But the assembly was not going to be led by the ears, as had been the junta, and maintained its resolution. Thus within a month hostilities commenced, the regency charging the congress with neglect in attending to the urgent needs of the treasury, with the design of destroying "the most meritorious part of the community"—namely, the army—and the congress accusing the regency of wasteful expenditure, and of failure to put in execution the measures adopted for temporary relief.[1] Indeed, the congress was hard tried, and whether it resorted for relief to the church and religious orders, to the temporalities of the Jesuits, or to the reëstablishment of abolished duties, its measures were more or less generally unpopular, and met with opposition.
The want of union was not without result, and General Dávila believed that the restoration of the Spanish power might still be effected by a counterrevolution. Owing to the want of transports, many of the Spanish forces which had capitulated had not yet left the country, but were stationed at different places,[2] waiting for opportunities to depart. These troops, having been allowed to retain their arms, had already shown symptoms of the disgust which they felt at the termination of the war, and at having to retire ingloriously from a land which had been kept in subjection for three centuries by their forefathers.
- ↑ By decree of March 11th the congress had left it to the regency to employ such means as its faculties allowed, until a regular system of finance could be adopted. It moreover ordered that the amounts which had been collected of the loan of $1,500,000, which Iturbide had been authorized by the junta to raise, should be applied to the support of the troops. Decreto del Congreso, 16 de Marzo, 1822. By the same decree the government was authorized to sell property of the extinguished Jesuit society, but only in case the above means failed to meet the emergency. This measure met with much opposition. The extinction of this society was one of the causes which had led to the insurrection of 1810, and it was generally hoped that its restoration would be effected by the independence. A large number of ecclesiastical and civil corporations in 1821 had petitioned the junta to reëstablish the order. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. ap. doc. 17.
- ↑ There were 1,103 soldiers with 186 officers at Jalapa, and 1,400 more at Toluca, Cuautitlan, Tezcuco, and Cuernavaca. Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., vi. 62.
