Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/562

 522 APPEN DI X. For this first step the force already indicated will be sufficient^ parti- cularly if it be placed under the orders of officers of merit and discern- ment, who know something more than merely how to manoeuvre their troops, and who, by a seasonable combination of justice with SiCverity, energy with prudence, will inspire at once respect, love, and confidence. It will then be easy to establish respectable detachments at the principal points, and to employ flying divisions, in order to clear the roads, and to watch over the interests of the farmer, the miner, and the merchant. The villages will then be reduced to obedience ; the thou- sands, who now live by plunder, will be forced again to seek, Tby their own labour, their daily bread. The muleteer would resume his former employment, which he has exchanged for that of Insurgent, perhaps from necessity, or despair: — the same will occur with the miners, whose case is similar : capitals will be again invested : the receipts of the Treasury will increase : want will disappear, blood will cease to flow : many of our present opponents will come over to our side : The well-disposed will be encouraged, and the hopes of those fanatics stifled and destroyed, who profess loyalty only to undermine the monarchy with greater security. When I stated to your Excellency that no other mode than that which I have suggested, remained for putting an end to the rebellion, I did so because I have already tried every other method without eflFect. A con- stant Indulto has opened the way for a reconciliation with the Govern- ment ever since the first rising of Hidalgo. I have refused to act upon denunciations with a certain knowledge that my having done so was known to the persons implicated, in order to see whether generosity would move them. I have inclined the balance of justice to the side of mercy, in notorious cases of disafi"ection ; I have endeavoured to convert the deluded by representing the evils which they would draw upon them- selves by exhausting the patience of the Government : I have used me- naces of positive rigour towards the most obstinate, which I have not always carried into effect, because I did not conceive that I had a force sufficient to bear me out in it ; and I have employed reason and argument in order to destroy their errors. Nay, more : reflecting that since the Con- stitution was sworn, it was necessary to observe it, particularly since the natives had shown themselves so much attached to the cause, I nnade use of this Code in order to gain their good-will, and accommodated myself to the principles proclaimed by the Government which then ruled, and which, whether good or bad, it was necessary to support, in order to avoid positive anarchy. But all my hopes were vain, since they only liked the Constitution be- cause it was a useful tool. A proclamation which I published on as- suming the reins of government, expressing the political principles which I had resolved to pursue, produced no sort of efi'ect ; nor was a second manifesto, circulated in June last, more fortunate. It is impossible