FIRST MEXICAN CORTES ITURBIDE EMPEROR. 303 



recognised the independence of Mexico and yielded the metropolis 

 to the " army of the three Guaranties," which entered it peacefully 

 on the 27th of September, 1821. A provisional Junta of thirty-six 

 persons immediately elected a regency of five, of which Iturbide 

 was president, and, at the same time, he was created Generalissimo, 

 Lord High Admiral, and assigned a yearly stipend of one hundred 

 and twenty thousand dollars. 



On the 24th of February, 1822, the first Mexican Congress or 

 Cortes, met; but it contained within it the germ of all the future 

 discontents, which since that day, have harassed and nearly ruined 

 Mexico. Scarcely had this body met when three parties manifested 

 their bitter animosities and personal ambitions. The Bourbonists 

 adhered, loyally, to the Plan of Iguala, a constitutional monarchy 

 and the sovereignty of Ferdinand. The Republicans, discarded 

 the plan as a device that had served its day, and insisted upon a 

 central or federal republic ; and, last of all, the partisans of the 

 successful soldier, still clung to all of the plan save the clause 

 which gave the throne to a Bourbon prince, for, at heart, they 

 desired to place Iturbide himself upon it, and thus to cut off their 

 country forever from all connection with Europe. 



As soon as O'Donoju's treaty of Cordova reached Spain, it was 

 nullified by the Cortes, and the Bourbon party in Mexico, of course 

 fell with it. The Republicans and Iturbidists, alone remained on 

 the field to contend for the prize, and after congress had disgraced 

 itself by incessant bickerings over the army and the public funds, a 

 certain Pio Marcha, first sergeant of the first regiment of infantry 

 gathered a band of leperos before the palace of Iturbide on the 

 night of the 18th of May, 1822, and proclaimed him Emperor, with 

 the title of Agustin the First. A show of resistance was made 

 by Iturbide against the proffered crown ; but it is likely that it was 

 in reality, as faint as his joy was unbounded at the sudden elevation 

 from a barrack room to the imperial palace. Congress, of course, 

 approved the decision of the mob and army. The provinces 

 sanctioned the acts of their representatives, and Iturbide ascended 

 the throne. 



But his reign was brief. Rapid success, love of power, impa- 

 tience of restraint, — all of which are characteristic of the Spanish 

 soldier, — made him strain the bonds of constitutional right. His 

 struggles for control were incessant. " He demanded," says 

 Ward, « a veto upon all articles of the constitution then under dis- 

 cussion, and the right of appointing and removing, at pleasure, the 

 members of the supreme tribunal of justice. He recommended 



