The corporations and authorities placed Cos' productions, unread by many of them, in the hands of the viceroy. The latter, though pretending to look
entertained by the ayuntamiento of Mexico in 1808, adopted by Hidalgo and followed by Rayon and the junta, of using the name of Fernando VII. only to aid in achieving independence. On that ground Cos founded his plan of peace; in the preamble he maintained that the sovereignty resided in the body of the nation; that Spain and America were integral parts of the monarchy, subject to the king, which parts possessed equal rights and were independent of one another; that in the absence of the monarch, America, having kept herself loyal to him, had a better right to convoke córtes, and to call thereto the few Spanish patriots who had not stained themselves with treason, than Spain to summon deputies from America; that the inhabitants of Spain had no right to assume the supreme power in the colonies, and authorities sent by them were illegally constituted, and that Americans, as a natural consequence, had the right to conspire against them; such action, instead of being treasonable, was on the contrary meritorious; and the king, if present, would certainly commend them. To reduce his principles to practice, Cos proposed in the plan of peace the creation of a national congress, independent of Spain, representing Fernando VII. and affirming his right. The European officials and the armed force were to resign their offices and powers into the hands of the congress, and remain as private citizens, with their lives and estates guaranteed; the employés retaining their honors and fueros, and a portion of their pay if they continued residing in the country. Past grievances should be forgotten, and the Mexican congress would then, as a token of fraternity, afford some pecuniary assistance to the Spaniards fighting in Spain against the foreign usuper and his allies. If that plan were not accepted, then the alternative of war should be recognized, and under it hostilities carried on according to the laws of nations, prisoners being treated as belligerents, and not as traitors, for both would be fighting for their national rights under the common banner of Fernando VII.
The doctor made a résumé of charges for violence, atrocities, and grievances, real or supposed, said to have been committed by the royalists, and concluded by trying to prove that it was in the interests of the Europeans, whom he called 'brethren, friends, and fellow-citizens,' to accept the plan of peace, and thus contribute to the general welfare. His plans acquired great celebrity. The difficulty with them was that the principles supposed to be therein established were the very gist of the trouble, about which there could be no compromise; for one party wanted an independent government, though under the name of Fernando, which the other party well understood the meaning of. As to the war plan, the insurgent junta was pledging more than it could fulfil, its authority not being recognized by all the chiefs at war with the viceregal government. El Ilustrador Am., nos 2-6, in Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., iv. 189-90, 193-5, 207-8, 222-4, 230; Negrete, Mex. Sig. XIX., v. 15-32; Guerra, Rev. N. Esp., ii. 548-63; Zerecero, Rev. Mex., 133; Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i. 389-406; Meníbil, Res. Hist., app. ii. 375-83; iii. 384-5; iv. 385; Ward, Mex., i. 183-5; Mora, Revol. Mex., iv. 202-14. The pretended allegiance to Fernando was a deception, a mere matter of policy, and so considered by Cos and the junta. Alaman, Hist. Mej., ii. 556-61. This was an undeniable fact, recognized by Bustamante as such, and fully confirmed in a confidential letter of the junta to Morelos, dated Sept. 4, 1811, which contains these words: 'Habrá sin duda reflexado V. E. que hemos apellidado en nuestra junta el nombre de Fernando VII. que hasta ahora no se habia tornado para nada ... nos surte el mejor efecto ... Nuestros planes en efecto, son de independencia, ... no nos ha de dañar el nombre de Fernando.' Bustamante, Cuad. Hist., i. 405-6; Gaz. de Mex., 1812. iii. 489-90; Mendíbil, Resúmen Hist., app. 5, 385-6.
