José María Morelos

José María Morelos y Pavón
Morelos signed this engraving (today part of the collection of the Museum of Mexican History, in Monterrey) three weeks after the Congress of Anáhuac was held, 1813.
President of the Supreme Mexican Government
In office October 24, 1814 – November 5, 1815
Preceded by	Himself as Head of the Executive Power
Succeeded by	Ignacio Alas
Generalissimo and Head of Government of the Congress of Anáhuac
In office September 15, 1813 – October 24, 1814
Member of the Supreme American National Junta
In office August 19, 1811 – September 15, 1813
Personal details
Born	September 30, 1765 Valladolid (now Morelia), Intendancy of Mexico, Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spanish Empire
Died	December 22, 1815 (aged 50) San Cristóbal de Ecatepec, Intendancy of Mexico, Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spanish Empire
Children	Juan Nepomuceno Almonte
Occupation	Soldier, politician and priest
Signature

José María Morelos y Pavón (Morelia, Intendancy of Valladolid, September 30, 1765 – Ecatepec, Intendancy of Mexico, Viceroyalty of New Spain, December 22, 1815) ―called the Servant of the Nation― was a Mexican priest and secessionist insurgent military officer who organized and was the architect of the second stage (1811–1815) of the Mexican War of Independence.

The son of José Manuel Morelos, a carpenter of mestizo origins, and of Juana María Guadalupe Pérez Pavón (1745–1799), a criolla who was the daughter of a schoolteacher, he was born in the old Mexican town of Valladolid (today called Morelia in his honor) and studied during the first years of his life with his paternal grandfather. He studied for the priesthood at the Colegio de San Nicolás and in 1789 entered the seminary of Valladolid, from which he graduated in 1795. In 1799 he was appointed parish priest of Carácuaro, where he remained until 1810.

He was commissioned by Miguel Hidalgo on October 20, 1810, in Charo, Michoacán, as insurgent leader in the south of Mexico, charged with taking ranches and important cities, as well as communication with the ports of Asia, chiefly with Manila, Philippines, which at that time was part of New Spain. His main assignment was to occupy the port of Acapulco, considered strategic for the communications of New Spain.

From 1811 until the beginning of his military decline in 1814, Morelos, aided by many lieutenants, managed to conquer most of the south of the country and part of the center, in the region of the present-day state of Morelos, where, between February 9 and May 2, 1812, his most famous military action took place, the Siege of Cuautla, in the city of the same name, which made him the principal enemy of the royalist army.

He also organized the Congress of Anáhuac, the first legislative body in Mexican history, whose sessions took place in Chilpancingo (present-day State of Guerrero) during September and November of 1813. There Morelos presented the Sentiments of the Nation. On October 22, 1814, in Apatzingán, the Congress approved the first Constitution of Mexico, although Morelos later declared that "it is bad because it is impracticable."

After several defeats, he was captured on November 5, 1815, in Temalaca, by Colonel Manuel de la Concha, tried by the Inquisition and finally executed by firing squad in San Cristóbal Ecatepec on December 22, 1815.

Early years and education

House in which Morelos lived in Valladolid.

José María Morelos y Pavón
Military career
Allegiance	Mexico
Rank	Generalissimo Captain General Colonel
Nickname	Servant of the Nation
Unit	Mexican Army
Conflicts	Independence of Mexico: Battle of Tres Palos Battle of El Veladero Battle of Tenancingo Siege of Cuautla Siege of Huajuapan Capture of Orizaba Capture of Oaxaca Siege of Acapulco Battle of the Lomas de Santa María Battle of Temalaca Battle of Escamela

Engraving of Morelos's house, now converted into a museum.

Charles III was proclaimed King of Spain, and from then on he implemented a series of liberal policies in the colonies and in the metropolis. New Spain was governed by Carlos Francisco de Croix, a military man of French descent. Caste differences still remained; peninsulares held the high posts in the army, religion and politics; criollos held minor posts; and mestizos were limited to following the orders of the Spaniards. Valladolid was one of the most developed cities in the country, and was considered, according to the learned men of that time, the "garden of New Spain". In 1764, the administrative reforms carried out by the Spanish government gave New Spain a new outlook. The Ordinance of Intendants was created, regional governors of the provinces; these officials depended directly on the King, so the viceroy saw his power diminished. Also, by royal decree of February 25, 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish Empire. According to some historians, the expulsion was due to the Jesuits conspiring against King Charles III. According to Lucas Alamán, the expulsion of the Jesuits was the product of a conspiracy of French Jansenists and freethinkers, who frightened Charles III with the danger of a conspiracy.

The effect of the expulsion was disastrous for the colonies, and most advantageous for England and the United States. So much so that, had the work of the Jesuits in Alta California and in Texas been fully developed, perhaps we would not have lost those territories.

Exact spot where Morelos was born.

It was against this backdrop that, on February 18, 1760, José Manuel Morelos y Robles, a carpenter native of Zindurio, a small, predominantly indigenous locality situated one league west of Valladolid, and Juana María Guadalupe Pérez-Pavón y Estrada (1745–1799), likewise a native of the town of San Juan Bautista de Apaseo, also near Valladolid, were joined in marriage.

It is said that the family's surname was Sandoval, but that in the 17th century it became distorted because they sold blackberries (moras), and people called them "Moreros," which over time became "Morelos." Recent research shows that the aforementioned family descended from the Sandoval surname through the marriage of Diego Manuel de Morelos to Juana Núñez de Sandoval, daughter of Nicolás Núñez de Sotomayor y Pérez de Garfias and María de Sandoval y Villalón. Therefore, the surname Morelos can be found in the archives of the Real Chancillería of Valladolid in the 16th century, centuries before the birth of José María Morelos y Pavón.

The couple had their firstborn, a daughter named María Guadalupe, in 1761. Then came Juan de Dios Nicolás, in 1763, who died in 1828; María Josefa Eulalia in 1770, María Antonia in 1774, José Antonio in 1778, Antonio Venancio in 1779, and his youngest sister, Juana María Vicenta, was born in 1784 and died in 1790.

On Monday, September 30, 1765, Señora Juana María de Morelos attended the Sunday Mass of the feast of Saint Jerome in Valladolid and, on leaving, felt labor pains in the street. She asked for help from the nuns of the convent of Saint Augustine, where José María was born, in the portico of the convent. On October 4 of that year he was baptized in the cathedral of Valladolid with the name José María Teclo Morelos Pavón y Pérez.

Historical studies of Morelos's early years differ as to the year of birth of the younger sister, María Antonia, but all agree that she was born at least ten years after José María. The existence of a girl born after the father had left is also asserted, whose baptismal certificate states that she was born on December 28, 1784, and died in infancy.

Morelos received his schooling at the school of his grandfather, the teacher José Antonio Pavón. Morelos's father, Don Manuel, was a carpenter, and after an argument with his wife, he left the family home and took his son Nicolás with him, so the family went through a severe economic crisis. At the age of fourteen, José María began working at the Tahuejo hacienda of his paternal uncle, Felipe Morelos Ortuño, located in the present-day Municipality of Parácuaro, Michoacán, in the region of Apatzingán.

Nicolás followed his father, who returned to the family home at the beginning of 1784, and the son took up the trade of carpenter, which he practiced in San Luis Potosí until his death, around 1828.

José María worked as an atajador, then as a muleteer and cowherd. He learned agriculture and livestock raising. Morelos injured his nose while chasing a bull, leaving a scar that would remain with him for the rest of his life. As part of his work as a muleteer, Morelos traveled eight times to Mexico City during the eleven years he spent in the countryside.

In those years, Morelos devoted himself to studying grammar, a taste inherited from his mother. During that time, he attended festivities and commonly traveled to Valladolid when his mother needed him. In 1789, after ten years of work in the countryside, Morelos returned to Valladolid, since his father had died and his brothers had married, while his mother lived alone, which is why he returned to his native city. In his native Morelia, a civic-military parade is organized every year in commemoration of his birth, in which a large contingent takes part, and which concludes with the patriotic festivities.

Independence of Mexico

Plan of the American Government of José María Morelos y Pavón (1810)

On March 17, 1808, a popular uprising broke out before the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, demanding the dismissal of Manuel Godoy, favorite of King Charles IV of Spain, since French troops were already in the cities of Burgos, Salamanca, Pamplona, San Sebastián, Barcelona and Figueras. After the destruction of the Palace and the capture of Godoy by the people, the Prince of Asturias, Fernando de Borbón, intervened and prevented Godoy from being lynched. It was said that, in view of the imminent conquest of Spain by the French troops, the royal family had fled to Aranjuez in order to embark for one of the dominions in America. At midday, King Charles IV abdicated in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. On March 24, Ferdinand VII returned to Madrid, but the day before, General Joachim Murat had conquered the city. In Bayonne, Napoleon forced the King to abdicate in favor of his brother Joseph Bonaparte. On May 2, the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain began.

Meanwhile, in New Spain, Morelos was receiving requests from the bishopric to contribute to the Spanish cause. In April, news arrived that Buenos Aires had defeated the British, along with a request to help Spain. Morelos sent 20 pesos for himself and 10 for his vicar, also enclosing a letter in which he stated: "I am most ready to offer my life for the Catholic religion and for the liberty of our sovereign". A year later, Morelos contributed again. In 1810 it was asserted that the French were prepared to invade New Spain, so all the clergy were obliged to collaborate once more with the collections of funds for the Spanish Army. The Bishop of Michoacán, Manuel Abad y Queipo, successor to San Miguel, who had died in 1805, wrote the following to Morelos:

We must keep watch above all, we who are the watchtowers of Religion and of the State. The Fatherland is founded upon patriotism; only this support is firm, and patriotism consists in the virtue of each one and in the union of all: the fatherland wants us united and valiant; it consists in the sacrifice of our particular interests and of our passions; because the glory and happiness of a nation is incompatible with the selfishness and inertia of its sons. In short, the present generation is going to decide the fate of future generations.

— Manuel Abad y Queipo, Bishop of Michoacán.

In the capital of New Spain, these events became known through the Gaceta de México of June 9, to the consternation of the Church, the Audiencia and the City Council. At first, Viceroy José de Iturrigaray refused to recognize Ferdinand VII as King of Spain and of the Indies, until, under pressure from the city council, Ferdinand VII was proclaimed King on August 13, precisely on the 287th anniversary of Hernán Cortés's capture of Tenochtitlan in 1521. But rumors that Iturrigaray intended to disown the Spanish government and make himself Monarch of the viceroyalty kept growing, and they grew larger when the Viceroy refused to recognize the Junta of Oviedo, and did the same with the Junta of Seville. On September 15, a group of wealthy Spaniards, led by the Biscayan landowner Gabriel de Yermo (Sodupe, Biscay 1757–1813, Mexico), took the Viceroy prisoner along with members of the City Council, such as Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos, who was murdered on October 4 in the Prison of the Archbishopric, and who is considered the first martyr of Independence. In Iturrigaray's place, Field Marshal Pedro de Garibay, an octogenarian, was appointed.

On December 21, 1809, a conspiracy was discovered in Valladolid that intended to form a junta in Mexico City and take prisoner the Viceroy and the other authorities of the Viceroyalty in order to forewarn the country of an imminent French invasion. Since September, lawyers, physicians, military men and even priests had been working on the project, with the participation of several provincial governors and of some regiments, such as that of Valladolid, captained by Agustín de Iturbide, who years later would bring the War of Independence to its conclusion. This conspiracy was organized by Lieutenant José Mariano Michelena, who was sentenced only to twenty years in prison in the castle of San Juan de Ulúa, unlike what the Spaniards demanded, which was capital punishment. It was said that the conspiracy had ramifications in San Miguel el Grande and Querétaro, and that it was connected with Captains Ignacio Allende and Mariano Abasolo.

Miguel Hidalgo, former teacher of Morelos and initiator of the Mexican War of Independence.

In March 1810, the French occupied all of Spain, with the exception of the city of Cádiz. In Mexico, a new conspiracy replaced that of Valladolid. It was formed by the corregidor of Querétaro, Miguel Domínguez, his wife, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, and the military men Allende, Abasolo and Juan Aldama. They were joined by a priest very well known throughout the Bajío, a friend of the intendant of Guanajuato, Juan Antonio Riaño, and of the Bishop of Michoacán, Manuel Abad y Queipo. That man was the parish priest of Dolores, Miguel Hidalgo. The conspirators met under the pretext of holding literary gatherings, at which they came to the conclusion that they would strike on December 8, the day of the Immaculate Conception. But Allende managed to convince the rest of the conspirators to bring it forward to October 2. Those were the original plans of the Conspiracy of Querétaro.

Hidalgo summoned the blacksmiths he had in Dolores to make lances and swords, and on a visit to Guanajuato he obtained the Encyclopédie, which he consulted for the manufacture of cannons. Allende managed to win over to his side the Dragoon Regiments and the Queen's Regiment, as well as those of Celaya. According to the trial held a year later, the conspirators had support in San Luis Potosí and even in Mexico City.

However, on September 11, a conspirator still unknown today, who was dying, confessed the existence of the Conspiracy to the ecclesiastical authorities. The next day, arrest warrants were issued against all those involved, an order received by Miguel Domínguez, corregidor of Querétaro, who was implicated in the conspiracy. On September 13, Epigmenio González, who kept in his house a large part of the weaponry intended for the struggle, was arrested and taken to the Port of Veracruz, where he was confined until 1822. On the night of September 15, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, the corregidor's wife, notified the mayor Pérez, another conspirator, that he must inform Allende of the order for his arrest. Allende, in turn, rode to Dolores to bring Hidalgo up to date on the events, and that night Hidalgo made the decision to launch the armed struggle. His first measure was to call the people to Mass and order the arrest of all the Spaniards in the town, forcing them to hand over their money for the cause.

The Spanish reaction was not long in coming. The Viceroy and Archbishop of Mexico, Francisco Javier de Lizana y Beaumont, was replaced on September 14 by Lieutenant General Francisco Xavier Venegas, who had taken part in the Battle of Bailén, where the French were defeated for the first time. The royalists had 30,000 soldiers, most of them criollos and mestizos. Venegas ordered the formation of three points of defense, Guanajuato, Puebla and San Luis Potosí, the last being where Brigadier Félix María Calleja set out from, who in the end would defeat the insurgents. The Church excommunicated the rebels, first for rebelling against the king, and second for taking in Atotonilco the standard of the Virgin of Guadalupe as their banner. The edict of excommunication was published by Abad y Queipo on September 20 in Valladolid.

Then the insurgents began their march through the Bajío. First San Miguel el Grande fell, then Celaya. By September 22, the date on which Hidalgo was proclaimed Captain General of America and Allende Lieutenant General, the insurgents numbered 20,000, mostly Indians and mestizos, who joined without any military experience, many of them never having left their own locality. Lucas Alamán, a Mexican historian, describes the march as follows:

People kept joining him, forming various groups or squads, who for banners tied to sticks or reeds kerchiefs of various colors, on which they fixed the Virgin of Guadalupe, which was the ensign of the enterprise, and which all those who adhered to the party also wore as a badge on their hats. The cowherds and other mounted men of the haciendas, nearly all of them from the castes, formed the cavalry, armed with lances... and with the swords and machetes that these same men were accustomed to carry in their ordinary work: very few had pistols or carbines. The infantry was formed by the Indians, divided by villages or gangs, armed with sticks, arrows, slings and lances, and as many brought their wives and children, the whole presented rather the appearance of barbarian tribes migrating from one place to another than of an army on the march.

Later, on September 28, the insurgents arrived at Guanajuato, a city governed by Lieutenant General Juan Antonio Riaño. Hidalgo sent an emissary to convince Riaño to surrender the city to the insurgent troops, who numbered 20,000, but in the letter Hidalgo specified 50,000. Riaño refused, stating "My duty is to fight as a soldier". The insurgents then marched on Guanajuato, where the whole population (more than 600 Spanish refugees) had shut themselves up in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a granary built in 1801. In the midst of the battle, Riaño went out with a group of soldiers and was killed on the spot. After this incident, a miner offered Hidalgo to burn the door of the building. This man is known as El Pípila, a barretero mine worker, who with a stone slab on his back and a torch set fire to the gate of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, but his real name was actually Juan José Reyes Martínez. After that, the insurgents took the building and killed many Spaniards.

The insurgents advanced without resistance until reaching Valladolid on October 17. No further massacres occurred, owing to Allende's intervention. The capture of Valladolid added to Hidalgo's forces eight new companies and the entire Queen's Dragoon regiment stationed in the city. Allende suggested to Hidalgo that he select 14,000 soldiers, take them to the city of Pátzcuaro and train them there. He also raised the possibility of using the bells of Valladolid Cathedral to make cannons. Hidalgo rejected both proposals, arguing that it would be better to march on Mexico as soon as possible and take the capital, since Brigadier Calleja had left San Luis Potosí to reinforce the defense of Mexico City. After this discussion, the insurgents left Valladolid on the night of October 19.

At midday on October 20, the insurgents, already on their way to Mexico, arrived at a town on the outskirts of Valladolid called Charo, where Hidalgo ordered the troops to halt to rest for a few hours. Morelos, having learned of the situation, set out at dawn for Charo, accompanied by a peasant from Nocupétaro. He managed to speak with Hidalgo and set out to him the reasons why he wished to join the movement: "the independence that all Americans found themselves obliged to seek, given the absence of the king, a prisoner in France, afforded them the opportunity to achieve it". At first, Morelos offered Hidalgo to march with him to Mexico, but the insurgent leader assigned him the mission of raising troops in the south of the country and, above all, capturing the port of Acapulco, a strategic place because it received merchandise from the Nao de China, coming from the Philippines, then a Spanish dominion. Morelos wished to be chaplain of the insurgent army and said he was ready to "sweep with violence through the hot lands of the south". Hidalgo granted him the military title of "General of the American armies for the conquest and new government of the provinces of the south, with sufficient authority". After entrusting him with his mission, Hidalgo ordered the insurgent troops to continue the march, while Morelos returned to Carácuaro. They never saw each other again.

First Campaign

Map of the first campaign of José María Morelos

Anonymous Oaxacan Indigenous artist, José María Morelos y Pavón, 1812, oil on canvas, 82 x 69 cm, National Museum of History.

After the meeting with Hidalgo, Morelos returned to Carácuaro intending to resign the parish and to recruit, from among the people of Carácuaro, as many soldiers as he could, in order to march south as soon as possible. The governor of the Bishopric, Mariano de Landa y Escandón, granted him leave from the parish on October 25. Back in his parish, he managed to gather 25 men armed with lances and shotguns. He then gathered the people of Carácuaro to explain his reasons for leaving the parish, in which he cited the "Itinerary for parish priests of Indians", a work by the Jesuits which states that "clerics may lawfully take up arms when there is some grave necessity of great benefit to the republic". From there he headed for Zacatula, crossing the bank of the Balsas River, in the Tierra Caliente, toward the Coast, a route he traveled skirting the province of Michoacán. As he would state at the trial the Inquisition held against him five years later: "I always counted on the justice of the cause, which I would have entered even had I not been a priest". He reached Huetamo, where his troops increased to 350. There he wrote to a priest friend:

I see it as of the utmost importance to choose the force with which I must attack the enemy, rather than to lead a world of people without arms or discipline. It is true that whole villages follow me in the struggle for independence, but I prevent them, saying that their help is more powerful tilling the land to give bread to us who fight

— Huetamo, Province of Michoacán, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ten. José María Morelos

The objective of the campaign was to obtain men and arms in the south of the country and, above all, to fulfill Hidalgo's charge: to seize the Port of Acapulco, an important commercial center. At the beginning of November, Morelos's troops skirted the coast and arrived at Zihuatanejo, where they persuaded many of the inhabitants (mainly low-income peasants) to join their movement, and in Petatlán he recruited many more people for his army. With approximately 2,000 men, Morelos decided to take Técpan, a small town on the Costa Grande of the present-day State of Guerrero, where they put the royalist army garrison to flight. There Morelos was joined by the Galeanas, made up of Hermenegildo and Pablo, Hermenegildo's nephew. The Galeanas had a cannon known as "El Niño" which was used in the town festivities. The Galeanas were descendants of an English pirate who had reached the coast of Guerrero in the 18th century.

After the capture of Técpan, Morelos marched with his now more numerous army to San Jerónimo, which he entered without resistance, and then moved on to the town of Coyuca de Benítez, but these towns were already located in the Costa Grande region. Next, Morelos's objective was to get as close as possible to Acapulco and leave it surrounded by land. In January 1811, Morelos ordered part of the army to take the Cerro del Veladero, a hill that dominates the entrance to Acapulco. While part of the hill came into the possession of the insurgent army, the rest of the hill was still held by the Spaniards, commanded by Captain Francisco París, who had been commissioned by Venegas to defend the port. After defeating the royalist army, Morelos established his army's camp at Paso Real de la Sabana, near the Fort of San Diego, a building constructed to prevent attacks by pirates, which was well armed with artillery and prepared to defend the port against the insurgent attack.

The artillery lieutenant José Gagó offered to hand over the stronghold of Acapulco to Morelos without resistance. The date agreed for the surrender of the Fort was February 8, 1811. On that day, the insurgents stood before the Fort of San Diego, but Gagó betrayed Morelos, leaving the insurgents caught between several lines of fire. Morelos immediately ordered the retreat, which was organized by the Galeanas. The insurgent camp was saved from being taken by the royalists thanks to the intervention of Captain Julián Ávila, while the rest of the army, under Morelos's command, undertook the retreat to Tecpan. París drafted a report to Venegas explaining the situation. The message was intercepted by the insurgents, and it said:

These people of the jurisdiction of Acapulco are so enthusiastic about Morelos that, while he lacks nothing, not a single woman comes to our camp to sell tortillas. The natives say that the priest is very determined; that when he feels like it he mounts his mule and with forty men goes to inspect his advance guard; that he waits there for whoever wants to come and attack him

Shortly before the military failure at Acapulco, Morelos had issued, in the locality of El Aguacatillo, in the present-day municipality of San Luis Acatlán, several decrees in order to organize a government as soon as possible. Among the measures dictated by Morelos were:

• To take care of the property of the Catholic Church.
• To avoid attacking the enemy with inferior forces.
• To punish any attempt at a caste war and public sins.
• To observe the military hierarchy by merit.
• To act in harmony, consulting in difficult cases.
• To reiterate the measure dictated by Hidalgo in Guadalajara to establish a new government in the hands of the Americans, that is, all those born in New Spain.
• To abolish tribute, slavery, the community chests, debts to peninsulares and the monopoly on gunpowder.

Félix María Calleja, royalist military officer, Viceroy and superior political chief of New Spain between March 1813 and September 1816.

Flag of Morelos, in 1812.

Banner with the standard of Morelos during the Day of the Dead celebration at Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM), Mexico.

In Tecpan, Morelos concentrated his army and decided to raise the town to the category of province, with the name "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tecpan", and the collection of the existing royal taxes was maintained, but the tribute applied to the troops was abolished. Morelos decided to take some Church property to finance his military activities. While he was in the south, Morelos received the support of the Bravo Family, made up of Leonardo and his brothers Máximo, Víctor and Miguel, and Leonardo's son, Nicolás Bravo. They came from the Hacienda de Chichihualco. They were joined by Vicente Guerrero, a muleteer from Tixtla, and the Law student from Durango, Miguel Fernández Félix, who would later adopt the name Guadalupe Victoria and would be the first president of Mexico. On July 13, 1811, Morelos issued the following decree in the village of Tixtla:

From today the lands shall be handed over to the villages for their cultivation, without their being able to be leased, for their enjoyment must belong to the natives in their respective villages. Likewise, as we lack current silver and gold coin for the relief of the troops, I have resolved that copper coin be stamped for the use of commerce. There shall be pieces of a peso, a tostón, a real and half a real, and they may be exchanged for their legal tender equivalents as soon as the war ends

— Given in Tixtla, on July 13, 1811, José María Morelos

Copper 8-real coin minted by Morelos

Meanwhile, Hidalgo had reached the gates of Mexico City, after triumphing at the Battle of Monte de las Cruces on October 30, 1810. However, for reasons still unknown, Hidalgo decided to fall back toward the Bajío, where on November 7 Félix María Calleja defeated him at the Battle of San Jerónimo Aculco.

Because of differences with Allende, the insurgent army was split. Hidalgo marched to Valladolid, where massacres of Spaniards were committed between November and December. For their part, Ignacio Allende, Ignacio Aldama and Mariano Abasolo withdrew to Guanajuato, where on November 26 Calleja recovered the city, which Hidalgo had taken on September 28, barely two months earlier. After the defeat, Allende, Aldama, Jiménez and Abasolo withdrew to Guadalajara, since José Antonio Torres had taken the city on November 8. On January 17, Félix María Calleja del Rey defeated the insurgents at the Battle of Calderón Bridge. The insurgents then set out on the march toward the United States of America, and on the way Hidalgo was stripped of military command in Aguascalientes. On March 21, they were captured at the Norias de Acatita de Baján, Coahuila, having been betrayed by a former combatant of Hidalgo's named Ignacio Elizondo, who a few years later would die stabbed in a town in Texas, when he was identified by Lieutenant Miguel Serrano as the traitor of the insurgents. While he was sleeping on the banks of the San Marcos River in Texas, he was stabbed, at a time when this territory belonged to New Spain. After trials in Chihuahua, Allende, Aldama and Jiménez were executed by firing squad on June 26. Mariano Abasolo, through his wife's intercession with the authorities of the viceroyalty, was not killed, but was sentenced to life imprisonment in the prison of Cádiz, Spain, where he would die in confinement, apparently of pulmonary tuberculosis. On July 30, the priest Miguel Hidalgo was executed by firing squad, and the heads of Allende, Aldama, Jiménez and Father Hidalgo were placed in iron cages at the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in Guanajuato, where they would remain for 10 years.

Second Campaign

Morelos in a painting from 1865.

At the end of his first campaign, Morelos received an invitation from Ignacio López Rayón to organize an insurgent governing council, since after the death of the first leaders the army had been left dispersed and without a visible overall head. Rayón's proposal consisted of electing the members of the Supreme National Governing Junta, which was to govern the country in the absence of Ferdinand VII. Morelos accepted the invitation, but since his military activities prevented him from being present, he appointed as his delegate Sixto Verduzco, a former fellow student of his. Since Rayón was left in charge of the insurgency after the death of Hidalgo, whose secretary and minister he had been in Guadalajara, he was placed at the head of the insurgent troops in Saltillo. From there he arrived at Zitácuaro, where on August 21 the Supreme National Governing Junta was elected, composed of the following members:

• Ignacio López Rayón, as president,
• José María Liceaga and José Sixto Verduzco, members.

The first acts of the Junta consisted of designating Zitácuaro, today a municipality of Michoacán, as capital of the insurgency, although shortly afterward, in the face of the royalist attack, the Junta moved to Sultepec. Morelos wrote to Rayón: "I am resolved to lose my life to uphold the authority and existence of the Supreme Junta." Likewise, Rayón ordered the publication of two insurgent newspapers, El Ilustrador Nacional and El Ilustrador Americano, both directed by José María Cos. In April 1812, the Junta drafted the Elements of Our Constitution, which established that the people are the sole sovereign and enshrined the powers of the Junta, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right to work. Morelos wrote to the Junta: "Let the mask be taken off independence; let us remove the mention of the King."

Afterward, Morelos entered Chilapa, which at the time was the most prosperous town in the region. Between August and November, Morelos established his center of operations in Chilapa. Morelos strengthened his relationship with the Indigenous people, since by decree of September 4 the following was established:

Appeal is lawful for everyone; there is no reason to deny it to the natives of this kingdom. The Indians must not pay tithes or first fruits on the produce of this kingdom

However, there was an attempted sedition to promote the mass murder of whites by Blacks. He ordered his troops to go to the coast and calmed the rebels with the phrase "it would be the greatest error men could commit"; the ringleaders were taken to Chilapa, where they were executed.

His relationship with the National Junta of Zitácuaro was respectful, since Morelos always cooperated with the guidelines set by the Junta, despite the differences among the members of the insurgent governing body. Verduzco wrote to Morelos: "all render to Your Excellency due thanks for the honor with which you treat them."

The ecclesiastical hierarchy, in the person of the Spanish bishop of Puebla, issued a manifesto against the insurgency and wrote to Morelos inviting him to give up the struggle. The letter of reply written by Morelos is preserved in Chapultepec Castle, and reads as follows:

Instead of attacking the insurgency, you could defend it, and you would find, without doubt, greater reasons than the Anglo-American and the people of Israel. The nation does not lay down its arms until the work is finished, since we are more religious than the Europeans.

Mariano Matamoros.

Morelos took Tlapa, a locality in La Montaña, Izúcar, Cuautla and Chiautla, around the time Hermenegildo Galeana entered Taxco, where he managed to seize several veins of silver, which were sent to the National Junta, since Calleja had taken Zitácuaro and the Junta was left without forces to resist the royalist onslaught. In Izúcar, Morelos was on the verge of being captured by the royalist forces, and he wrote to Galeana: "I alone resisted with thirty men whom I chose to go for a stroll to Izúcar, of whom I left twenty in the town, and with ten riflemen and a few cowherds I went out to cut off their retreat."

In Izúcar, on December 12, Morelos received Mariano Matamoros, a priest from Tlaxcala who looked favorably on the insurgent movement and wanted to join his army. Morelos answered him affirmatively and "gladly," telling him that he reminded him of himself on his visit to Hidalgo, and so he accepted Matamoros into his army, giving him the rank of colonel. In time Matamoros would be appointed field marshal, and Morelos came to consider him "his right hand," until Matamoros was captured and executed by firing squad. He also received a former servant of the National Junta, José Manuel de Herrera, who was appointed ambassador to the United States of America in 1813.

On January 2, 1812, Félix María Calleja del Rey triumphed at the Battle of Zitácuaro, the town where the National Junta was seated, and several of its documents were lost in the battle, since the Junta, put to flight by the royalist troops, had no time to rescue the archives. From Toluca, the new seat of the Junta, Rayón wrote to Morelos asking for help to save the body. Although he was convalescing from tuberculosis, Morelos set out to protect the Junta, which was now installed in Tenancingo, where Morelos defeated the Spanish troops commanded by Rosendo Porter. From there, he decided to march to Cuernavaca to reorganize his army, and established his center of operations in the town of Cuautla, where he planned the capture of Mexico City or Puebla.

Map of Cuautla Amilpas (today Cuautla, Morelos), made in 1812.

After defeating the royalist brigade commanded by Rosendo Porter, Morelos thought seriously of taking Mexico City. Viceroy Venegas, worried by the possibility of an insurgent attack on the capital, commissioned Calleja to confront Morelos, who was quartered in Cuautla. Calleja had just defeated Rayón at Zitácuaro, so despite his differences with the Viceroy they managed to reach an agreement, which stated that on February 5 Calleja should be received with honors in Mexico City. During the festivities held in Calleja's honor, in the parade through the city, the horse Calleja was riding was frightened by a firework set off by a little boy and threw him, and the marshal fell in front of the whole crowd. On February 9, Calleja launched his attack on Cuautla, and in the first clash, with several casualties, the insurgents managed to repel the Spanish army. A few days later, Morelos went out to inspect the fields of Cuautla, where by chance there was a militia of royalist soldiers who very nearly captured Morelos. Later, he issued the following proclamation to his troops:

We have sworn to sacrifice our lives and estates in defense of our holy religion and of our fatherland. There is no longer a Spain, because the Frenchman has taken possession of it. There is no longer a Ferdinand VII, because either he wished to go to his house of Bourbon in France, and then we are not obliged to recognize him as king, or they took him by force, and then he no longer exists. And even if he were there, a conquered kingdom may lawfully reconquer itself, and an obedient kingdom may lawfully refuse to recognize its king when he is burdensome in his laws, which become unbearable, like those with which the accursed gachupines were loading us more each day in this kingdom. I will tell you finally that our arms are thriving and America is to become free, whether you wish it or not.

The Siege of Cuautla

Calleja besieged the city, cut off the water, stopped the supply of food to the city, and ordered several wells contaminated with dead animals, all these acts to hasten the fall of Cuautla. On one occasion, Calleja sent Morelos an offer of pardon, applicable to him and to all the insurgent soldiers who had taken part in the Siege of Cuautla. Morelos replied that he offered the same to Calleja and his military men. It is said that Viceroy Venegas, fed up with the situation, sent one of his trusted men, described as "fat and pot-bellied," to kill Morelos; Rayón foresaw this, and the man was identified and executed. Around those days, Morelos ordered Matamoros to leave the city to seek provisions and to assist the National Junta, installed in Toluca, and Matamoros succeeded in breaking through the encirclement in the early hours of April 21. Various incidents, such as illnesses, intense leg pains, migraines and falls from horses, at times made him think of surrendering the town.

In a military action in April, the royalists were on the verge of taking part of Cuautla, as they had driven back a large part of the town's defenders, but a boy of barely 12 years took a cannon and fired it, at once destroying the royalist advance party coming to reinforce the attackers, who fled in disarray at the fall of their reinforcements. That boy's name was Narciso Mendoza, and he is known as El Niño Artillero (the Boy Artilleryman); he would be the great-grandfather of another hero of the Mexican Revolution that would break out 100 years later: Emiliano Zapata. Morelos gave him a prize of two reales for his action.

In the early hours of May 2, Calleja wrote the following missive renouncing the siege of Cuautla, addressed to Viceroy Francisco Xavier Venegas:

If the constancy and activity of the defenders of Cuautla were accompanied by morality and directed toward a just cause, they would one day deserve a distinguished place in History. Hemmed in by our troops and afflicted by want, they show joy at every event. They bury their dead with peals of bells in celebration of their glorious death, and they celebrate with uproar, dances and drunken revels the return from their frequent sorties, whatever the outcome may have been, imposing the penalty of death on anyone who speaks of misfortune or surrender. That cleric is a second Muhammad, who promises temporal resurrection and afterward paradise with the enjoyment of all passions to his happy Muslims

That same night, the insurgents had decided that the situation was now untenable and made the decision to break the encirclement the royalists had kept since February. At 2:30 in the morning of May 2, 1812, after 63 uninterrupted days of siege, Morelos and the insurgent army abandoned Cuautla. The royalists were alerted to the insurgent departure by a spy, but the news arrived late, and they could not prevent the breaking of the siege. After some brief attempts at resistance, the insurgents were able to leave Cuautla. The next day, Calleja ordered the sacking of Cuautla and the killing of its inhabitants, and a few days later he returned to Mexico City, where Viceroy Venegas received him in private audience, offering him on the spot the general command of Mexico City, and Calleja, after much reflection, accepted.

Third Campaign

Engraving of Morelos by Claudio Linati, 1827.

After the military action at Cuautla, Morelos moved to the central sierra of Mexico, where the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt lies, and took Izúcar (today "de Morelos"), Ocuituco, Hueyapa, Cítela and Chiautla, where Morelos reorganized his troops, as he was determined to march toward the south of the viceroyalty. In Chiautla, Morelos received the news that Leonardo Bravo had been treacherously captured while dozing at the hacienda of the Spanish merchant Gabriel de Yermo, in the early hours of May 10, 1812. He was brought before Calleja, who was on his way to Mexico, and who decided that he would be tried in the capital. After several attempts at persuasion by Morelos toward the Spanish authorities, Leonardo Bravo was executed by garrote on the morning of September 13, even though the insurgents offered 800 Spanish soldiers in exchange for Bravo's life. Morelos then authorized his son, Nicolás Bravo, to execute the royalist prisoners. The next morning, Bravo gathered the Spaniards and then spared their lives, in the town of Medellín, located in the present-day State of Veracruz, for which reason years later that town would be known as Medellín de Bravo. For this deed, he is known as the magnanimous Caudillo. The Spaniards, upon having their lives spared, joined the insurgent army, some out of conviction, since their superiors had refused to negotiate their freedom, and most out of gratitude to General Nicolás Bravo.

He received news, by way of the Supreme American National Junta, which had recently named him 4th member owing to his triumph at Cuautla, informing him that in Oaxaca the royalist forces had just besieged Valerio Trujano, specifically in the central town of Huajuapan. Morelos went to the city as soon as he could, and his forces managed to hold back for a few hours the royalist reinforcements sent from Puebla. Trujano managed to drive the Spanish forces out of Huajuapan, but died on the spot from several shots fired by a royalist soldier named José Martín Pérez, who was rewarded by the Spanish soldiers with 20 reales in gold.

Morelos fell gravely ill with colic in September 1811, and it nearly killed him. Once again, in January 1812, shortly before the start of the Siege of Cuautla, the insurgent leader was bedridden by a serious bout of tuberculosis. But during that time he managed to plan, together with Matamoros and Galeana, the central campaign and the defense of Cuautla, while coordinating his support with the National Junta, harassed in Toluca by the Aragonese brigadier José de la Cruz, whom Venegas had ordered to stop the reinforcements sent to Cuautla by the Junta, for which he was aided by reinforcements brought from Zaragoza.

He received a missive from Ignacio López Rayón explaining that the Junta had divided in an effort to achieve better communication with the insurgents in the rest of the country, so that Sixto Verduzco moved to the west (Nueva Galicia, present-day states of Michoacán and Jalisco), José María Liceaga to the north (San Luis Potosí), and Rayón established himself in the center-east, while they named Morelos captain general and member of the junta in charge of the territories of the south (present-day states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, Puebla), posts which they themselves had also received earlier. Morelos took charge of sending reinforcements to Rayón, who settled in his native town, Tlalpujahua, although that relationship was clouded by an envoy from Rayón to Morelos.

Morelos reviewed the Elementos Constitucionales, drafted by the Junta, and suggested the appointment of a fifth member and the removal of the mention of King Ferdinand VII. Morelos said in his arguments that, given the rapid growth of the insurgency, the fifth member was necessary if the aim was to improve the administration of justice in the territories dominated by the insurgent troops. As part of these ideas, Morelos issued laws in each province he conquered, and one of his laws was the reduction of the tax on trade and the alcabalas from six to four percent. Also, given the failure to import English gunpowder, he established workshops in which arms were forged, gunpowder was manufactured, and lead and copper were smelted.

Fourth Campaign

Portrait of Antonio Bergosa y Jordán, Bishop of Oaxaca in 1812, who years later would strip Morelos of his priestly status.

Plaque at the Portal de las Flores in Oaxaca, indicating that Morelos wrote the Sentimientos de la Nación there.

After deliberating with his soldiers, Morelos decided to march on Oaxaca in November 1812, having taken the towns of Tehuacán and Orizaba; in the latter city he burned tobacco stored for sale, causing a heavy loss to the Spanish Government. In the early hours of November 25, the insurgent army reached the gates of the capital of the intendancy of Nueva Antequera, where he wrote a letter to Brigadier Roque Abarca, commanding general of the city, and to Bishop Antonio Bergosa y Jordán, demanding the surrender of the city, and sent a letter to the command, carried by several emissaries. The troops were repelled with cannon fire and the emissaries were put to death. In Oaxaca one of the legends of Guadalupe Victoria is told: it is said he commanded a legion that approached a river, on the far side of which stood a division of royalist soldiers. As the legend goes, Victoria threw a sword into the river, saying "There goes my sword as a pledge; I'm going for it", and then launched himself at the royalists, being imitated in turn by the rest of the troops under his command. After three hours of combat, Morelos managed to take the city, and in a letter addressed to Rayón he stated the following:

The city of Oaxaca, which we have just taken, besides being an episcopal see and seat of an intendancy, is full of useful men, mines, posts and cochineal, which we shall turn into muskets. The most illustrious Señor Bergoza has written to me calling us forced subjects, hypocrites and dissemblers, in reply to my letter demanding surrender

José María Morelos, engraving from 1825.

Meanwhile, Morelos distributed among his troops a prize originally established by the members of the cathedral chapter for the royalist defenders of the city. Although looting and executions of royalist leaders had been committed, a few days later Morelos issued a law providing for the punishment of soldiers who committed outrages against the civilian population, "since our intention is not to trample, but to preserve each one unharmed in his rights". On the night of December 3, Morelos ordered the exhumation of the remains of the forerunners of the insurgency Miguel López de Lima, José María Armenta, Felipe Tinoco and José María Palacios, which were kept in the convent of Carmen Alto after they had been put to death by the viceroyalty. The next day he ordered their burial with great honors in the city's cathedral.

On the morning of December 13, the solemn oath to the National Governing Junta took place in Oaxaca. At approximately eight in the morning, the members of the Oaxacan city council marched to the house of the royal standard-bearer, where they took the banner used in the official ceremonies of the royalist government. They then proceeded to hoist it on a platform built expressly for that purpose in the main square, before a portrait of King Ferdinand VII; Matamoros and Galeana accompanied the standard-bearer, who proclaimed the Junta as the depository of the King's rights over the Viceroyalty of New Spain, "to which the people responded with a shouting full of jubilation in which nothing was heard but a continuous 'long live'", as Matamoros describes it. From the central balcony of the Intendancy, Morelos presided over the ceremony, accompanied by a secretary representing the Junta sent by Rayón, and they threw silver coins to the crowd. As he remarked to Rayón's secretary, Morelos lamented that "the people value a copper coin with Ferdinand's stamp more than a gold one with the stamp of America"

In Oaxaca, Morelos established a tribunal of protection and public trust, devoted to investigating suspected offenses against the insurgent cause, and which prohibited secret meetings. Shortly afterward, Morelos issued a proclamation to his soldiers regarding his position on the recently promulgated Constitution of Cádiz, in which the monarch was not mentioned, since a few days after the capture of Oaxaca Viceroy Venegas was obliged to swear to the Constitution in the capital, and elections were also held for provincial deputies and for the Spanish Cortes Generales, in which the criollos triumphed, since the constitution established a freedom that was not absolute, but they now had individual guarantees and a representative system combined with the monarchy.

In Mexico City, Rayón organized a group of lawyers and other professionals known as "Los Guadalupes", who took part in the elections of deputies and provided information, provisions, arms, printing presses and even soldiers for the insurgent cause. One of them, Carlos María de Bustamante, directed the newspaper El Correo Americano del Sur, while Rayón and his brother Ramón had quartered themselves in Tlalpujahua, where they were supported by Andrés Quintana Roo, who served as mediator between Morelos and Rayón, whose relationship ran into difficulties because of the secretary of the Supreme Junta, Basilio Zambrano.

Fort of San Diego in Acapulco.

In Oaxaca, Morelos had his portrait painted dressed in a captain general's uniform, a gift from Matamoros, which was embroidered by an Indian woman who tried to poison Morelos. In the portrait he also wore a pectoral cross that had belonged to the bishop of Puebla, Campillo. During that same time Morelos had a relationship with the southern woman Francisca Ortiz, from which a son was born. Shortly afterward, Morelos decided to leave Oaxaca, a month and a half after its capture, and to continue the march toward Acapulco, the city he had failed to take two years earlier. This time, many of his soldiers deserted along the way. In April 1813, he laid siege to the Castle of San Diego, which, after a long resistance of more than four months, capitulated in August 1813.

After the fall of Acapulco, Morelos received a notification from Berdusco informing him that he was carrying out a collection of funds to take Valladolid. Rayón, president of the Junta, warned him not to do so until he had the approval of the whole insurgency. Berdusco ignored Rayón and attacked Valladolid, but the royalist forces managed to repel his attack, and the insurgents lost arms and artillery. Rayón removed Berdusco and opened an investigation, in which it was decided to try the priest Pablo Delgado, head of the insurgent intendancy in Michoacán. In this affair there was a conflict, since Delgado was a priest and Rayón, who was a layman, was going to try him. Berdusco and Liceaga allied against Rayón, and Morelos remained silent during the conflict, and this silence attributed to Morelos disagreements with Rayón that caused the fall of Tlalpujahua into royalist hands. This incident caused Morelos and Rayón to lose trust in each other, as Morelos thought that Rayón wanted to monopolize all power for himself. For this reason, several insurgent leaders considered that the leadership belonged to Morelos, who reformed the National Junta in May 1813.

The Congress of Anáhuac

Painting of a plenary session of the Congress of Anáhuac.

The signature of Morelos.

When Morelos decided to reform the National Junta, Carlos María de Bustamante proposed in Oaxaca the creation of a Congress to replace the Junta. This idea of an insurgent body that would constitute the sovereignty and representation of the provinces of New Spain, as Hidalgo y Costilla had already proposed. Morelos immediately abolished the National Junta and, with the support of the Oaxacan corporations, called for the formation of the new body. Rayón described the project as "the fruit of the preponderance of bayonets", Liceaga was slow to accept, and Berdusco, despite being persecuted by Rayón, was the only member of the by then defunct National Junta who agreed immediately.

Morelos issued a call for the designation of the deputies who were to attend the Congress, whose seat had been set in the city of Chilpancingo. Quintana Roo drafted regulations as the basis for the election and functioning of the Congress once assembled. Owing to the war, only Oaxaca and Técpan elected deputies. The members of the defunct Junta were considered titular deputies, with the exception of Morelos, who excluded himself, but reserved the power to designate the substitute deputies. Around those days, Morelos issued a proclamation in which he stated that the separation of powers was the most fitting mechanism of government for the nation.

On September 13, the Congress was inaugurated in Chilpancingo. At the official opening, the elected deputies were José Sixto Verduzco for Michoacán, José María Murguía for Oaxaca, Andrés Quintana Roo for Puebla and José Manuel de Herrera for Técpan, while the four remaining deputies would arrive over the following weeks. At the inaugural ceremony, Morelos delivered a speech in whose drafting Carlos María de Bustamante had collaborated as reviser, and whose fundamental idea was the "salvation of the fatherland".

A few days later, with the arrival of the military leaders in Chilpancingo, Morelos prepared a speech known as the Sentimientos de la Nación, which sets out the thoughts of Morelos that had been expressed since the Bando del Aguacatillo in 1810 and in the letters Morelos wrote during his insurgent period, as well as some elements of the writings of the National Junta, and he finally wrote that the Congress should enact as its first law the abolition of slavery and the equality of all Mexicans. This document was read at the session of September 13 by the secretary Juan Nepomuceno Rosáins.

Commemorative plaque for the 200th anniversary of the "Sentimientos de la Nación" at the Birthplace of Morelos.

The next day, the session was held in which the Generalissimo was to be elected, and this election was carried out by the Congress. Rayón, Liceaga, Berdusco and Morelos were proposed, and Morelos was elected unanimously, but in view of his reluctance to accept the post, the members of the Congress decided to take time to deliberate. The military men objected, arguing that Morelos had been elected by popular acclamation and his refusal could not be accepted, which was the final decision of the Congress. Morelos finally accepted, and the Congress granted him the title of "Most Serene Highness", which Morelos rejected and decided to change to "Servant of the Nation", in accordance with a biblical argument.

Later, the missing deputies arrived, among them Bustamante for Mexico, Cos for Veracruz, Liceaga for Guanajuato and Rayón for Guadalajara. With all the deputies now assembled, on November 6 the Congress proceeded to declare the independence of Northern America, with the following decree: "The dependence on the Spanish throne is broken forever and dissolved". The term Mexico was not yet in use, as it then referred only to the province of that name. The deputies began drafting the Constitution, basing it on the Constitution of Cádiz, the Constitution of the United States and the French Constitution of 1791. It also decreed the restoration of the Society of Jesus and the collection of taxes, creating for this purpose the corresponding fiscal tribunals.

Fifth Campaign

Map of the fifth and last campaign of Morelos (1813–1815).

After the closing of the Congress, the legislative body moved with Morelos to continue the war. Matamoros proposed attacking Puebla, considered a strategic city by the Spanish government, or else Guadalajara or Mexico City. However, Morelos decided on Valladolid, his native city, which had been taken by Hidalgo in October 1810 and reconquered by the Spanish forces in December of the same year. Meanwhile, Matamoros defeated a Spanish division at El Palmar, and Nicolás Bravo did the same at Coscomatepec. But Venegas had been removed from the viceroyalty and Calleja had been appointed in his place, and he set about reorganizing the army.

Morelos criticized a guerrilla war that had broken out in Guanajuato and Michoacán, since, according to his plans, the guerrillas held no town securely. Rayón objected, saying that the guerrillas knew the territory better than the royalists. In the midst of his frictions with Rayón, Morelos managed to obtain information about the territory of Michoacán and was able to plan his battle strategy. Ramón Rayón, Ignacio's brother, offered him support and soldiers, but Morelos refused. The difficulties with Rayón made Morelos doubt his victory, since his family was one of the most respected in Michoacán. Morelos tried to remedy the situation by writing a letter to Rayón, but the latter did not reply. Finally, after three years of absence, Morelos arrived at Carácuaro on December 12, where he learned that Brígida Almonte had died of tuberculosis in April 1811. Ten days later, Morelos camped on the Llanos de Santa María, a few leagues from Valladolid.

Execution of Matamoros by firing squad in Valladolid, February 3, 1814.

On December 23, Morelos, Bravo and Galeana attacked Valladolid, in an event known as the Battle of the Lomas de Santa María. Around midday, the royalist army managed to frustrate a joint attack by the insurgent troops, commanded by Galeana and Bravo, thanks to royalist reinforcements that arrived from the capital under the command of Ciriaco del Llano. The next day, December 24, during Christmas Eve, Agustín de Iturbide and Del Llano managed to penetrate as far as the insurgent camp, and after a few minutes of battle they withdrew, leaving the insurgents killing one another. In this action, Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, Morelos's son, was wounded in one arm. A few days later, on the advice of several of his officers, Morelos ordered part of his army to present itself at Puruarán on January 4, 1814, to hold back the royalist forces, while he and the remaining part of the army fled. At the battle of Puruarán, a soldier named Eusebio Rodríguez captured Matamoros and was rewarded with 200 gold pesos. After a summary trial in Valladolid, Matamoros was executed by firing squad at the Portal de las Ánimas on February 3, even though Morelos had offered the viceregal government 300 Spanish soldiers in exchange for Matamoros's life.

The Congress ordered Morelos to march with his army to Acapulco to carry out the execution of the royalist prisoners who had been offered in exchange to the viceregal government. Meanwhile, the Congress made the decision to strip Morelos of military command and of executive power, while he was named deputy for Nuevo León, when the members of the Congress were increased to sixteen, at the same time that Liceaga and Rayón returned to leading troops. On February 24, José Gabriel de Armijo defeated Morelos at the Battle of Tlacotepec.

On October 22, 1814, the Congress promulgated in Apatzingán the first constitution in the History of Mexico. Morelos had reconciled with the Congress a few weeks earlier and collaborated in the correction and drafting of the last articles. Owing to pursuit by the royalist army, the Congress drafted the Constitution between the haciendas of Tiripetío and Santa Efigenia, and the principal drafters were José Manuel de Herrera, Andrés Quintana Roo, José Sotero Castañeda, Cornelio Ortiz de Zárate, Manuel de Aldrete and José María Ponce de León, who included individual guarantees in the text, although citizens were to be subject to the government. The same day, the Supreme Government was elected, a feast was held, and Morelos stated that it was "the happiest day of his life".

Morelos, Liceaga and Cos assumed executive power, whose main task was to plan the insurgent struggle against the royalist army. Morelos took charge of fortifying the Cerro del Cóporo, where years later Ramón Rayón would defeat Iturbide. In June 1814, Hermenegildo Galeana went to the coast of Guerrero to defend the conquered positions. On June 27 he suffered an accident, falling from his horse. He was captured by a royalist soldier named Joaquín de León, who cut his throat on the spot. It is said that when Morelos learned the news of Galeana's death, he exclaimed "My two arms are gone; I am nothing now", referring to Matamoros and Galeana.

The insurgent government established communication with the United States of America, naming José Manuel de Herrera as its ambassador, and José Álvarez de Toledo, a Cuban naturalized as a Mexican and resident in New Orleans, as consul in New York. In Puruarán, the first military flag in the history of Mexico was created. Shortly afterward, the delegation left for the United States, including Morelos's son, who was sent by his father to study.

On March 7, 1815, the Supreme Court of Justice was installed in Ario, Michoacán, thereby completing the three powers of the union. The royalist army, in the person of Iturbide, began a relentless pursuit against them, since Ferdinand VII had returned from his captivity in Bayonne, France, and the Constitution of Cádiz had been repealed.

The Congress commissioned Rosaíns to raise troops in Veracruz and Puebla, an area where Ignacio López Rayón held great power and had the same commission. This produced conflict, since Rayón boasted of seniority for having served Hidalgo. For a long period there were serious insurgent discords, which ended with the defeat of Rosaíns. Morelos and the Congress blamed him for the defeats, and he was on the verge of being executed by firing squad, but thanks to Liceaga's intervention he was saved. Meanwhile, Vicente Guerrero, Guadalupe Victoria and Manuel Mier y Terán managed to seize all of Veracruz.

Other discords arose within the Congress, since José María Cos had managed to obtain the command of some troops in Pachuca, where he issued a manifesto calling on his troops to disown the Congress and to have military command restored to Morelos and Rayón. The Congress ordered Morelos to capture Cos, while Cos ordered his troops to defend him, but instead of doing so they handed him over to Morelos, who ordered his execution. Pedro Herrera, parish priest of Uruapan and former teacher of Morelos, as well as José María Izazaga, interceded for Cos, and in the end he was not executed.

The government of the viceroyalty was growing stronger because in 1814 Ferdinand VII returned from his exile and captivity in the castle of Valençay, France, after the Spanish troops triumphed in the Spanish War of Independence. Many troops who had fought against Napoleon's forces arrived in Mexico to reinforce the royalist troops. Under the command of officers such as José Gabriel de Armijo, the royalists managed to reconquer Oaxaca and Acapulco in July 1815. Calleja ordered the royalist forces to attack the Congress and the Court of Justice. For this reason, on September 29, 1815, the Congress agreed to move to Tehuacán, Puebla, escorted by a caravan led by Morelos and Bravo.

Capture, trial and execution

On November 5, 1815, Morelos was captured at Tezmalaca, Guerrero, by the Spanish troops under the command of Colonel Manuel de la Concha. During the Congress's march toward Tehuacán, the royalist troops stationed in the Guerrero municipality of Atenango del Río learned of the insurgents' movement toward Tehuacán. Manuel de la Concha immediately left the garrison at dawn with a brigade of approximately 500 men. A few hours later they managed to catch up with the insurgent forces commanded by Morelos, who was in the center, and Bravo, in the rear guard. The Congress, which was traveling with them, managed to evade royalist capture thanks to the efforts of Bravo's troops. Morelos tried to save the life of one of his soldiers, and at that moment he was seized by 10 royalist soldiers. It was not the first time Morelos had been captured, since in the military action of Lomas de Santa María he had been seized by a royalist soldier, but Matamoros's troops rescued him before he could be taken to the royalist camp.

Engraving made in 1870, showing Morelos in the Prison of the Archbishopric.

The commander of the division that captured Morelos at Tezmalaca was Matías Carranco, a former insurgent officer who had deserted in 1812. On recognizing him, Morelos said to him "Señor Carranco, it seems we know each other", and then gave him a watch. Next, Morelos and 200 more insurgent prisoners were taken before Manuel de la Concha, who proceeded to dictate the communiqué sent to the Ministry of War in Valencia, Spain, and to Mexico City. He also ordered the execution by firing squad of 150 of the 200 insurgent prisoners, who were executed in Morelos's presence. The remaining 50 insurgents were sent as slaves to Manila.

In Mexico, the news became known on November 9, and it was ordered to be celebrated with a Te Deum, celebrated by Archbishop Pedro de Fonte. Although the law and canon law permitted the execution of clerics caught with arms in their hands, Calleja, the Spanish Inquisition and the government saw in his capture the possibility of putting the entire insurgency on trial. Although Manuel de la Concha asked that the trial be held in Puebla, Calleja ordered that it be held in the capital. Morelos arrived in Mexico City on November 13, 1815.

The first trial of Morelos was the Trial of the United Jurisdictions, held between November 14 and 23, presided over by the judge advocate of war Miguel Bataller and by the representative of the archbishopric, Félix Flores Alatorre. The government considered it prudent to grant him a defense counsel, and the responsibility fell to the lawyer from Valladolid José María Quiles. The principal accusation made against Morelos was that of having committed the crime of high treason against the king, the fatherland and God, sabotage of the viceroyalty, and causing deaths and destruction. In his reply, Morelos answered: "In Spain there was no longer a king, he went to his house in France, and although he did return, he came back to the throne as a despot contaminated with irreligion". Then came the ecclesiastical trial, where he was accused of violating celibacy by having 3 illegitimate children, and of ignoring the excommunications issued against him by the Bishop of Michoacán Manuel Abad y Queipo. In a letter addressed to the inquisitor Antonio Bergosa y Jordán (who was Bishop of Oaxaca in 1812, when the Insurgent Army took the city), Morelos stated that the excommunications were only valid if the Pope or a council issued them. By decree of the Tribunal of the Inquisition dated November 23, Morelos was sentenced to religious degradation.

The religious degradation of Morelos took place on November 27, 1815, in a public audience.

On November 17, Ignacio Alas was named by the Congress as Morelos's substitute, and this same legislative body sent Viceroy Félix Calleja a letter, dated November 20, requesting pardon for Morelos. On November 24, the bishops of Puebla, Durango and Oaxaca were received in a private interview by Calleja, whom they asked not to apply the death penalty to Morelos. That same day, Quiles asked Morelos for information about the insurgent army. Pedro de Fonte, Archbishop of Mexico, named the canonical board that would proceed to degrade Morelos. Calleja, who was uneasy because the jailer Manuel Flores had informed him that there were plans to assassinate him, decided to disguise himself as a soldier and go visit Morelos.

On the afternoon of November 27, in the Chapel of the Holy Office, which is today the School of Medicine, Morelos was led to public degradation, officiated by the Inquisitor General Antonio Bergosa y Jordán. Morelos wore a yellow cassock of a smaller size which, according to Lucas Alamán, who witnessed the scene, "made him look effeminate". Bergoza pronounced in Latin the words of degradation, whose translation into Spanish would be "We take from you the power to offer sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass. With this scraping, we remove from you the power you had received in the anointing of the hands. We rightly strip you of the priestly vestment. We deprive you of the Levitical order, because you did not fulfill your ministry within it. As an ungrateful son, we cast you out of the inheritance of the Lord". Alamán's account says that Morelos shed tears at the moment of being degraded, but Bustamante denies this, saying that the one who wept was Bergoza, since he felt admiration for Morelos.

The Inquisition conducted a proceeding against Morelos from November 29. The principal arguments used by the inquisitors were sophisms, but the one used most was the signing of the Constitution of Apatzingán, which had been condemned in Rome by Pius VII and was accused of containing ideas contrary to the Catholic faith. According to an interview published in Calleja's statement before the king in 1822, the main reason for the inquisitorial trial of Morelos was to discredit him before the population, since he was accused of being a bad Catholic and a bad citizen.

Execution of Morelos by firing squad.

Archbishop Pedro de Fonte drafted the retraction that Morelos was to sign in order to be granted the government's pardon. Although Morelos acknowledged that he had not fallen into any heresy, the Inquisition declared him a heretic on the day of his degradation and sentenced him to perpetual confinement in an African convent.

According to the viceregal authorities, Fonte visited Morelos to demand that he sign his retraction, and after several days the retraction supposedly signed by Morelos began to circulate on December 10. And on December 12, Calleja received a letter from Morelos indicating strategies and key places for the Insurgent Army.

However, the historian José Herrera Peña demonstrates the falsity of the supposed retraction, since it never existed, nor did the betrayal of his comrades-in-arms by Morelos, who on the contrary remained faithful to his principles and values, both insurgent and religious. It is now considered a ruse by Calleja.

In the early hours of December 21, Calleja issued the death sentence for Morelos, and Colonel De la Concha, his captor, was charged with going to the prison and reading it to Morelos, who heard it on his knees. He recalled that 18 years earlier, on that same date and also on his knees, he had received priestly anointing.

Offering at the bust of Morelos on an anniversary of his death, at his birthplace.

On Friday, December 22, at around six in the morning, Morelos woke in his cell, ate bread with coffee, and was then chained hand and foot; he boarded a carriage guarded by 50 soldiers and set off for Ecatepec, where the execution was to take place, by Calleja's order, since a riot might break out. On passing the Basilica of Guadalupe, he tried to kneel, but the weight of the chains prevented him. After a long journey, he arrived at Ecatepec at one in the afternoon. The priest Miguel Salazar was commissioned by Manuel de la Concha to hear Morelos's confession and prepare his burial. After eating, Morelos talked a little with Salazar and De la Concha, and then made his confession. Before going to the execution wall, he prayed Psalm 51, and then the drums sounded. Morelos embraced Concha, blindfolded himself, took a crucifix and exclaimed: Lord, if I have acted well, you know it; but if I have acted badly, I take refuge in your infinite mercy. He then knelt with his back to the firing squad. At the word of command, two volleys rang out. Officially, at four in the afternoon on Friday, December 22, 1815, José María Morelos y Pavón had died. His remains rest in the Column of Independence in Mexico City.

Legacy

Photograph of a banner of Morelos during the celebration of the Day of the Dead, at UNAM.

Eighteenth university Day of the Dead festival, 2015.

Statue of Morelos erected in 1947 on the Michoacán island of Janitzio.

A legend tells that Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, exclaimed during the campaign of 1812: "With five generals like Morelos, I would conquer the world". His own adversaries also recognized him as a military man. Viceroy Francisco Xavier Venegas described him as "the principal leader of the insurrection, and he has been in it the genius of greatest firmness, resources and cunning".

In his honor, the Mexican government has named many places after him. The best-known case is that of his native city, Valladolid, renamed Morelia on September 12, 1828, by decree of the local Congress. Also, the state of Morelos was named in his honor on January 21, 1869, by decree of President Benito Juárez. Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg decreed that in 1865, the centenary of his birth, an equestrian statue be erected to him in Morelia, which still stands there today. Between 1947 and 1987, he appeared on the one-peso coins, on the 100-peso coin minted between 1977 and 1978, on the 500-peso banknote issued approximately between 1943 and 1977, on the 20-peso banknote (1969–1979) and, since 1994, on the N$50 and $50 banknotes. During World War II, an American warship was named in his honor as "SS José M. Morelos". Likewise, Mexican cinema has portrayed him on several occasions. In 1943, Miguel Contreras Torres directed the films El padre Morelos and El rayo del sur, both starring the actor Domingo Soler. The historical telenovelas Los Caudillos (1968) and La antorcha encendida (1996) gave him a starring role. In the first, the role of Morelos was played by Narciso Busquets, and in the second, by Sergio Reyn

Descendants

• Juan Nepomuceno Almonte: Mexican military officer, politician and diplomat, veteran of the Battle of the Alamo and supporter of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.
• Manuel Jacobo Sosa Pavón: Mexican military officer who took part in the Mexican Revolution.

See also

• Political crisis in Mexico of 1808
• Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
• History of Mexico
• Independence of Mexico
• Sentimientos de la Nación
• Siege of Cuautla

Bibliography

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• BENÍTEZ, José Roberto, Morelos, su casa y su casta en Valladolid/Morelia, (facsimile of the 1947 edition) Universidad de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 1947.
• BRISENO SENOSIANI, Lilian La independencia de México, textos de su historia, Mexico, SEP-Instituto de Investigación Doctor Luis Mora, 1985.
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• CHÁVEZ, Ezequiel, Morelos, Mexico, Jus, 1957.
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• FERRER MUÑOZ, Manuel Los pueblos de indias y el parteaguas de la Independencia de México, Mexico, UNAM, 1999.
• GARCÍA, Genaro, Documentos históricos mexicanos (facsimile of the 1910 edition), Mexico, SEP, 1985.
• GONZÁLEZ, Luis, El Congreso de Anáhuac, Mexico, Cámara de Senadores, 1963.
• GONZÁLEZ, Luis, El oficio de historiar, Mexico, COLMEZ, 1999.
• GUEDEA, Virginia, José María Morelos y Pavón, Cronología, Mexico, UNAM, 1992
• GUEDEA, Virginia, En busca de un gobierno alterno, Los Guadalupes de México, Mexico, UNAM, 1995
• GUZMÁN PÉREZ, Moisés, La Junta de Zitácuaro, 1811-1813, Morelia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 1994.
• HERNÁNDEZ Y DÁVALOS, Juan Enrique, Colección de documentos para la historia de la guerra de independencia de México de 1808 a 1821 (facsimile of the 1877-1882 edition), Mexico, INEHRM, 1985.
• HERREJÓN PEREDO, Carlos, Morelos, vida preinsurgente y lecturas, Zamora, El Colegio de Michoacán, 1984.
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• HERREJÓN PEREDO, Carlos, Morelos, documentos inéditos de vida revolucionaria, (with the study Morelos y la crisis de la Junta Suprema Nacional), Zamora, El Colegio de Michoacán, 1987.
• IBARGÜENGOITIA, Jorge, Los pasos de López, Mexico, Editorial Joaquín Mortiz, 1992.
• KRAUZE, Enrique, Siglo de caudillos, Madrid, Tusquets, 1994.
• LEMOINE VILLICAÑA, Ernesto, Zitácuaro, Chilpancingo y Apatzingán, tres grandes momentos de la Insurgencia Mexicana, in Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, 1963, IV, no. 3, pp. 385-710.
• LEMOINE VILLICAÑA, Ernesto, Morelos. Su vida revolucionaria a través de sus escritos y otros testimonios de la época, Mexico, UNAM, 1965.
• LEMOINE VILLICAÑA, Ernesto, Morelos y la revolución de 1810, Mexico, Gobierno del Estado de Michoacán, 1979.
• MARTÍNEZ PEÑALOZA, María Teresa, Morelos y el poder judicial de la insurgencia mexicana, Mexico, 1985.
• MIQUEL Y VERGES, José María, Diccionario de insurgentes, Mexico, Porrúa, 1969.
• MORELOS, José María, Escritos y diarios, Mexico, UNAM (compilation), 1965.
• PIETSCHMANN, Horst Las reformas borbónicas y el sistema de independencias en la Nueva España, un estudio político y administrativo, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1996.
• REMOLINA ROQUEÑÍ, Felipe, Vigencia y positividad de la Constitución de Apatzingán, Mexico, Federación Editorial Mexicana, 1972.
• RIVA PALACIO, Vicente, México a través de los siglos, Mexico, Editorial Cumbre, 1981.
• SÁNCHEZ DÍAZ, Gerardo Carácuaro de Morelos, Mexico, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 1994.
• SEMO, Enrique, México, un pueblo en la historia, Mexico, Alianza Editorial Mexicana, 1990.
• TEJA ZABRE, Alfonso Vida de Morelos (facsimile of the 1959 edition), Mexico, INEHRM, 1985.
• TIMMONS, Wilbert H., Morelos, sacerdote, soldado, estadista, Mexico, FCE, 1983.
• VARGAS MARTÍNEZ, Ubaldo, Morelos, siervo de la Nación, Mexico, Porrúa, 1971.

External links

• "José María Morelos" (in español).

• Ricardo Romero (September 2006). "Las Campañas de Morelos" (in español). Diario de Yucatán. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007.
• Joaquín García Gómez (January 2005). "La Independencia de México" (in español). Radio Extremo. Archived from the original (HTML) on September 29, 2007. Retrieved August 31, 2007.
• Gobierno de México (2005). "Biografía oficial de José María Morelos" (in español). Archived from the original (HTML) on March 2, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
• Biografías y Vidas (2004). "Biografía de Morelos en Biografías y Vidas" (HTML) (in español). Retrieved September 3, 2007.
• Noticias de Cuernavaca (2003). "Morelos en Historia de Cuernavaca" (in español). Archived from the original (HTML) on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
• Dorothy Tanck de Estrada (2002). "Cofradías en los pueblos de indios en el México Colonial" (in español). Archived from the original (HTML) on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2007.