than dazzled by the brilliancy of Napoleon's career. Military success
inflamed many hearts and turned many heads in those days. There was the
making of a military commander in the stuff of which Morelos was
compounded. With the opportunities of Napoleon for creating large
armies, well equipped with all the appurtenances of warfare developed by
the skill and science of the time, Morelos might have arrived at his
object, the liberty of his country.
There is no reason to suppose that a personal ambition animated him. He
made himself general-in-chief of his army, but that was a necessary step
for the furtherance of his designs. His fixed idea was that of an
independent Mexico. So little was he tempted by the trials of
prosperity, it is impossible to say whether success, the sparkling foam
of flattery, would have turned his head, as they did so many others, in
the supreme hours of attainment.
As it was, he died the death of a hero, leaving behind him a reputation
pure and unsullied by the taint of personal ambition.
His career was in no sense a failure. The object of his sacrifice was
achieved in effect; the independence of Mexico, although not within his
own grasp, was sure. Another idea of great importance was impressed upon
the Spanish in Mexico, the Spaniards in the mother country and the world
looking on: that the blood of the native Mexican was capable of great
deeds, that the descendants of the Aztecs were something better than
_peones_, slaves without the name. The lower class of the population of
Anahuac raised their heads and listened. Low murmurs, as of a distant
ocean, told them that the tide of their destiny was turned, that the day
was coming when it would break with force against the bulwarks built up
against it.
Morelos could die content. He had achieved for himself no proud seat on
the throne of the Montezumas; he asked no such reward.
He had forcibly impressed upon his country the ideas first given to him
and them by the Curate Hidalgo. The impression was not washed out, but
made fast by the blood he caused to be shed, and his own.
If glory was his aim, that he has attained. The Mexicans adore Morelos.
His native town is baptized anew with his name, and the state bears the
name of Morelos, which contains Cuautla, the town he defended for
sixty-two days with the patience of the muleteer and the obstinacy of
his animals.
If the subsequent leaders of Mexican independence have not been always
true to the example he gave them, of unselfish devotion to his cause,
the great population has never wavered in its devotion to his memory.
In the public square of Morelos, capital of the state which also bears
his name, is a marble statue of the hero, set up during the French
occupation, on September 30, 1865, the one hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Morelos. The Emperor Maximilian presided on the occasion.
XXVII.
YTURBIDE.
Calleja remained several months at the head of government and then
returned to Spain, having taken vigorous measures to extinguish forever,
as he thought, the flames of insurrection. In the last days of his
administration he arrested and sent to a convent two women distinguished
for their devotion to the cause of independence; one of them, Doña
Josefa Dominguez, the wife of the man who began with Hidalgo the
agitation of the subject.
Calleja returned to Spain, where he was made Conde de Calderon. He was
cruel and despotic, and has left in Mexico a name much detested.
The struggle for independence continued in several parts of the country,
but the Spanish government, with good troops and ample resources, either
dispersed or routed the rebellious forces. Some of the chiefs of the
insurrection abandoned the cause, accepting the indulgence offered them
by the viceroy, while others retired to the mountains, like Pelayo in
the early days of Spain, when the Moors swept over the Peninsula, to
keep active for happier days the sacred fire of liberty.
The successor of Calleja, Apodaca, by his conciliatory and humane
conduct, did much to tranquillize society near the capital, but ideas of
independence were still working all over the country. Guerrero, who must
be counted among the heroes of the movement, showed an unwearying
activity in the campaign. Many times his forces were routed; many times
they triumphed; neither success nor defeat made him waver. He was
covered with wounds, but heeded them not; he was deaf to proposals of
clemency from the royalists. In the mountains of the south, to which he
retired, he kept up constant warfare upon the Spanish troops, and even
set up a new national government. This he continued without falling into
the hands of the royalists until 1820, when the course of Yturbide put a
stop to a warfare which had lasted ten years and soaked in blood the
soil of Anahuac.
The French had been driven from Spain in 1814, and Ferdinand VII. was
again upon the throne, but there was a revolution in 1820, by which he
was compelled to surrender much of the authority which he had taken upon
himself in spite of his oaths and promises. He was obliged to convoke
the Cortés, to change his ministers for liberals, to abolish the
Inquisition, free the press, and re-establish the national militia.
Such events awoke again the demand for a liberal government in Mexico.
It was then that an officer in the royalist army, a native Mexican, who
had hitherto distinguished himself on that side, now changed his
allegiance, and took up the cause of independence.
The concessions forced on King Ferdinand were celebrated in Mexico on
the 31st of May, 1820, the suppression of the Inquisition and the
liberty of the press being subjects of great rejoicings. The independent
party saw in these reforms an opportunity to avail themselves of the new
element to realize their most ardent visions. A great division was
produced among the resident Spaniards of the country, for while some of
these declared in favor of the constitution, the greater part showed
themselves hostile to it, still clinging to ideas of absolute power, and
foreseeing that so great a political change would hasten the
independence of Mexico.
Agustin de Yturbide was born in the city of Valladolid, not then
re-named Morelia, on the 27th of September, 1783. His parents were of
native Mexican blood, Joaquin de Yturbide, born in Pamplona, and Ana
Arámburu.
He had entered a royalist regiment before he was sixteen years old, and
until 1808 he showed himself a vigorous opponent of the liberal party,
serving with his troops in different parts of the country, always
signalizing himself by his valor, his activity, and his adroit
combinations to bring about the defeat of the cause opposed to his own.
Through the intervening grades he passed to be colonel, and held
commands of importance at Guanajuato and Valladolid.
In the diversity of opinions of 1820, Yturbide was among those who
accepted the idea of a complete separation for Mexico from the
Peninsula. Just at that time the viceroy conferred upon him the grade of
brigadier, and gave him command of a body of troops destined to operate
against the insurgents of Guerrero in the south.
Yturbide left the capital in November, and a month later found himself
confronted by an enemy of something like three thousand men. After
several encounters unfavorable to his command, Yturbide entered into an
active correspondence with the opposing chief, the result of which was
an interview for friendly conference. Both generals found themselves in
accord, for, to the surprise of Guerrero, his opponent revealed an
ardent desire to proclaim independence. Guerrero, without personal
ambition, willingly handed over the command to the renegade, who
announced, on February 24th, the so-called "Plan of Iguala."
Three essential articles made up this proposal: (1) the preservation of
the Roman Catholic Church, with the exclusion of other forms of
religion; (2) the absolute independence of Mexico under the government
of a moderate monarchy with some member of the reigning house of Spain
upon the throne; and (3) the amicable union of Spaniards and Mexicans.
These three clauses were called the "three guaranties." When the
national Mexican flag was devised later, its colors represented these
three articles of the national faith--white for religious purity, green
for union, and red for independence. The army of Yturbide was known as
the army of the three guaranties.
Upon this basis the contest was resumed. It found favor in many parts of
Mexico, and the independent troops, with their chiefs, very generally
gave in their adherence at once to the Plan of Iguala.
As soon as the viceroy could recover from his surprise on waking up one
day to find a brigadier of his own troops concerting a revolution, he
issued manifestoes against the undertaking, and at once set about
raising an army of six thousand men, which advanced but slowly to the
field of action in the south, where the troops of the late brigadier had
joined the insurgent forces. This gave time for the Independents to
collect together the various forces of Bustamente and other chiefs of
their way of thinking. Valladolid was compelled to capitulate for the
third or fourth time in twenty years; afterwards Querétaro, and,
finally, Puebla, which, besieged by the troops of Bravo and Herrera,
surrendered to Yturbide, who made a triumphal entry into the city on the
2d of August, 1821. This was the first of the sieges which the City of
the Angels has sustained, its position with regard to the capital
exposing it to every ill wind that blows in that direction.
The viceroy, Apodaca, hearing of the rapid triumphs of the insurgents,
adopted defensive measures. He established a permanent Junta of war,
stopped the liberty of the press, and decreed the enforced enlistment of
all men between sixteen and sixty. But desertions were constant, the
public spirit was aroused against government, and except that the pure
Spaniards were in favor of it, all social classes were decided to
overthrow the old regime. Even the garrison of Mexico, losing faith in
the viceroy, conspired against him. A meeting inspired by these
discontented troops invaded the viceregal palace, and informed Apodaca
that his charge was at an end. Francisco Novella, sub-inspector of
artillery, was hastily set up into his place; the deposed viceroy left
the capital next day with his family, and returned, with such haste as
they could bring to pass, to Spain.
The sub-inspector of artillery went to bed in the palace of the royal
viceroy; when he rose the next morning he found little or nothing to do.
Like his deposed predecessor, he went on dictating measures, which
nobody noticed, to check the revolution; but this had advanced too far
for sub-inspectors to lay hands upon.
Not only the old insurgents came to the front, but the greater part of
the chiefs of the royalists, Spanish as well as Mexican, declared for
independence, Santa Anna, at Vera Cruz, among others. Yturbide placed
himself at the head of all, and with such resources the campaign was
swift and successful. Thus passed the month of July. On the 30th arrived
at Vera Cruz a new viceroy, sent in advance, before insurrection was
dreamed of at home, to replace Apodaca, the last governor ever sent from
Spain, Juan O'Donojú, sixty-fourth viceroy since the coming of Mendoza.
He disembarked, took the oath of office before the governor of Vera
Cruz, and assumed the position of governor and captain-general.
Yturbide hastened to meet him at Cordova on his way to the capital, and
convinced him by the eloquence of his arguments and the proof of his
power, visible in the ample number of troops within his control, that
discretion was the better part of valor. The Treaty of Cordova, then
and there settled between these two men, declared the independence of
Mexico, with Ferdinand VII. or some other for its independent sovereign,
establishing a Junta of government, to which O'Donojú stipulated to
belong, provisional until a king should be found.
These things settled, Yturbide and O'Donojú, hand in hand, as Yturbide
and Guerrero had come before, approached the capital. Sub-inspector
Novella was summoned outside the city to a conference, and not
unwillingly surrendered his brief authority to the two harmonious
chieftains.
Yturbide paused at Toluca to collect all his forces and to draw in such
Spanish troops as were now ready to accept him. On the 27th of
September, his birthday, he made a triumphal entry into the capital with
the army of the Independents, consisting of some sixteen thousand men,
with sixty-eight pieces of artillery. They were received with immense
enthusiasm, and great demonstrations of rejoicing signalized the end of
Spanish domination, which had lasted three hundred years.
On the next day, the 28th of September, the provisional Junta met, and
declared itself installed under the presidency of Yturbide. Its
thirty-eight members accepted by oath the Plan of Iguala and the Treaty
of Cordova, and further issued an Act of Independence of the Mexican
Empire, subscribed to by all the Junta. A government was formed, called
the Regency, composed of Don Agustin de Yturbide, president, and five
other members, among them Don Juan O'Donojú. The latter died the next
month, and thus ended his very brief career in Mexico; his place was
taken by the Bishop of Puebla.
Thus was formed, at a stroke, the Mexican Empire, whose wide territory
extended from Guatemala on the south, over lands now included in Texas,
the two Californias, and New Mexico at the north.
Many Spaniards, disgusted with this turn of affairs, returned to Europe
with their families. Others concluded to accept the situation, and
remained to watch the course of events.
The new government set to work in good earnest to strengthen its
foundations and extend its influence. The province of Chiapas, on the
Pacific coast, declared its emancipation from Spain, and of its own
accord withdrew from Guatemala and incorporated itself with Mexico. It
still remains a Mexican state. Guatemala also declared its wish to join
the Mexican Empire, and the Guatemalian representatives accordingly took
their seats in the first Mexican Congress; but the next year this
province concluded to become an independent nation on its own account,
and took itself away from the empire.
The solemn installation of this second Mexican Congress took place in
February, 1822. Its first act was to interfere with the proceedings of
the Regency. Ill-feeling, produced by want of harmony, increased daily,
forming parties which strongly adhered either to one side or the other.
Of these, the original Independents, and such Spaniards as sincerely
desired the fulfilment of the Plan of Iguala, by which a Spanish prince
was to be chosen their ruler, manifested more and more their disapproval
of the President of the Regency; while the other party, composed of the
army, the clergy, and some Spaniards, had already accepted the idea of
elevating Yturbide to a throne.
A ferment of discordant opinions, conflicting interests, and personal
ambitions arose, in the midst of which came the news, naturally to be
expected, that the Cortés of Spain declared null and void the Treaty of
Cordova, concerted by Yturbide and O'Donojú.
This gave Yturbide his opportunity. On the night of the 18th of May, a
movement was begun by a sergeant of one of the regiments, echoed
immediately by various garrison corps, proclaiming Yturbide Emperor. The
leader modestly referred these applicants to the decision of Congress,
and this body, the next day, with soldiers all around, in the highest
state of impatient excitement, declared, by a vote of sixty-seven
against a minority of fifteen, the Emperor, under the title of Agustin
I.
Thus by rapid steps had Yturbide climbed from the position of a simple
soldier without rank to the throne of the Montezumas. Wholly different
from Morelos, he cannot be called a patriot in the highest sense.
Probably his motive from the very beginning was personal ambition, in
which loyalty to a king or to a cause had no part. He too, doubtless,
had watched the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, at that time a dangerous
light shining in the eyes of all men. Yet it must not be forgotten that
if Yturbide worked for himself, he yet achieved, at the same time, the
independence of his country. His throne was an unsteady one, but the
dais erected for it to rest upon became the solid platform of liberty.
Agustin I. took the oath of office before the Mexican Congress, which
proceeded to pass decrees establishing the succession to the throne, the
titles and forms of address to be held toward the members of the
imperial family, as well as their endowments, corresponding to their
rank, details which turned out to be of no permanent value.
On the 21st of July, Yturbide and his wife were anointed and crowned in
the Cathedral, with all the solemnities and forms which have been
observed in Europe on such occasions for centuries.
But the Emperor was not firmly established upon his throne. As soon as
they had recovered from their fright and surprise, many of the deputies,
who had voted unwillingly with the majority, began to impede the course
of Yturbide. All parties who had any reason for discontent made common
cause against the Emperor. Signs of dissatisfaction reached Yturbide,
who invited the struggle by dissolving Congress. In place of this
assembly he established a Junta more under his own control; and, rid of
the troublesome Congress, proceeded to issue edicts, and make forced
loans to carry on his empire.
Suddenly, on the 6th of December, the Republic was proclaimed at Vera
Cruz. Yturbide happened to be in Puebla at the time. He hastened to
Mexico, and sent a division of troops to Vera Cruz to defend his title
and put down the insurrection.
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was at the head of this movement, a general
in the Spanish army, who had lately come into the views of the
revolutionists. At Vera Cruz a plan was formed called the Casa-Mata,
approved of by Bravo, Guerrero, and other generals, which, in substance,
proclaimed the deposition of Yturbide; everywhere it was accepted by the
generals of armies throughout the country, so that, by the end of a
month, Yturbide found himself alone in the city of Mexico. Unwilling to
light the fires of civil war, he acknowledged himself vanquished, and
abdicated, retiring from the capital with his family. Congress closed in
behind him, pronounced the whole episode of the Empire a work of
violence and force, so that the hereditary succession was null. Yturbide
was declared banished from the country, while, at the same time, a life
annuity was voted to him of $25,000 in recognition of his services to
the nation.
Thus disappeared, as suddenly as it had risen, the phantom of a second
Empire in the realm of the Aztecs.
Yturbide left the country with his family upon an English vessel bound
for Leghorn. A few months later he wrote from London to the home
government, warning them of European schemes to restore Spanish rule in
Mexico, and offering his services to his country should such an attempt
be made.
The ruling powers were afraid of a popular revulsion in his favor, and
regarded it as altogether safest to keep him at a distance. The reply of
Congress to this letter was to pass a decree declaring Yturbide a
traitor to his country, as such to be put to death whenever he should
return to Mexico.
[Illustration: PANORAMA OF PUEBLA.]
Wholly in ignorance of this decree, and sanguine of the good effect his
letter might produce, the unsuspecting ex-Emperor did return to Mexico
with the intention of fulfilling his offer of usefulness--it may be in
the hope of a return to favor. On the 14th of July, 1824, Yturbide, with
all his family, arrived at the little port of Soto la Marina in an
English sailing-vessel. He was recognized by the general of the troops
of Tamaulipas, the state in which he was, and disembarked. A few moments
afterwards an official presented himself, with hesitation, saying it was
his duty to inform him that he must prepare to die, in conformity with
the decree issued against him in the month of April.
In vain Yturbide protested he was utterly ignorant of the decree. He was
taken to Padilla, where the Congress of the state of Tamaulipas was
summoned to an extraordinary session to deliberate upon his case. A hot
discussion resulted in the decision that Yturbide must be shot, and
without the slightest delay this decree was executed close to the church
in the streets of Padilla.
His last words were: "Mexicans! in the very moment of my execution I
recommend to you the love of our country and devotion to our holy
religion, that thus we shall be led to glory. I die because I came to
help you. I die gladly, because I die among you. I die with honor, not
as a traitor. I leave no stain of treason to my children. No. I am not a
traitor!"
It is impossible not to pity the hard fate of Yturbide and his violent
death. He was not a traitor to his country in the worst sense of the
term, and deserves the title less than many another of his
contemporaries who have met a milder judgment. Although he turned the
government into an Empire for the sake of his own personal ambition, he
had in his short career as Emperor done it no harm; on the other hand,
he resigned quietly for the sake of peace. Doubtless a little delay
would have averted the tragedy, as those who wished him out of the way
were well aware. His life might have promoted the future welfare of his
country; his death certainly produced no good result. Too many hands
were grasping at the prize he had coveted for his to be missed when it
was forcibly beaten off.
He was personally brave and active, handsome, fond of display, and full
of vanity, which caused him to delight in the splendor of state. He was
at the height of his ambition when he was proclaimed Emperor, the horses
taken from his carriage, and the crowd, drawing him along the streets,
shouting vivas for the new Emperor. He forgot, at a time when it is
easiest to forget, how cheap are such manifestations of enthusiasm from
an easily excited and mobile population. He forgot that as he had
conspired against others, others in their turn not only could, but
would, seek to pull him down.
Whatever his faults or failings, it is nevertheless true that his act
freed the country from the control of Spain. This is fully recognized in
his birthplace, Morelia, where the house of his birth bears the
inscription:
"LIBERTADOR DE MEXICO."
XXVIII.
SANTA ANNA.
The story of Mexico becomes so confused after the fall of the Empire of
Agustin I. that it is difficult to understand. "Plans," pronunciamentos,
revolutions, restorations, followed each other in quick succession.
Generals, dictators, presidents, sprang from the soil ready-made, to
exercise for a few days their brief authority, and vanish as quickly.
A few prominent names constantly recur, clinging to the wheel of
fortune, which turned at that time in Mexico with singular swiftness.
Each of these went down one day and the next up. Still with pertinacity
they held on, each rejoicing in his own turn at the top, not only on his
own account, but in the satisfaction of seeing the others beneath him.
In their wild merry-go-round they seem to have lost sight of the value
of the position itself, which made the object of their revolutions. Was
it a crown, a dictator's chair, the simple dignity of a president's wand
of office, they heeded little. The thought of establishing a genuine
republic was far enough from anybody's mind in the early days of the
century. To guide us through the puzzling labyrinth at this period in
Mexican affairs, we will follow the thread of one career--the life of a
man who, without the highest characteristics of a real hero, was mixed
up in every event which took place on the plateau of Anahuac, from the
beginning of the struggle to the end.