicity. 
 
 Happily so far my measures were attended 
 with general approbation, and I also received con- 
 gratulations on the installation of the ** Instituent 
 Junta." 
 
 At this period the empire was tranquil, the 
 government was actively engaged in consolidating 
 the public prosperity, and our interior grievances 
 were removed. It only remained for us to get 
 possession of the castle of S. Juan de Ulua, the 
 sole point which was in the possession of the 
 Spaniards, and which commanded Vera Cruz : its 
 garrisons were relieved by troops from the Havannah, 
 and on account of its proximity to the island of 
 Cuba, it offered every possible advantage to an 
 internal enemy. 
 
 The Brigadier Santana commanded the fortress 
 
 4 
 
 '6" 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 of Vera Cruz, and was commandant- general of the 
 province, under Echavarri, who was its captain- 
 general. Both of these had instructions relative to 
 the capture of the castle ; some jealousies arose 
 between them concerning their respective authority, 
 which they carried to such an extreme, that the 
 former attempted to have the latter assassinated 
 during a sortie made by the Spaniards ; for which 
 purpose he had so well concerted his measures, 
 that Echavarri, according to his own account, owed 
 his life to the bravery of a dozen soldiers, and to a 
 panic which seized those who attacked him. In 
 consequence of this circumstance, added to the 
 repeated complaints against San tana, which I re- 
 ceived from the former captain-general, from the 
 the provincial deputation, from the consulate, from 
 a number of the inhabitants, from the lieutenant- 
 colonel of the corps which he commanded, and from 
 several officers, who expressed themselves strongly 
 against his arbitrary and insolent conduct as a go- 
 vernor, I was under the necessity of divesting him 
 of his command. I had conferred it upon him, be- 
 cause I thought he possessed valour ; a virtue which 
 
69 
 
 I esteem in a soldier, and 1 hoped that the rank in 
 which I had placed hfiri, would correct his detects, 
 with which I was not unacquainted. I also hoped 
 that experience, and an anxiety not to displease me, 
 would have brought him to reason. I confirmed 
 to him the rank of lieutenant-colonel which the last 
 viceroy had given him by mistake, I bestowed on 
 r him the cross of the order Guadalupe, I gave him 
 the command of one of the best regiments in the 
 army, the government of a fortress of the greatest 
 importance at that period, the appointment of bri- 
 gadier (con letras), and made him the second chief 
 of the province. I had always distinguished him, 
 nor did I on this occasion wish that he should be 
 disgraced. I intimated to the minister that the 
 order of recall should be framed in complimentary 
 terms, and accompanied by another summoning him 
 to court, where his services were required for the 
 execution of a mission which he might consider as 
 a promotion. 
 
 All this, however, was not sufficient to restrain 
 his volcanic passions ; he felt bitterly offended, and 
 
70 
 
 determined to revenge himself on the individual 
 v\^ho had heaped benefits upon him. He flew to 
 excite an explosion at Vera Cruz, where the intelli- 
 gence of his having lost his command had not yet 
 arrived, and where a great part of the inhabitants 
 are Spaniards, who exercise great influence on 
 account of their wealth, and are averse to the in- 
 dependence of the country, because it put an end 
 to that exclusive commerce which was the in- 
 exhaustible source of their riches, to the prejudice 
 of other nations, including that of Mexico itself, from 
 which they demanded and obtained such prices 
 as they pleased. There it was that Santana pro- 
 claimed a republic. He flattered the officers with 
 promotions, he deluded the garrison with promises, 
 he took the respectable portion of the inhabitants 
 by surprise, and intimidated the neighbouring 
 towns of Alvarado and Antigua, as well as the 
 people of colour in the adjacent hamlets. He 
 attempted also to surprise the town of Talapa, 
 and was defeated with the loss of all his infantry 
 and artillery, and the total route of his cavalry, 
 who saved themselves only by the fleetness of 
 
71 
 
 their horses. Whilst Santana was attacking 
 Talapa, the towns of Alvarado and Antigua placed 
 themselves again under the protection of the go- 
 vernment. 
 
 This was the proper moment for putting an end 
 to the rebellion, and punishing the traitor. Ge- 
 neral Echavarri and Brigadier Cortazar, who com- 
 manded strong divisions, and had been directed 
 to pursue him, might have taken the fortress of 
 Vera Cruz without any resistance ; and by placing 
 themselves between it and Santana, might have 
 captured the whole of the remains of the cavalry 
 that could have rallied ; but nothing was done. 
 
 The affair of Talapa undeceived those who had 
 afforded any credit to the delusive promises of 
 Santana ; he was now shut up within the fortress of 
 Vera Cruz and the imperial bridge, a position truly 
 military; which was defended by two hundred 
 mulattoes, under the command of Don Guadalupe 
 Victoria*. Being thus confined to the fortress, he 
 
 * His name was Don Felix Fernandez; but when lie joined 
 in the former insurrection, he voluntarily adopted that of Gua- 
 
72 
 
 shipped his baggage and made arrangements for 
 his own escape by sea, as well as for that of such 
 of his companions as were committed in his cause, 
 who were all prepared to fly the moment they 
 should be attacked. 
 
 Although the apathy of Echavarri should have 
 been perhaps, a sufficient cause for exciting distrust 
 as to his fidelity, it was not so with me, because 
 I had formed the highest opinion of him. Echavarri 
 had experienced from me the greatest proofs of 
 friendship ; I treated him like a brother ; I had 
 raised him from insignificance in the political career 
 to the high rank which he enjoyed ; I was as unre- 
 served with him as if he were my son ; and it pains 
 me now to be compelled to speak of him, because 
 his actions do him no honour, 
 
 dalupe Victoria. He possesses the virtue of consistency; for, 
 although he gained no advantage with his guerillas in favour of 
 the country, he never sought to profit by the general pardon. 
 With the assistance of a few of his friends, he maintained himself 
 wandering through the mountains. The last government, after my 
 abdication of the supreme command, gave him the title of General, 
 without designating his rank ; and the Congress nominated him 
 a member of the executive power. 
 
73 
 
 I gave orders for the siege of the fortress, I au- 
 thorized the Generalto act according to his own dis- 
 cretion, on such occasions as he deemed necessary, 
 without waiting for instructions from the govern- 
 ment. Troops, artillery, provisions, ammunition, 
 and money, were supplied him in abundance , the 
 garrison was dismayed ; the officers were deter- 
 mined to fly; the walls, low and feeble, offered 
 every facility for an assault, if he did not wish to 
 open a breach, which might have been effected in 
 any direction in the course of an hour. Notwith- 
 standing all these advantages, only a few skirmishes 
 took place, and the siege lasted till the 2d of Fe- 
 bruary, when the convention of Casa Mata was 
 agreed to ; in consequence of which, the besiegers 
 and the besieged united together for the re- esta- 
 blishment of the Congress, the only object which, 
 as they then said, they had in view *. 
 
 The fault which I think I committed in my go- 
 vernment was, that I did not assume the command 
 of the army the moment I had reason to suspect the 
 
 •See Appendix, No. XI. 
 
74 
 
 defection of Echavarri. I deceived myself by re- 
 posing too much confidence in others. I now feel 
 that to a statesman, such a disposition is always in- 
 jurious, because it is impossible to fathom the 
 depth to which the perversity of the human heart 
 descends *. 
 
 It has been already seen, that it was not love for 
 his country which actuated Santana in raising his 
 voice for a Republic ; let the world judge also, if it 
 was the feeling of a patriot which guided the con- 
 duct of Echavarri, knowing, as he did, that at that 
 period commissioners had arrived at S. Juan de 
 Ulua from the Spanish government, for the purpose 
 
 * Echavarri was captain of a provincial regiment, forgotten by 
 the Viceroy and buried in the obscurity of one of the worst dis- 
 tricts of the Viceroyalty. In little more than a year, I raised him 
 to the rank of Field Marshal, Knight (de numero) of the Imperial 
 Order of Guadaloupe, one of my Aids-de-camp, and Captain-Ge- 
 neral of the provinces of Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Oajaca. This 
 Spaniard was one of those upon whom I heaped marks of my 
 favour, and also one of those whom I destined to form a link of 
 that fraternal union, which I always hoped to establish between 
 the Americans and the inhabitants of the Peninsula, as being mu- 
 tually advantageous to both countries. - 
 
75 
 
 oi pacifying that part of America, which it considered 
 to be in a state of rebellion. Echavarri entered into 
 a correspondence with them ; and with the gover- 
 nor of the castle; he suddenly forgot his natural re- 
 sentment against Santana, and joined with him in 
 opinion ; he forgot the friendship which 1 had 
 shewn him ; he forgot the duty which he owed to the 
 Mexicans ; he forgot even his honour, in order to ac- 
 cept the system of a man who was not only his public, 
 but his personal, enemy ; and by entering into a 
 capitulation with him, though at the time in com- 
 mand of superior numbers, he crowned his disgrace, 
 and brought a stain upon his character, which no 
 lapse of time can remove. Can it be, that Echa- 
 varri, remembering his native land, wished to ren- 
 der his countrymen such a service, as might expiate 
 his former conduct? I shall pass no judgment upon 
 him. Let those do it who cannot be charged with 
 partiality. 
 
 After the convention of Casa Mata, the besiegers 
 and the besieged united, and rushed like a torrent 
 over the provinces of Vera Cruz and Puebla, with- 
 out paying any regard to the government, or the 
 
76 
 
 least respect to me, although it was expressly sti- 
 pulated that a copy of the convention should be sent 
 to me by a commission. This commission was re- 
 duced to one officer, who arrived when the whole 
 army was in motion, and when every point was 
 taken possession of, which the time allowed, without 
 waiting to know if I wholly or partly approved, or 
 rejected that convention. It was also expressly 
 provided in that act, that no attempt should be made 
 against my person or authority. 
 
 The Marquis de Vivanco commanded the pro- 
 vinces of Puebla ad interim. He also was one of 
 those who had experienced my favour. He never 
 was, nor ever can be, a Republican ; he abhorred 
 Santana personally, and he was hated by the army 
 as being an anti-independent, and on account of a 
 certain want of frankness in his character. Not- 
 withstanding all this, Vivanco joined the rebels, 
 and Puebla refused to obey the government. 
 
 4 
 
 I went out to take a position between Mexico 
 and the rebels, for the purpose of reducing them 
 without violence, by agreeing to every thing which 
 
77 
 
 was not incompatible with the pubhc good. I 
 resolved to draw a veil over the past, and to put out 
 of the question every thing relating personally to 
 myself. We agreed that a new Congress should 
 be convened, the Convocatoria for which had been 
 already settled on the 8th of December, by the 
 Instituent Junta, and was printed and about to be 
 issued *. Limits were fixed to the troops on both 
 sides, and it was stipulated that they should remain 
 within their lines, until the national representation 
 should meet and decide the question, all parties 
 agreeing to submit to its determination. Such was 
 the agreement entered into with the commissioners 
 whom I had sent for that purpose ; but those on the 
 other side violated the stipulations into which they 
 had entered, by despatching emissaries to the pro- 
 vinces, for the purpose of persuading them to abide 
 
 * The convention of Casa Mata did not take place till the 2d 
 of February. At the beginning of December, the Convocatoria 
 for the new Congress was finally arranged. Hence it is evident, 
 in the first place, that I had no design of assuming the legislative 
 power; and secondly, that the assemblage of the body which 
 was to exercise it, was not the true reason of raising the siege 
 of Vera Cruz, and of proceeding to frame the above mentioned 
 convention. 
 
78 
 
 by the Act of Casa Mat a. Several of the provin- 
 cial deputations did accede to it ; but at the same 
 moment that they did so, they expressed a resolu- 
 tion to respect my person, and to resist any attempt 
 that might be made against me, not w^ith standing 
 the arts and menaces which were used in order to 
 change the current of their feelings. 
 
 It has been said that I wished to assume abso- 
 lute power: I have already demonstrated the false- 
 hood of this charge. I have been accused, also, of 
 enriching myself from the public treasury, although 
 at this moment I have no other dependence than 
 the property which has been assigned to me; 
 and if there be any man who knows that I have funds 
 in any foreign bank, I hereby cede them to him, that 
 he may make such use of them as he thinks fit. 
 
 The best proof that I have not enriched myself, 
 is that I am not rich ; I have by no means so much 
 as I possessed when I undertook to establish the 
 independence of my country. I not only did not 
 misapply the public funds, but I have not even re- 
 
79 
 
 ceived from the treasury the sums which were 
 granted to me. The first Junta of provisional go- 
 vernment made an order, that a million of dollars 
 should be paid to me out of the property of the 
 extinct Inquisition, and also assigned to me twenty 
 square leagues of territory in the inland provinces. 
 I have not received from these resources a single 
 real. The Congress passed a decree that all my 
 expenses should be supplied by the treasury to 
 whatever extent I should require, and the Instituent 
 Junta granted me an annual income of a million 
 and a half of dollars. I received no more than was 
 barely necessary for my subsistence, and this was 
 drawn in small sums by my steward, every four or 
 six days, preferring always the exigencies of the 
 State to my own and those of my family. I may 
 mention another circumstance, which shews that 
 self-interest is not my passion. When the In- 
 stituent Junta granted me the annuity of a million 
 and a half of dollars, I appropriated the third part 
 of that sum to the formation of a bank, which might 
 contribute to the encouragement and assistance of 
 the mining trade, a principal branch of industry in 
 
80 
 
 that country, but which had gone to ruin in conse- 
 quence of the late convulsions. Regulations for 
 the institution were drawn up by individuals expe- 
 rienced in the subject, and specially commissioned 
 for the purpose. 
 
 As little did I enrich any of my relatives by 
 giving them lucrative employments. I listened to 
 no private influence ; those who obtained official 
 situations through me, obtained them as matter of 
 justice in the scale of promotion, or through the con- 
 sequences of the revolution, according to the rank 
 in which they stood when the government was 
 changed, without their situation being at all im- 
 proved by my elevation to the throne*. 
 
 It has been said that I acted arbitrarily by im- 
 prisoning some of the deputies of Congress, and 
 
 * A brother-in-law of mine, was Alcalde in Valladolid, at the 
 period of the events of Igaula. A political Chief was wanted, and 
 the Spanish Constitution called upon him to exercise the functions 
 of this officej He continued to discharge them up to the time 
 of my entry into Mexico, when he was confirmed in his office by 
 the Regency, as were also the political Chiefs of Puebla, Quere- 
 taro and other places, who had no sort of relationship to me. 
 
SI 
 
 afterwards suspendingjt. To this charge T have 
 already answered. It has been alleged, too, that I 
 paid no respect to property, because I made 
 use of the convoy of specie, amounting to one 
 million tw^o hundred thousand dollars, which left 
 Mexico, bound for the Havannah, in October 1822. 
 At that time the Congress had been strongly pressed 
 by the government to supply the means for meeting 
 the exigencies of the State, and it gave me autho- 
 rity to appropriate to that purpose any existing 
 fund. It informed me privately, through some of 
 its members, that in adopting this measure, it had 
 particularly in view the convoy in question ; but 
 that it had made no allusion to it in the decree, 
 because the promulgation of that document would 
 warn the proprietors to abstract their respective 
 shares, before the necessary orders could be issued. 
 There were no means for the support of the army ; 
 the public functionaries were without pay ; all the 
 public funds were exhausted ; no loan could be ob- 
 tained at home ; and those resources which might 
 be solicited from abroad, required more time than 
 the urgency of the moment could allow. At that 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 period a treaty was pending for a loan from Eng- 
 land, and the negotiations had every appearance of 
 a successful issue ; but they could not be concluded 
 within five or six months at the least, and the 
 necessities of the State were too pressing to be 
 postponed. 
 
 At the same time, impressed as I always have 
 been with the deep sense of the sacredness of pri- 
 vate property, I should never have acceded to the 
 wishes of the Congress, if I had not had good reason 
 to believe that specie was remitted in that convoy 
 for the Spanish government under fictitious names, 
 and that almost the whole of it was intended for the 
 Peninsula, where it would indisputably contribute 
 to support the party which was opposed to the 
 Mexicans. I trust that this will sufficiently appear 
 to have been my view of the transaction, from the 
 circumstance that all foreigners who could prove any 
 part of those funds to belong to them, imme- 
 diately obtained an order from me for its resti- 
 tution. But even supposing (which, however, I 
 cannot concede), that it was wrong to seize the 
 
83 
 
 above-mentioned funds, to whom is the error to be 
 attributed ? Is it to be ascribed to me, who had no 
 authority to levy contributions or loans, or to the 
 Congress, which, in a period of eight months, had 
 arranged no system of revenue, nor formed any 
 plan of finance ? Is it to be imputed to me, who 
 could not avoid executing a peremptory law, or to 
 the Congress which dictated it ? 
 
 The act ofCasa Mata fully justified my conduct 
 in August and October, with respect to the Congress. 
 The last revolution has only been the result of the 
 plans which were then formed by the conspirators. 
 They have not adopted a single step that varies from 
 the Sumaria, which was taken at that time. The 
 places where the cry of insurrection was first to be 
 raised, the troops who were most deeply committed 
 in the plot, the persons who were to direct the re- 
 volution, the manner in which I and my family were 
 to be disposed of, the decrees to be passed by 
 Congress, the kind of government which was to be 
 established, all are to be found enumerated in the 
 declarations and results of the Sumaria. Neither 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 the imprisonment of the deputies, nor the reform of 
 the Congress, nor the seizure of the convoy, were 
 the true causes of the late revolution. 
 
 I repeatedly solicited a private interviev^ with the 
 principal dissenting chiefs, without being able to ob- 
 tain anything more than one answer in a private note 
 from Echavarri. Their guilt prevented them from 
 facing me ; their ingratitude confounded them. — 
 They despaired of receiving indulgence from me, 
 (which was another proof of their weakness,) 
 although they were not ignorant that I was always 
 ready to pardon my enemies, and that I never 
 availed myself of my public authority to avenge 
 personal wrongs. 
 
 The events which occurred at Casa Mata united 
 the republican and the Bourbon parties, who never 
 could agree but for the purpose of opposing me. 
 It was as well, therefore, that they should take off 
 the mask as soon as possible, and make themselves 
 known, which could not have happened if I had 
 not given up my power. I re-assembled the Con- 
 
85 
 
 gress, I abdicated the crown, and I requested per- 
 mission, through the minister of relations, to exile 
 myself from my native country*. 
 
 I surrendered my power, because I was already 
 free from the obligations which irresistibly com- 
 pelled me to accept it. The country did not want 
 my services against foreign enemies, because at 
 that time it had none. As to her domestic foes, 
 far from being useful in resisting them, my pre- 
 sence might have proved rather prejudicial to her 
 than otherwise, because it might have been used 
 as a pretext for saying that war was made against 
 my ambition, and it might have furnished the 
 parties with a motive for prolonging the conceal- 
 ment of their political hypocrisy. I did not abdi- 
 cate from a sense of fear ; I know all my enemies, 
 and what they are able to do. With no more than 
 eight hundred men I undertook to overthrow the 
 Spanish Government in the northern part of the 
 continent, at a moment when it possessed all the 
 resources of a long-established government, the 
 
 * See Appendix, No. XII. 
 
86 
 
 whole revenue of the country, eleven European 
 expeditionary regiments, seven veteran regiments, 
 and seventeen provincial regiments of natives, 
 which were considered as equal to troops of the 
 line, and seventy or eighty thousand royalists, 
 who had firmly opposed the progress of Hidalgo's 
 plot. Had I been actuated by fear, would I have 
 exposed myself to the danger of assassination, as 
 I did, by divesting myself of every means of 
 defence? 
 
 Nor was I influenced in my resignation by an 
 apprehension that I had lost any thing in the good 
 opinion of the people, or in the affection of the sol- 
 diers. I well knew that at my call the majority of 
 them would join tne brave men who were already 
 with me, and the few who might waver would either 
 imitate their example, after the first action, or be 
 defeated. I had the greater reason to depend on 
 the principal towns, because they had themselves 
 consulted me with respect to the line of conduct 
 which they ought to pursue under the circumstances 
 of the moment, and had declared that they would do 
 
 
87 
 
 no more than obey my orders which were that they 
 should remain quietpas tranquilHty was most con- 
 ducive to their interests as well as to my reputation. 
 The memorials from the towns will be found in the 
 ministry of state and the captaincy-general of Mex- 
 ico, together with my answers, which were all ii 
 favour of peace and against bloodshed. 
 
 1^ My love for my country led me first to Iguala, i 
 induced me to ascend the throne and to descen( 
 again from so dangerous an elevation ; and I have 
 not yet repented either of resigning the sceptre oi 
 having proceeded as I have done.J I have left the 
 land of my birth after having obtained for it the 
 greatest of blessings, in order to remove to a distant 
 country, where I and a large family, delicately 
 brought up, must exist as strangers, and without 
 any other resources than those which I have already 
 mentioned*; together with a pension, upon which 
 no man would place much dependence, who knows 
 what revolutions are, and is acquainted with the 
 state in which I left Mexico. 
 
 * See page 79. 
 
88 
 
 There will not be wanting persons who will 
 charge me with a want of foresight, and with weak- 
 ness in re-instating a Congress, of whose defects I 
 was aware, and the members of which will always 
 continue to be my determined enemies. My reason 
 for so acting was this, that I should leave in exist- 
 ence some acknowledged authority, because the 
 convocation of another Congress would have re- 
 quired time, and circumstances did not admit of any 
 delay. Had I taken any other course, anarchy 
 would inevitably have ensued, upon the different 
 parties shewing themselves, and the result would 
 have been the dissolution of the state. It was my 
 wish to make this last sacrifice for my country. 
 
 To this same Congress I preferred a request 
 that it would fix the place where it wished me to 
 reside, and select such troops as it might think 
 proper to form the escort that was to attend me to 
 the place of embarkation. It fixed on a point in 
 the bay of Mexico for my embarkation, and gave 
 me for escort five hundred men, whom I wished to 
 be taken from among those that had seceded from 
 
89 
 
 their allegiance to me, and to be commanded by the 
 Brigadier Bravo, whom I also selected from my 
 opponents*, in order to convince them that he who 
 now surrendered his arms, and placed himself in the 
 hands of those persons whose treachery he had al- 
 ready experienced, had not avoided meeting them 
 in the field through any personal fear. 
 
 On the day fixed for my departure from Mexico, 
 the people prevented me from leaving it. When 
 the army calling itself (for what reason it knew not) 
 the liberating army, made its entry, there were none 
 of those demonstrations which usually evince a fa- 
 vourable reception. The superior officers were 
 obliged to post the troops through the capital, and 
 to plant artillery at the principal approaches. In the 
 towns through which I passed, (which were but a 
 few, as it was so managed that I should be con- 
 
 * Of the troops who were then with me at Tacubaya, I took 
 • with me only two men from each company, and this I did merely 
 for the purpose of giving them a proof of my gratitude, and to 
 appease the enthusiasm of the rest. It was the only means by 
 which I could persuade them to let me proceed wilh the escort 
 which had been appointed by the Congress. 
 
90 
 
 ducted with as much privacy as possible from one 
 hacienda* to another,)! was received with ringing of 
 bells, and notwithstanding the harshness with which 
 they were treated by my escort, the inhabitants 
 crowded anxiously to see me, and to bestow upon 
 me the most sincere proofs of their attachment and 
 respect. 
 
 After my departure from Mexico, the new go- 
 vernment was obliged to resort to force in order to 
 prevent the people from crying out my name ; and 
 when the Marquis of Vivanco, as General-in-Chief, 
 harangued the troops whom I left at Tacubaya, he 
 had the dissatisfaction to hear them shout *' live 
 Agustin the First ! " and to see that they listened 
 to his address with contempt. These, and a thou- 
 sand other incidents which might appear too trifling 
 if they were particularized, fully demonstrate that it 
 was not the general will which effected my separa- 
 tion from the supreme command. 
 
 * A hacienda means in English an estate, but an estate in 
 Mexico consists generally of a large tract of territory, which is 
 thinly settled by the proprietor for his agricultural purposes. 
 
91 
 
 I had already said that the moment I should 
 discover that my continuance at the head of affairs 
 tended to interrupt the pubUc tranquillity, I 
 should cheerfully descend from the throne ; and 
 that if the nation should choose a form of go- 
 vernment v^hich in my view might be preju- 
 dicial, I would not contribute to its establish- 
 ment, because it is not consistent with my prin- 
 ciples to act contrary to what I think conducive to 
 the general welfare. But on the other hand, I 
 added, that I would not oppose it, and that my only 
 alternative would be to abandon my country. I 
 said this in October, 1821, to the first junta of go- 
 vernment ; and I repeated it frequently to the Con- 
 gress *, to the Instituent Junta, to the troops, and 
 to several individuals, both in private and in public. 
 The case for which I had provided arrived ; I com- 
 plied with my word, and I have only to thank my 
 enemies for having afforded me an opportunity of 
 
 * I always spoke with frankness to the Congress ; witness my 
 address to that body, after it was re-instated on my resignation of 
 the throne. See Appendix, No. XIII. 
 
92 
 
 unequivocally shewing that my language was always 
 in unison with my intentions *. 
 
 The greatest sacrifice which I made, has been 
 that of abandoning for ever a country so dear to 
 my heart, which still retains an idolized father 
 whose advanced age rendered it impossible to 
 bring him with me, a sister whom I cannot think 
 of without regret, and kinsmen, and many a friend 
 who were the companions of my infancy and youth, 
 and whose converse formed in better days the hap- 
 piness of my life ! 
 
 Mexicans ! this production will reach your hands. 
 
 * Conformably to my principles, I refused to place myself at 
 the head of the last revolution, though I was invited to do so by 
 its principal leaders; amongst whom it will be sufficient to men- 
 tion Negrete, Cortazar, and Vivanco. Had I acted according to 
 their suggestion, I might have retained the supreme command 
 under one name or another ; and if I were actuated by ambition 
 I would have done so. Circumstances afforded me many oppor- 
 tunities of accomplishing any ambitious purpose, but public affairs 
 became hateful to me ; my duties oppressed me ; and, finally, I 
 thought it inconsistent with the interests of rpy country that 1 
 should place myself at the head of that party. 
 
93 
 
 Its principal object is to shew you that your best 
 friend has never deceived the affection and confi- 
 dence which you prodigally bestowed upon him. 
 My gratitude to you shall cease only with my latest 
 breath. When you instruct your children in the 
 history of our common country, tell them betimes 
 to think with kindness of the first Chief of the army 
 of the Three Guarantees ; and if by any chance my 
 children should stand in need of your protection, 
 remember that their father spent the best season 
 of his life in labouring for your welfare ! Receive 
 my last adieus, and may every happiness await 
 you! 
 
 At my country-house in the vicinity 
 of Leghorn, 27th Sept, 1823. 
 
94 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Not having been allowed, as I had intended, 
 to print this work in Tuscany, the time that has 
 elapsed since I finished it, has afforded me an op- 
 portunity to observe that the events which have 
 taken place in Mexico, since my departure, fully 
 confirm every thing which I have said with respect 
 to the Congress. It has been seen endeavouring to 
 prolong the term of its functions, in order to engross 
 all the diflferent branches of power, and to form a 
 constitution according to its own pleasure ; a pro- 
 ceeding inconsistent with the limited authority 
 which has been delegated to it, and demonstrative 
 of its contempt for the public voice, and for the 
 decisive representations addressed to it from the 
 provinces, desiring that it should confine itself 
 to the formation of a new convocatoria. Hence, 
 it has happened that the provinces, in order to 
 force the Congress to compliance, have taken such 
 strong steps as even with force of arms to refuse to 
 obey its ordinances, and those of the government 
 
95 
 
 which it has_created. This fact is an unequivocal 
 proof of the bad opinion which the people entertain 
 of the majority of the deputies. A new Congress 
 necessarily requires time and expense ; and, there- 
 fore, it may be inferred, that the people never 
 would have adopted the idea of forming such a Con- 
 gress, if they looked upon the majority of the pre- 
 sent deputies as wise, temperate, and virtuous le- 
 gislators, or if the proceedings of those deputies, 
 since their re-instatement in the sanctuary of the 
 laws, had been conformable to the general welfare, 
 instead of being subservient to their own ambitious 
 and sinister designs. 
 
 London^ January., 1824, 
 
I 
 
 j 
 
 I 
 
^ 
 
 II 
 
 APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS. 
 
 H 
 
APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 PLAN OF IGUALA. 
 
 Art. 1. The Mexican nation is independent of the 
 Spanish nation, and of every other, even on its own Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 Art. 2. Its religion shall be the Catholic, which all its 
 inhabitants profess. 
 
 Art. 3. They shall be all united, without any distinc- 
 tion between Americans and Europeans. 
 
 Art. 4. The government shall be a constitutional mo- 
 narchy. 
 
 Art. 5. A junta shall be named, consisting of. indivi- 
 duals who enjoy the highest reputation in the different 
 parties which have shewn themselves. 
 
 Art. 6. This junta shall be under the presidency of his 
 Excellency the Count del Venadito, the present Viceroy 
 of Mexico. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Art. 7. It shall govern in the name of the nation, ac- 
 cording to the laws now in force, and its principal bu- 
 siness will be to convoke, according to such rules as it 
 shall deem expedient, a congress for the formation of a 
 constitution 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 select. 
 
 Art. 10. The formation of the constitution 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 of the country 
 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 it shall be called the army 
 of the three guarantees. 
 
 Art. 13. It shall solemnly swear to defend the funda- 
 mental bases of this plan. 
 
APPENDIX. 101 
 
 Art. 14. It shall strictly observe the military ordi- 
 nances now in force. 
 
 Art. 15. There shall be no other promotions than 
 those which are due to seniority, or which shall be ne- 
 cessary for the good of the service. 
 
 Art. 16. This army shall be considered as of the line. 
 
 Art. 17. The old partisans of independence who shall 
 immediately 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 militia- 
 men. 
 
 Art. 19. The secular and regular priests shall be con- 
 tinued in the state in which they now are. 
 
 Art. 20. All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesias- 
 tical, 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 terri- 
 tory of the empire, taking with them their families and 
 their effects. 
 
 Art. 22. The military commandants shall regulate 
 
 I ^ 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 themselves according to the general instructions in con- 
 formity with this plan, which shall be transmitted to 
 them. 
 
 Art. 23. No accused person shall be condemned capi- 
 tally 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 Barrabas, where they shall 
 remain until the congress shall resolve on the punish- 
 ment which ought to be inflicted on them. 
 
 Art. 24. It being indispensable to the country that 
 this plan should be carried into effect, in as much as the 
 welfare of that country is its object, every individual of 
 the army shall maintain it, to the shedding (if it be ne- 
 cessary) of the last drop of his blood. 
 
 Town of Igualay 
 2'ith February, 1821. 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 No. II. 
 
 TREATY OF CORDOVA. 
 
 Treaty concluded in the Town of Cordova on the 24th of 
 August, 1821, between Don Juan O'Donnoju, Lieu" 
 tenant-General of the Armies of Spain, and Don 
 Augustin de Iturbide, First Chief of the Imperial 
 Mexican Army of the *' Three Guarantees." 
 
 New Spain having declared herself independent of the 
 mother country ; possessing an army to support this de- 
 claration ; her provinces having decided in its favour ; 
 the capital wherein the legitimate authority had been 
 deposed being besieged ; the cities of Vera Cruz and 
 Acapulco alone remaining to the European government 
 ungarrisoned, and without the means of resisting a well 
 directed siege of any duration, Lieut.-Gen. Don Juan 
 0*Donnoju arrived at the first-named port in the character 
 and quality of Captain General and first political chief of 
 this kingdom, appointed by his most Catholic Majesty, 
 and being desirous of avoiding the evils that necessarily 
 fall upon the people in changes of this description, and 
 of reconciling the interests of Old and New Spain, 
 he invited the First Chief of the imperial army, Don 
 Augustin de Iturbide to an interview in order to dis- 
 cuss the great question of independence, disentangling 
 without destroying the bonds which had connected the 
 two Continents. This interview took place in the town 
 of Cordova, on the 24th of August, 1821, and the former 
 under the character with which he came invested, and 
 the latter as representing the Mexican empire, having 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 conferred at large upon the interests of each nation, 
 looking to their actual condition and to recent occur- 
 rences, agreed to the following Articles, which they 
 signed in duplicate, for their better preservation, each 
 party keeping an original for greater security and va- 
 lidity. 
 
 1st. This kingdom of America shall be recognised as 
 a sovereign and independent nation ; and shall, in future, 
 be called the Mexican Empire. 
 
 2d. The government of the empire shall be monarchi- 
 cal, limited by a constitution. 
 
 3d. Ferdinand VII., catholic king of Spain, shall, in 
 the first place, be called to the throne of the Mexican 
 Empire, (on taking the oath prescribed in the 10th Article 
 of the plan,) and on his refusal and denial, his brother, 
 the most serene infante Don Carlos ; on his refusal and 
 denial, the most serene infante Don Francisco de Paula ; 
 on his refusal and denial, the most serene Don Carlos 
 Luis, infante of Spain, formely heir of Tuscany, now of 
 Lucca ; and upon his renunciation and denial, the person 
 whom the cortes of the empire shall designate, 
 
 4th. The emperor shall fix his court in Mexico, which 
 shall be the capital of the empire. 
 
 5th. Two commissioners shall be named by his excel- 
 lency Seiior O'Donnoju, and these shall proceed to the 
 court of Spain, and place in the hands of his Majesty 
 king Ferdinand VII., a copy of this treaty, and a memo- 
 
APPENDIX. 105 
 
 rial which shall accompany it, for the purpose of afTording 
 information to his Majesty with respect to antecedent cir- 
 cumstances, whilst the cortes of the empire offer him the 
 crown with all the formalities and guarantees which a 
 matter of so much importance requires ; and they sup- 
 plicate his Majesty, that on the occurrence of the case 
 provided for in Article 3, he would be pleased to commu- 
 nicate it to the most serene infantes called to the crown 
 in the same article, in the order in which they are 
 so named ; and that his Majesty would be pleased to 
 interpose his influence and prevail on one of the mem- 
 bers of his august family to proceed to this empire, inas- 
 much as the prosperity of both nations would be thereby 
 promoted, and as the Mexicans would feel satisfaction 
 in thus strengthening the bands of friendship, with 
 which they may be, and wish to see themselves, united to 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 6th. Conformably to the spirit of the " Plan of 
 Iguala," an assembly shall be immediately named, com- 
 posed of men the most eminent in the empire for their 
 virtues, their station, rank, fortune, and influence ; men 
 marked out by the general opinion, whose number may be 
 sufficiently considerable to insure by their collective know- 
 ledge the safety of the resolutions which they may take 
 in pursuance of the powers and authority granted them 
 by the following articles. 
 
 7th. The assembly mentioned in the preceding article 
 shall be called the " Provisional Junta of Government." 
 
 8th. Lieutenant-General Don Juan O'Donnoju shall be 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 a member of the Provisional Junta of Government, in 
 consideration of its being expedient that a person of his 
 rank should take an active and immediate part in the 
 government, and of the indispensable necessity of 
 excluding some of the individuals mentioned in the above 
 Plan of Iguala, conformably to its own spirit. 
 
 9th. The Provisional Junta of Government shall have 
 a president elected by itself from its own body, or from 
 without it, to be determined by the absolute plurality of 
 votes ; and if on the first scrutiny the votes be found 
 equal, a second scrutiny shall take place, which shall 
 embrace those two who shall have received the greatest 
 number of votes. 
 
 10th. The first act of the Provisional Junta shall be 
 the drawing up of a manifesto of its installation, and the 
 motives of its assemblage, together with whatever ex- 
 planations it may deem convenient and proper for the 
 information of the country, with respect to the public 
 interests, and the mode to be adopted in the election of 
 deputies for the cortes, of which more shall be said 
 hereafter. 
 
 11th. The Provisional Junta of Government after the 
 election of its president, shall name a regency composed 
 of three persons selected from its own body, or from 
 without it, in whom shall be vested the executive power, 
 and who shall govern in the name and on behalf of the 
 monarch till the vacant throne be filled. 
 
 12th. The Provisional Junta as soon as it is installed, 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 shall govern ad i/iterijn according to the existing laws, 
 so l^r as they may not be contrary to the *' Plan of 
 Iguala," and until the cortes shall have framed the con- 
 stitution of the state. 
 
 13th. The regency immediately on its nomination, 
 shall proceed to the convocation of the cortes in the 
 manner which shall be prescribed by the Provisional 
 Junta of Government, conformably to the spirit of Article 
 No. 7, in the aforesaid '' Plan." 
 
 14th. The executive power is vested in the regency, 
 and the legislative in the cortes ; but as some time must 
 elapse before the latter can assemble, and in order that 
 the executive and legislative powers should not remain 
 in the hands of one body, the junta shall be empowered 
 to legislate ; in the first place, where cases occur which 
 are too pressing to wait till the assemblage of the cortes, 
 and then the junta shall proceed in concert with the 
 regency ; and, in the second place, to assist the regency 
 in its determinations in the character of an auxiliary and 
 consultative body. 
 
 15th. Every individual who is domiciled amongst any 
 community, shall, on an alteration taking place in the 
 system of government, or on the country passing under 
 the dominion of another prince, be at full liberty to re- 
 move himself, together with his effects, to whatever 
 country he chooses, without any person having the right 
 to deprive him of such liberty, unless he have contracted 
 some obligation with the community to which he had 
 belonged, by the commission of a crime, or by any other 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 of those modes which publicists have laid down ; this 
 applies to the Europeans residing in New Spain, and to 
 the Americans residing in the Peninsula. Consequently 
 it will be at their option to remain, adopting either coun- 
 try, or to demand their passports, (which cannot be 
 denied them,) for permission to leave the kingdom at 
 such time as may be appointed before-hand, carrying 
 with them their families and property ; but paying on 
 the latter the regular export duties now in force, or 
 which may hereafter be established by the competent 
 authority. 
 
 16th. The option granted in the foregoing article 
 shall not extend to persons in public situations, whether 
 civil or military, known to be disaffected to Mexican 
 independence ; such persons shall necessarily quits the 
 empire within the time which shall be allotted by the 
 regency, taking with them their effects after having paid 
 the duties, as stated in the preceding article. 
 
 17th. The occupation of the capital by the Peninsular 
 troops being an obstacle to the execution of this treaty, 
 it is indispensable to have it removed. But as the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the imperial army fully participating 
 in the sentiments of the Mexican nation, does not wish 
 to attain this object by force, for which, however, he has 
 more than ample means at his command, notwithstand- 
 ing the known valour and constancy of the Peninsular 
 troops, who are not in a situation to maintain them- 
 selves against the system adopted by the nation at 
 large, Don Juan O'Donnoju agrees to exercise his autho- 
 rity for the evacuation of the capital by the said troops 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 without loss of blood, and upon the tcrn.s of an honoura- 
 ble capitulation. 
 
 Agustin de Iturbide, 
 Juan O'Donnoju. 
 (A true copy.) 
 
 Jose Domixouez. 
 Dated in the Town of Cordoim^ 
 2Ath August, 1821. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 DECREE OF THE CORTES AT MADRID. 
 
 In the Session of 13th February, the Extraordinary 
 Cortes at Madrid approved of the following Articles. 
 
 1st. The cortes declare that what is styled the Treaty 
 of Cordova between General O'Donnoju and the chief of 
 the mal-contents of New Spain, Don Augustin de Itur- 
 bide, as well as any other act or stipulation involving the 
 recognition of Mexican independence by the aforesaid 
 General , are illegal , null , and void, as respects the Spanish 
 government and its subjects. 
 
 2d. That the Spanish government by an official com- 
 munication to all such powers as are in amicable rela- 
 tions with it, shall declare that the Spanish nation will 
 at all times consider as a violation of existing treaties, 
 the partial or absolute recognition of the independence 
 of the Spanish American colonies, seeing that the dis- 
 
110/ APPENDIX. 
 
 ciissions pending between some of them and the mother 
 country are not yet concluded ; and that the Spanish 
 government in the fullest manner shall testify to foreign 
 powers, that hitherto, Spain has not renounced any one 
 of the rights which she possesses over the aforesaid 
 colonies. 
 
 3d. That government be charged to preserve, by all 
 possible means, and reinforce with all speed, those 
 points in the American provinces which still remain 
 united with the mother country, obedient to her autho- 
 rity, and opposed to the ma! -contents ; proposing to the 
 cortes such resources as it may require, and which it has 
 not at its own disposal. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 ITURBIDE'S PROCLAMATION. 
 
 Mexicans ! As a fellow-citizen desirous of the preser- 
 vation of order, and anxious for your welfare infinitely 
 more than for my own, I address myself to you. Politi- 
 cal changes and alterations in the government of states 
 produce no evils when the people are guided by that 
 prudence and moderation which you have ever displayed. 
 
 The army and the inhabitants of this city have just 
 taken a decisive step ; to the rest of the nation it apper- 
 tains either to approve or reject it. As for me, at this 
 moment, I can do no more than feel grateful for their 
 determination, and beg of you, yes, fellow-citizens, I 
 
 II 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 beseech you (for Mexicans nood not my command,) to 
 repress any violence of passion, to forget all resent- 
 ments, and to respect the authorities ; for a peoi)le 
 without authorities, or which possessing, treads them 
 under foot, is a monster. (Ah ! let none of my friends 
 incur the appellation !) Let us wait for a time of 
 greater tranquillity before we irrevocably decide on our 
 system and our destiny ; it will speedily arrive. The 
 whole nation is the country ; its deputies this day repre- 
 sent it ; let us hear them ; let us not prove a scandal to 
 the world ; fear not that you shall be led astray by listen- 
 ing to my advice 1 The will of the people is the law ; 
 there is nothing superior to it. Listen to me, and give 
 me this last proof of your attachment, which is all that 
 I look for, and the height of my ambition. I dictate 
 these words with my heart on my lips ; do me the justice 
 to believe me sincere and your best friend, 
 
 Iturbide. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 MANIFESTO OF THE CONGRESS. 
 
 The Constituent Congress to the Mexican Nation. 
 
 Mexicans ! Your representatives address you for the 
 first time, to announce to you the extraordinary event 
 which has decided the destiny of the empire of Anahuac, 
 whose emancipation is accomplished, since it has pleased 
 the Supreme Being to restore to its inhabitants that 
 liberty which he gave them at their birth, availing him- 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 self of an individual of extraordinary endowments in 
 order to perfect the enterprise. You are all well ac- 
 quainted with the " Plan of Iguala," with which Senor 
 Don Augustin de Iturbide began this great work ; and 
 also with the treaty of Cordova, celebrated between him 
 and the Spanish General Don Juan O'Donnoju, which 
 gave to that plan its perfection, although indeed, at the 
 date of the treaty, the nation had already almost entirely 
 formed its decision. 
 
 Events so propitious could not have taken place had 
 they not been the result of the unanimity of public opi- 
 nion, which, by reconciling jarring interests, renewed in 
 our nature that love of liberty, the choicest gift of Heaven, 
 of which no man can justly be deprived, much less a 
 nation like our's, which, after patiently enduring for 
 three centuries, to its great detriment, a distant and 
 inauspicious government, was still anxious, when throw- 
 ing off its yoke, to be governed by its former kings and 
 their family, calling them to the new throne of the 
 empire of Mexico. 
 
 Conduct at once so open and so noble, ought not to have 
 awakened the suspicions of the Spanish nation, but un- 
 fortunately, whilst you relied on the goodness of your 
 intentions and the faith of a treaty, the Spanish govern- 
 ment adopting a line of policy scarcely conceivable, 
 looked upon the proceedings of the Mexicans as acts of 
 infidelity and treason. Hence, their measures for aug- 
 menting the garrisons at the Havana and San Juan de 
 Ulua, and^their (i;jitensive military preparations in that 
 fortress. Hence it is, that not content with continual 
 
APPENDIX. 11*5 
 
 threats against your security and repose, their aggres- 
 sions have gone so far as to raise (though in vain) against 
 the empire those very troops who have already capitu- 
 lated, and who are permitted to live in the country under 
 the protection of treaties. They have even gone so far 
 as to endeavour to seduce our illustrious chiefs by pro- 
 mises and threats, which have proved as unsuccessful as 
 they were treacherous. Hence ultimately sprung that 
 decree of the Spanish cortes in their session of the 
 12th and 13th February last, the object of which is to 
 disavow the treaty of Cordova, and every other treaty 
 whatsoever between the Spanish commanders and the 
 governments of America, declaring all such acts to be 
 null and of no effect ; and adding, that the government 
 should acquaint all other powers that it would deem 
 any total or partial recognition of our independence as 
 a violation of treaties. 
 
 Such, Mexicans, has been the result of that modera- 
 tion which is stamped on the pages of the famous 
 *' Plan'* of the hero of Iguala ; such are the means 
 which the Spanish government chooses to employ in its 
 operations, to the great danger of the internal harmony 
 and tranquillity of this country, by sowing the seeds of 
 discord among you, and exciting suspicions against those 
 citizens who have your liberties most at heart, on ac- 
 count of a difference of opinion as to the future conduct 
 of Spain and of other European powers. 
 
 But this difference of sentiment, originating as it did 
 in sound and healthy principles, gave great strength to 
 
 I 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 public opinion, when it was seen that Spain had annulled 
 the treaty of Cordova ; and the army and people suddenly 
 breaking silence at 11 o'clock on the night of the 18th 
 instant, saluted the generalissimo Don Agustin de Itur- 
 bide as emperor of Mexico, solemnizing the procla- 
 mation with salutes of artillery, with music, and joy- 
 bells, and passing the whole night in festivity. Seiior 
 Iturbide on the same night issued a proclamation, and 
 at nine o'clock on the morning of the following day your 
 congress assembled ; citizens of all classes thronging the 
 avenues, and calling for an immediate confirmation of 
 their choice. 
 
 The congress endeavoured to prepare, by all means in 
 its power, for the discussion of so important a question, 
 but the vehement cries of the people increasing every 
 moment, convinced it of the necessity of taking into con- 
 sideration the dignity and imprescriptible rights of the 
 Mexican nation ; which, if it were generous enough to 
 offer the throne to the reigning family of Spain, was 
 very far from imagining that such an offer would have 
 been flung back with disgrace and dishonour. Annulled 
 therefore, as the treaty of Cordova was by that nation, 
 the compact was broken, and the rights of those who 
 were invited to the throne, according to the third Article, 
 ceased, while the good faith of the Mexicans remained 
 inviolate and pure. The congress was thus at full 
 liberty to exert the powers marked out in the same arti- 
 cle, the more especially if it be considered that when 
 nations constitute themselves anew, no one possesses a 
 legitimate title to obtain or solicit the supremacy of its 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 government, but the person proclaimed by the will of the 
 nation. 
 
 These principles are too manifest and clear to have re- 
 mained hidden from the Spanish nation, w^hich has known 
 how to vindicate and compel the restoration of its natural 
 rights which were usurped from it in the course of time by 
 arbitrary power. And why ignorance should be pretended 
 with reference to Mexican rights, by a government which 
 is itself the offspring of an enlightened age, that does 
 not permit tyranny, is beyond conception. Is it reason- 
 able and just that the mother country should enjoy the 
 plenitude of her rights and liberties, and that it should 
 be denied to hapless America, to obtain such inestimable 
 prerogatives, to which she is called by the maturity of 
 her age, her position, her wishes, her interests, nay, 
 even by the interests of Spain itself? And during such 
 proceedings, useless perhaps to the nation that under- 
 takes them, shall we allow ourselves to remain exposed to 
 the dangerous vacillations of an unsettled form of govern- 
 ment ; shall we allow public opinion to remain divided, 
 and the torch of discord to be kindled among us to the 
 desolation of the unhappy land of Anahuac,which has been 
 already scourged for twelve long years by intestine war? 
 
 No, Mexicans ; your congress has determined to dis- 
 charge the trust you have reposed in them in a manner 
 more worthy of your confidence ; and not to hesitate be- 
 tween the refusal of Spain on the one hand and the hap- 
 piness of your country on the other. Looking to that 
 great object in the first moment of their political exist- 
 
 I 8 
 
116 APPENDIX. • 
 
 ence, and anxious that their country should hold its rank 
 among the great nations, they proclaimed Senor Don 
 Agustin de Iturbide constitutional emperor thereof ; for 
 as he had been the liberator of his country he would also 
 be its best defender. 
 
 The gratitude of the nation demanded this ; the unani- 
 mous wishes of many towns and provinces long and im- 
 peratively called for it ; the people of Mexico and the 
 army which occupied it, clearly and positively expressed 
 the same sentiments. 
 
 The moderation of the hero of Iguala had previously 
 discountenanced similar attempts from a faithful respect 
 for the treaty which he had concluded ; after those at- 
 tempts failed, if he still refused, even on the 19th to 
 take upon him the arduous burthen of so exalted a sta- 
 tion, his resistance would have been useless in proportion 
 to the difficulty of concealing his virtues and his glory 
 which had^elevated him to such a station. 
 
 His love of liberty, his disinterestedness, his dexterity 
 and political skill in uniting conflicting interests, his 
 capability in affairs of state, were so many attractions 
 to call forth your admiration, and to excite the interest 
 and affection which you have professed for his person 
 from the time he commenced his glorious career. 
 
 Mexicans, you have now on the imperial throne 
 Iturbide the- Great, the object of your ardent wishes; 
 not to exercise over you an absolute authority such as 
 
APPENDIX. 117 
 
 was exercised by the ancient Spanish monarchs, but to 
 perform towards you the kind offices of a father towards 
 his children ; to administer the government according to 
 the laws and constitution which your congress will dic- 
 tate ; — to protect the weak ; — to cause equal justice to 
 he administered ; — to preserve the integrity of the em- 
 pire, and maintain in full force the Roman Catholic 
 Apostolic religion without the toleration of any other. 
 Thus hath he sworn this day before the great King of 
 kings and of nations, setting forth in his speech to your 
 representatives his abhorrence of tyranny, and his re- 
 spect for the laws ; protesting in the most solemn man- 
 ner his wish to die rather than to fail in duties so sacred, 
 and proclaiming the principle of the sovereignty of the 
 people ; and that the latter were not made for kings and 
 princes, but princes and kings for them. 
 
 A compendious statement of this great event, together 
 with its motives and the considerations attending it, has 
 now been laid before you. The congress hopes that you 
 will direct your most fervent prayers to heaven, that the 
 individual elected may discharge his arduous duties 
 under the protection of the most High. 
 
 The other nations will confess the justice and necessity 
 which pointed out to the people of Mexico the way to 
 guide them to the perfection of their government, in 
 order to fix at once the destiny of this empire. And the 
 Mexican nation disposed to recognise the rights of other 
 countries, will not be deceived in its hopes ; for good 
 faith and simple dealing being its polar star, these prin- 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 ciples will form the basis of its intercourse, and Spain 
 herself will find amongst us her best allies, if adopting a 
 line of policy equally useful to both nations, she re- 
 cognises and respects our rights. 
 
 Francisco Cantarines, President, 
 
 Jose Ygnacio Gutierrez, Deputy, ") ™ . 
 
 Francisco Rivas, Deputy, J 
 
 Mexico, 2\st May, 1822, 
 In the 2d year of the independence of the eynpire. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 DECREE OF CONGRESS. 
 
 The Sovereign Constituent Congress of Mexico at the 
 Sitting of yesterday decreed the following : — - 
 
 1st. That the coronation of Don Agustin de Iturbide 
 having been the work of force and violence, and legally 
 null, no discussion can take place upon his abdication of 
 the crown. 
 
 2d. Consequently it declares also the hereditary suc- 
 cession and the titles emanating from the crown to be 
 null ; and that all acts of the government from the 19th 
 May to the 29th March last are illegal, and subject to 
 the revision of the present government, which may 
 confirm or revoke them. 
 
APPENDIX. 110 
 
 3d. The supreme executive power of Mexico will 
 hasten the departure of Don Agustin de Iturbide from 
 the territory of the nation. 
 
 4th. The embarkation shall take place from a port in 
 the Gulf of Mexico, by a peutral vessel, to conduct him 
 and his family at the expense of the state whithersoever 
 he may wish. 
 
 5th. During the life of Don Agustin de Iturbide, 
 he shall receive a pension of 25,000 dollars, (about 
 5,000/.) annually, payable in this capital, on condition 
 that he establish his residence in some part of Italy. 
 After his death his family will enjoy the sum of 8,000 
 dollars annually, according to the established regulations 
 in such cases for military pensions. 
 
 6th. Don Agustin de Iturbide shall receive the title 
 of Excellency. 
 
 The supreme executive power is to take due notice 
 hereof, and is charged with the fulfilment of this decree, 
 and to cause the same to be printed, published, and made 
 known. 
 
 LicENciADO JosE Mariano Marin, Preside7it. 
 
 Florentino Martinez, Deputy, ? o ^, , • 
 Gabriel de Iorres, Deputy, 5 
 
 Mexico, 8th April, 1823, the third year 
 of Indepe?idence, and the second of Libei'ty. 
 
 To Don Jose Vgnacio Garcia Yllueca. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. VIL 
 
 DECLARATION OF CONGRESS. 
 
 The Congress solemnly declares that at no time \yas 
 there any right to bind the Mexican nation to subject 
 itself to any law or treaty, unless by its own consent, or 
 that of its representatives appointed according to the 
 public right of free nations. Therefore the Plan of 
 Iguala and the treaty of Cordova do not subsist as to the 
 form of government and the invitation given ; and the 
 nation is at full liberty to constitute itself according to 
 the form of government that suits it best. 
 
 Mexico, 8th April, 1823. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 Official Report of the Fiscal Colonel Don Francisco de 
 Paula Alvarez, on the Sumaria, which by order of 
 the Government, he undertook against various in- 
 dividuals, of different classes, taken up on suspicion 
 of being engaged in a conspiracy against the 
 Government and the Emperor. 
 
 Excellent Sir, 
 
 I this day forward to his excellency the captain- 
 general of the province, the Sumaria, the formation of 
 which was intrusted to me through your excellency by 
 
APPENDIX. \'2\ 
 
 command of his Majesty, in order to ascertain the facts 
 which at the latter end of last August, gave rise to the 
 imprisonment of various individuals of all classes sus- 
 pected of treason. I have endeavoured to clear up the 
 truth, as far as possible, without exceeding the limits 
 of my commission, by assuming powers, which I have 
 not received, and in the view I take of the case it only 
 remains for me to submit to your Excellency the result 
 of my inquiries. 
 
 The first thing to be done on these occasions, is to 
 find out the criminal object in view, for if the conspiracy 
 be not sufficiently known, the conspirators cannot be dis- 
 covered. The information was so circumstantial, the do- 
 cuments and evidence brought before me led to disclo- 
 sures so convincing, that government, without incurring 
 the charge of apathy, indolence, or criminality, could 
 not avoid taking immediate and efficacious measures, 
 seeing that the public tranquillity was endangered. 
 
 The declaration of Don Lucian Velazques, folio 1, 
 packet No. 1, that of Don Adrian Oviedo, folio 2, im- 
 mediately following the former ; the original letter of 
 Don Anastasio Zerezero, folio 10, of the same packet, 
 the minutes, folio 12, following the same, and the list 
 of chiefs concerned in the affair in the continuation of 
 these minutes, pointed out the way to the establishment 
 of the criminal purpose. The second declaration of Don 
 Jose Maria Bustamante, folio 22, in continuation of the 
 aforesaid packet, and that of Don Jose Rafael Gonzalez, 
 folio 17 of the same, afford a full and legal proof that the 
 project of a conspiracy existed : this is sufficient to jus- 
 
122 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 tify the government, considering its proceedings in the 
 abstract; and indeed a sufficient justification appears in 
 the documents already cited, even if we confine ourselves 
 to those relating to individuals in particular. It v^as not 
 sufficient that they should be merely named in an informa- 
 tion, in order to warrant the apprehension of several of 
 them, especially those who enjoy particular privileges, as 
 happens to be the case with such as are deputies or eccle- 
 siastics ; but as the public safety is the first care of the 
 government, as soon as it becomes endangered, all other 
 reasons of prudence, circumspection, and even the fear of 
 committing violence, ought to possess no influence. The 
 man of virtue, if such he really be, and if he loves his 
 country, sacrifices, on these occasions, his own parti- 
 cular rights, and cheerfully submits to the precautionary 
 measures which are deemed necessary, whatever incon- 
 venience may arise to his own person. And, in truth, 
 many of these parties involved in the charge, are found 
 to be privileged persons. 
 
 Against Doctor Mier is the evidence of the note written 
 in his own hand-writing, in the paper called *' The 
 Friend of Peace," as found in folio 26, of packet No. 2 ; 
 it is also a circumstance against him that he had at- 
 tended two meetings, one of them in his own house, 
 where the project of the conspiracy was discussed, with 
 other circumstances relating thereto, which is proved 
 by the declaration of Oviedo, folio 6 and 8 of packet 
 No. 1, as also by that of Zerezero, folio 63 and 80, by 
 Anaya, p. 82, and the subsequent pages, by the com- 
 parison of all these documents with each other, and 
 of each of them with the said document, folios 37, 39, 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 40, 44, 49, and 50, packet No. 4. It is in evidence 
 against him, (and this is the general charge against the 
 whole of them) that he has impeded the course of justice, 
 concealed the truth in his declarations, and evaded the 
 first questions put to him. He at first denied that the 
 note in the journal had any other object than mere 
 curiosity; and when pressed upon the subject of the 
 context, he gives a solution extremely unsatisfactory, 
 page 27, packet 2. He knows not how this document 
 in question got out of his possession, page 27, ibid., 
 and yet afterwards he is convicted of having sent it 
 to Victoria, page 26, packet 4. In his declaration he 
 denies any knowledge of the replies given to the ques- 
 tions of Oviedo, page 21, packet 2, and in his con- 
 frontation with this person, page 41, with Zerezero, page 
 45, packet 4, with Anaya, page 50, ibid., he becomes 
 convicted, and confesses that he was the author of them 
 and that Zerezero had written them. He asserts in his 
 declaration that he has held no correspondence on 
 political subjects, and at folio 90, packet 2, he acknow- 
 ledges the correctness of a copy of a letter written by 
 him to his nephew Don Francisco de Mier, framed in 
 alarming and revolutionary terms. He is ignorant that 
 they had named a chief for the revolution, and yet in con- 
 fronting him with Oviedo, Zerezero, and Anaya, pages 
 37, 43, and 49, packet 4, not only is he convicted but 
 even confesses that he gave his vote to Anaya, and on 
 this person refusing the nomination, he urged and begged 
 him to agree to it, as appears from the deposition of 
 Zerezero, fol. 63, packet 4. The paragraph copied in the 
 examination, p. 90, from one of the letters opened in my 
 presence, proves also that he held a mysterious correspon- 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 dence, in which he endeavoured to discredit the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The official letter of Don Manuel Rincon, page 1, 
 packet 1 , and the consequent steps taken in pages follow- 
 ing, prove completely that from the time of his entering 
 the empire, he endeavoured to spread the seeds of republi- 
 canism, and did every thing in his power to dispose the 
 public mind towards it, and no excuse for those steps is 
 derivable from what he states, folio 25 and 26, and re- 
 peats in p. 26, on the other side, packet No. 2, of having 
 held such conversation previously to the election of the 
 emperor, for it appears at p. 4 and 8, packet 1, that he 
 already knew of the election, adding that he had been a 
 free man but for one night : besides also the great noto- 
 rity of his opinions in favour of republicanism should 
 justify his arrest. He also denied in his declaration, 
 page 23, packet 2, his having confided in the assist- 
 ance of his nephew Ugartechea, and his having expected 
 to find an asylum in the house of Gallegos, whilst the 
 first circumstance is proved, p. 39, packet 4, and the 
 latter, p. 44, ibid. In a word, this priestly deputy has 
 been one of the principal agents of the projected con- 
 spiracy, and has not told the truth which he had pro- 
 mised to speak under the solemn obligation of an oath. 
 The declaration of lieut. -colonel Don Manuel Fernandez 
 Aguado, p. 4, packet 2, should also be kept in mind 
 with respect to this deputy. 
 
 Don Juan Pablo Anaya, likewise a member of the 
 Congress, confesses in his declaration, p. 82, and the 
 following pages, of packet 2, that he was one of the most 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 active of those bent on the projected scheme of alterinc^ 
 the system, endeavouring to shew, notwithstanding his 
 having confessed that his opinion was for a republican 
 form of government, p. 83, packet 2, that his only ob- 
 ject was to support the Congress, as if it were lawful for 
 a citizen to form parties and clandestine meetings, with 
 a view to the application of force, in any case already 
 existing, or which might exist. And as if it could be 
 said that a man acted rightly, who knows and yet con- 
 ceals that in the provinces there are bodies disposed, and 
 citizens labouring to subvert the established system of 
 government. Such knowledge he possessed respecting 
 the province of Puebla, p. 18, packet 4, of that of Vera 
 Cruz, same page, and of some inland provinces, p. 65, 
 packet 2. A man who confesses that he was invited to 
 be the chief of a faction, by three or four others, to 
 whom no other name can be given than that of revolu- 
 tionists, and who at the same time acknowledges that he 
 refused the command, fully evinces the idea which he 
 must himself have entertained of such a nomination : 
 even their very care in skreening themselves from the 
 vigilance of the police in their meetings, shews clearly 
 that they looked upon themselves as culprits. What was 
 the purpose of the small triangular pieces of paper ? 
 See p. 20, packet 4, and p. 83, packet 2. And whence 
 the fears for the near neighbourhood of the Licenciado 
 Quintano? See p. 29, ibid. Why the assignation in 
 the street of Trapaleros, at night, and why those pre- 
 cautions which are necessary only for a criminal ? See 
 p. 23, ibid. Why conceal the presentation of Oviedo, 
 made by Zerezero, and the explanation of the object of 
 his coming to the capital ? See p. 82, packet 2. And 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 above all, what greater proof of a guilty conscience, than 
 the information given to the artillery and different friends 
 that the Congress wsls about to be surprised ? See p. 21, 
 packet 4. What clearer proof could be adduced than his 
 concealing himself for many days, until he was unable 
 longer to remain hidden from the vigilance of a zealous 
 government ? What stronger proof then could be given 
 against him, than that it was necessary to extract the truth 
 from him by the evidence of self-conviction ? Analyze this 
 man's declaration and compare it with those of the other 
 witnesses, pp. 17, 22, 24, and 26, packet 4, and observe 
 the discrepancies between the former and the latter. 
 The declaration of lieutenant-colonel Don Manuel Fer- 
 nandez Aguado, p. 22, packet 4, affords further evidence 
 for condemning this individual. Before proceeding to 
 take notice of other criminals, who are as greatly so as 
 the two preceding persons, it seems to me proper to 
 conclude my opinion respecting the deputies. 
 
 There is well grounded, or what the law terms cogent 
 evidence against Don Carlos M. de Bustamante'; a wit- 
 ness, (Oviedo, p. 17, packet 1) says that it was intended 
 to form, in concert with Mier and Anaya, the plan of 
 revolution, and this last in his confrontation, p. 23, 
 packet 4, being pressed by the reasons of the for- 
 mer, and the minute indications which he gives of a 
 secret understanding, alleges no reason to the contrary, 
 but contents himself with a mere denial. On the other 
 hand, M. Bustamante's opinion are so well known as to 
 afford well-grounded suspicions to Government. 
 
 Don Juan de Dios Mayorga, is one of those cited by 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 the captain-general and political chief of Goatcmala, 
 p. 4, packet 2. This was sufficient to render him sus- 
 picious ; but he himself augments these suspicions by 
 his official letter to the minister, in same page, wherein 
 he styles himself diplomatic agent to a town in insur- 
 rection, and he cannot be considered in any other light 
 than a spy. 
 
 Don Jose Joaquin de Herrera, was discovered by the 
 letter of Zerezero, p. 10, packet 1 ; but this gentle- 
 man has given proofs, p. 79, and the following pages 
 of packet 2, p. 29, and the following pages of packet 3, 
 and p. 56, packet 4, respecting his correspondence, 
 and his refusal upon frivolous pretexts, to submit 
 to the orders of government, in matters of so much 
 importance. Even had those pretexts any foundation, he 
 might have reserved his right to use them in due time 
 against the proper parties, without opposing on his part 
 an obstacle to the steps which were taken for the dis- 
 covery of the real offenders, in order to enable the au- 
 thorities to inflict upon them immediate and ample jus- 
 tice. And as in these matters there are no minor de- 
 grees of offence, it follows according to my opinion, that 
 M. Herrera is guilty. Supposing he may have in his 
 favour the presumption to the contrary, he yet gives 
 room for believing, (and this is the information given 
 me), that he had knowledge of the intrigue, and between 
 him and the other persons accused there is no difference, 
 except that he was more fortunate in there being no legal 
 proofs of his delinquency. 
 
 Don Jose del Valle has against him the exposition of 
 
128 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Don Juan Gomez de Goatemala, p, 4, packet 2 : he is 
 no more than one witness, but he is unexceptionable on 
 account of being a person employed by government, and 
 he treats of public transactions, in which no one would 
 expose himself to refutation, because he may be so 
 easily contradicted. A man who has already put a pro- 
 vince into convulsions, has no right to be considered 
 among the number of peaceable citizens, lovers of vir- 
 tue, and friends to good order. The government, there- 
 fore, was right in securing his person, at a moment 
 that it entertained well-founded apprehensions of an ap- 
 proaching rebellion. 
 
 Fagoaga, Echenique, and Obregon are only^ named 
 by Oviedo, who asserts that he heard Yturribarria say, 
 that these would supply resources, p. 13, packet 1. 
 The same witness, and with reference also to what he 
 heard the same person say, names Mr. Fagle as one of 
 the deputies whose influence he counted upon ; these 
 are the only facts which appear throughout the Sumaria, 
 and which prove nothing against them. 
 
 The other deputies had only against them one auricu- 
 lar witness, p. 17, packet 1. This was sufficient to justify 
 their arrest, as a measure of precaution. Afterwards, 
 in the course of the proceedings it appeared, p. 65, 
 packet 2, from the declaration of Zerezero, p. 22, packet 
 4, and from Anaya in his confrontation with Oviedo, 
 that their opinions had rendered them suspected by the 
 government ; as, on that account, they had been marked 
 out among the conspirators, as persons to be relied upon 
 in the enterprise ; and if they merited such a reputation 
 
APPENDIX. 120 
 
 among these latter, with what justice will they insist that 
 the first witness should not have possessed the same opi- 
 nion with regard to them ? Don Luis Yturribarria was 
 aware that Oviedo came, commissioned by the conspira- 
 tors of Puebia, for the purpose of intriguing with respect 
 to the revolution, through persons already acquainted with 
 it; and to name a Chief to direct the enterprise. Tiiis ap- 
 pears from the deposition of Oviedo, p. 8, packet 1 ; from 
 Zerezero's, p. 63, packet 2 ; and from his confession, 
 p. 28, packet 4. In order to arrange the matter, he collected 
 different persons at his house, p. 8, packet 1 ; at that of 
 the honourable Santamaria, p. 8, ibid. ; and in the street 
 of Trapaleros,p.9,z^2<^. These three meetings are proved: 
 the first, by the accused, p. 30, packet 4 ; by the Licen- 
 ciado Morales, p. 14 ; by Zerezero, pp. 8 and 9 ; and by 
 Oviedo in his declaration : the second, by the same 
 parties, except Morales, in the aforesaid pages : the 
 third, by the same parties as the second, with the ex- 
 ception of Zerezero, and with the addition of Juan Pa- 
 blo Anaya, p. 23. It appears, also, against the person 
 in question, that he assisted Oviedo with a dobloon 
 and five dollars for his journey to Puebia, and that 
 he was to provide him with two trumpets and two thou- 
 sand flints for the inhabitants of the plain of Apan, as 
 appears from his confession, p. 30, packet 4, and from 
 the deposition of Oviedo, pp. 9 and 10, of packet 1. Two 
 witnesses, Oviedo, p. 13, packet 1 , and Don Jose Joaquin 
 Morales, p. 16, ibid, affirm that he solicited ten or twelve 
 thousand dollars in order to commence the revolution. 
 Lastly, he has been guilty of perjury in his first declara- 
 tion, pp. 10 and 79, packet 2; in which he knows no- 
 thing of the questions put to him, having been convicted 
 
 K 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 in his confrontations with others ; and having ultimately 
 confessed many circumstances, of which he first pleaded 
 ignorance, p. 27 and the following, packet 4. He is, 
 therefore, guilty. 
 
 Don Anastasio Zerezero has acknowledged himself 
 the author of the letter to Don Luis Segura, p. 10, 
 packet 1 ; in which the plot of the conspiracy, the ob- 
 ject which they had in view, is discussed, together with 
 the means of accomplishing it, p. 12, packet 2. Zere- 
 zero was the first person in Mexico who became ac^ 
 quainted with Oviedo's mission, p. 5, packet 1 ; and the 
 man who introduced him to Mier, to the Licenciado Mo- 
 rales, toYturribarria, and to Don Juan Pablo Anaya, p. 5, 
 and the following, packet 1. Zerezero, in his letter, 
 confesses himself a principal agent in the aff^air ; and 
 this individual, unlike all the others, having first de- 
 clared himself an accomplice in the crime which gave 
 rise to the present inquiry, in his confrontation with the 
 others, manifested an extraordinary weakness in endea- 
 vouring to give a new colouring to his expressions, by 
 interpreting his words in a different sense ; finally con- 
 victed, however, by the force of truth, he was obliged to 
 own the principal facts to be true, and that the obscure 
 words made use of by him on the examination, were 
 rightly to be understood against the person concerning 
 whom he used them. Zerezero was immediately consi- 
 dered guilty ; and he wished that his apprehension should 
 have the appearance of a surrender. See the declara- 
 tion of Don Tomas del Castillo, p. 47, packet 3 ; exa- 
 minations of Seiior Ascarate, and that of Don Rafael 
 Gouzedes, p. 40, ibid. 
 
APPENDIX. Ie3l 
 
 Don Juan Bautista Morales has against him his gene- 
 ral character of republicanism, acquired by his publica- 
 tions. He confesses in his declaration, p. 46, packet 2, 
 that this is the form of government he most admires ; 
 this is not the first time he has rendered himself ob- 
 noxious to the suspicions of the officers intrusted with 
 the preservation of public tranquillity. He was one of 
 those to w^hom Oviedo was introduced, p. 5, packet 1, 
 as commissioner for the revolutionists of Puebla. He 
 was acquainted with that person's commission, attended 
 the meetings for the purpose of discussing it at Mier's 
 and Yturribarria's, as well as in the house of the honour- 
 able Santamaria. A witness, p. 7, packet 1, accuses him 
 of entertaining sanguinary views with regard to the 
 capital of the empire ; three others, pp. 68 and 83, 
 packet 2, and p. 7, packet 1, agree that he was one of 
 those who were to guide the public opinion by their 
 writings ; two, pp. 10, 11, and 14, packet 1, (Morales 
 and Oviedo,) heard him offer to send from Durango one 
 hundred or more armed troops, in aid of the revolution. 
 
 Don Tomas Castro denies every thing in his declara- 
 tion, pp. 17 and 18, packet 2 ; but it appears that he 
 propagated the report that the Emperor was about to 
 abolish the Congress, and reminded the officers of their 
 promise to support it : he confesses it, p. 60, packet 4 ; 
 and it is proved by Don Jose Rafael Andrade and Don 
 Juan de Dios Arzamendi, p. 59, ibid. According to 
 Oviedo, this was the mode employed to alarm and pre- 
 judice men's minds, so that when the plot should be 
 ripe, they might possess greater strength for the com- 
 pletion of the revolution. He was one of those who 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 knew of Oviedo's commission, as Oviedo and Zerezero 
 prove, p. 5, packet 1, p. 63, packet 2. Aware of the 
 object of the meetings, he was invited to one of them ; 
 he went, and acting with more caution than his accom- 
 plices, he requested that he should not be again sent for, 
 as his occupations would not allow him to attend ; but 
 he offered his person and services whenever they might 
 be considered useful (Oviedo, p. 7, packet 2 — Zerezero, 
 p. 64, packet 2.) He was present at the meeting in the 
 street of Trapaleros (Oviedo, p. 9, packet 1 — Anaya, 
 p. 85, packet 2— Yturribarria, p. 30, packet 4.) He was 
 to have seized on the Emperor's person (Oviedo, p. 6, 
 packet 1) ; he did not dare to execute it, from having no 
 points of support (Zerezero, p. 9, packet 1.) One wit- 
 ness accuses him (Oviedo, p. 11, packet 1) of having said 
 that he had made an arrangement with the artillery to 
 possess himself of the citadel ; and that when once the 
 republic was proclaimed, he reckoned upon fifteen hun- 
 dred men within Mexico, p. 67, packet 2 ; and Oviedo 
 cites, p. 61, packet 4, to Don Jose Joaquin Morales, who 
 was unable to make a declaration from being danger- 
 ously ill. 
 
 The cadet, Don Jose Joaquin Morales, wrote Zere- 
 zero's letter, p. 10, packet 1. Zerezero mentions it, 
 p. 66, packet 2, and Morales himself confesses it, pp. 60 
 and 61, packet 2. It is not yet understood whether he 
 had any other share in this business; but thus much is 
 sufficient to prove him acquainted with the whole plot, and 
 his silence places him among the number of accomplices. 
 
 Donna Antonia Villalba, wife of Don Agustin Galle- 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 gos, has been guilty of perjury in her declaration, p. 9, 
 packet 3 ; in her confrontation with Oviedo, p. 60, 
 packet 4, she belies herself, and confesses to having heard 
 her nephew speak of the project of a republic : she is, 
 therefore, an accomplice, as being privy to the conspiracy. 
 
 Don Ygnacio Sierra has two witnesses against him, 
 Gutierrez and Mayagoitia, pp. 100, packet 2, 61, packet 
 4, and 62, ibid. They accuse him of republicanism, and 
 of being a circulator of principles subversive of order ; he 
 confesses it in his confrontation, p. 62, excusing himself 
 through ignorance. He confesses plainly, and without 
 offering an excuse, to have spoken ill of the Emperor. 
 
 Joaquin Sires is a decided and enthusiastic apologist 
 of republicanism : this is proved by the depositions 
 of the Conde del Penasco, and the witnesses, Don 
 Paulino Samano, Don Juan Velez, Don Vicente 
 Bentensa, Don Domingo Hoyo, and Don Juan Jose Ma- 
 chado, p. 49, packet 2 ; document 2, 55 of the same, 
 34 and 36, packet 3. He bears a deadly hatred to the 
 Emperor, abhors the established government, and was 
 the ring-leader of the disturbances in the galleries of 
 the Congress. 
 
 Becerra appears to have been passive, but there are 
 four witnesses. La Madrid, Erdosain, Don J. J. Lopez 
 Romano, and Don Manuel Ovio del Campillo, pp. 96, 
 98, 100, and 102, packet 2, who condemn him as having 
 come hither on a commission, from the conspirators in 
 the vicinity of Valladolid, to acquire information con- 
 cerning the progress of the revolution, and transmit the 
 same to his constituents as opportunities presented. 
 
134^ Appendix. 
 
 Don Jose Maria Bustamante, of Tehuacan, stands 
 convicted upon his own confession, p. 22, packet 1, of 
 being an agent of republicanism in the country where 
 he resided. 
 
 Against the other persons in custody, no crime can be 
 proved ; there are sufficient appearances to warrant their 
 detention as suspicious persons, and to justify the go- 
 vernment, on their liberation, to issue directions to the 
 chiefs and authorities to watch over their behaviour, 
 and not to lose sight of them. 
 
 Such is my report on the examinations taken up to 
 the present period. The tribunal, or judges, to whom 
 the report will be sent, to take the necessary legal mea- 
 sures till sentence be declared, may find in subsequent 
 examinations more abundant proofs of facts, concerning 
 which there are now but mere appearances ; and may 
 find further evidence of the criminality of those whom I 
 have considered as guilty. 
 
 In order that your Excellency may be enabled to give 
 his Majesty any explanation which he may require, with- 
 out occupying time in making extracts or reconciling 
 contradictions, I will relate to your Excellency in few 
 words, the origin, progress, and actual state of the re- 
 volution to the time of the imprisonments, which took 
 place at the end of August last. In Puebla, the idea of 
 overturning the government and converting the empire 
 into a republic, first began to gain ground. 
 
 Don Atenogenes Rojas, or Rojano, used his influence 
 with the troops of the garrison, in order to forward this 
 
 N 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 object. He had agents at different points, such as Te- 
 huacan, the Plains of Apan, Perote, Puente Imperial, 
 the Sierra de Perote, and Huamantla. The ramifica- 
 tions branched off to Tulancingo, Valladolid, Vera Cruz, 
 Durango, and the Eastern inland provinces. They 
 counted upon the inhabitants of many of these points, 
 and on the greater part of those who had been insur- 
 gents, together with some part of the army, infantry, 
 and cavalry, the artillery of the capital, and the major 
 part of the Congress. They relied on the information 
 of their emissaries, with respect to the national militia 
 and the insurgents ; and as to what they had to expect 
 from portions of the army, they relied on the opinion 
 which they had manifested in the papers laid before the 
 public; as, for instance, in the representation of the 
 11th regiment of cavalry, that of the 4th infantry, and 
 that styling itself " the artillery decidedly in favour of 
 the Congress." They founded their hopes of assistance 
 from the latter, on the circumstance that, in its public 
 discussions, republicanism had been mentioned with en- 
 thusiasm ; that allusions to that form of government 
 were heard with cheers by some, and were opposed by 
 few. They were also aware that the papers upon this sub- 
 ject had been well received by the people, which induced 
 them to rely upon the general opinion, and to believe 
 that the provinces, could not have elected, as deputies, 
 such w^ell-known republicans as Doctor Miers, Don Juan" 
 De Dios Mayorga, Don Juan Pablo Anaya, and others, 
 unless the electors had been of the same sentiments : 
 see the declaration of Zerezero, p. 65, packet 2. In 
 order to procure some funds, it was projected, that a 
 body of eighty or more men should attack the convoy 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 which was to set out from Mexico. This project was 
 frustrated by the timely detachment of a few troops to 
 the point fixed for the robbery. Fear dispersed the ban- 
 ditti, and they retired to watch for a better opportunity. 
 On the suggestion of an adjutant of the 11th cavalry, an 
 ensign of the 12th was sent to Mexico in order to find out 
 some men of science, experience, and tried sentiments, 
 from amongst whom a leader of the faction might be 
 chosen. Such men it was not diflftcult to meet with ; 
 Miers, Anaya, Morales, Yturribarria, Castro, and Zere- 
 zero were the parties fixed upon. 
 
 Anaya having been appointed the chief, they all ex- 
 erted themselves for the success of the enterprise : it 
 was already far advanced ; already the overthrow of 
 the government was boldly talked over, even in public 
 places. The first proclamation was proposed to be made 
 in Puebla and Perote, where it was said the greatest 
 strength of the party lay. They imagined they should 
 have an immediate disposable force of 4,600 men, at the 
 lowest calculation. -As soon as the proclamation was 
 made in the above places, the person of the Emperor 
 and those of his family were to have been seized upon. 
 With respect to the Emperor, there were some who looked 
 forward to his death, the fate, they said, that should 
 await all tyrants, p. 7, packet 1.; but the major part 
 were inclined to have the whole imperial family placed 
 at the disposal of the congress, who were to send them 
 out of the kingdom with a pension settled on them, but 
 never to be paid. A diet, for so they called it, was to 
 provide funds for the republican army, and to take other 
 measures in^ cases of urgency ; and in this posture of 
 
 \ 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 affairs, counting on tlie opinion and sentiments of the con- 
 gress, they were to proclaim it in a state of liberty (sup- 
 posing it not to be so already), and to choose the govern- 
 ment best adapted for us, which would be republican, 
 since a majority in favour of it was fully depended on, 
 p. 65, packet 2. Mexico was not to be the place of go- 
 vernment, p. 83, packet 2, as these Catos considered 
 the population corrupted. We do not know when the 
 blow was to have been struck, but it is to be inferred that 
 it was arranged for the end of August, as nothing was 
 wanting to the plan but its execution. The project was 
 without unity or coherence ; it was formed unskilfully, 
 and the hopes entertained were for the most part chime- 
 rical, and all this through ignorance, and not for want 
 of disposition on the part of the conspirators. The plan 
 would never have produced the effect intended, but it 
 would have been productive of many evils attendant upon 
 such an insurrection, because it had in it no elements of 
 order. It is not to be denied that among the reformers 
 were men of talent, invention, and knowledge ; they 
 were the few, while the majority were utterly destitute of 
 all these advantages, and the whole of them were defi- 
 cient in that rectitude of intention, and in that expe- 
 rience so requisite for bringing such an affair to the con- 
 clusion which they contemplated. There was no rectitude 
 of intention, because the public good was not the point 
 aimed at; the basest of passions, envy, hatred, and am- 
 bition were their springs of action : one takes upon him 
 duties he is unable to fulfil, another attempts to lead the 
 opinion of the public by means of obsolete Gothic phrases, 
 which if we do not do him the favour of mistaking for 
 the ravings of insanity, we must believe to be the 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 offspring of a blind and extravagant ambition. Another, 
 for his maintenance, takes on him the ofRce of writing 
 papers, in order to cause a sort of prevarication in public 
 opinion. Another pretends to have obtained in distant 
 countries the first posts in the army, in order that for this 
 new service at least one step higher may be given him. 
 In truth, the whole of them are men who hazard nothing, 
 who have nothing to lose, and who seek to build up their 
 fortunes amid the ruin of their fellow-citizens, the de- 
 struction of thousands of families, and the blood of those 
 innocent persons who might unhappily be prevailed upon 
 to yield to the delusive attractions that would be held 
 out to them. What opinion can be formed, what hopes 
 entertained of ungrateful men, who begin by seeking 
 the death of him who gave them liberty, and by concert- 
 ing the banishment of the family of that very individual 
 who sacrificed every thing to free his country from a fo- 
 reign yoke ? What expectations can be entertained of 
 minds so superficial, as to reckon on the overthrow of an 
 empire with the co-operation of whole provinces, solely 
 because a foreigner lately arrived here says so ? If they 
 had at all fathomed the matter, and acquainted them- 
 selves with the weakness of the intelligence received, 
 they would have found that those provinces on which 
 they depended were reduced to half a dozen men of per- 
 verse character, without influence, without talent, and 
 without fortune, who might be followed by a hundred 
 miserable wretches, ruined, and accustomed to pillage, 
 who, too indolent to gain their livelihood by labour, are 
 indifferent whether they join a band of revolutionists or 
 a band of robbers. What expectations could have been 
 conceived of men who imagine whole bodies of troops to 
 
APPENDIX. 1;j9 
 
 be at their disposal, merely because they see some public 
 paper written by individuals not belongini^ to the rcg;[- 
 ment, si.^ned by some giddy youths inflamed with the 
 vanity of authorship, forgetful of their duty as mili- 
 tary men, and giving the rein to licentiousness ? What 
 could have been expected of men who reckoned on form- 
 ing an army of private citizens, spread over an immense 
 expanse of territory, and employed in their different 
 avocations, without possessing arms wherewith to pro- 
 vide them, — without having consulted their wishes, — 
 without having engaged even one emissary to dispose 
 and unite them ? What could have been expected of 
 men who believed that the congress was republican, 
 because some of its deputies might have given proofs 
 of being inclined that way ; who consider that all 
 those provinces are of republican principles which have 
 elected deputies who are so ; without recollecting the 
 mode in which those elections were carried on ; and 
 how men of intrigue, with a moderate capacity, can 
 contrive to obtain the votes of men of simplicity, 
 though sound in principle ? How . . . . ? If I should 
 suffer my pen to run on I should scarcely say any 
 thing new, or which every body is not aware of; but 
 there are things of which it may not be proper for 
 me to speak. In a word, I repeat that the project was 
 founded on a chimerical basis ; that its authors wished, 
 but could not, give it shape; and that, but for the vigi- 
 lance of government, the most terrifying anarchy would 
 have been the result with which we should have been 
 favoured by these patriots. 
 
 Let me be allowed now to make some reflections on 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 the ordinary causes of revolutions in every country, 
 applying them to our own. The restless people is al- 
 ways fond of novelty. In times of revolution after a 
 government is fixed upon, there are many men without 
 employment or without that to which they looked for- 
 ward ; this is the time when the passions become most 
 agitated, and if at such a period a constitution be not 
 immediately granted, securing the punctual discharge 
 of their pay to the civil and military functionaries, clearly 
 marking out the limits and powers of the different autho- 
 rities, preserving harmony between them, and taking 
 away all cause of complaint from the people ; there are 
 always to be found men of perverse characters ready to 
 take advantage of such circumstances in order to produce 
 commotion, and embarrassed and discontented persons 
 who innocently follow them, and rush forward to sacrifice 
 themselves to the perversity of a few. In this state is 
 Mexico at this moment, and whilst it so continues, the 
 public tranquillity is not for a moment secure. There are 
 no finances, and those who depend on them, as well as 
 the other classes of society who gain by the circulation of 
 them, are well acquainted with the reasons why there 
 are none. There is no civil liberty because the powers of 
 the authorities are not defined ; and further, because we 
 have no constitution. That of Spain was sworn to, but 
 it is impaired by degrees every day, and no other is sub- 
 stituted for it, which is the same thing as if we had no 
 fundamental laws, and were dependent on the will of a 
 body of men ; and the despotism of such a bodyis more 
 to be feared than that of the sultan. 
 
 There is no police, — there are no courts of justice, — 
 
APPENDIX. lil 
 
 and man, by the corruption of his nature is always prone 
 to crime, when he sees the probability of acting with 
 impunity. 
 
 I do not enlarge further from a wish not to distract 
 any longer the attention of your Excellency. I am fully 
 aware that even the little I have said will acquire me a 
 thousand enemies ; but it is of no importance to me if I 
 should become a victim for having spoken the truth 
 when I found an occasion to speak it ; and I shall be 
 happy if the sacrifice to which I expose myself and my 
 family, produce to the community to which I belong this 
 good effect, that the ruling party may reflect upon the 
 situation of the country, and preserve it from anarchy, 
 bloodshed, and many years of mourning and misfortune. 
 
 In what 1 have stated, I have had no other ol>joct in 
 view than the general good ; and confining myself to my 
 opinion respecting the persons in custody, Heaven pre- 
 serve me from being confounded with the greater part 
 of those Jiscals, whose boast it is to find out crimes where 
 there are none. 
 
 As to punishments I have said nothing, considering 
 my commission not to have extended so far. The judges 
 in due time will award them. 
 
 Your Excellency will be pleased to submit this report 
 to the consideration of his Majesty, and excuse me if I 
 have not executed my charge so well, or so promptly as 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 might have been desired, and as the confidence placed in 
 me demanded. 
 
 May God preserve your Excellency, S^c. 
 
 Mexico, September 30th, 1822. 
 
 Francisco de Paula Alvarez. 
 
 To His Excellency the Minister of 
 Relations y Don Manuel de Herrera, 
 
 No. IX. 
 
 CREDENTIALS OF THE DEPUTIES TO CORTES. 
 
 In the city of the day of 1822, 
 
 and second of independence. — In the chapter-hall of the 
 municipality in full council assembled, consisting of the 
 individuals summoned ante diem, viz., D. and N., 
 D. N. 8^'C., under the presidency of the polilical chief 
 D. N., or the Senor Alcalde D. N., the provincial 
 electors IJ. N., D. N., SiC, being assembled, together 
 with the municipality, they declared before me, the 
 under-signed secretary, that the Sovereign Junta having 
 ordered the cortes to be convoked, and the rules being 
 established whereby the elections should be regulated, 
 it directed for the purpose of carrying those rules into 
 effect that there should be a total renewal of the muni- 
 
 i 
 
APPENDIX. 1 1-3 
 
 cipalities of all the cities and towns, according; to 
 the regulation which is laid down. This order having 
 been obeyed in the several divisions (partidos) of this 
 province ; the citizens of all classes, without distinction, 
 and according to the plan of Iguala, proceeded to confer 
 upon the municipalities the necessary powers ; consider- 
 ing also that they have a right to name an individual out 
 of their own body as elector of *' Partido,'' who, in con- 
 junction with those of his class in the municipality, 
 might elect a provincial elector, in whose hands they 
 should deposit the national right conferred on tliem. 
 This having been done, and in virtue thereof all the 
 electors of the province of Mexico being assembled, they 
 named for first deputy to the constituent cortes of the 
 empire, D. N., out of the twenty-eight whom it belongs 
 to them of right to nominate ; and to him they transfer 
 their faculties and the powers conferred on them by the 
 citizens which compose the towns and divisions, (parti- 
 dos,) by means of their respective municipalities ; they 
 confer on him the same powers as they have conferred 
 on the other provincial deputies collectively and indi- 
 vidually, in order to execute the highly important duties 
 of his office, and in order that in conjunction with the 
 other deputies of cortes representing the Mexican na- 
 tion, all its kingdoms, provinces, districts, cities, towns, 
 congregations, w^ards, missions, estates and citizens, of 
 all classes, without distinction, might confer upon and 
 resolve what they may conceive to be conducive to the 
 general good ; and thus employing the power in them 
 vested, they might constitute the government of the em- 
 pire upon the fundamental basis of the plan of Iguala 
 and the treaty of Cordova; establishing the absolute 
 
144 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 separation of the legislative power, the executive, and 
 the judicial, so that they may never be united in one 
 sole person. And the constituents promise both for 
 themselves and in the name of all the citizens of this 
 province, in virtue of the powers vested in them as 
 electors named for the purpose, to hold as valid, to obey 
 and fulfil such decrees as they may issue in their capacity 
 of deputies to cortes, and as constituents of the govern- 
 ment of the Mexican nation. And in the same 
 manner they bind the citizens of the province, of all its 
 cities, towns, S^c, to obey them so far as they order and 
 determine, respecting the constitution which they may 
 establish as the fundamental law of the empire. 
 
 Thus they have expressed and granted, ordering that 
 this credential of the election should be given to S. DN. ; 
 and the political chief and two regidors have signed, 
 the same together with myself, as witnesses. 
 
 No. X. 
 
 Copy of the form of Oath taken by the Deputies to Cortes 
 at the solemn ceremony which preceded the installa- 
 tion of the Co7igress. 
 
 A crucifix and the holy gospels, being placed upon a 
 portable altar, in the middle of the sanctuary, and the 
 priest and deacons remaining standing at the foot of 
 
APPENDIX. 145 
 
 the vestibule, the body of canons occupied the lateral 
 seats, 
 
 Then the four most excellent secretaries of state an<l 
 the three of the Sovereign Junta standing-, received the 
 oath of the deputies as they arrived by two and two in 
 the following form : — 
 
 Do you swear to preserve and defend the Roman 
 Catholic Apostolic religion, without admitting any other 
 into the empire ? 
 
 Yes ; I swear. 
 
 Do you swear religiously to keep, and cause to bd 
 kept, the independence of the Mexican nation ? 
 
 Yes ; I swear. 
 
 Do you swear to form the political constitution of the 
 Mexican nation upon the fundamental basis of the Plan 
 of Iguala and the treaty of Cordova, sworn to by the 
 nation ; bearing yourself well and faithfully in the exer- 
 cise of the power conferred by the nation upon you ; 
 seeking in every thing its greatest prosperity, and esta- 
 blishing the absolute separation of the legislative, ex- 
 ecutive, and judicial powers, so that they may never be 
 united in one sole person or corporation ? 
 
 Yes ; I swear. 
 
 If thus you may, let the eternal and almighty God 
 assist you ; and if not, his Divine Majesty and the nation 
 shall demand it of vou. 
 
 L 
 
14^6 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 No. XL 
 
 ACT OF CASA MATA. 
 
 The generals of divisions, chiefs of corps, officers of 
 the staff, and also one chosen from every class of the 
 army* being assembled at the quarters of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief to treat upon the capture of the town 
 of Vera Cruz, and of the dangers which threatened the 
 country for want of a national representation, (the sole 
 bulwark of civil liberty,) after having fully deliberated 
 upon the means of promoting its happiness, unanimously 
 agreed to the following articles : — 
 
 Art. 1. It being undoubted that the sovereignty re- 
 sides essentially in the people, the Congress is to be in- 
 stalled as soon as possible. 
 
 Art. 2. The convocatorias of the new cortes, shall be 
 framed upon the same bases as the previous one. 
 
 Art. 3. Considering that among the deputies who 
 formed the late Congress, there were some who by their 
 liberal ideas, and firmness of character, gained the pub- 
 lic esteem, whilst others did not duly correspond to the 
 confidence placed in them, the provinces have full au- 
 thority to re-elect the former, and to substitute for the 
 
 * All this grand parade consisted of only two thousand and odd men] 
 
APPENDIX. 147 
 
 latter persons more adequate to the fulfilment of their 
 arduous duties*. 
 
 Art. 4. As soon as the representatives of the nation 
 shall be assembled, they will fix their residence in such 
 city or town as they may consider most convenient in 
 order to commence their sessions. 
 
 Art. 5. The corps which compose this army, and 
 those which hereafter may enter into it, must solemnly 
 ratify the oath to support, at all risks, the national re- 
 presentation. 
 
 Art. 6. The commanders, officers, and troops, who 
 are not disposed to sacrifice themselves for the good of 
 
 * Amongst other absurdities committed by the chiefs and officers, who 
 formed this act, they fell into that of arrogating to themselves the attri- 
 butes of sovereignty, in all the extent of that word. As if they should 
 confer a favour on the provinces, they tell to them, that they shall have 
 full power to re-elect certain deputies whom they name, and they assume 
 all the authority of legislators ; by ordering that other deputies should 
 be re-elected in place of those with respect to whom they have made 
 themselves judges, and whom, without the least formality and without any 
 right, they condemned ; depriving them even of the privileges of 
 citizenship, which must be understood by their not being capable of re- 
 election, and by the declaration of their not hating corresponded to the 
 confidence reposed in them. Had this been said by one or many un- 
 aided by physical strength, they would have been condenmed to death, 
 but it was said by soldiers with arms in their hands, and therefore their 
 will was law. Now, if law be strength, then I see no reason for so 
 much declamation against tyranny, nor for the eulogies lavished on 
 liberal systems ; and still less that an army should be hailed as liberators 
 which commences by doing violence to the public will. Let us, there- 
 fore, allow that passion is always the same, and that (as was remarked 
 by a philosopher) ages and events are contained one within another, as 
 trees are in their seeds. Of the present occurrences going on at 
 Mexico, it cannot be difficult to foresee what must be the result ere long. 
 
 T 2 
 
us 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the country, are at liberty to remove whithersoever they 
 please. 
 
 Art. 7. A commission shall be named, which shall 
 proceed with copies of this act, to the capital, and place 
 it in the hands of his Majesty the Emperor. 
 
 Art. 8. Another commission shall proceed with a copy 
 to Vera Cruz, to make known to the governor and corpo- 
 rations there, the movements which have been made by 
 the army, and to see whether they adhere to it or not. 
 
 Art. 9. Another commission shall proceed, for the 
 like purpose, to the chiefs dependent upon this Army, 
 now besieging the bridge, and in the towns*. 
 
 Art. 10. In the interim until the supreme government 
 send its answer, the provincial deputation of this pro- 
 vince shall deliberate respecting the administrative 
 part of the government, if that step should meet its 
 approbation , 
 
 Art. 11. The army will never make any attempt 
 against the person of the Emperor, as it considers him 
 decided in favour of the national representation. The 
 army will take up its quarters in such towns as circum- 
 stances may require ; and it shall not separate upon any 
 account, without the consent of the Sovereign Congress, 
 seeing that it is the only support upon which the Con- 
 gress has to depcTid in its deliberations. 
 
 Head-Quarters, Casa Mat a, 
 \st February, 1823. 
 
 * The towns of Jalapa, Oriava, and Cordova. 
 
Appendix. 149 
 
 No. XII. 
 
 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF RELATIONS 
 
 The Secretary of His Majesty has addressed to me the 
 following Official Document, dated this day. 
 
 Most Excellent Sir, 
 
 The Emperor commands me to inform your Excel- 
 lency, in order that you may apprize the Sovereign Con- 
 gress hereof. 1st. That as that body has been acknow- 
 ledged as the national representativeby the Junta of Pue- 
 bla, and the troops who have signed the actof CasaMata, 
 no motive any longer exists for those divisions which for 
 some days we have experienced ; that there is no longer 
 any reason why His Imperial Majesty should retain in 
 the capital and its vicinity, the Troops who chose to fol- 
 low him, and that neither the person of the Emperor, 
 nor the rank with which the nation invested him, ought 
 to be an obstacle against realizing the plans which are 
 deemed most conducive to the happiness of the country. 
 
 2d. That he accepted the crown, thus making the 
 greatest of all sacrifices, because he was persuaded that by 
 this act, he gave the most convincing testimony to the 
 nation of being entirely devoted to its service. He 
 had already exposed his life, his honour, his family, and 
 his fortune for it, and afterwards his liberty, his tran- 
 quillity, and even the love of the people ; the only re- 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 compense he sought, he also sacrificed, for he was not 
 unaware that he would lose all by ascending the throne. 
 Such being the case, he sought only for an opportunity 
 to descend from it, and no opportunity has offered itself 
 more favourable than the present; when, by resigning 
 the reigns of government, he prevents at least his name 
 from being used as a pretext for a civil war, and its train 
 of attendant evils. From the moment that he foresaw the 
 result of those causes, to which the origin of the present 
 circumstances may be traced, he resolved to abdicate a 
 crown which weighed so heavily upon him, and he only 
 delayed this act until a competent authority generally 
 recognised, should be established. Such is the Congress, 
 and to it he delivers the Executive Power which he exer- 
 cises, and makes an absolute abdication. 
 
 3d. That as the presence in the Empire of the Em- 
 peror might, when he ceases to be such, serve as 
 a pretext for a thousand movements which would be 
 attributed to him, although he is sure that he never would 
 take part in them ; in order to avoid persecution, repel 
 all suspicion from himself, and evil from the nation, he 
 will voluntarily expatriate himself, and in a foreign land, 
 he will hear with happiness of the prosperity of his coun- 
 try, or deplore the misfortunes which fate may have 
 prepared for her. 
 
 4th. Twelve or fifteen days will be sufficient for him 
 to arrange his domestic concerns, and prepare to take 
 his family with him. 
 
 5th. Notwithstanding the allowances which were 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 made him, first as Admiral in Chief, and subsequently 
 as Emperor, the state of the Exchequer and the necessity 
 of supporting the troops and the civil functionaries, (con- 
 siderations always paramount to those of his own 
 person,) prevented him from receiving more than a por- 
 tion of the other funds assigned him* ; at the same 
 time it was necessary for him to live, and give to autho- 
 rity some part at least of that importance which is 
 every where attributed to it, and he was therefore obliged 
 to contract some debts with his friends, which however, 
 are not of a great amount f ; still his credit is pledged, 
 and he hopes that the nation will think proper to dis- 
 charge them. 
 
 I hope your Excellency will be pleased to apprize me 
 of the determination of the Sovereign Congress. 
 
 God preserve your Excellency many years. 
 
 Alvarez. 
 Tacubaya.y 20th March, 1823. 
 
 His Excellency the Minister 
 of Affairs. 
 
 I communicate this to your Excellencies, in order that 
 you may ay it before the Sovereign Congress. 
 
 Jose del Valle. 
 Mexico, 20th March, 1823. 
 
 To the Most Excellent Deputies, Secretaries, 
 of the Sovereign Congress. 
 
 * It was no more than 45,0000 dollars in throe years of ronimand ; 
 two-fifths of which, at least, were spent in behalf of the same nation, 
 and of several citizens, 
 
 t One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. XIIL 
 
 ITURBIDE'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE 
 MEXICAN NATION. 
 
 Honourable Deputies, — ^The expression of truth never 
 yet offended delicacy, nor the most punctilious sense of 
 decorum ; neither would an honest man ever hear it 
 with displeasure. In the palace or in the cottage, it 
 always honours those who declare it, and not less those 
 who listen to it. 
 
 As I am on the eve of my departure, I deem it my duty 
 to speak openly to the nation, through you its represen- 
 tatives. He who ascends a throne does not therefore 
 cease to be a man, and error is in the inheritance of 
 }nankind. Monarchs are not to be looked upon as infal- 
 lible; on the contrary, they are more excusable in their 
 /aults, or crimes as some would characterize them, if 
 such a contradiction coincide with the principle of the 
 day. I repeat, their errors are the more excusable be- 
 cause, being placed in the centre of every movement, in 
 the point towards which all interests are directed, or what 
 is the same thing, the point at which all the passions of 
 men meet in conflict ; their attention divided among an 
 innumerable multitude of objects ; their minds fluctuate 
 between truth and falsehood ; candour and hypocrisy, 
 friendship and self interest, flattery and patriotism, all 
 use one language, all present themselves before thePrince 
 under the same appearance. — He may sincerely wish to 
 act for the best, and that very wish may precipitate him 
 into the very reverse. The philosopher, however, takes 
 refuge in his conscience, and though he may be doomed 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 to suffer, yet remorse is unknown to him. Unfortu- 
 nately the best intentioned advice does not always, when 
 acted up to, produce the desired result. Those whose 
 counsels I followed, respecting the most important mea- 
 sures, persuaded me that the happiness of the country 
 required me to do what I have done ; and to which acts re- 
 sults are attributed that in any other case would have 
 been the same, with this difference only, that the true or 
 apparent cause (time will decide which,) would have been 
 weakness in the one case, and despotism in the other. 
 Miserable is the condition of him who cannot do right ; 
 still more miserable the fate of him, who is conscious of 
 his impotence. Men are not just towards their contempo- 
 raries ; it is necessary to appeal to the judgment of 
 posterity, because the passions die with the heart that 
 sheltered them. 
 
 Much is said of public opinion, and of the violence of 
 its development; we always err hastily and ascertain the 
 truth but slowly. Opinion has its crucible (crisor) ; its 
 effects are not ephemeral, and this convinces me that 
 we cannot yet ascertain what is the public opinion of the 
 Mexicans, because either they have none, or have not 
 yet manifested it. In the space of twelve years, one 
 might count as many public opinions which were at 
 least reputed to be such. 
 
 Altercations commenced — I forsaw their result, but 
 could not control the effects of fate. I was obliged to 
 appear either as a weak man, or a despot ; I preferred 
 the former, nor do I regret it. I know that I am not so. 
 I lessened the evils which threatened the people, and 
 
\54f APPENDIX. 
 
 raised up a dyke which resisted torrents of blood. The 
 satisfaction arising from having done this is my reward. 
 
 I am not ignorant of the predilection which is enter- 
 tained for my person in different places, nor can I doubt 
 of it after receiving such convincing testimonies. Nei- 
 ther am I ignorant, that by fomenting the spirit of dis- 
 cord, and hastening the progress of that anarchy which 
 threatens the nation, the towns which are now suf- 
 fering all the horrors of disunion, would express 
 different wishes, and declare themselves in a decided 
 manner. 
 
 But my system never shall be that of discord. I look 
 upon anarchy with horror ; I detest its fatal influence, 
 and wish for union as the only source of the welfare of 
 a country in which I was born, and which for so many 
 reasons must be ever dear to my heart. 
 
 The plan which I selected to terminate dissensions, 
 was one of peace and harmony, of order and tranquil- 
 lity ; regardless of my own person, I looked only to the 
 good of the nation ; and consented to any sacrifices, in 
 order that the people should be called upon to make 
 none. I endeavoured to prevent the revolution from as- 
 suming the character of a physical re-action, which is 
 always sanguinary ; and that every movement should 
 first be indicated by the people, and executed with 
 prudence by the authorities. 
 
 I sent commissioners to Jalapa, to treat in a confiden- 
 tial and amicable njanner with the generals and chiefs 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 of the army, and if possible to bring to a peaceful ter- 
 mination the differences which had taken place. I sub- 
 mitted to the deliberation of the Instituent Junta, the 
 points which still impeded the conclusion of a negotia- 
 tion of the last importance. I decreed the re-establish- 
 ment of the Congress, as soon as I was apprized, first 
 by the commissioners and afterwards by the deputation 
 of this province, that the re-instatement of the body 
 which had before existed was conformable to the wishes 
 of the majority, as well as to those of the generals and 
 chiefs. I restored it as soon as I knew that there were 
 a sufficient number of deputies in Mexico to form it. 
 Upon the day of its restoration, I made known to it 
 that I was ready to make any sacrifice that the real wel- 
 fare of the nation required. I left it to choose (as was 
 just) the place of its meeting, and again repeated my 
 desire to conform to what might be the general will 
 of the nation, and Congress which represents it. I 
 proposed that if, for its greater liberty and security, it 
 should wish all the troops to retire, that wish should be 
 decisive, and the Congress might deliberate without 
 being surrounded by arms. I informed it through the 
 proper channel, that if the measures already taken for 
 its security and liberty were not thought sufficient, that 
 it should suggest what measures might still be consi- 
 dered requisite, and the government would provide for 
 their execution. I abdicated the crown, declaring that 
 if that was the origin of dissensions, I did not desire to 
 impede the happiness of the people. — I added, that when 
 this point should be decided I would banish myself from 
 America, and fix my residence and that of my family 
 in a foreign land, where, far from Mexico, it could not 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 be imagined that any influence of mine miglit embar- 
 rass the progress of this great community. I declared 
 that whilst the question of my abdication was under- 
 going discussion, I would retire from the capital, thus 
 furnishing one more proof of my desire that the Cqft^' 
 gress should have full liberty in such an important^ 
 discussion. 
 
 I requested that the Congress should commission some 
 individuals from its own body, to treat with the gene- 
 rals of the army, after hearing them and me, upon the 
 decency and decorum of the manner in which I should 
 retire. I refused to avail myself of the permission which 
 was given me to select the five hundred men who were 
 appointed as my personal escort. 1 myself proposed that 
 General Don Nicolas Bravo, who deserves the confidence 
 of the public, should be the commander of that escort. 
 I have anxiously sought that looking to my measures, 
 attending to all my words and actions, the people whe- 
 ther they advance towards happiness or misery, may at 
 least not think that their fate has been influenced by 
 me. 
 
 The necessity of any further sacrifice has not presentejd 
 itself to my recollection ; but if within the range of pos- 
 sibility, there be any other which the welfare of the 
 nation requires, I am ready to make it. 
 
 I love the country in which I was born, and believe 
 that I shall leave to my children a name more solidly 
 glorious by sacrificing myself for it, than by command- 
 ing the i)eople from the dangerous eminence of a throne. 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 I quit the country with all my family. Before taking 
 my departure I was desirous of unfolding the plan of my 
 government, and the sentiments of my soul. I knew 
 that this rich portion of America ought not to be subject 
 to Castile. I imagined such was the will of the nation, 
 and therefore supported its rights, and proclaimed its 
 independence ; I have laboured in its government, and 
 abdicate the crown if such abdication may be conducive 
 to its happiness. 
 
 The Congress is now the first authority, which is to 
 give a direction to the movements of the people. 
 
 If that body arrive at the object of its wishes with- 
 out shedding the blood of individuals : — If united round 
 one common centre it shall put an end to discord and 
 divisions : if governed by wise laws, raised upon a solid 
 basis, the people shall be secured in the enjoyment of 
 their rights, and undisturbed by convulsions, they shall 
 icibour in opening and cleansing the sources of public 
 wealth ; — If under the protection of a government, which 
 imposes no restriction on the individual interest of agri- 
 culturists, artisans, and merchants, they shall all become 
 opulent, or at least be raised above poverty ; if the king- 
 dom of Mexico rejoicing in the happiness of its children, 
 shall at length reach the station it ought to hold amongst 
 the nations; I shall be the first admirer of the wis- 
 dom of the Congress, I shall enjoy the happiness of my 
 country, and go down cheerfully to my grave. 
 
 AUOUSTIN. 
 
 29th March, 1823, 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BV VVJLLIAM CLOWES, 
 Northumberlaiul court. 
 
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