The possession of Guadalajara supplied Hidalgo with a powerful means of advancing the cause of the revolution by extending more widely and generally the principles upon which it was based, and by placing within reach of the reading public his replies to proclamations of the royalists, and his refutations of attacks upon himself. For there was in this city a printing-press. When the revolution broke out there were but few printing-presses in all New Spain, one at each of the cities of Mexico, Puebla, Guadalajara, and Vera Cruz;[1] and all being under the control of the government, the independents not only found great difficulty in publishing accounts of their operations, but were also unable to contradict false representations, issue appeals, or counteract the exhortations to loyalty widely spread by Venegas. This obstacle was now removed, and Hidalgo established a periodical which he called the Despertador Americano, and caused it widely to be circulated.[2] Replies to numerous proclamations, pamphlets, and other papers that had been issued by the opposite party were now published, and among them Hidalgo's memorable one to the citation of the inquisition which he had lately penned in Valladolid.[3]
All the while his attention was closely given to military preparations. The arsenal at San Blas supplied him with cannon and munitions of war, and he caused no less than forty-four pieces of artillery to be transported thence with incredible labor over a most difficult road to Guadalajara. He ordered a large number of men to be recruited; and to supply the want of fire-arms, quantities of grenades and iron-pointed rock-
- ↑ The one at Vera Cruz was worked but a short time. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i., iii. preface.
- ↑ A copy of the first number is given in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., ii. 309-12. It was issued on the 20th of Dec. 1810.
- ↑ Hidalgo states in his deposition taken at his trial that only two manifests published in the Despertador Americano were written by him, the reply mentioned in the text and another 'cuyo objeto es probar que el Américano debe gobernarse por Américano, asi como el Alemán por Alemán, etc. Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., i. 12.
