Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/240

 202 MEXICO. Provisional Junta was installed, the establishment of which was provided for by the fifth Article of the plan of Iguala. This Junta, which was composed of thirty-six persons, elect- ed a Regency, consisting of five individuals, of Avhich Itur- bide was made President : he was at the same time cre- ated Generalissimo, and Lord High Admiral, and assign- ed a yearly salary of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Up to this time Iturbide's plans had been completely suc- cessful. He seemed to have carried the nation along with him? and, in every thing that could tend to promote a separation from Spain, not a single dissenting voice had been heard. But, from the moment that the future organization of the Government came under discussion, this apparent unanimity was at an end. One of the first duties of the Provisional Junta was to prepare a plan for assembling a National Con- gress ; and this, at Iturbide's suggestion, was done in such a way as to pledge the Deputies to the adoption of the plan of Iguala in all its parts, by obliging them to swear to observe it, before they could take their seats in the Congress. Many of the old Insurgents thought that this was restricting too much the powers of the people, who ought to be allowed to approve, or reject, through the medium of their representatives, what had been done in their name, but without their authority. Guadaliipe Victoria was one of the advocates of this opinion, and was driven again into banishment by the persecution which it drew upon him. Generals Bravo and Guerrero were likewise of the same mode of thinking, as, indeed, were a host of others; and thus, although Iturbide succeeded in carrying his point, and, in compelling the deputies to take the oath proposed, the seeds of discontent were sown before the sessions of the Congress commenced. On the 24th February, 1822, the first Mexican Cortes met, and three distinct parties were soon organized amongst the members. The Bourbonists, who wished to adhere to the