Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/810

794 Iturbide, on the other hand, had disgusted most of the monarchists who had lent their aid on his assumption of the crown, and the order, monarchical in its principles at first, was ready to receive with favor the idea of a central republic with the reins of government under its own control. Under all circumstances, the existing condition of affairs could not last. The republican party was hourly gaining strength; the monarchists, not to be left behind in the race for power, preferred to change their tactics. By the Spaniards the author of the plan of Iguala was hated; and for all parties no form of government could be much worse than the present absolutism. Iturbide's downfall was, therefore, darkly foreshadowed, while he alone seemed blind to the fact. Though he must have been aware that the masonic lodges were largely composed of military officers who had sworn to uphold the plan of Iguala which he was trampling underfoot it seems never to have entered his mind that from that quarter would come a fatal blow. Yet it was so. The influence in the lodges over the military members was preponderating. Cortazar and Lobato belonged to the society; Moran, the comandante general of Puebla, and Negrete in Mexico were in accord with its leading members; and Echávarri had been lately admitted into it. Hence his inactivity before Vera Cruz, and hence the proclamation of the famous plan of Casa Mata on the 1st of February.

On that day a junta of the military chiefs was held and the act signed by them unanimously, as well as by representatives of the ranks. By it the army pledged itself to reëstablish and support the national