issued proclamations, and denounced the rumors which prevailed of the cession of Mexico to France as groundless, attributing their origin to Hidalgo.[1] At the same time, town officers, governors, and other authorities were urged to express their fidelity to Spain, and their detestation of the revolution; while in order to conciliate the Indians they were relieved from the payment of tribute,[2] and measures taken for the improvement of their condition.
This action at first was not without effect, and the capital and many other cities remained loyal. The heaviest blow sustained by the revolutionists was that dealt by the church and inquisition. The awful denouncement of the leaders as heretics, their terrible punishment of greater excommunication, and the dread of the same appalling fate falling on them, working upon an ignorant and superstitious people, decided for a time the vacillating and deterred the disaffected. Hidalgo fully recognized that he had to fight with
- ↑ Venegas, Manifesto, 27 Oct. 1810.
- ↑ The order for the remission of tribute had been issued by the regency on the 20th of May preceding, negroes and mulattoes being included with Indians. Venegas published it on the 5th of October. Dispos. Varias, ii. fol. 6-, Zerecero, Rev. Mex., 173, 180-1; Negrete, Hist. Mil. Sig. XIX., i. 195-205. The proclamation was published in the Spanish and Aztec languages. Hernandez y Dávalos. Col. Doc., ii. 137-41.
de Cristo, ex-Cristiano, ex-Americano, ex-Hombre, y Generalísimo Capataz de Salteadores y Asesinos.' Hernandez y Dávalos, Col. Doc., ii. 62595. Out of the innumerable publications issued during the first months of the revolution, I refer to the few following, anonymous and otherwise, all bearing the date of 1810: San Salvador, Reflex. Pat. Am.; Id., Mem. Crist. Pol; Id., Carta de un padre á sus hijos; Calvillo, Discurso sobre los males, etc.; García y García, Prosper. Union; Comoto, Discurso Patri.; Belderrain, Exhort. In struct.; Campo y Rivas, Manif. Filant.; Monterde, Proclamaque el Intendente, etc.; Rivera, Manif.; Exhort. Diputac. Cortes; Montaña, Reflex. Alborotos; Mex. Alocuc. Real Col. Abogados; Exhort. Col. Abogados; Criollo Sensible, Proc.; Proclama (signed L. B. J. G.); Exhort. Patriot. Am.; Centinela contra los Seductores. Among such expressions of loyalty, I find an appeal made to Hidalgo by one of his fellow-collegians in the Real y Primitivo Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo de Valladolid. It is signed Dr Blas Abadiano y Jasso. After briefly calling to mind Hidalgo's collegiate success, the high reputation he had acquired, and his preferments to the benefices of San Felipe and Dolores, the writer brings to notice his backsliding from the church, and indorses the action of the inquisition. 'Ah y con quanta razon el Santo Tribunal de la Inquisicion os ha declarado por herege formal! pues esta es una prueba nada equivoca de que pretendeis apagar la luz del Evangelio.' He then points out the irreparable harm done by Hidalgo, and implores him to cast aside his apostasy and rely upon the mercy of the inquisition. Carta de un Concolega á Don Miguel Hidalgo.
