1821-1824.
O'DONOJU VICEROY.--CONDUCT OF ITURBIDE--NOVELLA.--REVOLT--TREATY
OF CORDOVA.--FIRST MEXICAN CORTES--ITURBIDE EMPEROR--HIS
CAREER--EXILED TO ITALY.--ITURBIDE RETURNS--ARREST--EXECUTION--HIS
CHARACTER AND SERVICES.
O'DONOJU, LXII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN, ITURBIDE, EMPEROR OF
MEXICO.--1821-1824.
It will be seen by the Plan of Iguala, that Mexico was designed to
become an independent sovereignty under Ferdinand VII. or, in the
event of his refusal, under the Infantes Don Carlos and Don Francisco
de Paula. Iturbide was still a royalist--not a republican; and it is
very doubtful whether he would ever have assented to popular
authority, even had his life been spared to witness the final
development of the revolution. It is probable that his penetrating
mind distinguished between popular hatred of unjust restraint, and the
genuine capacity of a nation for liberty, nor is it unlikely that he
found among his countrymen but few of those self-controlling,
self-sacrificing and progressive elements, which constitute the only
foundation upon which a republic can be securely founded. His ambition
had not yet been fully developed by success, and it cannot be imagined
that he had already fixed his heart upon the imperial throne.
When the Plan of Iguala was proclaimed, the entire army of the future
emperor, consisted of only eight hundred men, all of whom took the
oath of fidelity to the project, though many deserted when they found
the country was not immediately unanimous in its approval.
In the capital, the viceroy appears to have been paralyzed by the sudden
and unexpected movement of his officer. He paused, hesitated, failed to
act, and was deposed by the Europeans, who treated him as they had
Iturrigaray in 1808. Don Francisco de Novella, an artillery officer, was
installed temporarily in his stead, but the appointment created a
dissension among the people in the capital and the country, and this so
completely prostrated the action of the central authorities, who might
have crushed the revolution by a blow, that Iturbide was enabled to
prosecute his designs throughout the most important parts of the
interior of the country, without the slightest resistance.
He seized a million of dollars on their way to the west coast, and
joined Guerrero who still held out on the river Zacatula with the last
remnant of the old revolutionary forces. Guerrero gave in his adhesion
to Iturbide, as soon as he ascertained that it was the general's
design to make Mexico _independent_, though, in all likelihood, he
disapproved the other features of the plan. Guerrero's act was of the
greatest national importance. It rallied all the veteran fighters and
friends of Morelos and the Bravos. Almost all of the former leaders
and their dispersed bands, came forth, at the cry of "independence,"
under the banner of Iturbide. Victoria even, for a while, befriended
the rising hero; but he had fought for a liberal government, and did
not long continue on amicable terms with one who could not control his
truly independent spirit. The clergy, as well as the people, signified
their intention to support the gallant insurgent;--and, in fact, the
whole country, from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, with the exception of the
capital, was soon open in its adhesion to him and his army.
DON JUAN O'DONOJU, LXII. VICEROY OF NEW SPAIN.--1821.
Iturbide was now in full authority, and whilst preparing to march on the
city of Mexico, in which the viceroy, _ad interim_, was shut up, he
learned that Don Juan O'Donoju had arrived at San Juan de Ulua to fill
the place of Apodaca as viceroy. Proposals were immediately sent by the
general to this new functionary, and in an interview with him at
Cordova, Iturbide proposed the adoption of the Plan of Iguala _by
treaty_, as the only project by which the Spaniards in Mexico could be
saved from the fury of the people, and the sovereignty of the colony
preserved for Ferdinand. We shall not pause to enquire whether the
viceroy was justified or even empowered, to compromise the rights of
Spain by such a compact. O'Donoju, though under the safeguard of a
truce, was in truth a helpless man as soon as he touched the soil of
Mexico, for no portions of it were actually under the Spanish authority
except the castle of San Juan de Ulua and the capital, whose garrisons
were chiefly composed of European levies. Humanity, perhaps, ultimately
controlled his decision, and in the name of his master, he recognised
the independence of Mexico and yielded the metropolis to the "army of
the three Guaranties," which entered it peacefully on the 27th of
September, 1821. A provisional Junta of thirty-six persons immediately
elected a regency of five, of which Iturbide was president, and, at the
same time, he was created Generalissimo, Lord High Admiral, and assigned
a yearly stipend of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
On the 24th of February, 1822, the first Mexican Congress or Cortes,
met; but it contained within it the germ of all the future
discontents, which since that day, have harassed and nearly ruined
Mexico. Scarcely had this body met when three parties manifested their
bitter animosities and personal ambitions. The Bourbonists adhered,
loyally, to the Plan of Iguala, a constitutional monarchy and the
sovereignty of Ferdinand. The Republicans, discarded the plan as a
device that had served its day, and insisted upon a central or federal
republic; and, last of all, the partisans of the successful soldier,
still clung to all of the plan save the clause which gave the throne
to a Bourbon prince, for, at heart, they desired to place Iturbide
himself upon it, and thus to cut off their country forever from all
connection with Europe.
As soon as O'Donoju's treaty of Cordova reached Spain, it was
nullified by the Cortes, and the Bourbon party in Mexico, of course
fell with it. The Republicans and Iturbidists, alone remained on the
field to contend for the prize, and after congress had disgraced
itself by incessant bickerings over the army and the public funds, a
certain Pio Marcha, first sergeant of the first regiment of infantry
gathered a band of _leperos_ before the palace of Iturbide on the
night of the 18th of May, 1822, and proclaimed him Emperor, with the
title of AGUSTIN THE FIRST. A show of resistance was made by Iturbide
against the proffered crown; but it is likely that it was in reality,
as faint as his joy was unbounded at the sudden elevation from a
barrack room to the imperial palace. Congress, of course, approved the
decision of the mob and army. The provinces sanctioned the acts of
their representatives, and Iturbide ascended the throne.
But his reign was brief. Rapid success, love of power, impatience of
restraint,--all of which are characteristic of the Spanish
soldier,--made him strain the bonds of constitutional right. His
struggles for control were incessant. "He demanded," says Ward, "a
veto upon all articles of the constitution then under discussion, and
the right of appointing and removing, at pleasure, the members of the
supreme tribunal of justice. He recommended also the establishment of
a military tribunal in the capital, with powers but little inferior to
those exercised by the Spanish commandants during the revolution; and
when these proposals were firmly rejected, he arrested, on the night
of the 26th August, 1822, fourteen of the deputies who had advocated,
during the discussion, principles but little in unison with the views
of the government."
This high handed measure, and the openly manifested displeasure of
congress, produced so complete a rupture between the emperor and the
popular representatives, that it was impossible to conduct public
affairs with any concert of action. Accordingly, Iturbide dissolved
the assembly, and on the 30th of October, 1822, created an Instituent
Junta of forty-five persons selected by himself from amongst the most
pliant members of the recent congress. This irregularly formed body
was intolerable to the people, while the expelled deputies, who
returned to their respective districts, soon spread the spirit of
discontent and proclaimed the American usurper to be as dangerous as
the European despot.
In November, General Garza headed a revolt in the northern provinces.
SANTA ANNA, then governor of Vera Cruz, declared against the emperor.
General Echavari, sent by Iturbide to crush the future president of
Mexico, resolved not to stem the torrent of public opinion, and joined
the general he had been commissioned to capture. Guadalupe
Victoria,--driven to his fastnesses by the emperor, who was unable to
win the incorruptible patriot, descended once more from the mountain
forests, where he had been concealed, and joined the battalions of
Santa Anna. And, on the 1st of February, 1823, a convention, called
the "Act of Casa-Mata," was signed, by which the re-establishment of
the National Representative Assembly was pledged.
The country was soon in arms. The Marques Vibanco, Generals Guerrero,
Bravo, and Negrete, in various sections of the nation, proclaimed
their adhesion to the popular movement; and on the 8th of March, 1823,
Iturbide, finding that the day was lost, offered his abdication to
such members of the old congress as he was able to assemble hastily in
the metropolis. The abdication was, however, twice refused on the
ground that congress, by accepting it, would necessarily sanction the
legality of his right to wear the crown; nevertheless, that body
permitted his departure from Mexico, after endowing him liberally with
an income of twenty-five thousand dollars a year, besides providing a
vessel to bear him and his family to Leghorn in Italy.
Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete entered the capital on the 27th of
March, and were chosen by the old congress which quickly reassembled,
as a triumvirate to exercise supreme executive powers until the new
congress assembled in the following August. In October, 1824, this
body finally sanctioned the federal constitution, which, after various
revolutions, overthrows, and reforms, was readopted in the year 1847.
On the 14th of July, 1824, a vessel under British colors was perceived
on the Mexican coast near the mouth of the Santander. On the next day,
a Polish gentlemen came on shore from the ship, and, announcing
himself as Charles de Beneski, visited General Felix la Garza,
commandant of the district of Soto la Marina. He professed to visit
that remote district, with a friend, for the purpose of purchasing
land from the government on which they designed establishing a colony.
Garza gave them leave to enter the country for this purpose; but
suspicions were soon aroused against the singular visitors and they
were arrested. As soon as the friend of the Pole was stripped of his
disguise, the Emperor Iturbide stood in front of Garza, whom he had
disgraced for his participation in the revolt during his brief reign.
La Garza immediately secured the prisoner, and sent him to Padilla,
where he delivered him to the authorities of Tamaulipas. The state
legislature being in session, promptly resolved, in the excess of
patriotic zeal, to execute a decree of the congress, passed in the
preceding April, by condemning the royal exile to death. Short time
was given Iturbide to arrange his affairs. He was allowed no appeal to
the general government. He confessed to a priest on the evening of the
19th of July, and was led to the place of execution, where he fell,
pierced with four balls, two of which took effect in his brain and two
in his heart!
Thus perished the hero who, suddenly, unexpectedly, and effectually,
crushed the power of Spain in North America. It is not fair to judge him
by the standards that are generally applied to the life of a
distinguished civilian, or even of a successful soldier, in countries
where the habits and education of the people fit them for duties
requiring forbearance, patience, or high intellectual culture. Iturbide
was, according to all reliable accounts, a refined gentleman, yet he was
tyrannical and sometimes cruel, for it is recorded in his own
handwriting, that on Good Friday, 1814, "in honor of the day, he had
just ordered three hundred excommunicated wretches to be shot!" His
early life was passed in the saddle and the barrack room; nor had he
much leisure to pursue the studies of a statesman, even if his mind had
been capable of resolving all their mysteries. His temper was not
calculated for the liberal debates of a free senate. He was better
fitted to discipline an army than to guide a nation. Educated in a
school in which subordination is a necessity, and where unquestioning
obedience is exacted, he was unable to appreciate the rights of
deliberative assemblies. He felt, perhaps, that, in the disorganized
condition of his country, it was needful to control the people by force
in order to save the remnant of civilization from complete anarchy. But
he wanted conciliatory manners to seduce the congress into obedience to
his behests,--and he therefore unfortunately and unwisely played the
military despot when he should have acted the part of a quiet
diplomatist. Finding himself, in two years, emperor of Mexico, after
being, at the commencement of that period, nothing more than commander
of a regiment, it may be pardoned if he was bewildered by the rapidity
of his rise, and if the air he breathed in his extraordinary ascent was
too etherial for a man of so excitable a temperament.
In every aspect of his character, we must regard him as one altogether
inadequate to shape the destiny of a nation emerging from the blood
and smoke of two revolutions,--a nation whose political tendencies
towards absolute freedom, were at that time, naturally, the positive
reverse of his own.
Death sealed the lips of men who might have clamored for him in the
course of a few years, when the insubordinate spirit that was soon
manifested needed as bold an arm as that of Iturbide, in his best
days, to check or guide it. Public opinion was decidedly opposed to
his sudden and cruel slaughter. Mexicans candidly acknowledged that
their country's independence was owing to him; and whilst they
admitted that Garza's zeal for the emperor's execution might have been
lawful, they believed that revenge for his former disgrace, rather
than patriotism, induced the rash and ruthless soldier to hasten the
death of the noble victim whom fortune had thrown in his lonely path.
[Illustration: (Signature--Augustine de Iturbide)]