Nicolás Bravo

During the newly established First Mexican Republic, Bravo allied himself with the Centralist party, preferring a strong unitary government for the country, and to which were also allied various conservative interests ranging from the remaining Spaniards in the country, to the upper classes, to the clergy. Politics in Mexico at this time was associated with Masonic lodges, and the conservatives met within lodges of the Scottish Rite, consequently being known as the Escoceses and in which Bravo acquired a position of leadership.[10] The Escoceses were opposed by the federalists, who preferred the country to be governed by a federal system, and with which were associated various liberal causes. They too met within Masonic lodges but were rather followers of the York Rite, and so were known as Yorkinos. Mexico's constitution, following the American, decreed that in a presidential election the winner becomes president while second place became vice president. In the elections of 1824, Bravo was elected to be the nation's first vice-president and the Independence War hero, Guadalupe Victoria was elected president, but the two men belonged to opposite parties, with the latter being a Yorkino and the former being an Escoses.

On December 23, 1827, the Escoceses, led by Vice President Bravo, proclaimed the Plan of Montaño, demanding the expulsion of the American ambassador Joel Poinsett, the end to secret societies, and the dismissal of the current cabinet, the latter measure due to the belief that the Yorkino dominated government was about to take decisive measures to suppress the Escoceses.[11] The insurrection was short-lived and Bravo was defeated at Tulancingo by his former ally Vicente Guerrero.[12]

Bravo was tried before a grand jury, and the case went to the Supreme Court. Although the law prescribed a severe punishment for his treason, his services during the Mexican War of Independence won him sympathy from his old colleagues who asked for clemency, and even President Guadalupe Victoria preferred leniency, so the court simply condemned him to banishment for two years.[13]

He departed from Acapulco to South America and on the journey he lost his only child. His banishment was shortened due to an amnesty granted by President Vicente Guerrero, and Bravo returned to Mexico in 1829.[14]

He continued to be a supporter of the Conservative Party and when and joined the Plan of Jalapa against President Guerrero that same year. After personally going out to lead his troops against the insurrection, President Guerrero was deposed at the capital in January 1830 and replaced by the conservative Anastasio Bustamante. Guerrero however remained at large and continued to wage warfare against the government in the south of the country when Bravo occupied the port and fortress of Acapulco, to remove an important source of wealth from Guerrero and his supporters, but Bravo was dislodged from the city. Bravo however was later victorious at Chilpancingo in January 1831, for which congress granted him a sword of honor, considering that the victory was a decisive defeat against the ongoing operations of Guerrero.[15]

Anastasio Bustamante's conservative government fell during through an insurrection known as the Plan of Veracruz in 1832, but Bravo was reluctant to recognize the rebels, but Santa Anna, who had played a key role in the Plan of Veracruz, eventually won him over.[16]

Anastasio Bustamante had meanwhile returned to the presidency and in 1839, Bravo was invited to be a part of his council of state, resulting that when Bustamante temporarily stepped down from the presidency to lead the troops against the rebellion of Jose Urrea, Bravo on July 10, 1839, was named by congress the interim president of the Republic.[18]

There was much dissatisfaction with the state of the country at this time, and a great public clamor for constitutional reform, which included many generals and commanders. President Bravo wished for such concerns to be addressed through legal channels, and he directed his council of state to urge the Supreme Moderating Power, a governing council that according to the constitution was above even the president, to declare that it was the will of the nation to reform the constitution, at the direction of the national representatives, without waiting for a more suitable time.[19]

This first presidency would ultimately last only nine days and yet Bravo treated his duties with energy and dedication. When the criminal Yanez, condemned to death by hanging for highway robbery, slit his own throat to avoid the hangman, friends of the family pleaded that the body not be displayed in public, but Bravo decreed that the body be displayed on the gallows anyway to serve as a warning.[20]

Bravo would next become president in 1842 during which the Centralist Republic of Mexico experienced a constitutional change. In response to multiple national crises, on August 8, 1841, Mariano Paredes had proclaimed against the government of Anastasio Bustamante, and when his insurgent troops reached the city of Tacubaya they were joined by Santa Anna. After failing to put down the insurgency, Bustamante officially surrendered power through the Estanzuela Accords on October 6, 1841. A military junta was formed which wrote the Bases of Tacubaya, a plan which swept away the entire structure of government, except the judiciary, and also called for elections for a new constituent congress meant to write a new constitution.[21]

The subsequent congress which was installed on June 10, 1842, was strongly federalist, against the wishes of the organizers of the Bases of Tacubaya who were strongly centralist. Santa Anna began to scheme to dissolve the congress, and left Bravo in charge of the presidency on October 26, 1842. Bravo was not in accord with Santa Anna's schemes for while he too was a centralist, he did not wish to overturn the results of the election which had led to the strongly federal congress. Tornel the minister of war was the real power at the capital at this time, being the favorite of Santa Anna[22]

President Bravo assured a commission sent by congress, that he would accept the new constitution, and congress continued working on its draft, when its work was interrupted by a pronunciamiento in the obscure town of Huejotzingo, calling for the dissolution of congress, and demanding the installation of a council of notables to work on the new constitution. Minister Tornel was among the conspirators promoting the revolution. In spite of his earlier reluctance to go against congress and reassurance towards them, at the decisive hour, Bravo sided with the insurrectionists and on December 19, he signed a decree signed by Bocanegra, Velez, Gorostiza, and Tornel dissolving congress and decreeing that they be replaced by a Junta of Notables.[23]

In the early dawn hours of that day there had been skirmishes in the Ciudadela and throughout the morning the Celaya Battalion had remained stationed in the corridor contiguous to the hall where congress met in order to prevent the deputies from entering. Most of them met at the home of the president of the congress Francisco Elorriaga and they directed a memo to President Bravo, asking him if they could continue their sessions, and the reply explained that "every garrison has pronounced against congress except myself and the commandant general of Mexico State." Most deputies then agreed to publish a manifesto explaining that the executive which had long been interfering with their labors had now used armed forces to dissolve the congress.[24]

While Bravo himself was against the dissolution of congress made it so that the Junta of Notables would be composed of individuals known for their knowledge and patriotism. The Junta was to last six months, during which the Bases of Tacubaya would reign as a provisional constitution. The council of government would continue to function. Another decree on December 23 declared that the Junta of Notables would call itself the national legislature, and the eighty individuals who were to make it up were finally named.[25]

The Junta opened its sessions on January 6, 1843, and General Valencia and Quintana Roo were elected president and vice president of the congress respectively. The Departmental Juntas which had not supporter the Bases of Tacubaya were dissolved. During this time President Bravo established the medical-military Health Corp, and also established a mint in Culicacan. He also recruited four hundred forty men into the military and declared that official stationery must only use paper manufactured in Mexico.[26]

Bravo and Santa Anna became suspicious of Mariano Paredes who had played such a key role in establishing the Bases of Tacubaya, but who now began to express dissatisfaction with the government. He was invited to join the Junta and then made commandant general of Mexico State, and later arrested for speaking against the government, but eventually acquitted. Bravo would eventually resign on May 5, after growing tired of playing the role of Santa Anna's puppet[27]

Bravo was summoned to the capital from the department of Veracruz where he was in the middle of fortifying the city against a potential assault, and replaced with General Mosso. Four days after he assumed the presidency, on August 3, the garrison of Vera Cruz and San Juan de Ulua revolted, proclaiming the plan of Guadalajara, and early on the morning of August 4, General Salas with more than a thousand troops revolted in the capital. The former president Paredes fled the city on that same night, intending to go off to the front to lead some troops he had dispatched, but he was arrested and sent back by General Avalos. At a conference held by the belligerents, including Vizcaino Lemus, and Jose Ramon Pacheco, Martin Carrera, Jose Urrea, and Ramon Moralies,[31] on August 6 it was agreed that Bravo should step down. Power would pass over to General Salas.[32]

Bravo continued to participate in the war effort, and was named commandant general of the Department of Puebla, but he retreated from that city when orders arrived to fall back on the capital.[33] He took part in the efforts to defend the capital and he was assigned to the southern boundary of the city, which had previously belonged to General Andrade. After the defeats of Molino del Rey and Casa Mata he was placed in charge of defending the Chapultepec with two thousand troops, with Monterde, director of the fortifications there, as his second-in-command. The place began to be bombarded on September 12, and an assault followed the next day, which ultimately ended in a Mexican defeat, and Bravo was taken prisoner.[34]

During the Battle of Chapultepec, Bravo had asked for reinforcements and only the Battalion of San Blas commanded by Xicotencatl could help. Bravo's reputation suffered in the aftermath of the loss, for in the official report by Santa Anna he assured that Bravo had been taken prisoner after hiding in a waterlogged trench, submerged up to the neck, after which he was recognized by his white hair.[35]