Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/417

 336 afterward, Iturbidé ascended the Imperial throne, to enjoy a short and troubled reign; and it was, perhaps, by the false direction given to public sentiment and the ideas of the masses at this early moment of Independence, that we may attribute the subsequent disorders of the Republic. It is true, that Mexico was not then prepared for perfect democracy; but as the nation required a patriotic direction, efforts should have been made, under proper checks and balances, to win the minds of the people to a love of those free institutions which the pure and intellectual men of the country have been ever desiring. Dissatisfied as the Mexicans were with the administration and principles of Iturbtdé, they resorted to no acts of violence against an individual who had so signally aided them in their recent conflict. They provided an ample support for himself and family, after his dethronement, and on the eleventh of May, 1823, he sailed for Leghorn.

It is at this period that, in fact, commences the portion of Mexican history with which it is our chief interest to deal. The war of Independence, as we have seen, was a war of escape. It settled no principle,—established no system. And when the old order of things had entirely disappeared, the question rose as to what should be the government hereafter. Independence had opened the rest of the world to the inspection of the Mexicans. They beheld the progress of art, civilization, and freedom among their immediate neighbors at the north, and they resolved to adopt our system. After the departure of the Emperor, the Government remained provisionally in the hands of Bravo, Victoria, and Negrete; and a National Representative body, after a session of fourteen months, formed a Constitution, (proclaimed on the 4th of October, 1824,) by which the sixteen original States were united in a Federal Republic.

On the 1st of January, 1825, the first Congress under this Constitution assembled in the City of Mexico, and General Victoria was installed as President of the Republic. During the administration of this person, the spirit of discontent already broke forth among the ambitious spirits of the country, and there were several "Pronuncuamientons," or declarations of distinguished men, seconded by portions of the military, intended to excite revolutionary movements against the existing Government.

The first of these gritos was headed by Robato and Colonel Staboli, and designed, as they declared, to deprive every Spaniard throughout the country, of public employment. The next, was by Padre Arénas, against the Federative System, and in favor of Centralism;—and another, (also against federalism,) called the "Plan of Montanyo," was made at Tulancingo, but soon suppressed by Guerrero.

Upon the whole, however, the administration of Victoria passed off with some degree of popularity, until near its close, when the two great parties of the country became embodied and powerful in the associations known as the Escoceses and Yorkinos, or, Scotch and York lodges.

The Escoceses, or Scotch party, was decidedly in favor of the establishment of a political power with central strength, if not, indeed, of bringing