"It is related that Hidalgo, the celebrated priestly leader of the revolutionary movement, was accustomed to travel from village to village preaching a crusade against the Spaniards, exciting the _creoles_ and Indians; and one of his most effective tricks is said to have been the following. Although he had thrown off the cassock for the military coat, he wore a figure of the Virgin Mary suspended by a chain around his neck. After haranguing the mob on such occasions, he would suddenly break off, and looking down at his breast, address himself to the holy image, after the following fashion: 'Mary! Mother of God! Holy Virgin! Patron of Mexico! behold our country,--behold our wrongs,--behold our sufferings! Dost thou not wish they should be changed? that we should be delivered from our tyrants? that we should be free? that we should slay the gachupines! that we should kill the Spaniards?' "The image had a moveable head fastened to a spring, which he jerked by a cord concealed beneath his coat, and, of course the Virgin responded with a nod! The effect was surprising--and the air was filled with Indian shouts of obedience to the present miracle."--Mexico as it was and as it is, p. 230. [15] The term _creole_ is a corruption of the Spanish word _criollo_, which is derived from _criar_, to create or foster. The Spaniards apply the term criollo not merely to the human race, but to animals born in the colonies, if they are of _pure European blood_. [16] See Robinson's Memoirs Mexican Revolution, page 15. The term _gachupin_ has been always used by the creoles and Indians as a word of contempt towards the Spaniards. Its origin and exact signification are unknown; but it is believed to be an Indian, and perhaps Aztec, term of scorn and opprobrium. [17] A _federal_ government, similar to our own, was established in Mexico in 1824, and overthrown in 1835, to yield to a _central_ constitution. In the meanwhile, the centralists were almost always at war, openly or secretly, against the _federalists_. [18] Macaulay's Essays, vol. 2d, p. 356, Bost. Ed. CHAPTER II. Origin of the war considered--True objects of contemporaneous history --Motives for war--No single act caused it--Difference between war and hostilities--Mexican revolution--Federalism and Centralism-- Operation of the Constitution of 1824--History of our commercial and diplomatic relations--Bad conduct of Mexico in regard to our claims, compared with that of other nations--Commission--Award of umpire-- Subsequent course of Mexico--History of the seizure and surrender of Monterey, on the Pacific, by Commodore Jones in 1842--Secretary Upshur's censure of his conduct--Ill feeling in Mexico towards the United States in consequence of this seizure.