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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
later created a ministry composed of the following persons, to wit: Maldonado, Minister of Finance, Medina, Secretary of War, Domin- guez, .Minister of Justice, and Herrera, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In this state of affairs it was the duty of the Junta to call the houses together to draw up a constitution, but having no law to effect this, it experienced a great deal of difficulty in establishing a basis for the organization of that body. Several plans were proposed, but the one which they finally adopted was that of electing by popular vote one member for every flfty thousand people, with the provision that the provinces which sent more than four members should elect an ecclesi- astic, an officer of the army and a lawyer. After much intrigue and contention inside the city and extraordinary excitement outside, the elections took place in all of the provinces, and the Congress composed of the most heterogeneous elements assembled in the Capital on the 24th of February, 1822. Iturbide had enough power at that time to compel the members before they took their seats to swear that they would not violate any of the articles of the plan of Iguala. He issued these orders in the hope that he would be elected Emperor in case the royal family refused to accept the throne. Of this there was very lit- tle moral certainty. This was excessively obnoxious to Victoria, Bravo, Guerrero and the rest of the old insurgents, and likewise to the Creoles generally who argued that, being an independent nation, Mexico had the power and ability to establish through its representatirns any kind of govern- ment, and that Iturbide and his army did not have the right to rule Congress. Those who had fought for a long time against the tyranny of the Bourbons did not want them to occupy the throne of Mexico; for if the nation should render allegiance to them, it would not have :gained anything by the revolution, if that family should place itself in command with the clergy and army to support it in its despotism. Nor were those patriots less opposed to the promotion of Iturbide, whose pretension to the throne had become known to all in spite of his attempt to hide it. Among the active defenders of this opinion were counted the celebrated Victoria, elected by Durango, who, always ·on the side of liberty, was accused of belonging to a conspiracy formed in the Scottish rite lodge for the purpose of curbing the usurpations of the regency and frustrating the ambitious designs of the Command- er-in-Chief. Because of this he was imprisoned, together with other individuals; but not being able to prove anything, they were all set ,at liberty except Victoria, who, pursued by the liberator, escaped from prison, and :fleeing to the mountains, hic1 in the unknown caves until he ,ms later called to figure in 1ww scenes. Congress had scarcely begun its se~sion when the three great parties which dil'irle<l that body commrueed to fight for the supremacy, the Bourbonist;.;, the Hepuhlicans and the followers of Iturbide who were composed principally fff those who wanted to make a fortune by pro- moting hi:, can~r. 'l'his hoklncss kindled noticeabl~· ill a short time, and J\Ir. Zavala, who witne.,:,r<l them, expressed the OJ,inion that if the Royal farnil~· of Spain hacl ne<·eptr<l the Crown according to thr plan of Igualn, at that moment they "·oul<l han\ met little or no opposition i11 asren<l ing the tlnonc, for thr majority of Congress "·as evidently
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