Decree After the Loss at the Battle of Cerro Gordo

[Mexican-American War] Francisco M. de Olaguíbel. El gobernador del estado libre y sobrano de mexico, a sus habitantes. Toluca, Mexico: [No publication information] Abril 21, 1847. Broadside printed on laid paper 31 cm. Signed in type: Francisco M. de Olaguíbel

OCLC shows no holdings for this apparently unrecorded decree, issued three days after the battle of Cerro Gordo, which saw Winfield Scott's United States troops outflank Antonio López de Santa Anna's larger Mexican army, driving it from a strong defensive position. Here the Governor of Toluca attempts to rally the people to continue the war, invoking their ancestors and calling for guerrilla tactics, among other things:

Fellow citizens: The time for combat has come. Cerro-Gordo has been occupied by the enemy, and there is no longer a so-called army. We have lost weapons of all kinds and artillery, and that inconceivable term of that action: that term, as shameful as it is so terrible, leaves the peoples alone to take care of the war. Let's get up en-mass and run over the Anglo-Saxon. Let him see all Mexicans burn their crops and their homes first, leave them for their livelihood or their shelter: let him see a national war: let him see that the children of the Spaniards, and the descendants of Xicotencal and Guatimoc fight like them, against the foreign invasion. No peace, no truce. Let them occupy our cities: let them ravage our fields and properties; let them come to the center of the confederation. Here you will find everyone determined to resist them, and men and women and old people and children, will breathe out their last sigh, in defense of their religion and their homeland, rather than to hear the slightest word of that ignominious peace. War, and only war. War to the death. War like the Morelos, the Galeanas and the Matamoros. We have to compromise. Traitor is the one who today tries to divide us. Traitor who speaks of peace; he who dares to propose a truce. Fellow citizens: We fly in defense of our homes and our families, our independence, our freedom and institutions, and the holy religion of our parents. We are all one, and only Mexicans. Let's unite, and let a single cry, and a battle cry, make us recognize.

An extraordinary and rather blood-thirsty paean to continuing the war against the Americans.