Francisco Xavier Mina, leader of a semi-filibustering expedition, who attempted to cooperate with the remnant of the insurgent forces still operating in scattered bands under various chieftains. Mina, an enthusiastic liberal from Spain, sought to enlist recruits and financial support for the Mexican revolution both in England and in America. Having raised a few hundred men, he landed on the coast of Tamaulipas in April, 1817, and attempted an overland march to Guanajuato, where he expected to unite with the revolutionists still left in the field. Near San Luis Potosí his handful of men met and defeated a force of 1700 royalists; but this, with a few minor successes won shortly afterwards, constituted the sole fruit of the expedition. After severe hardships and the loss of nearly his whole command, Mina himself was captured and executed, November 11, 1817.

Following the failure of the Mina expedition the prospects of the revolution underwent complete eclipse. Most of the remaining insurgent leaders were captured and shot. availed themselves of the clemency held out by the new viceroy, Apodaca, and obtained the royal pardon. Only Victoria and Guerrero kept the field-the former hunted like a wild beast, without a single friend or companion; the latter desperately striving to hold together a few ragged followers, hoping that in some way his pitiful band might become the nucleus for a renewed national uprising.

In the midst of this situation, when from the insurgent standpoint conditions were steadily going from bad to worse, an event occurred in Europe which changed the whole complexion of affairs and brought ultimate success to the virtually extinct rebellion. This was the Spanish revolution of 1820, the humiliation of Ferdinand VII, and the restoration of the liberal constitution of 1812. The triumph of the revolutionists in Spain accomplished for Mexico what ten years of savage fighting had failed to effect. A new vigor was enfused into the movement for independence. The royalists saw little hope of permanently crushing the revolution in Mexico with the liberals in the saddle at Madrid. Finally, certain of the more powerful classes previously opposed to the revolution (including especially the higher dignitaries of the church) saw with despair that the new order in Spain presaged a serious curtailment of their privileges both in Spain and in the colonies, and so resolved, by making themselves leaders of the revolution, to bend it to their own purposes and thus to save in Mexico what the liberals were denying them in Spain.

The leader of this new phase of the revolution was Augustín de Iturbide, a native of Valladolid (Mexico), who from 1810 to 1816 had been one of the most vigorous and ruthless opponents the movement for independence had anywhere encountered

Because of popular dissatisfaction in one of the provinces over which the viceroy had made him military ruler, Iturbide had been removed, and for a number of years lived in retirement. From this obscurity he was recalled by a group of conspirators who hoped to bring about the independence of Mexico from the new régime in Spain. Obtaining the viceroy's appointment to lead a considerable force into the south of Mexico, where Guerrero was still at large, Iturbide soon made common cause with the revolutionary commander and on February 24, 1821, published a pronunciamento called the Plan of Iguala.

This document proclaimed the independence of Mexico from Spain, ordained the Roman Catholic religion as the only religion to be tolerated in the country, guaranteed protection to the regular and secular clergy in all their rights and properties, set up a constitutional monarchy, with Ferdinand VII the chosen sovereign, and proclaimed the perfect equality of Mexicans and Spaniards. The support of the new government was entrusted to the "army of the three guaranties," so called because of its obligations to defend the Roman Catholic Church, maintain independence, and preserve the union of Spaniards and Americans.

The success of the revolution under Iturbide's leadership and the Plan of Iguala was assured from the beginning. Royalists, clergy, and old-line revolutionists alike flocked to his standard. The viceroy, Apodaca, was forced by his own supporters to resign, thus making way for a man of more liberal tendencies, General Juan O'Donojú. When the latter reached Mexico, he found the country so completely under revolutionary control that only three cities remained in the hands of the royalists. It was not long, accordingly, before he began to negotiate with the revolutionists. The result was the celebrated convention of Cordova. By the terms of this agreement, O'Donojú recognized the independence of Mexico under a form of government which still bound that country very closely to Spain. The throne of the new empire was first to be offered to Ferdinand VII; and then in case of his refusal, to his brother, Charles. If Charles declined, two other possible European candidates were to be approached; and if neither of these accepted, the sovereign. should then be chosen by the Mexican Congress

Following the signing of this treaty, Iturbide marched into the capital in great state, September 27, 1821, and was everywhere greeted as the liberator of the nation. The city council, or ayuntamiento, presented him with a gold key upon a silver platter. The people shouted themselves hoarse with enthusiasm. The Imperial Gazette proclaimed the triumph greater than any witnessed in Imperial Rome.

With the suspension of O'Donojú's powers, a regency with Iturbide as its head was next appointed to govern the country until the emperor should be chosen, and in February, 1822, the

first congress elected under the Plan of Iguala assembled at the capital. Almost from the beginning this body set about disputing the powers of the regency. The next month word came that the Spanish government had rejected the treaty of Cordova in toto and refused to sanction Mexican independence.

A Short-lived Empire: Spain's action presented an opportunity of which Iturbide was quick to take advantage. On the night of May 18, 1822, a mob formed in the streets of the capital, and under the influence of pulque, excitement, and a few turbulent soldiers, proclaimed Iturbide Emperor of Mexico. The latter, after a show of reluctance customary in such cases, gave his consent to this tumultuous choice. The next day, after considerable opposition, he was formally proclaimed "Constitutional Emperor of Mexico" by an extraordinary session of congress and took the title of Augustus the First. A month later the same body passed a law declaring the monarchy "moderate, constitutional, and hereditary." On July 21, Iturbide was formally crowned emperor in the great cathedral of Mexico, amid an ostentatious display and the shouts of the multitude.

The rule of the new sovereign was short-lived. The adherents of Ferdinand secretly sought his overthrow. The republicans were outraged by the regal airs of his court. Congress found its powers constantly trespassed upon by his assumption of authority. A keen observer, early in his reign, thus foretold his overthrow-and incidentally diagnosed the weakness of many a subsequent administration under the republic.

"With a pleasing address," wrote Joel R. Poinsett, later American minister to Mexico, and a prepossessing exterior, and by lavish profusion Iturbide has attached the officers and soldiers to his person, and so long as he possesses the means of paying and rewarding them, so long will he maintain himself on his throne; when these fail he will be precipitated from it. It is a maxim of history, which will probably be again illustrated by this example, that a government not founded on public opinion, but established and supported by corruption and violence, cannot exist without ample means to pay the soldiery, and to maintain pensioners and partisans."'

The struggle between Iturbide and congress came to a head in the fall of 1822. After imprisoning a number of the leaders of the opposition, the emperor issued a decree on October 30 dissolving congress and set himself to govern the country with the aid of a self-constituted junta. Almost immediately discontent flared forth into action. On December 2, Santa Anna, a man whose ambitions were not unlike those of Iturbide himself, "proclaimed" against the government at Vera Cruz. Victoria, Bravo, and Guerrero, battle scarred leaders of the revolution as they were, soon joined the movement. On February 1, 1823, the Plan of Casa Mata, signed by numerous army officers, furnished a basis for organized revolt in favor of a representative government as opposed to Iturbide's autocracy. By March, the oppo

sition had become strong enough to force the emperor's abdication. On April 7, congress declared the original coronation of Iturbide null and void, voted him an annual pension of 25,000 pesos, and exiled him from the country. A few days later, the same body ordered the election of delegates to a constitutional convention and proclaimed a republican form of government for Mexico.

After a brief stay in Italy, where he apparently came to fear the designs of the Holy Alliance to reconquer Mexico, Iturbide offered to return to his native land to aid congress in whatever capacity the government might choose. Instead of accepting his offer, however, congress declared him an outlaw and voted the death penalty against him if he should set foot on Mexican soil again. Ignorant of this proscription, Iturbide landed on the coast of Tamaulipas with a single companion, July 15, 1824. He was recognized and arrested by the military commander of the district. When his case was laid before the legislature of Tamaulipas, that body voted his execution in keeping with the national decree already spoken of. The sentence was carried out four days later in the small town of Padilla. In 1838, the "Liberator's" remains were transferred to the capital, where they were buried in the stately cathedral in which the bodies of Hidalgo, Allende, Morelos and other "benemeritos" had already been interred.

VI. FROM INDEPENDENCE TO DIAZ

Problems of the New Government: The abdication of Iturbide left Mexican politics in extreme confusion. The constituent congress, which began its sessions November 7, 1893, sat almost a year before completing its labors. From the very begin ning the delegates were divided into two clearly defined parties-the centralists and federalists. The former wished to keep the national government as supreme under the republic as it had been under the Spanish monarchy, when the provinces and intendencies were merely administrative units. The federalists, backed by many local bodies throughout the country, sought to divide the powers of government between the national authority and the authority of the states. Their model for this was the government of the United States.

In the case of the United States, however, the division of powers was the result of historical circumstance. In Mexico, it was purely artificial. In the former instance, the thirteen states created the federal government and voted to it a share of their own sovereignty. In the case of Mexico, there were no states until the central government had created them. The United States of America represented a fusion of powers to

obtain unity and strength. The United States of Mexico represented a division of powers at the expense of unity and strength.

Aside from the adoption of the federal principle and the division of the country into eighteen states and four territories, the new constitution, proclaimed October 4, 1824, contained a number of provisions of peculiar interest. The legislative and executive branches of government were modeled closely after those of the United States. Congress consisted of two houses, the one comprised of two members from each state, the other chosen according to population. The president was elected for four years and had the power of veto. The chief departures from the provisions of the American document lay in the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion as the only religion legally permitted in the country; in vesting the executive with certain arbitrary powers of arrest; in establishing a special committee, composed of one senator from each state, to exercise various functions of congress when that body was not in session; and in giving congress instead of the courts the power of interpreting the constitution. A number of these provisions, one might add, have been adhered to in all subsequent Mexican constitutions.

Even before the constitution was formally approved, Guadeloupe Victoria and Nicholás Bravo, distinguished generals of the revolution, had been chosen president and vice-president respectively of the republic. The problems of Mexico, however, were by no means solved with the inauguration of the new government; and to understand the subsequent course of Mexican history, it is necessary to appreciate in some fashion how difficult and deep rooted many of these problems were.

The ten years of revolution through which the country had just passed left behind a legacy of evil. The chief industries of the country, especially mining and agriculture, were completely demoralized. Almost all the available capital had been dissipated or driven out of the country. Roads and bridges had been so destroyed by the military forces, or had gone so long without repair, that transportation was virtually at a standstill. Public revenues had fallen to 50 per cent of their former amount, while national expenditures were running twice as large as the receipts. Labor was badly disorganized as the laborers had either been killed or scattered by the contending forces. In short, the purchasing and producing power of the country was at its lowest ebb. From the economic standpoint, Mexico was bankrupt.

But the effects of the revolution in a material way were even less unfortunate than its influence along other lines. The excesses of the armies (both Spanish and Mexican alike), the unrestrained cruelties, the looting and confiscation of property, the collapse of authority and non-enforcement of law all alike served to create a spirit of revolution throughout the country which the mere proclamation of a republic could not allay, and to give to