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A very rare and significant Spanish decree promulgated in the final months of Spanish rule in Mexico, granting amnesty to American, English, and French nationals imprisoned for participating in the ongoing War for Mexican Independence. The decree, made by Ferdinand VII on April 17, 1820 and largely at the behest of liberal forces empowered by the just-reinstated Constitution of 1812, states that "The King has pardoned and wishes made immediately free all of those Anglo-Americans who are imprisoned in his dominions for having raised arms in favor of the insurgents, for having been spies, for having been found without passport, for having aided the rebellion in the Americas directly or indirectly; in effect, all those who are not detained for murder, robbery, or debt." [our translation]. An addition, dated two weeks later, "granted by the King at the request of the Ambassador of His Most Christian Majesty [Louis XVIII]," extends the same favor to "all French persons who have been detained at any point in Spain or America." The third paragraph, added in July, stipulates that the pardon will not apply to British who have fought with or aided the rebels after September 1819, when a bill of British Parliament went into effect prohibiting enlistment and relief in favor of any foreign country. The full text is promulgated on November 24 and endorsed with the rubric of Juan Ruiz de Apodaca, 1st Count of Venadito and the penultimate Viceroy of New Spain. Ruiz de Apodaca may have been sympathetic with the King's proclamation, having himself offered amnesty to the Mexican rebels as one of his first acts as Viceroy. Regardless, he responded harshly to Spanish revolutionary leader Francisco Javier Mina's 1817 invasion, having him executed immediately upon his capture in November of that year. The remainder of 1817 to 1820 was relatively quiet between Spanish forces and Mexican insurgents, which may have made this proclamation feel like a safe political move under pressure from France and other powers at the time. Only a few weeks after promulgating this decree, Ruiz de Apodaca would send Agustin de Iturbide to crush Guerrero and stamp out the rebellion once and for all instead, Iturbide and Guerrero joined forces, and Spanish rule in Mexico was over by late 1821. Not many foreigners threw their lot in with the insurgent forces in Mexico in the early 1800s, but a handful of Americans (including Boston printer Samuel Bangs, who accompanied Mina on his 1817 expedition and printed a lost manifesto on board the ship from Baltimore to Galveston) took up arms, provided financial aid, or seized on the opportunity to make largely abortive filibuster attempts. Some English merchants did the same, though American efforts largely ceased with the Adams-Onís Treaty (February 1819) and English meddling with Parliament's anti-filibuster law of the same year. The French seemed to have even less interest in the Mexican independence movement, but Ferdinand's concession here may have influenced Louis XVIII's decision to support the Spanish king's repeal of the 1812 constitution by force of arms in 1823. A very rare and significant broadside from the tail end of Mexico's life as New Spain. OCLC records only one copy, at UCLA. OCLC 1004680556. Old folds, light edge wear (heavier to upper edge). Minor staining, small closed tear at one fold (touching two letters of text). Signed with rubric of Ruiz de Apodaca and manuscript signature of chief notary José Negreiros y Soria. Very good.
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