Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/313

Rh services, that they may satisfy their brutal thirst for blood, pillage, and reign of terror, such as unhappy Mexico had known all too often.

Gen. Victor assumed command of the troops; he sought a Federal government; a new constitution was made; and in October, 1824, Gen. Victor was appointed President of the Republic of Mexico.

During the emperor's absence in Italy, the National Congress passed a law, that in case the ex-emperor should ever attempt to land in this country (Mexico), in any capacity whatever, he should be arrested and declared an outlaw, and the authorities should punish him as such. The emperor was not aware of this act when he landed, which was July 14, 1824. Gen. Garza, then Governor of Vera Cruz, professed friendship for Iturbide, offering to assist him; and by his advice he went on towards the capital. When near Cordova, he was arrested as a traitor, tried, convicted, sentence of death passed upon him, and was shot at a small town named Medallin, near Vera Cruz, July 19, 1824. After his death he was taken to Vera Cruz, where a wild horse was hitched to his body, and dragged at a furious rate through some of the streets in Vera Cruz, after which he was buried without a coffin or a shroud. Thus the hero of Iguala, the liberator of Mexico, fell by the treachery of Gen. Santa Anna and his pretended friend, Gen. Garza, Governor of Vera Cruz.

The emperor's family soon afterwards removed with the remains to the United States, and settled down in Philadelphia, where they (except the son on Gen. Santa Anna's staff) now reside. The remains of the ex-emperor Iturbide were taken to the St. John's Catholic Church, Thirteenth street below Market street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Gen. Victor's new republican constitution did not prosper. The Catholic Church was again in its way and trouble. The elements of republicanism, following rapidly upon the heels of freedom from Spanish rule, had crept into the worn frame of Spanish misrule; and the intellect of the Creoles, expanding