Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/395

Rh forces and established itself at Sultepec, matters on the whole for a time looked well for the independent cause. Calleja had suffered a signal repulse at Cuautla; near Izúcar were the forces which had placed Llano in so compromised a position; Atlixco was threatened, the provinces were overrun by revolutionary troops, and Calleja was at a standstill. About this time an idea became prevalent that the struggle would soon be terminated by a compromise favorable to independence, and it was even hinted at by an article in the government organ, which announced with satisfaction an arrangement entered into by Francisco Xavier Elio, viceroy of the provinces of Rio de la Plata, with the revolutionary junta in Buenos Aires. This was the first time that the possibility of a compromise was broached; for hitherto, to speak of affairs in the other Spanish American possessions, was but to tell of royalist victories. Some thought the viceroy leaned that way, but that was not so. No one knew better than he that in the present war there was no possibility of compromise. There must be either freedom or bondage. But the junta at Sultepec, under the impression that the time had come for making some such proposal, approved two plans or projects devised by Doctor Cos, which he respectively named Plan of peace and Plan of war. These, accompanied with a manifesto entitled "de la nacion americana á los europeos habitantes de este continente," were sent in the name of the junta to the viceroy, together with a letter dated March 16th. At the same time copies of the documents were distributed to the corporations and chief authorities in the country.