Having from his earliest years manifested a liking for the military profession, and devoted some time to the study of its most useful branches, in 1808 he received his commission as one of the officers of the commercial battalion, composed of young men of the best families in San Luis. His long military career under the royal banner, and subsequently under Iturbide's, is well known to the reader. Iturbide made him a member of the junta provisional gubernativa, and the regency promoted him to mariscal de campo.[1] Later he was honored with the grand cross of the order of Guadalupe. During Victoria's administration he was made a general of division.[2]
Bustamante was possessed of much presence of mind, courage, and sound judgment. With firmness of character, he would yet subordinate his opinion to that of others when he saw the necessity for so doing. He was a lover of civilization and enlightenment, and apparently a disinterested patriot; he was also liberal and frank. In his private life he was exemplary.[3]
On the 1st of January, 1830, Bustamante, as vice-president, assumed the executive office, and issued a proclamation on the 4th, in which he described, from the standpoint of his party, the political situation of the country, accusing the former government of abuses of power and fraudulent use of the public
- ↑ He was a colonel when he joined Iturbide in Guanajuato. Mex. Doc. Relativos, 18.
- ↑ In 1828 the Estado de Occidente made him one of its citizens by a formal act of the legislature. Pinart, Col. Doc., no. 78. In July 1830 the national congress declared him a 'benemérito de la patria.' Mex., Col. Ley. y Dec., 1841, 57-9.
- ↑ Rivera, after commending Bustamante's private life and public services, attributes to him cruel instincts, and credits him with being faithful to his friends, and grateful for favors. Hist. Jalapa, ii. 582. This virtue of gratitude he certainly did not show in his action toward Guerrero. According to Zavala, Revol. Mex., ii. 141, Bustamante was servile, and it was understood that Guerrero's preferences for him were in the expectation of using him as a passive instrument, such as he had been to the Spanish crown, and afterward to Iturbide. Further particulars may be found in Bustamante, Hist. Iturbide, 230-43; Id., Cuad. Hist., MS., viii. 243-6, and Arroniz, Biog. Mex., 80-9. Alaman, Hist. Méj., v. 151, 957-60, and Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, ii. 579, furnish portraits of Bustamante, representing him as a man of fine appearance.
