CHAPTER III. 

 1816 — 1821. 



APODACA VICEROY. SPANISH CONSTITUTION OF 1812 PROCLAIM- 

 ED IN MEXICO. CONDITION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY. 



VICTORIA MINA LANDS AT SOTO LA MARINA HIS EF- 

 FORTS LOS REMEDIOS GUERILLAS HE IS SHOT. PADRE 



TORRES ITURBIDE APODOCA SELECTS HIM TO ESTABLISH 



ABSOLUTISM. ITURBIDE PROMULGATES THE PLAN OF IGUA- 



LA ARMY OF THE THREE GUARANTIES. 



Don Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, Conde del Venadito, 

 LXI. Viceroy of New Spain. 



1816 — 1821. 



With the death of Morelos the hopes of the insurgents were 

 crushed and their efforts paralized. This extraordinary man, so 

 fertile in resources, and blending in himself the mingled power of 

 oriest and general, had secured the confidence of the masses, who 

 found among his officers, none upon whom they could rally with 

 perfect reliance. Besides this, the congress which had been con- 

 ducted safely to Tehuacan by Bravo, was summarily dissolved by 

 General Teran, who considered it an "inconvenient appendage of a 

 camp. " We cannot but regard this act of the general as unwise 

 at a moment, when the insurgents lost such a commander as 

 Morelos. By the dissolution of the congress the nation abandoned 

 another point of reunion ; and from that moment, the cause began 

 to fail in all parts of the country. 



The Constitution, sanctioned by the Cortes in 1812, had, 

 meanwhile, been proclaimed in Mexico, on the 29th of September 

 of that year ; and, whilst the people felt somewhat freer under it, 

 they were enabled, by the liberty of the press, which lasted sixty- 

 six days, to expend their new-born patriotism on paper instead of 



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