Black Eagle Party

The Black Eagle Party, also known as the Great Legion of the Black Eagle (Spanish: Gran Legión del Águila Negra (GLAN)) was a Masonic lodge established on May 30, 1823. Its declared aim was the freedom of the Americas. The founders were Guadalupe Victoria, the first president of Mexico and head of the Legion, called "Strong Man", and the Cuban Bethlemite friar Simón de Chávez. The Legion was founded at Puente del Rey, now Puente Nacional, in Veracruz. In Mexico, the Great Legion of the Black Eagle was a political force opposing the Spaniards and the intervention of the Church in society. The organization was considered to be the first political party founded in independent Mexico before merging into the Mexican Liberal Party.

Great Legion of the Black Eagle in Mexico

When the Great Black Eagle Legion was created in Mexico by Guadalupe Victoria and Simón de Chávez, Guadalupe Victoria was commanding general of Jalapa. With the failure of Agustin de Iturbide's empire, Mexico faced the challenge of establishing itself since the Congress had annulled the Treaty of Córdoba and the Plan of Iguala. As consequence, the country opened to a form of government closer to the preference of the majority of the people. Soon after, a republic was established as its system, although it had not been decided whether it would be central or federal. Meanwhile, there was strong pressure for autonomy on the part of the provinces. In addition to these problems, there were differing positions on the intervention of the church in society.

José Ignacio García Illueca.

It is known that the struggle for independence had religious aspects for both the insurgents and the colonial army, but once the empire was established, the role of the church was rigorously questioned. This uncertainty grew more around the rise of Freemasonry in the period from 1821 to 1823. At the end of the struggle for independence, freemasonry based on the Scottish Rite had already been established in Mexico, led by Felipe Martínez de Aragón and Fausto Elhuyar. It had been joined by men who served Juan O'Donojú, like Manuel Codorniú; deputies who were back from Cádiz, such as Miguel Ramos Arizpe, Mariano Michelena and Lorenzo de Zavala, and Mexicans of the elite like José María Fagoaga, José Ignacio García Illueca and Tomas Murphy.

Manuel Codorniu.

It is said that Scottish Freemasonry played a very important role in the fall of the empire of Iturbide. The Scots were mostly followers of the constitutional monarchy and Bourbonists. The foundation of The Great Legion of the Black Eagle had two objectives: the collaboration in the search for Cuban independence and the desire of Guadalupe Victoria to create a political party that would favor him and neutralize the political impulse and power of The Scottish Rite members. With respect to Cuban independence, it is evident that the Great Black Eagle Legion intended to favor it or even achieve the annexation of Cuba to Mexico. The Black Eagle Party claimed to work against despotism and in favor of freedom.

In 1823, the GLAN indicated that its object was to completely remove the yoke of slavery which the Spanish had been using for 300 years

In this epoch, the supporters of several political projects that included the republicans, federalists, centralists, those who supported a constitutional monarchy, representatives of several ecclesiastical sectors, and who expounded a moldable position were considered liberals. For the Great Legion of the Black Eagle, however, the true liberals were the republicans - those who they recognized as proponents of freedom, independence from Spain, equality and patriotism. It should be noted that Guadalupe Victoria proposed to constitute a government headed by an insurgent and that he was also the only insurgent who differed by rejecting the Iguala Plan so as not to abandon his independence plan, for which he proclaimed himself a republican. Therefore, being a member of the Great Black Eagle Legion indicated that you had to support Guadalupe Victoria for presidency and support her political plan.

The antipathy of the Great Legion of the Black Eagle for religion was very radical compared to other political sectors, like the Yorkinos. According to the documents of the Great Black Eagle Legion, they were not opposed to religion, but as time passed their opinions hardened as they upheld the rule of preventing clerics and friars from entering the association as being of the utmost importance because they saw them as being harmful to society for growing their religious fanaticism, making people live in brutality. For the Great Legion of the Black Eagle, it was not only a matter of fighting against religious fanaticism, but they also wanted to banish faith. They considered this to be fundamental for the union and social order, since in the Constitution of 1824 the Catholic religion was established as the only one in the whole nation.

In the statutes of the Great Legion of the Black Eagle this was declared alien to the other associations of the Masonic type, comunero and coalman; and they were the opposite of a Masonic society because they did not ask for quotas or oaths, the degrees did not agree with those of any other Masonic rite, they did not meet constantly and there were no relations of brotherhood between them. But in the "instructions to the deputies of the states" it showed in some way that the Great Legion of the Black Eagle had merged with the York Rite.

Lorenzo de Zavala.

In March of 1823, Guadalupe Victoria was appointed member of the provisional Executive Power. On June 8, 1824, the members of the Great Legion of the Black Eagle met in Jalapa, the current capital of Veracruz, to make agreements before the departure of Guadalupe Victoria to Mexico City, who on October 1, 1824 became president-elect of the Mexican Republic. Abandoning thus the Great Legion of the Black Eagle. Once promoted to power, it comes to take a lot of momentum with a performance almost equal to that of Freemasonry of the York Rite.

Guadalupe Victoria once in power maintained his plan to promote the independence of Cuba, and he presented a new plan for a military expedition to the Congress of his country, which was accepted by the Senate after many discussions.

(...) 1. The Government is authorized to undertake a military expedition with the Republic of Colombia in order to support the efforts of the inhabitants of Cuba in the consummation of their independence. 2. In the event that the cause of freedom triumphs in Cuba, the Government is obliged to seek by all means to establish in it the national representation with the same bases and rights of the people as in the new American Republics.

For Guadalupe Victoria this alliance gave the green light for Antonio López de Santa Anna to make the expedition that he had prepared in Yucatán, but this did not go ahead due to other international events that affected the Latin American environment, among these problems was that United States still considered Cuba and Puerto Rico within its commercial interests and good options for its territorial expansion. Before the expedition could not be done, it was possible to consolidate the alliance between Colombia and Mexico, on March 17, 1826. These countries signed a treaty that regulated their collaboration to fight against Spain, both in the Antilles and on the coasts of the continent. This agreement was called the Operations Plan for the Combined squad of Mexico and Colombia. In this project Mexico - Colombia members of the Great Black Eagle Legion were involved.

The separation of the conspiracy of the Great Legion of the Black Eagle, occurred at the same time as the transformations occurred in European politics that discouraged the Spanish plans for the reconquest of America. The independence of the Hispanic countries and Mexico, caused the abandonment of efforts to free Cuba, also because the commercial exchange between Havana and Veracruz practically disappeared in 1826 after a treaty with Cuba.

The Great Legion of the Black Eagle in Cuba

Through the action of Simón de Chávez and other Cubans the Great Legion of the Black Eagle spread from Mexico to Cuba with ease. In 1826 the musician José Rubio traveled to Havana, with the copy of the institution of the Black Eagle, which had to be handed over to Manuel Rojo to establish the Legion in Cuba. These statutes had to be adapted by the different radicalism of Mexico but retaining its purpose. Once the Great Legion of the Black Eagle was founded in Cuba, it had the full support of Mexico and Colombia. This continued to conspire until the Spanish authorities in Havana discovered its existence in 1829.

The Great Legion of the Black Eagle in Cuba, had as objective to obtain supporters to achieve the Independence of Cuba and change the government with the help of Mexico.

On December 23, 1829, the Spanish minister in Philadelphia communicated to the presidency and government of La Habana, to inform them that Mr. José Solís, who was born in New Orleans, then he moved to Havana, he was in contact with a society called San Juanista, of which he was a member. This society was governed under the same customs as those that society had with the name of Sol de Bolívar.

On January 25, 1830, the president of the Military Commission, José Cadaval, appointed Captain Tomas de Salazar, prosecutor for the investigation of the case. Captain Tomas de Salazar quickly began his investigation, to which he discovered that there was a father and son with the same name and surname, and both enjoyed a bad reputation. These two were investigated but there were no results. On February 8 of that same year, Captain Tomas de Salazar was ordered to apprehend the Solis. Their respective homes were investigated. The papers that were found to the son were suspicious but nevertheless those of the Father were not. Among the documents of José Solís Jr. were letters, a Masonic diploma in his name, documents in number and documents of the Masonic type, this helped to be called a person of high danger and conspiring to disturb public order.

The Great Legion of the Black Eagle was looking for the independence of Cuba

Solís gave his first statement on February 12, 1830. In this Solís he explained that Lucas Ugarte, Secretary of the Patriotic Society; he asked to be a Mason and through him, he knew that this Masonic society was transformed into The great legion of the Black Eagle. One of the letters that José Solís had in his possession was addressed to Mateo Somellan sent by Manuel Ronquillo from New Orleans, in it he was reporting that the people whose assistance was needed for matters of Independence, not they had confirmed it for lack of money. José Solís also stated that he had learned from conversations that Manuel Abreu had weapons to use at any time for the benefit of independence, for this only news that was expected from Veracruz, Mexico were needed.. Once the crimes of freemasonry and conspiracy for independence were announced, the prosecutor Tomás de Salazar questioned Solís again, in order to discover who was the boss of The great legion of the Black Eagle. On February 24, 1830, José Solís, after being held incommunicado in the Bethlehem Barracks, on February 19, 1830, declared that he did not know how many people were introduced in The Black Legion's Great Legion and did not know the time when he began . Solis was aware that the first establishment of this society was in Mexico where it was extended to Cuba.

On the night of the 26th and the morning of the 27th, Lucas Ugarte, Diego Araoz, Felix Rodriguez Hermida, Gabriel Peláez, Manuel Abreu, José Rodríguez, Gabino Hernández, Juan Saldaña, Marcos Fernández Castañeda, Gaspar Acosta, Miguel Vázquez, José González Ávila, José Encalada, Francisco Pacheco, Manuel Rojo, Pedro Pablo Peláez, Francisco Cordero and Rafael Gatica were among those who were captured. Some of those who could not apprehended were: Pedro Muros for being in New Orleans, and Juan Nepomuceno Escobedo for being at large in the countryside.

It was never known exactly who was the leader of the Great Legion of the Black Eagle in Cuba, although there were suspicions that it was Manuel Rojo, one of the most prestigious lawyers in Havana.

See also

• History of Mexico
• First Mexican Empire
• First Mexican Republic

Bibliography in Spanish

• Del Valle, Adrian. (1930) Historia Documentada de la Conspiración de la Gran Legión del Águila Negra. La Habana, Editorial El Siglo.
• Guerra, Sergio. (1998). México y Cuba: primeros esfuerzos por la independencia cubana, 1820-1830. Instituto de Investigaciones Histórico- Sociales. Universidad Veracruzana.
• Vázquez, María Eugenia. (2007). "La Gran Legión del Águila Negra. Documentos sobre su fundación, estatutos y objetivos." Revista Relaciones, vol.XXVIII (111), 143-166.
• López Silva, Blanca Elizabeth (2015) "México en la Historia 1" Intervenciones Extranjeras,"BOSCO IMPRESIONES" Editorial Éxodo, pag 170-190
• Soucy Dominique (2004), La ´´gran legión del águila negra`` un águila de dos cabezas. (México - Cuba, 1823 - 1830). En torno a las Antillas hispánicas: ensayos en homenaje al profesor Paul Estrade, 2004, págs. 242-256.