554
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
MOST FULLY and ci1·CUt1nstantially excuse this scrawl smce 100000 affairs leave me not a moment and believe me your ever sincere and affectionate friend A WAVELL If the hopes I have reason to entertain are not blasted things shall be done on no srnall scale indeed very far larger than I had ever anticipated AW
Aus·rrN [To EDWARD LOVELACE~]
City of Mexico November 22 nd 1822
When I arrived here Congress were sitting but progressing v~ry slowly, the discord and jealousy manifested from the first day of the session of Congress against the Generalissimo Iturbide (now Emperor) was increasing daily and everything was at n stand - There were three distinct parties in Congress, one for a Bourbon King, one for an Emperor from this country, and the other for a Republic, in this state of things the government was approximating towards .Anarchy, when on the night of the 18 of :May the army l,tationed in this city proclaimed Iturbide Emperor, the next day Congress elected him in due form and on the 21 he took the oath, these things put a stop to all business for some time - Agreeably to the Emperors Oath he could do nothing without the consent of Con- gress and this body moved most astonishingly slow and were more occupied in watching the Emperor than in attending to the interest of the country - On the 21 July th~ Emperor was crowned, and very soon after serious collisions began to arise between him and Congress, the latter wished to keep all power in their hands and things were getting worse every day all was at a dead stand, for Congress would do nothing for fear of grunting a little power to the executive, and the Eiuperor could do nothing so long as Con- gress existed without its sanction ..,. In this state of things it was in vain for an individual to urge his business, however important and mine with all other individnal applications was laid on one side_,, Matters progressed in this manner from bad to worse and were again verging towards Anarchy; one dangerous conspiracy was dis- covered and quelled by the imprisonment of about 70, nmongst whom were 20 members of Congress and at length finding that nothing but an extraordinary and clesicive step could save the nation from the confusion and the established government from ruin, the Em- peror desolved congress by a decree of his own on the 31 of October last and creuted a national Junta of his own choosing from amongst
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