Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/386

360 to accept the pay of president while discharging the functions of his office.

On the 15th of August, Salas issued a proclamation, in which he announced to his countrymen that a new insult had been offered to them, and that another act of baseness had been perpetrated by the Americans. He alluded to the Californias, which, he said, "the Americans have now seized by the strong hand, after having villanously robbed us of Texas." He announced that the expedition which had been so long preparing would set forth in two days for the recovery of the country, and that measures would be taken to arrange the differences existing between the people of the Californias and the various preceding central administrations. In conclusion, he appealed eloquently to the Californians to second with their best exertions the attempt, which would be made to drive out the Americans, and to unite their rich and fertile territories forever to the Republic.

During the administration of this chief, various proclamations were issued to arouse the people to take part in the war, by enlisting and by contributing their means. Efforts were also made to organize the local militia, but with little effect.

Santa Anna, in his reply to Salas on the 20th of August, accepts the trust which is formally devolved upon him, and approves of the acts of the latter, especially in sending forward all the troops to Monterey, New Mexico, and California, and in summoning a Congress for the 6th of December. These, he says, are the two first wants of the nation, the formation of a constitution for the country, and the purification of the soil of the country from foreign invaders. These ends gained, he will gladly lay down his power. "My functions will cease," he says, "when I have established the nation in its rights; when I see its destinies controled by its legitimate representatives, and when I may be able, by the blessing of heaven, to lay at the feet of the national representatives laurels plucked on the banks of the Sabine—all of which must be due to the force and the will of the Mexican people."

Santa Anna at length quitted his hacienda, where he had doubtless been waiting for the opportune moment to arrive when he could best exhibit himself to the inhabitants of the capital, and profit by their highest enthusiasm, pushed to an extreme by alternate hopes and fears. On the 14th of September he reached Ayotla, a small town distant twenty-five miles from the city of Mexico. Here he received a communication from Almonte, the secretary of war, ad interim, proposing to him the supreme executive