Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/763

Rh No one was blind to the fact that a blow had been struck at the liberty of the people in their sovereign right to select their representatives without restriction. It was generally understood that the limitation of the number of ecclesiastical, military, and juristic representatives, and their exclusion from the second chamber, were intended to deprive congress of the intelligence which particularly belonged to those classes owing to their superior education. Moreover, the declaration by the junta that the congress should be divided into two chambers was an assumption of a faculty outside its attributes. That a provisional junta should dictate constitutional laws to a future constituent assembly was ridiculous. But Iturbide expected to be made the president whenever the two chambers deliberated together, since obviously neither of the respective presidents could preside on such occasions.

The consequence of this policy was, as might be Expected, conspiracy. Such an arbitrary plan should not be carried into effect without an effort being made to prevent it. A plot was formed, the object of which was to secure the untrammelled liberty of election and the establishment of a republic. The conspirators were men already eminent, and among them were Guadalupe Victoria, Nicolás Bravo, the brigadier Miguel Barragan, Juan Morales, president of the supreme court of justice, the padres Carbajal and Jimenez. Captain Borja, and other officers. Secret meetings were held at the house of Miguel Dominguez—with whom the reader is already acquainted as former corregidor of Querétaro—and it was decided to address a representation to Iturbide; if this failed to obtain redress, then his person was to be seized,