with having broken his Coronation oath, by dissolving the Congress, and declared his own determination, and that of the garrison under his command, to re-assemble the Congress, and to support whatever form of Government that assembly might please to adopt.
To repress this dangerous spirit, Iturbide detached General Ĕchāvărĭ, a Spaniard, in whom he placed unlimited confidence, with a corps of troops sufficiently strong to invest Veracruz, and thus to compel Săntānă to submission. But that officer had been joined, in the interim, by Guadelupe Victoria, to whom he yielded the chief command, in the expectation that his name, and the known strictness of his principles, would inspire all those with confidence who were inclined to favour the establishment of a Republic. Nor was he deceived: Victorias character proved a powerful attraction; and Ĕchāvărĭ himself, after a few trifling actions in the vicinity of Puente del Rey, finding that public opinion was declaring itself every where against the Emperor, determined upon making common cause with the Garrison of Veracruz, and induced his whole army to follow his example.
On the 1st of February, 1823, an act was signed, called the Act of Casa-Mata, consisting of eleven articles, by which the armies pledged themselves to effect the re-establishment of the National Representative Assembly, and to support it against all attacks.
