To such an extent was this carried, that memorials reached me begging my interference, as the memorialists could not now defend themselves. Two of these memorials, signed by upwards of three hundred of the respectable inhabitants of the province, were of such a nature as to render hopeless the perfect restoration of order so long as the President was permitted to exercise the autocracy, which, contrary to all the principles of the constitution, he had irresponsibly assumed.
In order to account for a step which I subsequently considered it my duty to adopt, it is necessary to give some extracts from one of these memorials, signed by a hundred and fifty-two of the most respectable inhabitants in a distant part of the province:--
"That the most demoralizing excesses are permitted amongst the soldiery, and, in order to preserve his influence with the troops, the President permits them to murder with impunity--even Europeans; the perpetrators of these acts being not only unpunished, but rewarded, whilst military commandants and others attempting to repress these disorders are dismissed; so that absolute authority is established--the public money being squandered on the soldiery, in order to support a criminal despotism.
"Your Excellency must have witnessed the state to which the province was reduced on your arrival, the people being compelled to have recourse to arms in order to ward off a multitude of vexations. Your Excellency must also have observed how quickly they laid down their arms at your summons, of which circumstance the party of the President availed themselves to sack and plunder the towns and villages everywhere in the country; the tears, desolation, and misery of so many villages and estates, accompanied by the blood of the murdered and wounded, remaining eternal monuments of these crimes.
"The President and his followers, convinced of the abhorrence with which such atrocities were viewed, availed themselves of the false pretext that such acts were necessary for the Imperial service, the people being in rebellion against him.
"At the present moment he has given out that he has three thousand men ready to support him in the Presidency against the measures of your Excellency, and it is a fact that, in various parts of the province, he has troops, militia, and arms; whilst the commandants, appointed by himself, are all ready to execute his measures.