tempt to solve such an important question on his unsupported judgment.[1]
Santa Anna was ordered to surrender the command of the army to Manuel Rincon or Juan Álvarez. Some bitter correspondence passed between the ex-president and the present incumbent, through Minister La Rosa, who told the former that orders for his trial had been issued because it was necessary to bring the army under discipline, and to energetically repress insubordination and cowardice. Santa Anna was also severely rebuked for the disrespectful tone of his communications to President Peña. He obeyed the order, delivering the command to his second, General Reyes, who was to hold it till the arrival of the commander designated by the government.[2]
Santa Anna's late military efforts had failed, partly through the lack of morale among his troops; it had been beaten out of them by constant revolutions, or if not by these, certainly by their defeats in the northern campaign. But the blame falls also upon his ow blunders and shortcomings, his uneven capacity and instability of purpose, manifested especially in the battle-field. He redeems himself, on the other hand, with many a diplomatic triumph, and shines with his energy, in rising indomitably after every disaster, in creating resources, forming armies, directing a number of admirable measures, and inspiring all around with zeal.[3]
- ↑ The governors were requested to suggest, in the event of their not favoring a continuation of the war, the best mode of conducting it for the national safety and honor.
- ↑ Santa Anna went to reside with his family in Tehuacan, where he narrowly escaped capture by Lane on the 23d of January. Early in 1848 he obtained a passport to go abroad, and with a safe-conduct of the U. S. forces embarked at La Antigua on the Spanish brig Pepita. Early in 1850 he went to Cartagena, and fixed his residence in Turbaco. Subsequent political events in Mexico recalled him to his country.
- ↑ Besides the defence of his conduct issued in Apelacion, Mex., 1849, 71 and 184 pp., which covers the entire campaign, and in Detall de las Oper., 1-48, relating to the defence of the capital, Santa Anna appealed also to the public in Manif. Mex., 1848, 1-12, and Comunic. Ofic., Guad., 1848, 1-11; Pap. Var., xcix., pts 17-18; and through journals like Arco Iris, Razonador, Nov. 3, 6, 1847, Jan. 1, 1848, etc. He was the most prominent fighter of Mexico in the war of 1846-8. Roa Bárcena, Recuerdos, 533.
