Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/311

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THE ARMY PRONOUNCES.
291

by its friends. The metropolitan of Mexico was now Doctor Manuel Posada y Garduño, the first archbishop appointed after Mexico became a nation.[1]

It was rumored and believed that Paredes intended to set up a convention and a triumvirate; and it was also known that Santa Anna, then in Cuba, contemplated a return to Mexico.[2] Affairs came to a climax when the army of the reserve, numbering about 5,000 men,[3] made a pronunciamiento on the 14th of December at San Luis Potosí, instead of marching to Texas as ordered by the government, the object of which movement was to depose the administration and to set up another better suited to their views.[4] The assembly of San Luis Potosí seconded the plan; and

  1. Dr Posada was born in San Felipe el Grande, or del Obraje, in the province of Mexico, on the 27th of Sept. 1780. He had, previous to his episcopate, held high positions in the church, university, and government, and toward the end of 1824 was a senator in the national congress. In 1833, being the chancellor of Mexico, he was exiled from his country and went to reside in the U. S., returning in 1834. His consecration as archbishop was May 31, 1840. He made himself very useful with his talents and experience, as well as his personal and pecuniary services, several times aiding the national treasury with large sums from both the ecclesiastical revenues and his own private fortune. The archbishop was remarkable for his kindness and affability, as well as for his learning, conversational powers, and fondness for literature and the fine arts. March 31, 1846, he had a severe attack of congestion, from which he rallied; but on the 21st of April it came on again with greater force, and he succumbed on the last day of the month. His funeral was on a magnificent scale. Arroniz, Biog. Mex., 267, 270-1; Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 230-3; Bustamante, Gabinete Mex., i. 199, ii. 58-9, 95; Thompson's Recoll. Мех., 90-1.
  2. It was likewise reported that Yucatan had resolved to organize herself as an independent republic under the constitution of 1824. Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iii. 721. Nov. 29th, Paredes wrote the president that he was in daily receipt of revolutionary plans from all quarters. The people, he said, wanted a change of government by any means. As for himself, he saw that 'the government has neither plan nor principles, and is wholly controlled by the whim of factions.' Méx., Contestac. habidas, 6, in Pinart Coll.
  3. Forming the first and second brigades, commanded respectively by Filisola and Gaona. They arrived at San Luis Potosí on the 28th of June. El Amigo del Pueblo, 1845, July 8th and Sept. 2d, 27 and 124; Bustamante, Mem. Hist. Mex., iv. 98-105.
  4. Among the charges preferred against the government, was this: it had allowed to land on Mexican territory and to reside at the capital the plenipotentiary of the U. S., 'que, de acuerdo con el actual gabinete viene á comprar nuestra independencia y nuestra nacionalidad.' The resolutions adopted were ten. The main points were to discontinue the authority of the existing administration, and to convoke an extraordinary congress with ample powers to constitute the nation. In the mean time the executive authority to be held by Paredes. Méx., Col. Ley. Fund., 263-70; Bustamante, Mem. Hist. Mex., MS., iii. 192; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, iii. 721-8.