But the viceroy Apodaca, confident as he was of the defeat of the insurrection, did not know the people with whom he dealt as well as his predecessor Calleja,[62] who, with all his cruelty, seems to have enjoyed sagacious intervals in which he comprehended perfectly the deep seated causes of revolutionary feeling in Mexico, even if he was indisposed to sympathize with them or to permit their manifestation by the people. In fact, the revolution was not quelled. It slept, for want of a leader;--but, at last he appeared in the person of AGUSTIN DE ITURBIDE, a native Mexican, whose military career, in the loyalist cause had been not only brilliant but eminently useful, for it was in consequence of the two severe blows inflicted by him upon the insurgents in the actions of Valladolid and Puruaran that the great army of Morelos was routed and destroyed. In 1820, Apodaca, who was no friend of the constitution, and who suffered a diminution of power by its operation, was well disposed to put it down by force, and to proclaim once more the absolute authority of the king. The elective privileges, which the constitution secured to the people, together with the principles of freedom which those elections were calculated to foster among the masses, were considered by the viceroy as dangerous in a country so recently the theatre of revolution. The insurrection was regarded by him as ended forever. He despised, perhaps, the few distinguished persons who yet quietly manifested their preference for liberalism; and, like all men of despotic character and confident of power, he undervalued the popular masses, among whom there is ever to be found common sense, true appreciation of natural rights, and firmness to vindicate them whenever they are confident of the leaders who are to control their destiny when embarked upon the stormy sea of rebellion. Apodaca, in pursuit of his project to restore absolutism on this continent, fixed his eyes upon the gallant ITURBIDE, whose polished manners, captivating address, elegant person, ambitious spirit, and renowned military services, signalized him as a person likely to play a distinguished part in the restoration of a supreme power whose first favors would probably be showered upon the successful soldier of a crusade against constitutional freedom.