USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 8
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CHAPTER XI.
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE.
Misgovernment of the Spanish Provinces - Political events in Spain - Plan of Iguala - The Plan rejected by the Spanish Cortez - Iturbide De- clared Emperor of Mexico under the Title of Augustin I. - Congress Dispersed at the point of the Bayonet - Santa Anna removed from Command at Vera Cruz and Ordered to Report at the City of Mexico - A Republic Proclaimed - Santa Anna joined by Guadalupe Victoria and other Patriot Leaders -Union of the forces of Eschavarri and Santa Anna - Actas de Casas Matas - Abdication, Banishment, Return and Execution of Iturbide -Provisional Government - Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete appointed an Executive Council - Constituent Congress.
To appreciate the unsettled condition of public affairs at the time of Austin's arrival in the city of Mexico, it is neces- sary to furnish the reader with a brief summary of the events that led up to the revolution that secured independence from Spanish authority and that marked that period of Mexican history.
In 1806, it seems, San Antonio de Bexar reached its great- est pre-revolutionary development. Its population at that time, according to Almonte's official report made in 1834, was estimated at five thousand souls, and that of the Province at seven thousand. There were also in the Province a hundred thousand cattle and fifty thousand head of horses. He esti- mated the population of San Antonio to be in 1834 only twenty-four hundred, a decline of over fifty per cent in twenty-eight years.
Nothing occurred to interrupt the prosperity of the place until 1810, when an uprising of the Indians resulted in great loss of stock and the destruction of settlements at a distance from the garrisoned towns. In that year the Mexican revo-
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lution began under the grito, or cry of Hildalgo, at the village of Dolores, in the present State of Guanajuato. The ill effects incident to this glorious struggle were only felt, how- ever, in Texas, during the years 1812-13 and 1819-20.
A brief review of those facts of special interest in this connection has been given in preceding pages.
The oppression under which the Mexicans, and descendants of Spaniards (creoles ), born on Mexican soil, were groaning were only partially experienced in Texas. After the death of Charles V, whose policy toward his colonies was beneficent, his successors sought by every expedient, to trample under foot all the wise laws enacted during his reign. Corruption in every department, civil, military and ecclesiastical, became so shameless that every office, from that of Viceroy down, was publicly sold. Care too was taken that no native-born citizen of Mexico, no matter how noble his blood, should hold an office. The veriest menial could be elevated to im- portant and responsible positions, provided he had been born in Spain, and a servant in the royal household could become the Governor of a Province.
The Real Audiencia, the highest judicial tribunal in the land and supposed to be directly presided over by the King, through the medium of his judges,- was prostituted by the elevation of men to seats in that tribunal, who, by. their intrigues and vices, had earned the good will of the infamous Prince Godoy, or of the still more infamous Queen. Learn- ing was discountenanced. It was boldly avowed " that it was not expedient for learning to become general in America." Commerce and agriculture were crippled and confined abso- lutely, by decree, to a few Cadiz merchants, who did not fail to profit by the monopoly conferred upon them and impose bur- densome exactions. The miserable fabrics and implements manufactured in Spain were forced upon the people, and the excessive import duties imposed, rendered it possible for the wealthy alone to purchase them. The country and its swarms
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of ingenious inhabitants, who had inherited and improved upon the skill of generations of Toltecs, Chichechemecas and Aztecs, could easily have furnished abundance and enriched the country by liberal exports. Under the prevailing policy of repression even the grape vines, which had clung to the trees of the forests, grown in vineyards on the mountain slopes, and adorned the garden trellis for hundreds of years, were grubbed up by the roots, to gratify the greed of Cadiz wine merchants. The growth of tobacco was restricted to the Province of Orizaba. The product was sent to Spain, manu- factured there, and returned to Mexico for consumption. Burdened with onerous duties, the unfortunate Mexicans and Spanish settlers and their descendants saw their cities destroyed, their temples desecrated, their forests laid waste and every social and natural right violated. A sense of degradation, long felt, lulled the people into submission. In 1806, the news reached them that war had been declared against France. Instead of seeing in this conflict an advan- tageous opportunity for themselves, they hailed with exces- sive demonstrations of loyalty the prospect of a triumph for Spain, filling the air with vivas for Ferdinand VII. When they learned of the triumph of the French arms, and that Joseph Bonaparte was on the throne of their deposed and captive monarch, they still swore allegiance to his cause. The native Spanish officials sought at once, however, to adjust themselves to their positions under the change of dynasty. They welcomed the emissaries of Joseph, and published orders, said to have emanated from Ferdinand, directing the people to transfer their allegiance to France. The creoles publicly burned the orders, and with vivas for Fernand VII, expelled the emissaries from the country, and by an uprising, as if by universal consent, declared their determination to hold Mexico for their legitimate monarch. These movements, instead of being regarded with favor in Spain, were viewed in the light of a rebellion, which must be
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suppressed by force. News from the outside world was slow in reaching Texas, and, on the 8th of September, the people of San Antonio were surprised and agitated by the appearance in their midst of a French general in full uniform. He was no other than General Octariano Alsimar, who was on his way to Mexico to take command of the armies. The Marquis of St. Simon was to be the French Viceroy. Governor Cordero had the general arrested and sent a prisoner to Mexico. From such a beginning sprang the revolution in Mexico. The crowning act of the revolt was the secret arrest of Iturriga- ray, the Spanish Viceroy, on the 15th of September, 1808. He was sent to Spain as a prisoner. The universal popularity of this Viceroy had pointed to him as the man of all others to rescue the country from the horrors of civil strife. He proposed calling a Convention or Junta, in which every class should be fairly represented, in order to adopt a provisional government. This proposition met with hearty approval by all the people except the European Spaniards, who saw their - downfall foreshadowed in the ascendancy of a popular gov- ernment, hence his arrest and forcible removal to Spain. His successor, Venegas, arrived in due time from Spain and dis- tributed rewards among the Spaniards who had opposed Iturrigaray and order was measurably restored.
The varying fortunes of the revolutionists were not always known to the Texians, but the spirit of revolt was in the air and its presence was manifested from time to time. These outbreaks were mostly of a local character and confined to San Antonio and Goliad. At the former place, January 22, 1811, in a mutiny headed by Captain Don Juan Bautista Casas, all the garrison declared in favor of the revolution, and made prison- ers of fourteen Spanish officers. On the third of the following March, a counter-revolution took place, headed by Zambrano, and Casas was sent in chains to Monclova for trial.
On the restoration of the imbecile and unprincipled Fer- dinand VII to the throne of Spain in 1812, a constitution
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establishing great reforms of former abuses was adopted by the Cortez and sworn to by the King, who, as soon as oppor- tunity offered, violated his oath, overthrew the constitution, assumed absolute power, and persecuted the friends of good government, banishing or imprisoning great numbers and putting many to death. In 1820 another revolution occurred in Spain. The violated constitution of 1812 was restored. The Cortez re-asserted its rights and initiated many needed reforms which the King pledged himself to carry into full effect, but as soon as he could revoked by royal proclamation and eschewed, in a truly kingly way. Before, however, his Catholic majesty was guilty of this breach of faith, the gov- ernment dispatched General Don Juan O'Donoju, a friend of reform, as Captain General and Political Chief, to Mexico.
Under Apodaca's administration, in the summer of 1820, the only organized Mexican revolutionary forces still in the field, were in the mountainous country between the city of Mexico and Acapulco on the south, under Guerrero, Alvarez and others; and small bodies in the mountains east of the city, followers of Guadalupe Victoria.
On the royalist side, as a rising officer, was Augustin Itur- bide (E-toor-be-dee), a full-blooded Spaniard, born in Mex- ico. He was selected by Apodaca and placed at the head of a royalist force to attack and crush the remaining patriot forces. He was a fit instrument for the intended work. In time past he had cruelly ridden down, shot to death and bay- onetted champions of liberty. Now, however, he had dis- cernment to foresee the coming reaction in favor of Mexican nationality, consequent upon recent events in Spain, and resolved to bead a revolution.
He was not a convert to the cause of liberty, but was actu- ated alone by a desire to divorce Mexico from Spain, erect a new monarchy and be invested as the successful leader of the revolution with royal dignity and power. To achieve success, it was necessary for him to secure the co-operation of the
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patriots through one species of diplomacy, and the acquies- cence and as far as possible, the support of the immensely rich and powerful church dignitaries through another.
Taking position at Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, he brought his plans to perfection and secured the co-operation of the republicans and the concurrence of the clergy. Every- thing being ready, he prepared and on the 24th of February, 1821, signed
THE PLAN OF IGUALA
which declared : First, the independence of Mexico, and that Mexico should thereafter constitute a constitutional monarchy, the crown of which should be tendered to Ferdinand VII, and failing in him, to the other members of his family in suc- cession, on condition that the accepting monarch should reside in Mexico and be bound by oath to support the constitution, to be promulgated by a Mexican Cortez.
Second. That the Roman Catholic religion (to the exclu- sion, of course, of all others), should be supported perpet- ually. "The nation will protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of any other," is the language used in the Plan.
Third. The abolition of all distinction of classes, and the union of Spaniards, Creoles, Indians, Africans and Castilians, with equal civil rights.
This manifesto, first approved by Iturbide's officers, was enthusiastically received by his army, who thereafter marched under the flag of the three guarantees, " Independence, Re- ligion and Equality."
Guadalupe Victoria, Guerrero and other old chieftains, flocked to Iturbide's standard.
A copy of the Plan was sent to the Viceroy Apodaca, ask- ing his co-operation. Apodaca leaned toward acceptance of the Plan, hesitated and was overruled by his Spanish council
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and finally decided not to agree to it, and thereupon sent General Liñan at the head of a strong force, to chastise Iturbide into submission. Before Liñan left the city, Iturbide ( his forces immensely increased by the newly aroused na- tionalists ), took Acapulco and other places and when Liñan left the capital was victoriously advancing upon the im- portant city of Valladolid, now Michoacan. The whole country was aglow with enthusiasm and, from every quarter, men were hastening to swell the ranks of the nationalists. Defeat and disaster everywhere confronted the royalist forces, till only those in the capital city remained in arms. They, on the 5th of July, in desperation, imprisoned Apodaca and placed General Novella in command.
Soon after the happening of these events, General O'Donoju arrived at Vera Cruz and became aware of the condition of affairs. He communicated with Iturbide, virtually gave in his adhesion to the plan, and requested an interview. They soon met at Cordova, seventy-five miles from Vera Cruz, and on the 24th of August (six months to a day after the birth of the Plan of Iguala ), agreed to and signed a treaty covering the provisions of the Plan, with two or three insignificant modifications.
On the 27th of September, 1821, Iturbide, peacefully and in triumph, with bands playing, banners flying and amid the wildest acclamations of the city's population, entered the capital and established himself in the viceregal palace. On that day was formed a Junta, Iturbide appointing all its members. This Junta immediately elected the Bishop of Puebla its president and appointed a regency pending the reception of a reply from Spain. Iturbide was placed at the head of the regency and made Generalissimo of the armies of the proposed kingdom. He was clothed with almost regal powers and dignities and allowed an annual salary of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
On the 13th day of October, sixteen days after its forma-
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tion, the Junta issued a manifesto summoning a Cortez, or Congress, of the kingdom to meet in February, 1822. O'Donoju, mortified at the now palpable intention of the vic- torious faction, to wrest Mexico from Spain, sickened and died in the capital on the 9th of October.
Iturbide exerted every artifice to win popular esteem and ingratiate himself with the army, the clergy and the aristoc- racy, and carefully separated himself from the leaders who for ten years had upheld the cause of Mexican independence. But even his creatures of the Junta refused to accede to all his recommendations. Instead of making the Cortez consist of two houses, as he desired, they provided for but one, to consist of delegates to be elected by the people. They yielded to him, however, in so far as to provide that, from those Provinces entitled to more than four deputies, there should be one ecclesiastic, one military man and one lawyer.
This Cortez (the first convened in the Mexican capital) as- sembled on the 24th of February, 1822, the anniversary of the birth of the short-lived plan of Iguala. Each deputy took an oath to support the Plan, but evidently with mental reserv- ations on the part of many, for the Cortez was speedily divided into three parties, viz. :
(1) The Republicanos, who favored following, as nearly as practicable, in the footsteps of the United States in the for- mation of a Constitutional Republic, to be composed of free States ;
(2) The Bourbonistas, who favored adherence, in letter and spirit, to the Plan of Iguala; and
(3) The Iturbidistas, who favored putting Iturbide upon the throne.
Acrimonious debates followed, lines were sharply drawn, and the Republicanos and Bourbonistas united in opposition to the supporters of Iturbide.
On the 12th of February, the Spanish Cortez not only in- dignantly rejected the Plan of Iguala, but threatened to send
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overwhelming armies to restore the old order of things, threats wholly impotent, owing to the then prostrate condition of his Most Catholic Majesty's Exchequer.
A majority of the Mexican Congress opposed the elevation of Iturbide. It became evident that he would resort to force and many of the members retired to their homes in the coun- try and other places of safety. A crisis was reached on the 18th of May. On that day the army and a portion of the people of the capital proclaimed Iturbide Emperor of Mexico. The members of Congress remaining in the city sanctioned and ratified the proceeding. On the next day the regency resigned and Iturbide, after taking an oath to support the independence, religion and constitution of Mexico, was in- stalled in the viceregal palace as Augustin I.
Generals Guerrero, Nicolas Bravo, Guadalupe Victoria and other old republican leaders left the capital to return to their old haunts and gather about them their former followers. Santa Anna, considered by many as the most zealous advocate of the Imperial or Iturbidista cause, soon manifested dis- content. Even the Congress which had sanctioned and ratified the assumption of Imperial power, became loud in protesta- tions against Imperial extravagance and despotism. Iturbide, failing to quiet these clamorous complaints, filled the prisons of the capital with recalcitrant members of Congress. Failing to enforce subservience in this way he proceeded, on the 30th of October, to disperse Congress at the point of the bayonet.
An officer whose name stands on the roll of infamy as Brigadier-General Cortazar was selected to carry out his pur- pose. "Cortazar," says the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, the American Commissioner to Mexico, " read the Imperial mandate dissolving the Congress. He then informed them that it was his Majesty's pleasure that they should disperse forthwith and that if they did not retire in ten min- utes, he would be compelled, in obedience to Imperial orders, to drive them out of the hall. The president immediately
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directed that the order be spread on the journals of Congress, and called upon the General to sign it, which he did, and the members retired."
In lieu of this representative Congress, chosen by the people, Iturbide appointed a Junta, consisting of thirty-five members.
Garza headed an insurrection in the north, but was promptly suppressed by the Imperial troops.
Iturbide became distrustful of Santa Anna, removed him from command at Vera Cruz, and ordered him to report at the city of Mexico. Santa Anna received this order while at Jalapa, sixty miles distant from Vera Cruz. He hastened to Vera Cruz, paraded the troops and de- nounced the prevailing despotism. The soldiers answered with eager shouts, and enthusiastically joined him in pro- claiming a Republic. He speedily reduced the neighboring towns and marched against Jalapa, where Echavarri, Captain General of the Province of Vera Cruz, commanded. The assault on Jalapa was repulsed and Santa Anna took position on the mountain overlooking the famous bridge, thirty miles from Vera Cruz, called under the Spanish regime El Puente Real; since El Puente Nacional. Here Guada- lupe Victoria, with many followers, joined him. Still he was too weak to advance upon the capital. Happily, at this time, General Echavarri became a convert to the cause, and with the force under his command joined the army of the Republic. The three leaders then formulated and promul- gated a new plan, called ACTAS DE CASAS MATAS, declaring for and guaranteeing a republican form of government. It was proclaimed on the 2d day of February, 1823, and met with such universal acceptance as to accomplish the downfall of Iturbide, without the firing of a gun.
Seeing himself abandoned and helpless, Iturbide called together the Congress he had dispersed. On the 19th of March, 1823, he sent to that body a formal abdication of the
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throne, and retired to Tulancingo, about a hundred miles east of the capital, on the road to Tampico.
Congress, so soon as a quorum appeared, refused to accept the abdication, lest by so doing it might be urged in after times that the Mexican Congress had legalized his acts. He was allowed to leave the country, and was promised twenty- five thousand dollars a year, so long as he should reside in Leghorn, Italy. A reward was afterwards set upon his head, should he ever return to the country.
He sailed for Leghorn on the 11th of May, embarking with his family at the little port of Nautla. From that place he went to London, where he published a long, ingenious, and, in some respects, eloquent and pathetic manifesto to the English people, reciting the events of his life and vindicating his course. Thence he sailed for Mexico. On the 14th of July, 1824, he landed in disguise at the port of Soto la Marina. Here he confided in a man, whom he esteemed a friend during the days of Spanish dominion, General Felipe de La Garza, and was be- trayed by him and placed in the hands of Bernardo Gutierez de Lara -the author of the butcheries at San Antonio in 1813- and was executed at Padilla, in Tamaulipas, on the 24th (one account says 19th) of August, 1824.
The death sentence under this decree was executed by General Felipe de la Garza.
The name of Felipe de la Garza deserves to be held in execration by all honorable men. It is true that when liberty triumphed, he became an avowed friend of republicanism, and under that pretense, the murderer of Iturbide, his former patron and superior. No amount of pretense at a later day can remove from his memory the infamy attached to that act. This man, Felipe de la Garza, was a Spanish officer during the struggle for liberty in Mexico, took an active part against the republicans, did all in his power to destroy Francis Xavier Mina, the object of whose expedition was the liberation of Mexico from the yoke of foreign tyranny, and butchered the
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band of patriots left by Mina as a garrison at Soto la Marina. Yet, when the revolutionists finally triumphed, in order to retain his rank in the army and to enjoy the emoluments of office, he transferred his allegiance to the cause of the people with the ease and sang-froid of a mercenary soldier, and then, as a crowning act of perfidy, with the zeal that usually distin- guishes such converts, eagerly exerted his power to compass the death of an old patron and benefactor.
He held a number of positions under the Republic.
On the downfall of Iturbide, the old Congress re-assembled and at once established a Provisional Government by creating an executive council, consisting of three persons selected by that body. These were Generals Victoria, Bravo and Negrete. A new assembly known as the Constituent Congress, was elected, and assembled in August, 1823. It declared all the acts of Iturbide null and void. This was the Congress which, on the 4th of October, 1824, proclaimed the Republican Constitution, afterwards known as the Constitution of 1824.
CHAPTER XII.
Austin, Haden Edwards, Robert Leftwich, Green De Witt and General Wilkinson, in the City of Mexico - Usurpation and downfall of Iturbide - Austin's final success and return to Texas - Carancahua Indians - Newly arrived immigrants.
When Stephen F. Austin reached the capital politics were at fever heat and he found it impossible to secure immediate consideration of his claims.
Haden Edwards, of Kentucky, Robert Leftwich, of Tennes- see, Green De Witt, of Missouri, and General James Wilkin- son, late of the United States army, were also in the city seeking permission to establish American colonies in Texas.
The first Congress summoned after the accession of Iturbide to power was still in session. The application to it for colonizing privileges by so many people, led to the appoint- ment of a committee to draft a general law on the subject. Austin very justly insisted that his claim was peculiar in its merits, and should receive consideration aside from general legislation, intended to control future concessions. The com- mittee, however, submitted to Congress a general bill. On the eve of its enactment into law, October 30, 1822, Iturbide dispersed Congress, and appointed in lieu thereof, a Junta composed of thirty-five members, and the question of coloni- zation was referred to that body.
Under the inspiration of its imperial master, the Junta passed a law and it was approved by Iturbide on the 4th of January, 1823.
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As this was the first colonization law enacted in Mexico, and that too before the formation of the Provinces into States, a brief summary of its provisions is here given.
It abrogated the royal exterminating order of Philip II of Spain against foreigners, and decreed that foreigners, who professed the Roman Catholic religion, should be protected in their lives, liberty and property.1
To encourage the immigration of foreigners, the govern- ment promised to give, out of the vacant public domain, not less than a labor of land (177 acres ) to each farmer, and not less than one sitio or league (4,428 acres) to each stock- raiser.2
The law provided that immigrants might come on their own account or be introduced through empresarios.3
As an inducement to immigration, immigrants were to be relieved of all tithes, taxes, impost duties, etc., for six years.
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