CHAPTER IV
REVOl,UTlON FLARES AGAIN
In spite of all that the Spanish officials could do, many elements com- bined to make the mission of the dauntless Gutierrez to the United States successful in bringing to Texas a new band of stout defenders of liberty. Governor Salcedo's requests for help had been in vain. Fearful of the powerful influence of the United States, he had stressed the importance of holding the American adventurers in check on the threshhold of New Spain. Commandant General Nemesio Salcedo dryly replied in July of 1812, "Do not let the populace of Texas know we fear the Americans." 1 This confession of weakness that long had been haunting Spanish officials was not without foundation. Don Luis de Onis, able and tireless Spanish diplomat in the United States, promptly reported the arrival of Gutierrez in Washington and the favorable official reception accorded him. He advised the Viceroy that Secretary of State James Monroe had not only promised to support the revolutionary movement in Mexico with arms and ammunition, but had also agreed to send at the proper time as many as twenty-seven thousand men. What was still more alarming, the Secretary had suggested to Gutierrez the advisability of establishing a republican government under a constitution similar to that of the United States and to unite in a confederacy with the United States to establish the most formidable power in the world. No sooner had Gutierrez left Washington for Philadelphia to embark for New Orleans than the watchful Onis reported his departure. Onis notified Viceroy Venegas that it was common knowledge that Gutierrez had contracts for the delivery of arms and munitions on the Rio Grande. The United States, he asserted, was fomenting revolution in the Interior Provinces in preparation for their ultimate annexation. Onis was con- vinced that the soldiers being recruited, supposedly for the invasion of Canada, were, in fact, intended for a campaign in cooperation with the movement for independence in Mexico.i Events were to substantiate the contentions of Onis. 1 Nemesio Salcedo to Manuel Salcedo, Chihuahua, July 11, 1811, Berar Arcliivu. 2 Onis to the Viceroy, Philadelphia, November 1, 1811, Historia, vol. 331, no. 214, A. G. M.; Onis to Viceroy Venegas, February 14, 1812, in Garza, Dos H"- tna111Js Heroes, 41-42. .
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