Feb 04, 2016 - Sale 2404

Sale 2404 - Lot 313

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(MEXICO.) Archive of broadsides and documents from Nuevo León around the time of Maximilian. 136 items in one box: 78 printed circulars and proclamations, each 1 to 4 pages, legal-sized, 1853-68 * 3 larger broadside proclamations, dated 1857, 1862, and 1868 * 31 manuscript orders and letters, 1854-70 * 2 engravings of Emperor Maximilian * 9 blank forms * 2 periodical issues (El Rife de Tamaulipas, 1861 and La Sombra de Arteaga, 1867) * one pamphlet, Ley de contribuciones directas, 1863. Various sizes and conditions, many with moderate wear at edges. Vp, 1853-70, bulk 1863-68
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Additional Details

Many of these proclamations were addressed to the alcalde of Hualahuises, a small town in the state of Nuevo León southeast of Monterrey; others are addressed to the prefect of nearby Linares. At least three of the manuscript letters are addressed to Jesús María Benítez y Pinillos of Linares, who served briefly as Nuevo León governor under Maximilian in 1864. A 13 July 1864 letter to Benitez is signed by Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, one of Juarez's chief ministers.
Nuevo León had an interesting history in this period, attempting to secede from Mexico in 1856 and flirting with the Confederate States of America after 1861. The French intervention began in 1862, with emperor Maximilian in power from 1864 to 1867.
Three of the proclamations in this collection were issued by the secessionist governor Santiago Vidaurri dated 1858-64. Of particular interest is his rousing 28 December 1861 broadside issued shortly after the French arrival at Veracruz, which begins "Conciudadanos: Ha sonado la hora solemne en que va á probarse el poder de la República, mediante los esfuerzos heroicos de sus hijos á quienes llama á su defensa con la soberana autoridad que tiene sobre todos ellos sin distincion al ver su territorio invadido por tropas estrangeras." No other copies have been traced. Vidaurri's 2 January 1864 broadside laments the fall of San Luis Potosí to the French, and urges continued resistance. Also noteworthy is a broadside circular issued by Colonel Julián Quiroga at the start of his ten-day reign as military commander and governor of Monterrey before he was ousted by the French, 16 August 1864.