Paredes was not to be moved by so flimsy a display of generosity, for his prominence secured his life, at least under actual circumstances. It is certain, however, that he was placed under momentary arrest and exiled to Toluca for refusing to fall in with the views of a government which sought to remove him to a safe distance, by charging him with the expedition to Yucatan.
Paredes wished to be with his friends and near the scene of action; and leave of absence having been granted, he found himself at Guadalajara to manœuvre the pronunciamiento now bursting upon the country. Accepting the proffered leadership, he on November 2d issued a manifesto, charging the government in the most scathing terms with violation of pledges and abuse of trust, especially during the dictatorship, and declaring Santa Anna suspended from office pending an examination of his acts by the congress.[1] The government, now thoroughly startled, sought to conceal the importance of the movement, and came forward with exaggerated reports of some petty victories over the Indians on the south coast. Finding this useless, it openly hastened to take precautions, including a reënforcement of the garrison at Mexico, which revealed its doubts regarding the capital itself. In a flaming proclamation it thereupon stamped the pronunciados as enemies of the country, and Paredes as
- ↑ The power intrusted under the bases of Tacubaya was probably excessive, but only provisional. Santa Anna's protestations had been accepted and proved false. Instead of carrying out the great reforms to which he stood pledged, he had abandoned himself to a course the most mean and selfish. The manifesto enumerates the proposed reforms in army, public offices, etc., and proceeds to paint the work effected in the most abusive terms. The ayuntamiento of the city on the same day signed approval of the act. Jal., Iniciativa, 19-34. The abuse herein poured upon his late patron by Paredes was hardly consistent with the language and acts used not long before in his support. Indeed, Santa Anna caused to be inserted in the Diario Gob. of Nov. 11, 1844, a number of letters from Paredes, written at the very time the revolution was planning, wherein he addresses him in the most affectionate terms. See also Pabel. Nac., Nov. 12, 1844.
of Paredes' perseverance in his course. 'Santa-Anna obró como un caballero,' but he was treated as he had treated Bustamante. Hist. Santa Anna, 306. As additional propitiation, Paredes was offered the well-paid and almost sinecure office of administrator of mails at Mexico.
