Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/716

700 Spain since the reëstablishment of the constitutional regime had been subject to continual disturbances. The reforms and innovations introduced during the first session of the congress were vigorously maintained and extended in the second, the American deputies coöperating with the radicals in the hope that the independence of Spanish America might be achieved. The upsetting of the government policy in the metropolis was not without effect in the ultra-marine provinces. In New Spain the desire for independence, though restrained, was not dead. Visions of its consummation without the terrible disorder which had hitherto marked the revolution began to present themselves, and a radical change in public opinion was taking place. The troops, the ecclesiastics, government officials, property owners, and other influential classes were no longer disposed to aid in putting down the revolt that seemed impending. Even the Spaniards were not animated by the same by suplentes chosen in the same manner as those to the córtes of 1810, namely, Miguel Ramos Arizpe and José Mariano Michelena, both of whom had been active coöperators of the late revolution, the former in Valencia and the latter in Coruña. Arizpe had been confined since 1814 in the Carthusian convent near Valencia, whence he had been removed by Gen. Elío, for his connection with that revolution, to a more rigorous prison for trial; but the revolution having triumphed, on the 10th of March Arizpe was released, and was instrumental in saving Elío from being torn to pieces by the infuriated populace. The other members were José M. Couto, Manuel Cortazar, Francisco Fagoaga, José M. Montoya, and Juan de Dios Cañedo. With the exception of the last named, those suplentes, like the others of the Spanish ultramarine provinces, took part only in such discussions as interested their own party, which was the exaltado, or radical. Only suplentes represented America in the córtes of 1820. They urged the law of Sept. 27th for a complete forgetfulness of the past in the American provinces, whether wholly or partly pacified, to such inhabitants as should have recognized and sworn to support the constitution; all political prisoners were to receive unconditional amnesty. The same deputies, the most active of them being Arizpe, in a printed letter of Jan. 22, 1821, to the minister of war, called for the removal from office of viceroys Pezuela and Apodaca, generals Morillo, Cruz, and all other military officers who had distinguished themselves in the insurrection, for which reason they were represented as hostile to the constitutional system. The same deputies brought their influence to bear in favor of Juan O'Donoju's appointment to succeed Apodaca. Arizpe, Idea Gen. sobre conducta, 10-20; ''Alaman, Hist. Méj''., v. 23, 33-5.