Chapter LXXVIII: Part 78

"As we were thus retreating, we continually heard the large
drum beating from the summit of the chief temple of the city.
Its tone was mournful indeed, and sounded like the very
instrument of Satan. This drum was so vast in its dimensions
that it could be heard from eight to twelve miles distance.
Every time we heard its mournful sound, the Mexicans, as we
subsequently learnt, offered to their idols the bleeding
hearts of our unfortunate countrymen. … After we had at
last, with excessive toil, crossed a deep opening, and had
arrived at our encampment, … the large drum of
Huitzilopochtli again resounded from the summit of the temple,
accompanied by all the hellish music of shell trumpets, horns,
and other instruments. … We could plainly see the platform,
with the chapel in which those cursed idols stood; how the
Mexicans had adorned the heads of the Spaniards with feathers,
and compelled their victims to dance round the god
Huitzilopochtli; we saw how they stretched them out at full
length on a large stone, ripped open their breasts with flint
knives, tore out the palpitating heart and offered it to their
idols. Alas! we were forced to be spectators of all this, and
how they then seized hold of the dead bodies by the legs and
threw them headlong down the steps of the temple, at the
bottom of which other executioners stood ready to receive
them, who severed the arms, legs, and heads from the bodies,
drew the skin off the faces, which were tanned with the beards
still adhering to them, and produced as spectacles of mockery
and derision at their feasts; the legs, arms, and other parts
of the body being cut up and devoured. … On that terrible
day the loss of the three divisions amounted to 60 men and 7
horses."

_Bernal Diaz del Castillo,
Memoirs,
chapter 152 (volume 2)._

MEXICO: A. D. 1521 (August).
The last days of the Siege.
The taking of the ruined city.
The end of the Aztec dominion.

"Guatemozin's victory diffused immense enthusiasm among the
Aztecs and those who remained united to them. The priests
proclaimed that the gods, satiated by the sacrifice of the
Spanish prisoners, had promised to rid the country of the
foreigners, and that the promise would be fulfilled within
eight days. This intelligence spread alarm among the allies of
the Spaniards. They deserted in great numbers—not to go over
to the Aztecs, whose anger they dreaded, but to return to
their homes. Cortez had good watch kept in the camp. The
sorties of the besieged were repulsed; the eight days passed
without the Spaniards having lost more than a few marauders.
The allies, seeing that the oracle was wrong, came back to
their former friends. The aggressive ardour of the besieged
grew cooler, and they soon found themselves assailed by the
plagues that ordinarily attack troops massed in a city—not
only famine, but epidemic diseases, the result of want and
overcrowding. … Famine pinched them more cruelly day after
day. Lizards and such rats as they could find were their
richest nourishment; reptiles and insects were eagerly looked
for, trees stripped of their bark, and roots stealthily sought
after by night. Meanwhile, Cortez, seeing that there was no
other means of bringing them to submission, pursued the work
of destruction he had resolved on with so much regret. …
Heaps of bodies were found in every street that was won from
them; this people, so punctilious in their customs of
sepulture, had ceased to bury their dead. … Soon there was
left to the besieged but one quarter, and that the most
incommodious of all, forming barely an eighth of the city,
where there were not houses enough to give them shelter. …
The 13th August, 1521, had now arrived, and that was to be the
last day of this once flourishing empire. Before making a
final assault, Cortez once more invited the emperor to his
presence. His envoys came back with the 'cihuacoatl,' a
magistrate of the first rank, who declared, with an air of
consternation, that Guatemozin knew how to die, but that he
would not come to treat. Then, turning towards Cortez, he
added: 'Do now whatever you please.' 'Be it so,' replied
Cortez; 'go and tell your friends to prepare; they are going
to die.' In fact, the troops advanced; there was a last mêlée,
a last carnage, on land and on the lake. …
{2168}
Guatemozin, driven to the shore of the lake, threw himself
into a canoe with a few warriors, and endeavoured to escape by
dint of rowing; but he was pursued by a brigantine of the
Spanish fleet, taken and brought to Cortez, who received him
with the respect due to a crowned head. … The Aztec empire
had ceased to exist; Spanish sway was established in Mexico.
The Cross was triumphant in that fine country, and there was
no sharer in its reign. The number of persons that perished in
the siege has been differently estimated. The most moderate
calculation puts it at 120,000 on the side of the Aztecs. Very
many Indians fell on the side of the besiegers. The historian
Ixtlixochitl says there were 30,000 dead of the warriors of
Tezcuco alone. All that were left alive of the Aztecs were, at
the request of Guatemozin, allowed to leave the city in
freedom, on the morning after it was taken. … They dispersed
in all directions, everywhere spreading a terror of the
Spaniards, and the feeling that to resist them was impossible.
That conviction must have been established speedily and
firmly, for there was no further attempt at resistance, unless
it were at one point, in the territory of Panuco, near the
Atlantic Ocean."

_M. Chevalier,
Mexico, Ancient and Modern,
part 2, chapters 8-9 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_H. Cortes,
Despatches [Letters] MEXICO,
translated by G. Folsom,
letter 3, chapter 5._

MEXICO: A. D. 1521-1524.
The rebuilding of the capital.
The completion and settlement of the Conquest.

"The first ebullition of triumph was succeeded in the army by
very different feelings, as they beheld the scanty spoil
gleaned from the conquered city;" and Cortés was driven, by
the clamors and suspicions of his soldiers, to subject his
heroic captive, Guatemozin, to torture, in the hope of
wringing from him a disclosure of some concealment of his
imagined treasures. Its only result was to add another infamy
to the name and memory of the conquerors. "The
commander-in-chief, with his little band of Spaniards, now
daily recruited by reinforcements from the Islands, still
occupied the quarters of Cojohuacan, which they had taken up
at the termination of the siege. Cortés did not immediately
decide in what quarter of the Valley to establish the new
capital which was to take the place of the ancient
Tenochtitlan. … At length he decided on retaining the site
of the ancient city, … and he made preparations for the
reconstruction of the capital on a scale of magnificence which
should, in his own language, 'raise her to the rank of Queen
of the surrounding provinces, in the same manner as she had
been of yore.' The labor was to be performed by the Indian
population, drawn from all quarters of the Valley, and
including the Mexicans themselves, great numbers of whom still
lingered in the neighborhood of their ancient residence. …
In less than four years from the destruction of Mexico, a new
city had risen on its ruins, which, if inferior to the ancient
capital in extent, surpassed it in magnificence and strength.
It occupied so exactly the same site as its predecessor that
the 'plaza mayor,' or great square, was the same spot which
had been covered by the huge 'teocalli' and the palace of
Montezuma; while the principal streets took their departure as
before from this central point, and, passing through the whole
length of the city, terminated at the principal causeways.
Great alterations, however, took place in the fashion of the
architecture." Meantime, Cortés had been brought into much
danger at the Spanish court, by the machinations of his
enemies, encouraged by Bishop Fonseca, the same minister who
pursued Columbus with hostility. His friends in Spain rallied,
however, to his support, and the result of an investigation,
undertaken by a board to which the Emperor Charles V. referred
all the charges against him, was the confirmation of his acts
in Mexico to their full extent. "He was constituted Governor,
Captain-General, and Chief Justice of New Spain, with power to
appoint to all offices, civil and military, and to order any
person to leave the country whose residence there he might
deem prejudicial to the interests of the Crown. This judgment
of the council was ratified by Charles V., and the commission
investing Cortés with these ample powers was signed by the
emperor at Valladolid, October 15th, 1522. … The attention
of Cortés was not confined to the capital. He was careful to
establish settlements in every part of the country which
afforded a favourable position for them. … While thus
occupied with the internal economy of the country, Cortés was
still bent on his great schemes of discovery and conquest." He
fitted out a fleet to explore the shores of the Pacific, and
another in the Gulf of Mexico—the prime object of both being
the discovery of some strait that would open one ocean to the
other. He also sent Olid in command of an expedition by sea to
occupy and colonize Honduras, and Alvarado, by land, at the
head of a large force, to subdue Guatemala. The former, having
partly accomplished his mission, attempted to establish for
himself an independent jurisdiction, and his conduct induced
Cortés to proceed to Honduras in person. It was in the course
of this expedition that Guatemozin, the dethroned Mexican
chief, who had been forced to accompany his conqueror, was
accused of a plot against the Spaniards and was hung to a
tree. 'We have the testimony of Bernal Diaz, one of the
Spaniards on the spot, that the execution "was most unjust,
and was thought wrong by all of us." "Within three short years
after the Conquest [Cortés] had reduced under the dominion of
Castile an extent of country more than 400 leagues in length,
as he affirms, on the Atlantic coast, and more than 500 on the
Pacific; and, with the exception of a few interior provinces
of no great importance, had brought them to a condition of
entire tranquillity."

_W. H. Prescott,
History of the Conquest of Mexico,
book 7, chapters 1-3._

ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 5 (Mexico, volume 2), chapters 1-8._

MEXICO: A. D. 1535-1540.
Introduction of Printing.

See PRINTING, &C: A. D. 1535—1709.

MEXICO: A. D. 1535-1822.
Under the Spanish viceroys.

"Antonio de Mendoza, Conde de Tendilla, was the first viceroy
sent by Charles V. to New Spain. He arrived in the autumn of
1535. … He had a well-balanced and moderate character, and
governed the country with justice and generosity combined. He
… set himself to reform the abuses which had already
appeared, protected the Indians from the humiliations which
the newly arrived Spaniards were disposed to put upon them; he
stimulated all branches of agriculture, and finding the
natives were already well informed in the cultivation of land,
he encouraged them in this pursuit by all possible efforts. …
{2169}
To the religious orders in Mexico is due in great measure the
firm base upon which the government of Spain was established
there. The new viceroy fully recognized this, and encouraged
the foundations of colleges and schools already undertaken by
them. In every way he promoted the prosperity and growth of
the country, and had the satisfaction in the course of his
government, which lasted 15 years, to see everything bear the
marks of his judgment and enterprise. It was he who founded
two cities [Guadalajara and Valladolid] which have reached
great importance. … Cortés was away when the Viceroy Mendoza
arrived in Mexico. He still retained his title as governor,
with the same powers always conferred upon him; but his long
absences from the capital made it necessary, as he fully
recognized, that some other strong authority should be
established there. Nevertheless, he never got on very well
with such other authorities, and on his return soon became at
odds with Mendoza, who, in his opinion, interfered with his
prerogatives. It was then that Cortés bade farewell to his
family, and taking with him his eldest son and heir, Don
Martin, then eight years old, he embarked for Spain, leaving
Mendoza undisturbed in the execution of his office. … In
1536 was issued the first book printed in Mexico, on a press
imported by Mendoza, and put into the hands of one Juan
Pablos. … In 1550 this good ruler [Mendoza] sailed away from
Mexico. … He passed on to take charge of the government of
Peru, by a practice which came to be quite common—a sort of
diplomatic succession by which the viceroys of New Spain were
promoted to the post at Peru. Don Luis de Velasco, second
viceroy of New Spain, made his entrance into the capital with
great pomp, at the end of the year 1550. He, like his
predecessor, had been selected with care by the orders of
Charles V. … His first decree was one liberating 150 Indians
from slavery, who were working chiefly in the mines. … He
established in Mexico, for the security of travellers upon the
highway, the tribunal of the Holy Brotherhood, instituted in
Spain for the same purpose in the time of Isabella. He founded
the Royal University of Mexico, and the Royal Hospital for the
exclusive use of the natives. … The good Viceroy Velasco
died in 1564, having governed the country for 14 years. …
During the government of this ruler and his predecessor all
the administration of New Spain, political, civil, and
religious was established upon so firm a foundation that it
could go on in daily action like a well regulated machine." In
the meantime, Charles V. had resigned the burden of his great
sovereignty, transferring all his crowns to his narrow-souled
son, Philip II., who cared nothing for the New World except as
a source of gold and silver supply and a field for religious
bigotry. Under Philip "the character of the viceroys was
lowered from the high standard adhered to when Charles the
Emperor selected them himself. To follow the long list of them
would be most tedious and useless, as they passed in rotation,
governing according to the best of their lights for several
years in Mexico, and then passing on, either by death or by
promotion to Peru. In 1571 the Inquisition was fully
established … and the next year the Jesuits arrived. … The
first 'auto-da-fé' was celebrated in the year 1574, when, as
its chronicler mentions cheerfully, 'there perished 21
pestilent Lutherans.' From this time such ceremonies were of
frequent occurrence, but the Inquisition never reached the
point it did in Old Spain. … The viceroys of New Spain under
Philip III. [1578-1621] were, for the most part, men of
judgment and moderation. While the government at home, in the
hands of profligate favorites, was growing weaker and weaker,
that of Mexico was becoming more firmly established." It was
not shaken nor disturbed by the War of the Spanish Succession,
during the early years of the eighteenth century; but the
Revolution in France, which convulsed Europe before that
century closed, wrought changes which were lasting in the New
World as well as the Old. "There were in all 64 viceroys,
beginning with Don Antonio de Mendoza, 1535, and ending with
Juan O'Donoju in 1822."

_S. Hale,
The Story of Mexico,
chapters 20-22._

ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volumes 5-6 (Mexico, volumes 2-3)._

MEXICO: A. D. 1539-1586.
Expeditions of Niza, Coronado, and others to the North.
Search for the Seven Cities of Cibola.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PUEBLOS.

MEXICO: A. D. 1810-1819.
The first Revolutionary movement.
Hidalgo.
Allende.
Morelos.

"The causes of the coming revolution were not hidden. The law
that excluded Spaniards born in America from equal rights with
those who were immigrants was a natural, not to say necessary,
source of discontent among people whose good-will was much
needed by any viceroy. There was inevitably not a little
mutual repugnance between the Mexican and Spanish stocks, and
the home government did nothing to mollify such asperities.
There were commercial monopolies militant against public
interests. The clergy were alienated, and since they were not
thus so serviceable as formerly in the part of mediators in
enforcing governmental aims, it was found necessary to use
force where the people were not accustomed to it. The Viceroy
Jose de Iturrigaray practised a seeming condescension that
deceived no one, and he pursued his exactions partly by reason
of self-interest, and partly in order to supply Madrid with
means to meet the financial troubles that the Napoleonic era
was creating. After some years of these conditions in New
Spain, a conspiracy, resulting from a reaction, sent the
viceroy back to Spain a prisoner. This gave strength to
revolutionary sentiments, and a few trials for treason
increased the discontent. The men who were now put
successively in the vice-regal place had few qualities for the
times, and a certain timidity of policy was not conducive to
strength of government. … The outbreak, when it came,
brought to the front a curate of Dolores, a native priest,
Miguel Hidalgo, who commanded the confidence of the
disaffected, and was relied upon to guide the priesthood.
Ignacio de Allende had some of the soldierly qualities needed
for a generalissimo. The purpose of these men and their
allies, before they should openly proclaim a revolt, was to
seize some of the leading Spaniards; but their plot being
discovered, they hastily assembled at Dolores and raised the
standard of revolt (1810). Thus banded together, but badly
organized and poorly armed, a body of 5,000 insurgents marched
from Dolores, headed by Hidalgo and Allende, and approached
Guanajuato, where the intendente Riaña had intrenched himself
in a fortified alhondiga, or granary.
{2170}
The attack of the rebels was headlong and bloody. The gates
were fired with flaming rubbish, and through the glowing way
the mad throng rushed, and after a hand-to-hand conflict
(September 28, 1810) the fortress fell. The royalist leader
had been killed, and scenes of pillage and riot followed.
Meanwhile the viceroy in Mexico prepared to receive the
insurgents, and his ally, the church, excommunicated their
leaders. The military force of the royalists was
inconsiderable, and what there was, it was feared, might prove
not as loyal as was desirable. As Hidalgo marched towards the
capital, he tried to seduce to his side a young lieutenant,
Augustin Iturbide, who was in command of a small outlying
force. The future emperor declined the offer, and, making his
way to the city, was at once sent to join Trujillo, who
commanded a corps of observation which confronted the
insurgents, and who finally ran the chances of a battle at Las
Cruces. … The insurgents soon surrounded him, and he was
only able to reach the city by breaking with a part of his
force through the enveloping line. Hidalgo had lost 2,000 men,
but he had gained the day. He soon intercepted a despatch and
learned from it that General Calleja had been put in motion
from San Luis Potosi, and it seemed more prudent to Hidalgo
that, instead of approaching Mexico, he should retreat to be
nearer his recruiting ground. The retrograde movement brought
the usual result to an undisciplined force, and he was already
weakened by desertions when Calleja struck his line of march
at Aculco. Hidalgo felt it important for the revolution to
have time enough to spread into other parts of the province,
and so he merely fought Calleja to cover his further retreat.
The rebel leader soon gathered his forces at Celaya, while
Allende, his colleague, posted himself at Guanajuato. Here the
latter was attacked by Calleja and routed, and the royal
forces made bloody work in the town. Hidalgo, moving to
Valladolid, reorganized his army, and then, proceeding to
Guadalajara, he set up a form of government, with Ignacio
Lopez Rayon as Secretary-general. At this time the insurgents
held completely the provinces of Nueva Galicia, Zacatecas, and
San Luis Potosi, a belt of country stretching from sea to sea
in the latitude of Tampico. … In January, 1811, the signs
were not very propitious for the royalists. … At this
juncture … Hidalgo moved out from Guadalajara with his
entire force, which was large enough, consisting of 60,000
foot, 20,000 horse, and 100 cannon; but it was poorly armed,
and without effective discipline; while Calleja commanded a
well-equipped and well-organized force, but in extent it only
counted 3,000 foot, with as many horse, and ten guns. At the
bridge of Calderon, 10 or 11 leagues from the city, Hidalgo
prepared to stand. Here Calleja attacked him," and won the
day, entering Guadalajara as a victor on the 21st of January,
1811. "Hidalgo fled with his broken army, and soon resigned
the command to Allende. This general had scarcely 4,000 or
5,000 men left when he reached Saltillo, where he joined
Jimenes. The disheartenment of defeat was spreading through
the country. Town after town was heard from as yielding to the
victors. The leaders, counselling together at Saltillo,
resolved to escape to the United States; but, as they were
marching,—about 2,000 in all, with 24 guns and a
money-chest,—they fell into an ambush planned in the interest
of a counter-revolution by one Elizondo, and, with nothing
more than a show of resistance, the party was captured, one
and all. The judgment of death upon Hidalgo, Allende, and
Jimenes soon followed. The main force of the insurgents had
thus disappeared, but a small body still remained in arms
under the lead of Jose Maria Morelos." Morelos was uneducated,
but capable and energetic, and he kept life in the rebellion
for two years. He captured Orizaba in October, 1812, Oajaca in
the following month, and Acapulco in the spring of 1813. In
November of that year he appeared before Valladolid, the
capital of Michoacan, but was attacked there by Iturbide and
routed. "In January, 1814, Morelos made a final stand at
Puruaran, but Iturbide still drove him on. Disaster followed
upon disaster, till finally Morelos was deposed by his own
congress. This body had adherents enough to make it necessary
for Calleja to appeal to the home government for a
reinforcement of 8,000 troops. … Morelos, meanwhile,
commanding an escort which was protecting the migratory
congress, was intercepted and captured by a force of
royalists, and, after the forms of a trial, he was executed
December 22, 1815. The campaign of 1816 was sustained by the
insurgents against a force of 80,000 men which Calleja had
collected. … Neither side had much success, and the war was
simply tedious. At last, in August, a new viceroy, Juan Riaz
de Apodaca, succeeded to Calleja, and uniting a more humane
policy with vigor in disposing his forces, the leading rebel
officers … surrendered in January, 1817. … A certain
quixotic interest is lent to the closing months of the
revolution by the adventurous exploits of Espoz y Mina. He had
fitted out a small expedition in the United States, which,
landing on the Gulf coast, for a while swept victoriously
inland. … But Mina was finally surprised and executed. Other
vagrant rebel leaders fell one by one into the hands of the
royalists; but Guadalupe Victoria held out, and concealed
himself in the wilds for two years."

_J. Winsor,
Spanish North America
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 8, chapter 4)._

ALSO IN:
_W. D. Robinson,
Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution._

MEXICO: A. D. 1819.
Texas occupied as a province.

See TEXAS: A. D. 1819-1835.

MEXICO: A. D. 1820-1826.
Independence of Spain.
The brief empire of Iturbide and its fall.
Constitution of the Republic of the United Mexican States.

"The establishment of a constitutional government in Spain, in
1820, produced upon Mexico an effect very different from what
was anticipated. As the constitution provided for a more
liberal administration of government in Mexico than had
prevailed since 1812, the increased freedom of the elections
again threw the minds of the people into a ferment, and the
spirit of independence, which had been only smothered, broke
forth anew. Moreover, divisions were created among the old
Spaniards themselves; some being in favor of the old system,
while others were sincerely attached to the constitution. Some
formidable inroads on the property and prerogatives of the
church alienated the clergy from the new government, and
induced them to desire a return to the old system.
{2171}
The Viceroy, Apodaca, encouraged by the hopes held out by the
Royalists in Spain, although he had at first taken the oath to
support the constitution, secretly favored the party opposed
to it, and arranged his plans for its overthrow. Don Augustin
Iturbide, the person selected by the Viceroy to make the first
open demonstration against the existing government, was
offered the command of a body of troops on the western coast,
at the head of which he was to proclaim the re-establishment
of the absolute authority of the king. Iturbide, accepting the
commission, departed from the capital to take command of the
troops, but with intentions very different from those which
the Viceroy supposed him to entertain. Reflecting upon the
state of the country, and convinced of the facility with which
the authority of Spain might be shaken off,—by bringing the
Creole troops to act in concert with the old insurgents,
—Iturbide resolved to proclaim Mexico wholly independent of
the Spanish nation. Having his head quarters at the little
town of Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, Iturbide, on the 24th
of February, 1821, there proclaimed his project, known as the
'Plan of Iguala,' and induced his soldiers to take an oath to
support it. This 'Plan' declared that Mexico should be an
independent nation, its religion Catholic, and its government
a constitutional monarchy. The crown was offered to Ferdinand
VII, of Spain, provided he would consent to occupy the throne
in person; and, in case of his refusal, to his infant
brothers, Don Carlos and Don Francisco. A constitution was to
be formed by a Mexican Congress; … all distinctions of caste
were to be abolished. … The Viceroy, astonished by this
unexpected movement of Iturbide, and remaining irresolute and
inactive at the capital, was deposed, and Don Francisco
Novello, a military officer, was placed at the head of the
government; but his authority was not generally recognized,
and Iturbide was left to pursue his plans in the interior
without interruption. Being joined by Generals Guerrero and
Victoria as soon as they knew that the independence of their
country was the object of Iturbide, not only all the survivors
of the first insurgents, but whole detachments of Creole
troops flocked to his standard, and his success was soon
rendered certain. The clergy and the people were equally
decided in favor of independence; … and, before the month of
July, the whole country recognized the authority of Iturbide,
with the exception of the capital, in which Novello had shut
himself up with the European troops. Iturbide had already
reached Queretaro with his troops, on his road to Mexico, when
he was informed of the arrival, at Vera Cruz, of a new
Viceroy. … At Cordova, whither the Viceroy had been allowed
to proceed, for the purpose of an interview with Iturbide, the
latter induced him to accept by treaty the Plan of Iguala, as
the only means of securing the lives and property of the
Spaniards then in Mexico, and of establishing the right to the
throne in the house of Bourbon. By this agreement, called the
'Treaty of Cordova,' the Viceroy, in the name of the king, his
master, recognized the independence of Mexico, and gave up the
capital to the army of the insurgents, which took possession
of it, without effusion of blood, on the 27th of September,
1821. All opposition being ended, and the capital occupied, in
accordance with a provision of the Plan of Iguala a
provisional junta was established, the principal business of
which was to call a congress for the formation of a
constitution suitable to the country. At the same time a
regency, consisting of five individuals, was elected, at the
head of which was placed Iturbide. … When the congress
assembled [February 24, 1822], three distinct parties were
found amongst the members. The Bourbonists, adhering to the
Plan of Iguala altogether, wished a constitutional monarchy,
with a prince of the house of Bourbon at its head; the
Republican, setting aside the Plan of Iguala, desired a
federal republic; while a third party, the Iturbidists,
adopting the Plan of Iguala with the exception of the article
in favor of the Bourbons, wished to place Iturbide himself
upon the throne. As it was soon learned that the Spanish
government had declared the treaty of Cordova null and void,
the Bourbonists ceased to exist as a party, and the struggle
was confined to the Iturbidists and the Republicans." By the
aid of a mob demonstration in the city of Mexico, on the night
of May 18, 1822, the former triumphed, and Iturbide was
declared emperor, under the title of Augustin the First. "The
choice was ratified by the provinces without opposition, and
Iturbide found himself in peaceable possession of a throne to
which his own abilities and a concurrence of favorable
circumstances had raised him. Had the monarch elect been
guided by counsels of prudence, and allowed his authority to
be confined within constitutional limits, he might perhaps
have continued to maintain a modified authority; but
forgetting the unstable foundation of his throne, he began his
reign with all the airs of hereditary royalty. On his
accession a struggle for power immediately commenced between
him and the congress." After arbitrarily imprisoning the most
distinguished members of that body, Iturbide, at last,
proclaimed its dissolution and substituted a junta of his own
nomination. "Before the end of November an insurrection broke
out in the northern provinces, but this was speedily quelled
by the imperial troops." It was followed in December by a more
formidable revolt, led off by Santa Anna (or Santana), a young
general who had supported Iturbide, but who had been haughtily
dismissed from the government of Vera Cruz. Santa Anna was
joined by Victoria and other old Republican leaders, and the
power of Iturbide crumbled so rapidly that he resigned his
crown on the 19th of March, 1823, promising to quit the
country, on being assured a yearly allowance of $25,000 for
his support. "With his family and suite he embarked for
Leghorn on the 11th of May. … From Italy he proceeded to
London, and made preparations for returning to Mexico; in
consequence of which, congress, on the 28th of April, 1824,
passed a decree of outlawry against him. He landed in disguise
at Soto la Marina, July 14th, 1824; was arrested by General
Garza, and shot at Padillo by order of the provincial congress
of Tamaulipas, on the 19th of that month. … On the departure
of Iturbide, a temporary executive was appointed, consisting
of Generals Victoria, Bravo, and Negrete, by whom the
government was administered until the meeting of a new
congress, which assembled at the capital in August, 1823.
{2172}
This body immediately entered on the duties of preparing a new
constitution, which was submitted on the 31st of January,
1824, and definitively sanctioned on the 4th of October
following. By this instrument, modeled somewhat after the
constitution of the United States, the absolute independence
of the country was declared, and the several Mexican Provinces
were united in a Federal Republic. The legislative power was
vested in a Congress, consisting of a Senate and a House of
Representatives. … The supreme executive authority was
vested in one individual, styled the 'President of the United
Mexican States.' … The third article in the constitution
declared that 'The Religion of the Mexican Nation is, and will
be perpetually, the Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will
protect it by wise and just laws, and prohibit the exercise of
any other whatever.' … On the 1st of January, 1825, the
first congress under the federal constitution assembled in the
city of Mexico; and, at the same time, General Guadalupe
Victoria was installed as president of the republic, and
General Nicholas Bravo as vice-president. The years 1825 and
1826 passed with few disturbances; the administration of
Victoria was generally popular; and the country enjoyed a
higher degree of prosperity than at any former or subsequent
period."

_M. Willson,
American History,
book 3, part 2, chapters 4-5._

ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 7 (Mexico, volume 3), chapters 29-33,
and volume 8, chapters 1-2._

MEXICO: A. D. 1822-1828.
Free-Masonry in politics.
The rival branches of the order.
The Escocés and the Yorkinos.

For some years a furious contest raged between two political
societies, "known as the 'Escocés' and 'Yorkinos'—or, as we
should call them, Scotch Free-Masons and York
Free-Masons—whose secret organizations were employed for
political purposes by two rival political parties. At the time
of the restoration of the Constitutional Government of Spain
in 1820, Free-Masonry was introduced into Mexico; and as it
was derived from the Scotch branch of that order, it was
called, after the name of the people of Scotland, 'Escocés.'
Into this institution were initiated many of the old Spaniards
still remaining in the country, the Creole aristocracy, and
the privileged classes—parties that could ill endure the
elevation of a Creole colonel, Iturbide, to the Imperial
throne. When Mr. Poinsett was sent out as Embassador to Mexico
[1822], he carried with him the charter for a Grand Lodge from
the American, or York order of Free-Masons in the United
States. Into this new order the leaders of the Democratic
party were initiated. The bitter rivalry that sprung up
between these two branches of the Masonic body kept the
country in a ferment for ten years, and resulted finally in
the formation of a party whose motto was opposition to all
secret societies, and who derived their name of Anti-Masons
from the party of the same name then flourishing in the United
States. When the Escocés had so far lost ground in popular
favor as to be in the greatest apprehension from their
prosperous but imbittered rivals, the Yorkinos, as a last
resort, to save themselves, and to ruin the hated
organization, they pronounced against all secret societies.
… 'General Bravo,' Vice-President of Mexico, and leader of
the Escocés, having issued his proclamation declaring that, as
a last resort, he appealed to arms to rid the republic of that
pest, secret societies, and that he would not give up the
contest until he had rooted them out, root and branch, took up
his position at Tulansingo—a village about 30 miles north of
the City of Mexico. Here, at about daylight on the morning of
the 7th January, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero,
the leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of
government.' After a slight skirmish, in which eight men were
killed and six wounded, General Bravo and his party were made
prisoners; and thus perished forever the party of the Escocés.
This victory was so complete as to prove a real disaster to
the Yorkinos. The want of outside pressure led to internal
dissensions; so that when two of its own members, Guerrero and
Pedraza, became rival candidates for the presidency, the
election was determined by a resort to arms."

_R. A. Wilson,
Mexico: its Peasants and its Priests,
chapter 5._

ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapter 2._

MEXICO: A. D. 1828-1844.
The rise of Santa Anna.
Dissolution of the Federal System.
The Unitary Republic established.
Recognition by Spain.
The Pastry War.
Retrogradation and decline.

"After the death of Iturbide, by far the most powerful person
in the nation was the Creole general Santa Anna, who, at the
age of 24, had already destroyed the military empire of his
chief. Santa Anna at first interested himself in the visionary
project of Bolivar for framing a general confederation of the
new nations of South America.

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1826.

This project … failed completely; and for several years he
settled down as governor of Vera Cruz, reconciled himself to
the Federal Republic, and took no part in public life. In
1828, however, the Presidential election led to a civil war in
which Santa Anna and his favourite Veracrusanos first found
out their capabilities; and they had an opportunity of testing
them again in the next year, when the feeble force of
Barrados, the last military attempt made by Spain to reduce
Mexico, was cut to pieces at Tampico. From that movement Santa
Anna became the sole controller of the destinies of the
country: and in 1833 he was elected President. Forty years ago
all Europe knew the picture of Santa Anna, with his tall spare
figure, sunburnt face, and black hair curling over his
forehead; how he lived on his hacienda of Manga de Clavo,
cockfighting, gambling, and horse-racing, occasionally putting
himself at the head of his bronzed troops, and either making a
dash at an insurrection, or making a pronunciamento on his own
account. Mexican histories tell how gallantly he defended Vera
Cruz in 1839, against the French invasion under Prince de
Joinville [called 'the Pastry War,' because consequent on the
non-payment of French claims, among which there was prominence
given to a certain pastry-cook's claim for goods destroyed in
the riot of a revolution at the capital in 1828]; how his leg,
having been shattered by a ball, was buried with a solemn
service and a funeral oration in the cemetery of Santa Paula
in Mexico; and how, in a few years, when Santa Anna was in
disgrace with the people, they destroyed the tomb, and kicked
Santa Anna's limb about the streets with every mark of hatred
and contempt. …
{2173}
The manifold difficulties of government in Mexico sufficiently
attested the weakness of the Federal constitution; and in
1835, after a trial of eleven years, the state governments
were dissolved, and the Republic, one and indivisible, set up
for a time in their place. There was now to be a President,
elected by an indirect vote for eight years, a Senate, and a
House of Deputies, both elected by a direct popular vote, and
an elective Supreme Court. Santa Anna, who was identified with
the Unitary principle, was re-elected three times; so that
with some intermission he governed Mexico for 20 years. The
dissolution of the Federal government naturally strengthened
the hands of Santa Anna; and in 1836 Mexico was for the first
time recognized by Spain. But the unitary republic was a time
of disaster and disgrace; and from the point of view of
progress it was a period of reaction. … Europe looked
forward, almost without jealousy, to the time when the great
nation of North America would absorb this people of
half-civilized Indians mixed with degenerate Spaniards. Events
which now happened greatly strengthened this impression."

_E. J. Payne,
History of European Colonies,
chapter 20, sections 6-7._

MEXICO: A. D. 1829-1837.
The Abolition of Slavery.

"The general affairs of the country in the second half of 1829
were in a chaotic state. Disorganization fettered every branch
of the government. … And yet, amidst its constant struggle,
Guerrero's administration decreed several progressive
measures, the most important of which was the abolition of
slavery. African slavery had indeed been reduced to narrow
limits. The Dominican provincial of Chiapas, Father Matias
Cordoba, gave freedom to the slaves on the estates of his
order. On the 16th of September, 1825, President Victoria had
liberated in the country's name the slaves purchased with a
certain fund collected for that purpose, as well as those
given up by their owners to the patriotic junta. The general
abolition, however, was not actually carried out for some
time, certain difficulties having arisen; and several states,
among which was Zacatecas, had decreed the freedom of slaves
before the general government arrived at a final conclusion on
the subject. As a matter of fact, the few remaining slaves
were in domestic service, and treated more like members of
families than as actual chattels. At last Deputy Tornel,
taking advantage of the time when Guerrero was invested with
extraordinary powers, drew up and laid before him a decree for
total abolition. It was signed September 15, 1829, and
proclaimed the next day, the national anniversary. The law met
with no demur save from Coahuila and Texas, in which state
were about 1,000 slaves, whose manumission would cost heavily,
as the owners held them at a high valuation. It seems that the
law was not fully enforced; for on the 5th of April, 1837,
another was promulgated, declaring slavery abolished without
exception and with compensation to the owners."

_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 8 (Mexico, volume 5), chapter 4._

MEXICO: A. D. 1845.
The Annexation of Texas to the United States.

See TEXAS: A. D. 1836-1845.

MEXICO: A. D. 1846.
The American aggression which precipitated war.

"Texas had claimed the Rio Grande as her western limit, though
she had never exercised actual control over either New Mexico
or the country lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.
The groundless character of the claims of Texas to the Rio
Grande as its western boundary was even admitted by some
friends of the measure. … Silas Wright, … referring to the
boundaries of Texas, declared that 'they embraced a country to
which Texas had no claims, over which she had never asserted
jurisdiction, and which she had no right to cede.' Mr. Benton
denounced the treaty [of annexation and cession of territory]
as an attempt to seize 2,000 square miles of Mexican territory
by the incorporation of the left bank of the Rio del Norte,
which would be an act of direct aggression. … In ordering,
therefore, General Taylor to pass a portion of his forces
westward of the river Nueces, which was done before annexation
was accomplished, President Polk put in peril the peace and
the good name of the country. In his Annual Message of
December of that year [1845] he stated that American troops
were in position on the Nueces, 'to defend our own and the
rights of Texas.' But, not content with occupying ground on
and westward of the Nueces, he issued, on the 13th of January,
1846, the fatal order to General Taylor to advance and 'occupy
positions on or near the left bank of the Rio del Norte.' That
movement of the army from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande, a
distance of more than 100 miles, was an invasion of Mexican
territory,—an act of war for which the President was and must
ever be held responsible by the general judgment of mankind."

_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall
of the Slave Power in America,
volume 2, chapter 2._

ALSO IN:
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 2, chapter 149._

MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847.
The American conquest of California.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847.

MEXICO: A. D. 1846-1847.
War with the United States.
The first movements of American invasion.
Palo Alto.
Resaca de la Palma.
Monterey.
Buena Vista.
Fremont in California.

"The annexation of Texas accomplished [see TEXAS: A. D.
1824-1836, and 1836-1845], General Taylor, the United States
commander in the Southwest, received orders to advance to the
Rio Grande. Such was the impoverished and distracted condition
of Mexico that she apparently contemplated no retaliation for
the injury she had sustained, and, had the American army
remained at the Nueces, a conflict might perhaps have been
avoided. But, on Taylor's approaching the Rio Grande, a combat
ensued [May 8, 1846] at Palo Alto with Arista, the Mexican
commander, who crossed over that stream. It ended in the
defeat of the Mexicans, and the next day another engagement
took place at Resaca de la Palma, with the same result. These
actions eventually assumed considerable political importance.
They were among the causes of General Taylor's subsequent
elevation to the Presidency. As soon as intelligence of what
had occurred reached Washington, President Polk, forgetting
that the author of a war is not he who begins it, but he who
has made it necessary, addressed a special message to Congress
announcing that the Mexicans 'had at last invaded our
territory, and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our
own soil.' Congress at once (May 13th, 1846) passed an act
providing money and men.
{2174}
Its preamble stated, 'Whereas, by the act of the Republic of
Mexico, a state of war exists between that country and the
United States, be it enacted,' etc. As long previously as
1843, Mr. Bocanegra, the Mexican Minister of Foreign
Relations, had formally notified the American government that
the annexation of Texas would inevitably lead to war. General
Almonte, the Mexican minister at Washington, in a note to Mr.
Upshur, the Secretary of State, said that, 'in the name of his
nation, and now for them, he protests, in the most solemn
manner, against such an aggression; and he moreover declares,
by express order of his government, that, on sanction being
given by the executive of the Union to the incorporation of
Texas into the United States, he will consider his mission
ended, seeing that, as the Secretary of State will have
learned, the Mexican government is resolved to declare war as
soon as it receives intimation of such an act.' War being thus
provoked by the American government, General Scott received
orders (November 18th, 1846) to take command of the expedition
intended for the invasion of Mexico."

_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 23 (volume 1)._

After his defeat at Resaca de la Palma, the Mexican general
Arista "retreated in the direction of San Luis Potosi, and was
superseded by General Pedro Ampudia. General Taylor marched
his forces across the Rio Grande on the 17th of May and the
invasion of Mexico was begun in earnest. From the 21st to the
24th of September, he was engaged with 7,000 men in the attack
upon Monterey, the capital of Nueva Leon, garrisoned by a
force of 9,000. He met with the same success which had
attended his former engagements. General Ampudia was also
forced to retire to San Luis Potosi. The brilliant features of
this attack were the assault upon Obispado Viejo by General
Worth on the first day of the fight, and the storming of the
heights above on the following day. … Upon the defeat of
Ampudia, Santa Anna, having then just attained to the chief
magistracy of Mexico [the American blockading squadron at Vera
Cruz had permitted him to return to the country, expecting
that his presence would be advantageous to the invaders], and
left it in the hands of his Vice-President, Gomez Farias, took
the command of the Mexican forces and set out to check the
advance of General Taylor. On the 23d of February, 1847, the
bloody battle of Angostura, as it is called by the Mexicans
(known to the Americans as the battle of Buena Vista), was
fought, and lost by the Mexican army. Santa Anna returned to
San Luis Potosi, whence he was called to the capital to head
off the insurrection against Gomez Farias, by the party called
derisively the Polkos, because their insurrection at that time
was clearly favorable to the movements of the American army,
and because James K. Polk was then the President of the United
States and head of the American party favorable to the war. It
was at this time that the army of Taylor was reduced to about
5,000 men in order to supply General Winfield Scott with
forces to carry out his military operations, and the field of
war was transferred to the region between Vera Cruz and the
capital. While these events were in progress an expedition
under General John C. Fremont had been made over-land through
New Mexico and into California [see CALIFORNIA: A. D.
1846-1847; and NEW MEXICO: A. D. 1846], and under the
directions of the United States government the Mexicans of
California had been incited to revolt."

_A. H. Noll,
Short History of Mexico,
chapter 9._

ALSO IN:
_H. Von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the U. S.,
volume 3, chapters 4-9._

_H. O. Ladd,
History of the War with Mexico,
chapters 4-8._

_E. D. Mansfield,
History of the Mexican War,
chapters 2-4 and 8._

_O. O. Howard,
General Taylor,
chapters 8-19._

MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (March-September).
General Scott's campaign.
From Vera Cruz to the capital.
Cerro Gordo.
Contreras.
Churubusco.
Molino del Rey.
Chapultepec.
The conquest complete.

"General Winfield Scott was ordered to Mexico, to take chief
command and conduct the war according to his own plan. This
was, in brief, to carry an expedition against Vera Cruz,
reduce its defences, and then march on the city of Mexico by
the shortest route. … On the 7th of March [1847], the fleet
with Scott's army came to anchor a few miles south of Vera
Cruz, and two days later he landed his whole force—nearly
12,000 men—by means of surf-boats. Vera Cruz was a city of
7,000 inhabitants, strongly fortified. … On the 22d the
investment was complete. A summons to surrender being refused,
the batteries opened, and the bombardment was kept up for four
days, the small war vessels joining in it. The Mexican
batteries and the castle [of San Juan de Ulloa, on a reef in
the harbor] replied with spirit, and with some little effect;
but the city and castle were surrendered on the 27th. The want
of draught animals and wagons delayed till the middle of April
the march upon the capital of the country, 200 miles distant.
The first obstacle was found at Cerro Gordo, 50 miles
northwest of Vera Cruz, where the Mexicans had taken position
on the heights around a rugged mountain pass, with a battery
commanding every turn of the road. A way was found to flank
the position on the extreme left, and on the morning of April
18th the Americans attacked in three columns. … The
divisions of Twiggs and Worth … attacked the height of Cerro
Gordo, where the Mexicans were most strongly intrenched, and
where Santa Anna commanded in person. This being carried by
storm, its guns were turned first upon the retreating
Mexicans, and then upon the advanced position that Pillow was
assaulting in front. The Mexicans, finding themselves
surrounded, soon surrendered. Santa Anna, with the remainder
of his troops, fled toward Jalapa, where Scott followed him
and took the place."

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 14._