Transcription
Madrid June 20th, 1843
My dear papa,
I received some time since your short and rather / hurried letter just before your journey to Hartford. The last / accounts speak of you at home again and moving frequently / between Nevis and the City : I hope you will have time in / the interval of your visits, to keep me au fait of your proceedings / in all of which I most heartily wish your success : about / these days you ought to received a letter from me of the / 24th May with which I forwarded to Miller an order for / ₤43_ In his answer he informs me that according to your / instructions he has deposited the Order, in order [^ to the end] that it / may be drawn against by you :
The condition of this Country becomes every / day more critical, and the uncertainty of the future is so / great, that no one can pronounce with safety who may be al / the head of affairs by the end of the summer : my oppor - / tunities as a looker in would have enabled [^ me] to have written / to the Intelligencer as you suggested, but that I felt disposed / to be, perhaps unnecessarily, cautious and moreover the / circumstance (for your ear only) that the letter and / despatches mould [^ would] have been for the last two months /
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From the same pen, must have been too apparent at the Depar’t / of State :
Since the 23d May when the movement first broke / out at Malaga the insurrection has gained ground, up to the / present moment, and new extends over a large part of the Country / and almost all the principal points on the Mediterranean Coast. / Before the Decree dissolving the Cortes was published the opposition [^ Deputies] / were leaving for the provinces in all directions to place themselves at / the head of the movement : Two days after the first rising in Malaga, (by one of those sudden turns to which these revolts are nowhere more liable / than in Spain) a certain Marquis Torremejia Colonel of a Regiment succeeding / in restoring order and the authority of the Gov’t he instantly despatched a / Courier to convey the intelligence to Madrid : in the mean time the leader / of the revolten, Captain Gen’l of the province, took refuge in the house of the / French Consul and hired a boat to convey him at night on board the steamer / for Gibraltar : Torremejia’s Courier however met at Columnar, a picturesque / village in one of the wild passes of the mountains, a courier from Grenada / with the intelligence that this Capital had also declared and overturned the / authority of Gov’t _ as soon as this news was rec’d at Malaga the troops / + national militia declared back again, and Torremejia changed places / with the Cpatain General at the Consul’s house and also assumed his bargain for the boat: there has been some little confusion but no bloodshed / at this port : one curious affair took place : a revolutionary column / of 600 men + 2 pieces of artillery left Malaga to march to Ronda and / other places and extend the insurrection : 200 of the men were troops of the / line, who taking possession with the conventt cannon of an old convent / which commanded the road threatened to fire on the Militia of they advanced; these then retired to Malaga and the soldiers joined the other corps who wer e/ faithful to the Government.
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Wednesday morn’g June 21st : I was interrupted at this point to dress for dinner at / the English Embassy to meet your friend Capt. [Uright/wright?] _ I will now go on with the / Insurrection : In Catalonia Col’o Prim Secretary of the Cortes succeeds in causing / a revolt in the twon of Reus, where he was joined by the peasantry of the neighbour = / =hood until his force was said to amount to 3000 men : after several days delay / the town was attacked by Zurbano and capitulated after a cannonade of 5 or 6 / hours, Prim escaping with his followers to the mountains : In Valencia the / people rose, and murdered the political chief : the military commandant / with 4000 men joining the Insurgents : In Barcelona after some correspondence / with the revolutionary Junta, the Captain General, Cortinez, abandoned his duty / and carried over with him a large force : This is the most dangerous blow of / all, especially if (which is yet uncertain) the fortress of Montjuich has also / fallen : the plan was and it was known here before it was to have been carried / into effect, to relieve [sic] the office in command in the regular way, by an order / from his general, and substitute in his place one of those who adhered to the / movement = on what little matters do there points turn! On the morn’g of the 13th / a little after the day break the column marched up the hill to relieve the garri - / son, but instead of a quiet soldier like air, they were so confident of their triumph / that they went up shouting in a disorderly manner and followed by a large crown : / the commander of the Fort, refused to admit them and threatened to use his guns / if necessary against them : we have since [^ been] a correspondence between this office / + Gen’l Cortinez + the interesting question now is in whose hands Montjuich / is at present _ among other stories it is said $100,000 have been offered him and that / he had delivered the Fort to the revolters on the 16th _ I have no doubt money / has been freely used in that quarto to bring over the principal officers _ The / Regent with one or two regiments, the (Garrison of Madrid ) leaves the city this / afternoon at 5 : P. M. previous to this departure he passes in review the / national guard; and at 12 receives the Diplomatic Body : - I must put / on my regimentals [^ to be] in readiness to make my bow: ________
2 o’clock _ I have just returned from Buena Vista : the Rent made a speech / to the Foreign Gentlemen; [^ The] which he began from memory, but as we dropped /
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In by detachment, he went over again the same topics enlarging a little upon / them = he was especially explicit on the point of Natural Independence; his desire / to respect the rights of other nations, and his hope that other powers would in / turn not interfere with those of Spain : this seemed particularly addressed to / the Representation of the lively nation on t’other side of the Pyrennes, who / are strongly suspected of stirring up the little difficulties which break out / here from time to time _
The Report says that the Duchess of Le Victorie / will accompany her husband to the army _ she’s a very pretty [coniving?] / woman, and suffers of course exceedingly in these stormy days : on his former / expedition to Barcelona she remained herel the anxiety and expectation must / have [^ made] been her very unhappy to induce her to go through all the discom= / =forts and disorders of military operations in this hot weather.
We have no letters or papers today, which not induces / us to believe that some town has declared on the road to Bayonne, and / intercepted the mail _ Our young friend Hector must have been in the / very centre of the warlike operations unless he altered his route, which / was through Barcelona and along the coast to France, :
Gen’l Seoane and Zurbano have joined their forces and / are marching with 28 battalions on Barcelona : Montjuich still holds out / and tho the commander is told that all Spain has declared against the / Regent, he nobly refuses to guild his post in the midst of the confusion, / until he receives orders direct from the authority at Madrid : on this / point the whole affair must turn _ Barcelona must yield or be des - / troyed by those who are masters of the Fortress, _ at 4 I go with / Mr. Irving to the review on the Prado, where Espartero will probably / make an address to the national Militia to whom he must [^ has to] confide / the safety of the Capital and the person of the Queen, all the regular / troops being on their way to the scene of action _ Embassy Couriers / are flying about and rumors pass from mouth to mouth without / any one pressuring to say what will happen next _ Blood has /
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Already been shed in two or three of the principal cities, and I fear that much more will / flow before order and quiet are again restored _ .. I can hardly realize at times that the / accounts we receive are really correct and that a bloody civil war is raging throughout a large / part of this unhappy land _ Evey body talks / of the Constitution, which with the little / Queen, makes the war cry of both / parties. But I begin we think there / are very few sincere and devoted / supporters of either = there must be / something wrong in the Spanish character / which unfits them for a constitutional / representative Gov’t : look at their condition /
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On both sides the Atlantic, civil wars and / disorders, followed by the government of the / sword :--- /
I hope the here from you this / week by the steamer of 1st June as to your / various plans and projects. The girls tell / me that you are in good health and spirits / which I hear with great delight _ Love to / Mama and the Girls
Your affe son
Alex HamiltonTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
