ITUIIBIDE. 



193 



the streets by the rabble. His election to the im- 

 perial dignity was proposed and discussed in his pre- 

 sence, and was voted ibr by seventy-seven deputies, 

 out of ninety-four who had assembled, being about 

 one half the whole body of delegates. He returned 

 to the palace as lie came, in a coach drawn by the 

 people. Shortly afterwards, the congress decided 

 that the crown should be hereditary in the family of 

 Iturbide, gave to his sons and his father the title of 

 princes, fixed upon him a yearly allowance of a mil- 

 lion and a half of dollars, and established an order of 

 knighthood, called the order of Guadalupe, thus 

 completing, in every thing, the accessories of the 

 new monarchy. All these arrangements were voted 

 with a degree of unanimity, which clearly proved the 

 absence of liberty; and the provinces yielded a blind 

 submission to what was decreed in the capital. The 

 friends of liberal institutions, overawed and held at 

 bay by the power of the usurper, fled to their wonted 

 retreats, or temporized until a fitting season should 

 arrive for acting with union and efficiency. But they 

 could not, and did not, acquiesce in a state of things 

 so adverse to their feelings. Iturbide was driven by 

 his necessities to hasten affairs to a crisis. In Octo- 

 ber, 1822, he seized and confiscated, without legal 

 process, a convoy of 1,200,000 dollars, on the way 

 from Mexico to Havana. Also in the month of 

 August preceding, lie had caused several of the 

 members of congress to be arrested, regardless of 

 their privilege of personal inviolability. Finally 

 (October 30, 1822), he ordered the dissolution of 

 congress, causing the hall to be shut, of his own 

 authority, and, on the same day, organized a junta to 

 take the place of the legislative body, and nominated 

 all the members himself. To supply the exigencies 

 of the government, recourse was then had to forced 

 loans, which served the more to exasperate the 

 minds of the people, already disgusted with the suc- 

 cessive usurpations of Iturbide. Circumstances, how- 

 ever, foreign to his acts of general oppression, 

 brought on the catastrophe. At this time, the 

 Spaniards retained possession of the castle of San 

 Juan de Ulua, which commanded the port of 

 Vera Cruz. The emperor had left the city of 

 Mexico, and advanced as far as Jalpa, intending, 

 if possible, to obtain an interview with the governor 

 of the castle. Disputes had previously arisen between 

 general Santa Anna, governor of Vera Cruz, and 

 general Echavarri, who commanded the southern 

 division of the Mexican army ; and Santa. Anna was 

 summoned to Jalapa by the emperor, to answer to 

 the charges of Echavarri. Santa Anna counted much 

 upon the services which he had rendered Iturbide, 

 and on his own popularity ; but, to his great surprise, 

 he was treated harshly, and dismissed from his com- 

 mand at.Vera Cruz. Hastening back to the garrison, 

 before the news of his disgrace could reach them, he 

 excited them to revolt, for the purpose of dethroning 

 Iturbide, and establishing a republican government. 

 He found the troops ripe for his purpose, and lost no 

 time in advancing to Puente del Hey, where several 

 skirmishes took place between the republicans and 

 the imperialists under Echavarri. At length Victoria 

 made his appearance, and was appointed commander- 

 in-chief of the insurgents ; and, in February, 1823, 

 Echavarri and his army joined forces with Victoria 

 and Santa Anna, by the convention of Casa Mala. 

 Defection now became general among tlie officers of 

 the army, and in all the provinces, so that Iturbide 

 saw plainly that his cause was hopeless, and hastily 

 assembled at Mexico the dispersed members of con- 

 gress, and tendered to them his abdication of the 

 crown. This happened March 20, 1823. Congress 

 very generously agreed to grant Iturbide a yearly 

 pension of 25,000 dollars on condition of his leaving 



the Mexican territory for ever, and residing some- 

 where in Italy, making suitable provision for his 

 family in case of his death. He proceeded to the 

 coast, under escort of general Bravo, and embarked 

 May 11, 1823, for Leghorn. He might have con- 

 tinued to live happily in one of the charming villas of 

 Tuscany, had he not been impelled by an insane 

 ambition to attempt the recovery of his lost empire. 

 With this object, he left Italy for England, and 

 embarked for Mexico, May 11, 1824, precisely a year 

 after his departure from it, and arrived in sight of 

 the port of Soto la Marina, July 14. During the 

 year that had elapsed, the Mexicans had adopted a 

 republican constitution, and Iturbide had no party 

 nor friends in the nation. The government had 

 been apprised of his leaving Italy, and suspected his 

 design. A decree was passed, bearing date April 

 28, 1824, declaring him to be proscribed as a traitor, 

 and requiring that, in case he landed in the country, 

 the mere fact should render him a public enemy. 

 Wholly deceived in regard to the fate which awaited 

 him, Iturbide landed at Soto la Marina, accompanied 

 only by his secretary, a Pole, named Beneski, and 

 was almost immediately arrested by order of I). 

 Felipe de la Garza, the commandant-general of the 

 state of Tamaulipas, in which Soto 'la Marina is 

 situated. La Garza lost no time in conducting his 

 prisoner to Padilla, the provincial capital, and 

 demanding instruction how to act, of the provincial 

 legislature. He was instructed to put in execution, 

 forthwith, the decree of congress, of April 28, by 

 causing Iturbide to be shot, apprehensions being 

 entertained lest any delay in the enforcement of the 

 decree should be the cause of some troublesome, 

 although of necessity abortive, movement, on the 

 part of the people. This took place July 18th ; 

 and, on the 19th, La Garza notified Iturbide to 

 prepare for death on the same day. Iturbide in vain 

 solicited for a reprieve until the general govern- 

 ment could be informed of his situation, and have 

 opportunity to decide upon his case. This, of 

 course, La Garza denied him ; and at six o'clock 

 in the afternoon, after having confessed himself, he 

 was conducted to the place of execution, where 

 sixty or seventy soldiers stood in their ranks, under 

 command of La Garza. Iturbide then made a short 

 address to the assembled people, protesting his 

 innocence of any treasonable purpose, exhorting 

 them to observe the duties of patriotism, religion, 

 and civil subordination, and declaring that he par- 

 doned his enemies. He was shot dead at the first 

 fire; and his body was interred as decently as the 

 means of the small town permitted. While this was 

 passing at Padiila, the wife of Iturbide and two of 

 his children, who had accompanied him from England, 

 had landed at Soto la Marina. They brought with 

 them a large quantity of proclamations, circulars, 

 and other papers, intended to aid the design of the 

 ex-emperor, together with his imperial mantle and 

 other insignia. So soon as the captain of the brig in 

 which they came learnt the fate of Iturbide, he cut 

 his cables, and stood out to sea, leaving the widow 

 and children of Iturbide totally destitute of every 

 necessary, and at the mercy of the very men who 

 had just ordered the execution of her husband. But 

 the feelings of the Mexican government were just 

 and liberal. They continued to the widow the 

 pension promised the family of Iturbide at the time 

 of his abdication, annexing only the condition that 

 she should live either in Columbia or the United 

 States, in which latter country she has ever since 

 resided. Such was the end of a man, estimable in 

 his private character, and not without talents, who, 

 if his fortune had led him to use his influence in the 

 establishment of a free government, might have con- 



