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Agustin de Iturbide LS Dating 2 Months After Declaration of Mexican Independence & During Short-Lived Regency Of Mexican Empire
Agustin de Iturbide LS Dating 2 Months After Declaration of Mexican Independence & During Short-Lived Regency Of Mexican Empire
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Description:

Agustin de Iturbide LS Dating 2 Months After Declaration of Mexican Independence & During Short-Lived Regency Of Mexican Empire

A 2pp letter in Spanish signed by important Mexican nationalist, and future Emperor of Mexico, Agustin de Iturbide (1783-1824) as "Agustin de Iturbide" at the top of the second page, complete with an elaborate 2" long curlicue extending from the "e" of his signed last name. Signed in Mexico City in modern day Mexico (then called the Regency of the Mexican Empire) on December 14, 1821. The watermarked laid bifold paper is neatly bound with red thread along the gutter. Expected paper folds and wrinkles, and a few isolated stains. Two tiny closed tears along the right margin of the first page, else near fine. The remaining pages are blank. 8.25" x 12."

Iturbide, then serving as President of the First Council of the Regency of the Mexican Empire, addressed this memorandum to "Most Excellent Señor, Minister of Internal and Foreign Relations of the Empire." The recipient of this directive was almost certainly Dr. José Manuel de Herrera (ca. 1776-ca. 1831), who served as Minister of Internal and Foreign Relations of the Empire between October 1821-February 1823.

Agustin de Iturbide requests in the letter that Dr. Herrera send 12 copies of all public resolutions issued by his office to de Iturbide's secretary, so that the Council President could "stay informed of public sentiment and the public state of enlightenment, the understanding of which is so important to my ability to adequately perform the duties with which the Nation has seen fit to honor me." De Iturbide's hunger for information suggests a keen sense of political self-awareness. If read at face value, de Iturbide's request supports the idea that he sincerely wanted to serve the people by knowing what they thought about different issues. A more cynical reading, on the other hand, could indicate that de Iturbide was already jealously guarding his power. For, gauging the public's reaction in any given moment or anticipating it could be exploited for de Iturbide's gain.

Examining de Iturbide's political actions during the Regency is interesting, considering that he would be elected as Emperor six months later. The circumstances surrounding de Iturbide's ascension as Emperor Agustin I are unclear; some historians maintain that it was a coup, while others see in it an offering in the spirit of public service.

A complete Spanish transcript is available upon request. Translated in full:

"Most Excellent Sir

I have the honor to address Your Excellency so that Its Highness the Regency of the Empire may be made aware that, it being indispensable for me to see and be informed of all public resolutions, whether issued by Your Highnesses, Its Majesty the Supreme Governing Junta, or any other authority of this Court, I hope that it will agree to order that the printing houses deliver to my Secretary 12 copies of all papers of this type that are printed, as well as of other types, for they all fall under the provisions established with regard to the Captain Generals and will enable me to stay informed of public sentiment and the public state of enlightenment, the understanding of which is so important to my ability to adequately perform the duties with which the Nation has seen fit to honor me. The first run of these documents should be presented to my Secretary, who will issue a receipt for them, and any Printer who does not present this proof of compliance with this order should be punished with a penalty proportional to its failure to obey the above resolutions.

God keep Your Excellency.
Mexico City,
December 14, 1821

[signature] Agustin de Iturbide

Most Excellent Sir, Imperial Minister

of Internal and External Relations."

Agustin de Iturbide had been instrumental in securing Mexican independence from Spain on September 27, 1821, though his conventional background made him an unlikely revolutionary. De Iturbide was a member of the criollo caste, or a Mexican-born person of primarily Spanish ancestry, who had married a wealthy politician's daughter and became a landowner. Iturbide was also a high-ranking officer in the royalist army. Up until 1820, Iturbide garnered a reputation for successfully--if perhaps too forcefully--suppressing insurrectionist forces threatening New Spain.

After 1820, de Iturbide determined that independence was Mexico's best option for the future. This was not an independence movement led by republicans, but rather by royalists like Iturbide and his partisans. In the Plan of Iguala, the revolutionaries proposed swapping a viceroyalty for direct rulership of a separate Mexico by either Ferdinand VII of Spain himself or by one of his Bourbon family members. Until this Bourbon leader could be secured, Iturbide agreed to lead the First Council of the Regency of the Mexican Empire, a 5-person directory. Also in this provisional government was a 36-person congress.

The Regency of the Mexican Empire, then, was a brief period spanning between de Iturbide's triumphal march into Mexico City on September 27, 1821, and his election as Emperor Agustin I in mid-May 1822 after the Spanish government had rejected the Plan of Iguala and its later iteration, the Treaty of Cordoba. Agustin I's reign as Emperor was nearly as ephemeral as the Regency; nine months after his coronation, Agustin fled Mexico for Europe. Agustin I returned to Mexico in July 1824, fearing rumors of a Spanish invasion; he was arrested and executed at age 40 by a local garrison commander.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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