Andrade, José Antonio de

Mexicanos: Teneis Derecho Incontestable a Instruiros de los Procederes de un Cuerpo Depositario de Vuestra Confianza y Encargado de la Prosperidad Comun... [first line of text]

Mexico City: Imprenta Imperial de D. Alejandro Valdes, 1823. 4,[2]pp. Loose sheets, neatly removed from a sammelband. Uneven left edge. Light dust soiling. Very good. Item #2380

An important and scarce document that seeks to ensure public support for the installation of a federal congress as part of a representative government in independent Mexico. This address to the Mexican people was published at the end of the turbulent reign of Agustin de Iturbide, who was proclaimed emperor and reigned briefly as such following independence from Spain. The text, published on March 6, 1823, urges the adoption of the Plan of Casa Mata, which called for the election of a new federal congress and a declaration that the installation of Iturbide as emperor six months previously be null and void. Throughout, it asserts the basic right of the people to influence the form of the national government, and for that government to reflect their will in a representative manner, while consistently denouncing the emperor and his supporters as the enemies of fundamental rights and liberties. With the support of the provincial governments, to whom the plan promised a degree of political independence, and republican leaders from the military, such as José Antonio Andrade and the other principal signatories to this document, Iturbide was forced to step down two weeks following the promulgation of this address. The reestablishment of the Mexican National Congress led to the adoption of the Constitution of 1824 and the inauguration of the First Mexican Republic. Rare; OCLC locates only two copies, at Yale and the British Library.

Price: $1,500.00