MEXICO. to those of the other members of the Government, openly blamed his colleagues for consenting to recognize a Spanish Monarch on any terms; while Rayon only defended the measure on the score of expediency ^ " because the name of King still possessed such influence over the lower classes, that it was highly desirable to afford them the means of continuing in a state of insurrection, without shocking, in any way, their notions of what their duty to their Sovereign required.""* The intelligence of the installation of the Junta of ZTtacuaro was received, with great enthusiasm, by the Creoles through- out New Spain ; but the flattering hopes which this event excited, were, unfortunately, never realized. There was not, indeed, any want of good intentions, on the part of the Junta ; but the supremacy of its members was not, at first, generally acknowledged ; and when, by the accession of Morelos, they acquired additional influence, the destruction of their resi- dence by Calleja, and the preparations for the Congress of ChilpanzTngo, in which the Junta itself, was, finally, merged, prevented any decisive measures from being taken. It left however, some lasting memorials of its existence. I know few papers drawn up with greater moderation, or better calculated to produce a good, practical effect, than the Ma- nifesto, with the proposals for Peace, or War, transmitted in the name of the Junta, to the Viceroy, in the month of March, 1812. After an eloquent picture of the state to which fifteen months of civil war had reduced the country, and an appeal to the Viceroy, respecting the manner in which the miseries, inseparable from any state of warfare, had been augmented by the wanton sacrifice of the prisoners, Dr. Cos (by whom this manifesto was drawn up) proceeds to point out to Venegas his critical position ; the little dependence which he could place upon the Creole troops, who, sooner or later,
- Vide Original Letters, since published by Bustamante, in his Cuadro,
and Representation of Audiencia, Appendix.
