USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 11
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Article XII. An army shall be formed for the support of religion, independence, and union, guaranteeing these three principles, and therefore shall be called the Army of the Three Guaranties.
Article XIII. It shall solemnly swear to defend the fundamental basis of this plan.
Article XIV. It shall strictly observe the military ordinances now in force.
Article XV. There shall be no other promotions than those which are due to seniority, or which are necessary for the good of the service.
Article XVI. The army shall be considered as of the line.
Article XVII. The old partisans of independence who shall adhere to this plan shall be considered as individuals of this army.
Article XVIII. The patriots and peasants who shall adhere to it hereafter shall be considered as provincial militiamen.
Article XIX. The secular and regular priests shall be continued in the state which they now are.
Article XX. All the public functionaries, civil, ecclesiastical, political and military, who adhere to the cause of independence shall be continued in their offices, without any distinctions between Americans and Europeans.
Article XXI. These functionaries, of whatever degree and condition, who dis- sent from the cause of independence, shall be divested of their offices, and shall quit the territory without taking with them their families and effects.
Article XXII. The military commandants shall regulate themselves according to the general instructions in conformity with this plan, which shall be transmitted to. them.
Article XXIII. No accused person shall be condemned capitally 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
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
Barbaras, where they shall remain until congress shall resolve on the punishment that ought to be inflicted on them.
Article XXIV. It being indispensable to the country that this plan should be carried into effect, inasmuch as the welfare of that country is its object, every indi- vidual of the army shall maintain it, to the shedding (if it be necessary) of the last drop of his blood.
It will be seen by the Plan of Iguala that independent sovereignty, in some form, was planned. Iturbide was still a Royalist, and he never became a Republican. The entire army-but eight hundred men-swore fealty to the project, though many deserted upon discovery that the coun- try did not take a unanimous favorable view. The viceroy, completely surprised, hesitated and was deposed. The appointment of his successor was not received with popular acclaim, and Iturbide was able to prose- cute his plans without the slightest resistance. With the exception of the capital, the whole country rallied to his support. A compromise was soon effected with the new viceroy, and on September 27, 1821, the army en- tered the capital. A provisional junta of thirty-six persons elected a re- gency of five, of which Iturbide was president. At the same time he was created generalissimo and lord high admiral, with a yearly salary of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. On February 24, 1822, the first Mexican congress, or cortes, met. Immediately three parties arose-the Bourbonists, who adhered to the Plan of Iguala and the sovereignty of Ferdinand; the Republicans, who insisted upon a federal republic; and the partisans of Iturbide, who adhered to all his plan excepting that they desired to place their leader on the throne and sever all ties with Europe.
The Bourbon party fell with the rejection of the treaty proposed by O'Donoju, the newly appointed viceroy, and on the night of May 18, 1822, a number of Iturbide's partisans proclaimed him emperor, with the title of Augustin I. The cortes and the provinces approved the proclamation, and the soldier ascended the throne.
Iturbide's reign was brief and frenzied. His own plan did not meet with his approval, giving him too little power, and in October following he dissolved the cortes and created a junta of forty-five former members of that body who would act in accordance with his plans. Treachery soon surrounded him. In many quarters the military revolted. On February I, 1823, a convention known as 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, and on March 8, 1823, Augustin I. twice offered to abdicate, but the offer was refused on the ground that its acceptance would sanction the legality of his right to the crown. But the congress permitted him to leave the country, providing a vessel to convey him and his family to Italy, and voting for him an income of twenty- five thousand dollars per year.
In July, 1824, Iturbide returned to Mexico in disguise, was arrested, condemned to death and shot on the nineteenth of that month.
On October 4, 1824, the Mexican congress adopted a federal con- stitution modeled partly after the Constitution of the United States. The national religion was declared to be, forever, that of the Roman Catholic, and the exercise of all other religious beliefs was forever prohibited.
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Early in 1825 Guadalupe Victoria, a stanch patriot, was declared presi- dent, and Nicholas Bravo vice-president. But internal strife continued from the beginning, the party leaders seeking the concealment of Masonic institutions in order to further their antagonistic schemes with as little hindrance as possible. Santa Ana led the revolt against the party dominated by the Spaniards, and through his labors Guerrero, who had been defeated for the office of president at the election of 1828, was declared by the congress to be the duly elected president. The government thereupon resumed operations under the federal system in 1824. On September 15, 1829, Guerrero issued a proclamation abolishing slavery, though a masked Indian slavery, or peonage, was continued. African slavery was prohibited by positive enactments, as well as by the constitution.
From 1829 to 1842 one conspiracy after another rent the new republic. Guerrero was betrayed and shot, and Santa Ana, by intrigues and vic- tories, became a popular hero. By the Plan of Toluca, promulgated in 1836, the federal constitution was absolutely abolished and the principles of a consolidated central government announced. Santa Ana fell in with the plan, by which it was hoped to withdraw the state governments. In 1839 General Canales fomented a revolt in the Rio Grande provinces, hop- ing to secure their co-operation withi Texas against the Centralists. The alliance was effected, but the attempt failed. In the winter of 1841-2 the Plan of Tacubaya was agreed upon as a substitute for the constitution of 1836. It provided that a congress should be convened in June, 1842, to form a new constitution, and invested Santa Ana with dictatorial powers in the interim. Knowing that he could rely upon his troops, he dissolved the congress in December, and soon afterward appointed a junta which, on June 13. 1843. proclaimed an instrument called "Bases of the Political Organization of the Mexican Republic." which provided for a central. form of government, with Santa Ana president, or dictator.
Early in 1844 Santa Ana announced a project for the re-conquest of Texas. Before he could put his plan into execution, several provinces revolted. He violated his own constitutional compact by taking the field as commander of the military forces, was captured and was about to be tried for treason when a general amnesty for political factionists was de- clared, and on May 29, 1845, he was permitted to depart for Havana. Herrara, president of the council of government, succeeded him as provi- sional president.
Prior to the adoption of the central system in the Mexican republic, New Mexico was under a territorial government. The executive was called the Gefe politico, or political chief, and the legislative body was known as the "provincial deputation." When New Mexico became a de- partment the functions of the executive and legislative departments re- mained practically the same, though the names were changed. The gov- ernor was appointed hy the president of the republic for a term of eight years. The legislative power was nominally invested in a departmental junta, or state council, with exceedingly limited powers. Soon after Don Manuel Armijo became governor, he "prorogued" the legislative assem- bly, multiplying all its powers, and from that time to the American occu- pation he arbitrarily exercised all the powers of government-executive, legislative and judicial.
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
REVOLT OF 1837.
In 1837, when New Mexico was made a department instead of a ter- ritory, Don Albino Perez was appointed governor. The administration of Perez met with strong popular opposition because of the taxes required for the support of the new government-not opposition to or dissatisfaction with the governor personally, but with the system of which he was the head. A system of direct taxation was something the people were entirely unacquainted with. "They would sooner have paid a doblon through a tariff than a real in this way."
The feeling was particularly strong in the northern part of the terri- tory, and culminated August 1, when a large number of people, Mexicans and Indians, gathered at Santa Cruz. Two days later they issued a revo- lutionary manifesto declaring against the department plan, against any taxation and promising to "defend our country until we shed every drop of cur blood to obtain the victory we have in view."
When Governor Perez learned of the open rebellion and the prepara- tions of a military character being made at Camp Santa Cruz, he en- deavored to increase the number of his own troops, but his call for volun- teers remained almost unheeded. Nevertheless, he started from the capital with the small force he had mustered, and met the rebels near the pueblo of San Ildefonso. It is believed that the small force which left Santa Fé would have been adequate to crush the rebellion in its incipiency, had it remained loyal to the governor; but popular sympathy seemed to be with the revolutionary movement. No sooner had the little force reached San Ildefonso than nearly the entire command abandoned the governor and went over to the rebels. As soon as Perez beheld the treachery of his men he started to return to Santa Fé, accompanied by a few men who re- mained loyal to him. Among these men were his personal friends, Miguel Sena, Sergeant Sais and Loreto Romero, who were killed in their flight by the rebels near Pojuaque.
Governor Perez had not been in the capital long before he realized that his person was as insecure there as in localities further north. He therefore made preparations for flight, and left Santa Fé by night with the intention of reaching some southern point remote from the storm center. Near Agua Fria he was attacked by a body of Indians from the pueblo of Santo Domingo. He had sought refuge in the house of Sal- vador Martinez, near that place, but was tracked by the natives, taken from his place of concealment on August 9, killed, and beheaded, and his head taken to the rebel headquarters near the chapel of the Rosario, north of Santa Fé .* During the same day Santiago Abreu, formerly governor ad interim, and Jesus Maria Alarid, secretary of the department, were killed at the mesa a short distance south of Agua Fria. Ramon and Mar-
* Demetrio Perez, now living in Las Vegas, New Mexico, was born in Santa Fé December 22, 1836. Albino Perez, his father, a colonel in the Mexican army, came to New Mexico from the City of Mexico in 1835, as governor of this territory, and was killed here, August 10, 1837, in the revolution of that year. Soon after his arrival in New Mexico he mar- ried Miss Trinidad Trujillo, a native of Santa Fé, of Spanish descent, whose grandfather, Bartolomo Fernandez, had come to New Mexico in
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SPANISH AND MEXICAN RULE
celino Abreu, brothers, and Lieutenant Madrigal, of the loyal army, were killed at Palacios, between Agua Fria and Santo Domingo. On the same day, August 9, the rebels entered Santa Fé and proclaimed Jose Gonzales of Taos governor of the Territory.
During this period Manuel Armijo, afterward governor, hoping to benefit by the unsettled condition of affairs, organized a counter-revolution in the southern and central counties, and after having accumulated a force of several hundred men by promises of reward of various kinds, marched toward Santa Fé. Upon arriving at the capital he found that Gonzales had gone to his home in Taos to superintend the harvesting of his crops, leaving the capital with slight means of defense. Armijo's occupation of Santa Fé, like his ignominious flight nine years later, was bloodless. Not a gun was fired, and no show of resistance was made. The rebels had
the early part of the eighteenth century, as a captain in the Spanish army. As a reward for his services on the frontier, Captain Fernandez received a grant of two thousand five hundred acres of land.
Demetrio Perez was an only child, and was nine months old at the time his father was killed. He and his mother were concealed by friends in a private house until the revolt had subsided. He was educated in Santa Fé in the first school established by Bishop Lamy. When a young man he served seven years as clerk in the office of the territorial secretary of New Mexico, where he acquired both a business training and a thor- ough knowledge of the affairs of the territory. In 1861 he was appointed by Governor Connelly to audit public accounts, and filled the place two years, until 1863, when he resigned to accept a position in the wholesale mercantile house of W. H. Chick & Company, of Kansas City. Here his knowledge of New Mexico served him well. A year later he returned to Santa Fé as mercantile agent of Ambrosio Armijo. In 1866 he moved to Las Vegas, and became bookkeeper in the office of Trinidad, Romero & Brothers' mercantile establishment. This position he filled for several years. Next we find him at Kit Carson, Colorado, in the employ of Chick, Brown & Company, where he remained five years. In 1887 he began merchandising on his own account, at San Antonio, in Socorro county, New Mexico, which he continued successfully until 1900, when, on ac- count of some trouble with his eyes, he disposed of his business and has since lived in Las Vegas, practically retired.
Nearly all his life Mr. Perez has been more or less identified with public affairs. For five years, from 1866 to 1871, he was clerk and re- corder of San Miguel county : 1881 to 1882, was a member of the board of county commissioners ; 1883 to 1884, was deputy collector of San Miguel county ; 1884 to 1885. was county clerk and recorder ; in 1889 was a mem- ber of the constitutional convention ; in 1891, was appointed auditor of public accounts by Governor Prince, and served until 1895, at the same time being ex-officio superintendent of insurance. Also for a time just after the close of the Civil war, he was United States deputy marshal and United States deputy collector of internal revennes.
January 16, 1861, Mr. Perez married Miss Dolores Newman, daughter of Lafayette Newman, one of the early pioneers of New Mexico. They have two daughters, Sallie A. and Philomena, the former being the wife of E. Montaya.
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not taken into account the possibility of a new foe, and knowing that the leaders of the government party had been practically exterminated, they believed themselves to be secure in their possession of the reins of gov- ernment.
Soon after his occupation of the capital, Armijo wrote to the authori- ties in Mexico a vainglorious and boasting letter, in which he stated what he had done in support of the government, magnifying his "vietory" out of all proportions, and requesting troops to enable him to complete the work of restitution inaugurated and re-establish a peaceful condition of affairs. His request was complied with, a detachment of troops being sent to him from Zacatecas and Chihuahua. In the meantime, Gonzales, the rebel governor, had been mustering a force for the purpose of recapturing Santa Fé. In January, 1838, Armijo marched his little army to Santa Cruz to meet the rebels, and there an engagement occurred, in which the rebels were routed with the loss of a dozen men. It would appear that the great majority of the insurgent force was recruited from the Indians, for, wherever a reference is inade to any actual fighting, it is found to have been done by them. Gonzales fled precipitately after the fight, but was captured at Santa Cruz, where he and Antonio Lopez, another rebel chief, were hanged in the plaza, in front of the church, by Armijo's order. Among others who were found to have been primarily responsible for the rebellion were Juan Jose Esquibel, alcalde of Santa Cruz; Juan Vigil, Antonio and Desiderio Montoya, brothers, and Antonio Vigil. The Mon- tova brothers were shot in the guard house at Santa Fé, and Antonio Vigil was hanged on the road between Santa Fé and Santa Cruz. This was the closing act in the rebellion of 1837-8.
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INVASION FROM TEXAS
TEXAS SANTA FE EXPEDITION AND AMERICAN AGGRESSION
Armijo succeeded in so impressing the Mexican authorities with his loyalty, his military capacity, his popularity and his executive ability that he was allowed to remain as governor of the Territory. Hardly had rela- tively peaceful conditions been restored than he manifested considerable uneasiness on account of the incursions of Americans into the Territory. In 1841 his fears of an organized expedition were realized.
Early in the spring of that year a company composed principally of inhabitants of Texas, under the sanction of General Mirabeau B. Lamar, the president of the Republic of Texas, prepared to set out for Santa Fé for the purpose of opening trade with that city by a northwesterly route known to be much shorter than that of the old Santa Fé trail from Mis- souri. To divert this trade was unquestionably the primary and ostensible object. But the ulterior intention was to bring under the protection of the Texas government so much of the province of New Mexico as lay upon the east side of the Rio Grande. The adventurers were led to conceive this project by a belief that nine-tenths of the inhabitants of the province were discontented under the Mexican yoke and anxious to come under the pro- tection of the Lone Star flag. They were assured that the people of New Mexico would hail the coming of such an expedition with gladness and immediately declare allegiance to the Texan government.
With apparent proofs of the existence of such a sentiment, the Texans seemed to feel it their duty to offer the New Mexicans an opportunity to shake off the intolerable burden of Mexican misrule. Furthermore, Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western boundary ; but so isolated were Santa Fé and other centers of population east of that river that the newly created republic had never been able to exercise jurisdiction over the people of the west.
The expedition was to leave Austin, the capital of Texas, about June I, 1841. The route planned was to follow the San Saba road from San Antonio to Santa Fé; but as fears that scarcity of water might mark this route prevailed, the course was subsequently changed.
The last of the expedition left Austin June 21, under command of General Hugh McLeod. Others in the company were Colonel William G. Cooke, Major George T. Howard, Captain Caldwell, Captain Sutton, Cap- tain W. P. Lewis, Lieutenants Lubbock, Munson, Brown and Seavy, Dr. Brashear, the surgeon, Dr. Richard F. Brenham, Jose Antonio Navarro, George Wilkins Kendall, editor of the New Orleans Picayune, Frank Combs, Mr. Hunt, George P. Van Ness, Mr. Fitzgerald and others well known in Texas. The commissioners were Cooke, Navarro and Brenham. After proceeding in a general northwesterly direction until reaching a spot on the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) west of Palo Duro, the expedition divided, one division proceeding in a northerly direction and the other bear- ing off to the northwest. The latter party, arriving at what is now the
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HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO
southern part of Union County, N. M., headed for the town of San Miguel. On the way several members of the party died and hardships innumerable were encountered, including fights with marauding bands of Plains Indians. When near San Miguel on September 14, a detachment was sent forward with letters to the alcalde, notifying the latter of the approach of a party in every way pacific, which desired to purchase provisions. Proclamations were also distributed among the citizens, notifying them that the expedition was sent out for purpose of trade, and that if the inhabitants of New Mex- ico were not disposed to join, peacefully, the Texas standard, the visitors were to retire immediately. Soon afterward, while near Anton Chico, they came upon a native who informed them that their approach was known to the inhabitants and that great excitement existed in the town in conse- quence of General Armijos informing the populace that the intention of the visitors was to burn and kill as they proceeded. He also stated that four of the reconnoitering party had been taken prisoners at Santa Fé. Not long afterward the little detachment of five or six which had been left was sur- rounded by a hundred or more Mexicans armed with lances, swords, bows and arrows, and old-fashioned carbines, under the leadership of Dimasio Salazar, who addressed them as amigos, or friends. After surrounding them on all sides, Salazar informed the party that it was contrary to law for foreigners to enter the province with arms, and requesting that all weapons be given into his safekeeping. The request was acceded to, and the little band soon found itself helpless and surrounded. Suddenly the friendly attitude of the captors changed and they found themselves facing the carbines of a dozen of the Mexicans; and had it not been for the friendly interference of one of the Mexicans, Don Gregorio Vigil, who main- tained that the party had a right to see the governor before their cases were acted upon, all undoubtedly would have been shot down. As it was, they were taken to San Miguel and placed in prison, and the next day marched out ten leagues to meet Governor Armijo, who greeted them as had Sal- azar-as friends, and informed them that he was an honorable man and not an assassin, and, moreover, a great warrior. But before he left them Armijo ordered their custodian to take them back to San Miguel that night as he wished to hold further conversation with them in the morning.
"But they have already walked ten leagues today, your excellency, and are hardly able to walk all the way back to-night," was the answer of the officer, who was called by the name of Don Jesus.
"They are able to walk ten leagues more," retorted Armijo, with a stately wave of his hand. "The Texans are active and untiring people-I know them," he continued, "if one of them pretends to be sick or tired on the road, shoot him down and bring me his ears! Go!"
"Yes, your excellency," was the obsequious answer of the cringing Don Jesus, and with a flourish of trumpets Armijo and his motley army de- parted.
The day following found the Plaza of San Miguel filled with armed men, a few regular troops being stationed immediately about the person of Armijo, while more than nine-tenths of the so-called soldiers were miser- ably deficient in every military appointment. One of the Texans, Samuel Howland, attempting to escape, was captured and shot in the back by a squad of soldiers. Howland was well known in New Mexico, having lived in Santa Fé several years before. . The governor offered him his life and
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liberty if he would betray his companions who had not yet been captured, but he rejected the offer with scorn.
"The plans of the very valiant and most puissant Armijo were laid with consummate skill so far as his own personal safety and that of his property were concerned," wrote Kendall. "He had now surrounded Col- onel Cooke with at least a thousand of his men, while there were but ninety- four Texans in all. In case the latter defeated the Mexicans-and Armijo troubled and feared lest they should-his plan was to retreat to his residence in Albuquerque as fast as picked horses would carry him, and then, after gathering all his money and valuables, make his escape into the interior of Mexico. With these intentions he remained behind at San Miguel, and there anxiously awaited the news from the little frontier town of Anton Chico."
Couriers constantly departed to and arrived from Anton Chico. At one time it was reported that a great battle was raging; again, that the con- tending parties had come to terms. At sundown a courier came riding. into the Plaza with the news that all the Texans had surrendered, uncondi- tionally. Shouts of "Long live the Mexican republic!" "Long live the brave General Armijo!" "Long live the laws !" and "Death to the Texans !" were heard on every side, accompanied by discharges of musketry, the ring- ing of bells and the blowing of trumpets. A Te Deum was sung in the church, and the guardian saint of the place, San Miguel, was dragged from his resting place to take part in the festivities. All because some fifteen hundred to two thousand men had captured ninety-four half-starved Texans.
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