Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/821

Rh at Leghorn on August 2d, the Rawlins was quarantined for a month, and it was not till September 2d that the exiled family were domiciled in their new home. Here Iturbide wrote his Manifiesto á la Nacion Mexicana.He was unable to publish it in Tuscany, and it was first printed in London by his friend Quin. This manifesto has been translated into English, French, and German, and supplemented by a number of documents, among which are several letters of Iturbide, and editors' notes, and has reappeared at different dates under various titles. I have already noticed the French edition in note 8 of this chapter. In 1827 it was published in Mexico by Pablo Villavicencio, under the title, Carrera Militar y Política de Don Agustin de Iturbide. This editor adds a political treatise of his own, Manifesto del Pajo del Rosario, pp. 16, largely taken up in discussing tho principles of the masonic lodges. In conclusion he says: 'Aborrecí á Iturbide mientras persiguio mortalmente á los primeros patriotas. . . lo amé mucho cuando en Iguala rompió el nudo gordiano:. . .le volví a aborrecer desde el momento de su proclamacion hasta su caida á la cual contribuí.' In the same year was published in Mexico Breve Diseño Critico de la Emancipacion y Libertad de la Nacion Mexicana, containing the manifesto, annotations on the notes, numerous documents, and General Garza's account of Iturbide's execution. And lastly, in 1871 the edition of 1827 was republished under the title, Manifesto del general D. Agustln de Iturbide, Libertador de Mexico, by the editors of La Voz de Mexico. The publishers state that some portions of the previous issue had been omitted by them, inasmuch as they displayed an angry feeling oppugnant to the present age. This does not refer to Iturbide's manifesto, of which nothing is left out. For the same reason the annotations contra-notas would also have been omitted had it not been that their annexation to the manifesto rendered it unadvisable. With regard to the manifesto itself, which has been frequently quoted in this and preceding chapters under one or other of the above titles, it is a review by Iturbide of the events connected with his rise and fall, and a vindication of his conduct. After giving a brief sketch of his life up to the time of his proclamation of the plan of Iguala, he then stands on the defense of his political intentions and action relative to his acceptance of the crown. He denounces the assertion that he aspired to such position, and insists that he was compelled to mount the throne in obedience to the wishes of the people, that throughout the short period of his reign he was actuated solely by patriotic motives. He describes the general condition of Mexico as he found it when placed at the head the exhausted condition of the treasury, the state of abandonment into which the judicial administration had fallen, and the difficulties under which the government labored. He then gives his attention to the discord between himself and congress, charging the latter with incompetence, and discusses the insurrection that terminated in the plan of Casa Mata and his own abdication. He