assembled a Junta, or, central government, composed of five members chosen by a large body of the most respectable landed proprietors in the neighborhood, in conjunction with the Ayuntamiento and inhabitants of the town.
The doctrines of this Junta were liberal, but they maintained a close intimacy with Spain, and even admitted the people's willingness to receive Ferdinand VII. as sovereign of Mexico provided he
abandoned his European possessions for New Spain. When Morelos, joined the Junta he disapproved this last concession to the royalists, though it was chiefly defended by Rayon as an expedient measure when dealing with people over whom the name of king still exercised the greatest influence. This Junta was finally merged in the congress of Chilpanzingo. Its manifesto, directed to the viceroy in March, 1812, is worthy of rememberance, as it contains the several doctrines of the revolution admirably expressed by Dr. Cos, who was its author. He paints in forcible language the misery created by the fifteen months of civil war, and the small reliance that Spain could place on creole troops, whose sympathies, at present, and whose efforts, in the end, would all be thrown into the scale of their country. He assumes as fundamental principles that America and Spain are naturally equal; that America has as much right to her Cortes as Spain has to hers; that the existing rulers in the Peninsula have no just authority over Mexico as long as their sovereign is a captive, and, finally, he proposes that if "the Europeans will consent to give up the offices they hold, and allow the assemblage of a general congress, their persons and property shall be religiously respected, their salaries paid, and the same privileges granted them as to native Mexicans, who, on their side, will acknowledge Ferdinand as the legitimate sovereign, and assist the Peninsula with their treasure, whilst they will at all times regard the Spaniards as fellow subjects of the same great empire."