Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/58

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CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT.

1. Suppression of secret societies; 2. Dismissal of the cabinet; 3. Dismissal of Poinsett, the American minister; 4. A strict fulfilment of the constitution and laws.^[1] Under the existing circumstances and the well founded apprehension that the yorkinos would enact proscriptive measures against them, the novenarios were in a great measure justified for their own protection in demanding a change of ministry.^[2] The plan was printed and circulated on the 30th of December, in the city of Mexico. The real authors soon became known; for on the next day Bravo and Berdejo and a number of colonels and other officers began to leave the capital. Gabriel Armijo in San Luis Potosí, and Barragan in Vera Cruz, accepted the plan. Teran, Hernandez, Moran, and Santa Anna were also said to have done so, but there is no evidence of the fact, though Moran certainly received the conspirators in his house. Sante Anna suddenly appeared in Huamantla; but it remains unexplained how a military officer came to find himself without leave from the governinent in a town so close to the centre of a rebellion.^[3] No other name is more applicable to this movement, which had a general-in-chief, staff, treasury, and all other elements pertaining to an army. Bravo was the commander; and we now behold the strange spectacle of the vice-president of the republic, who was also a general of division, whose bounden duty it was to support the gov-

↑ Pedraza, the minister of war, had been in June accused of malefeasance, probably with good reason in some cases, but he had successfully defended himself. Cor. Fed. Mex., 1827, Aug. 6, 7; La Palanca, 1827, Aug. 9-30; Mora, Obras Sueltas, ii. 244-7, 280-1.
↑ Suarez y Navarro finds the justification in Pedraza's own statements. Hist. Méx., 89-97.
↑ Tornel, Breve Reseña Hist., 198; Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 836-7. Tornel says that Santa Anna was always hostile to secret societies; but Alaman positively asserts that he saw the diploma of high office in a Scottish rite lodge issued to him in Yucatan. Santa Anna had been removed from his command in that locality for meditating a sudden dash with 500 men upon the Cabaña fortress of Habana. He was vice-governor of Vera Cruz when he went to Huamantla. It was believed by the escoceses, and appearances justified the impression, that he went there to join Bravo, but on seeing the superiority of the government forces he tendered his services to their commander, which were accepted, but not till he had been reproved for his suspicious actions.

[1] Pedraza, the minister of war, had been in June accused of malefeasance, probably with good reason in some cases, but he had successfully defended himself. Cor. Fed. Mex., 1827, Aug. 6, 7; La Palanca, 1827, Aug. 9-30; Mora, Obras Sueltas, ii. 244-7, 280-1.

[2] Suarez y Navarro finds the justification in Pedraza's own statements. Hist. Méx., 89-97.

[3] Tornel, Breve Reseña Hist., 198; Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 836-7. Tornel says that Santa Anna was always hostile to secret societies; but Alaman positively asserts that he saw the diploma of high office in a Scottish rite lodge issued to him in Yucatan. Santa Anna had been removed from his command in that locality for meditating a sudden dash with 500 men upon the Cabaña fortress of Habana. He was vice-governor of Vera Cruz when he went to Huamantla. It was believed by the escoceses, and appearances justified the impression, that he went there to join Bravo, but on seeing the superiority of the government forces he tendered his services to their commander, which were accepted, but not till he had been reproved for his suspicious actions.

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