Sign In

Rare Mexican Broadside on the Capture of Santa Anna

Mexican Government declares that any promise made by Santa Anna while a prisoner not binding

The first issue of this printed decree issued on May 20, 1836, reporting on the recent capture of Santa Anna in the midst of the Texas Revolution. This decree is significant as it relates to the immediate post Battle of San Jacinto period and the Treaties of Velasco entered into by Santa Anna (independently of the Mexican government) with the Republic of Texas.

This broadside decree was issued in Mexico City on May 20, 1836, by Interim Mexican President José Justo Corro and promulgated by Secretary of War José Maria Tornel. It outlines the Mexican government’s response to the capture of General Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto. Streeter notes that the first announcement of the capture of Santa Anna was the decree of May 19, 1836 (see Streeter Texas no. 884), but that broadside provided scant detail on the overall outcome of Santa Anna's defeat.

The present text, which comprises six concise articles, declares (here translated from the Spanish): “The Government will excite the patriotism of Mexicans to engage all the resources at hand to vigorously continue the war over Texas, until national honor is redeemed, to ensure the interests of the Republic and obtain the freedom of the General President.”

Notably the decree seems to reach out to the Americans (the United States would ultimately arrange for Santa Anna’s return): “The successful cooperation of any national or foreigner in achieving the freedom of the President himself will be worthily rewarded by Congress.”

At the same time it also states the government will fulfill the goals in Article I (on continuing the war with Texas) without regard to anything stipulated by President Santa Anna while imprisoned, which Mexico City would consider to be of no value ("la cual como nula, será de ningun valor ni efecto"). This is significant given the negotiations undertaken between Santa Anna and the Republic of Texas that resulted in the so-called Treaties of Velasco, signed on May 14, 1836, at a fort located on the present site of Surfside Beach on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The public part of the Velasco agreement called for hostilities to cease, that Santa Anna would not again take up arms against Texas, that Mexican forces would withdraw beyond the Rio Grande, that property confiscated by Mexicans be restored, that prisoners would be exchanged on an equal basis, that Santa Anna would be sent to Mexico as soon as possible, and that the Texas army would not approach closer than five leagues to the retreating Mexicans.

News of Velasco agreements may have arrived in Mexico City by the date of the present decree (May 20). Eventually the Mexican Congress nullified the Velasco "treaties." Santa Anna was subsequently removed as president and the Mexican Congress firmly held that Santa Anna had "offered nothing in the name of the nation."

Other sections of the decree discuss raising additional troops for the Texas war from the various Mexican regional departments (after 1835 Mexico's states were officially called departments under the centralist system imposed under the Siete Leyes constitution).

This law was passed the day after the capture of Santa Anna [at San Jacinto] had been announced.... On the same day the president declared a national state of mourning to continue while Santa Anna was a prisoner – Streeter.

Printed on Wove Paper With Chain Lines

The paper used for this broadside is an unusual example of early 19th-century machine-made laid paper. Although the paper is clearly a wove stock it has prominent vertical chain lines -- a characteristic feature of traditional laid paper. The chain lines on the present sheet, made by the storied Italian papermaking firm of Magnini, would seem to have been included to imitate the look of laid paper for cosmetic or marketing purposes during the transition from laid to wove paper.

Rarity

Rare in the market, this broadside is also institutionally scarce: OCLC cites only four holdings, those at Texas Tech, Baylor, BYU, and Yale.