588
A~ti~'RICAN H1STORiCAL ASSOCIA'fION'.
all th11t the friends of liberty could ~lo was to weep in ,silence for the insulted dignity, the lost liberty of the n11tion. The people were assured by promises of a new Congress and relying on this promise remained quiet, untill a portion of the army animated by that tren- uine sense of honor and love of justice which characters the true soldier ns well the patriot, declared in fovor of the national repre- sentation. this spark of liberty which was thus emitted at Vern Cruz on the 2.i Deer. soon kindled into a bright flame and sprocl with astonishing rapidity over the whole Empire. The people arouscl from their lethaqry understood the insult they had received by the usurpation of their rights in the distrnction of the Congress, and rising in their own majesty claimed from the usurper n restitution of them true to the principles of intrigue and corruption which procured him the Imperial diadem, he dispatched commissioners to the chiefs of the liberating 11rmy, nnd in the mean time used every exertion to collect and marcil [marshal] his troops evidently with the design of supporting his usurpation by force, there need[s] no other proof that such was his intention than the proclamation of his a:rent the Ecmo Cap 0 Gen 1 Andrade and a few more of his true friends-finding however that there was too much virtue too muc-h patriotism ancl nobleness in the army, to enslave their country for the agrandisement of one man, he has made a merit of necessity and has convoked the extinguished Congress This Body were cited to meet on Fryday the 7 .March, 47 of the members being those who ~omposecl the Junta Instituenta and 9 more(?) only met, and H. I. M. 1ttended by the Councillers and ministers entered the Congress Hall at 12 o'clock and declared the Congress reinstated Mexicans let us now pause and ask ourselves why only 47 members attended when it is well known that 115 are in the city and whether it is to be expected that the national representation will or .can deliberate freely and safely while the Emperor remains in this city. · In answer to the first question, why so few met is very plain-the members who did not attend knew very well that the E. had no right whatever to disperse them in the first instance, and consequently no right to convoke them they know that the Congress constituente is not nor never was dissolved, its sessions were impeded by arbitrary power, and were therefore discontinued, and that so long as that power exists they can not be resumed either with safety to the mem- bers or advantage to the nation, like true patriots therefore they de- termined not to give even the shadow of a. sanction to [the] act of power which dispersed them by obeying a call from the same power to meet-for what can be expected from a man who has.not hesitated to trample on them heretofore and force them [to] promote his own views and individual agrnndisement in opposition to the true
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