Last Mexican Governor of California

Mexico: A. Diaz, 1840. 210 by 130mm (8¼ by 5 inches). 8 vo. pamphlet; 14 [2] pp. Final leaf a blank. Original plain yellow wrappers. In Spanish. 

Very good.

Exceedingly scarce pamphlet from the last Mexican Governor of California.

Manuel Micheltorena (1804–1853) was a brigadier general of the Mexican Army and the last non-Californian Mexican Governor of California from 1842–1845. He attempted to bring military discipline to California enforced by loyal soldiers who traveled north with him. Micheltorena was ousted as California Governor in 1845 after the Battle of Providencia. This scarce pamphlet is a speech Micheltorena gave on September 27, 1840, about the Mexican military and Mexico’s Wars of Independence 1810–1826, in which Mexico obtained control of Spain’s colonies, including California. In the pamphlet he explains that [“prosperity, fortune, and all the goods consequent to lasting peace belong to the former colonies of Spain.”] and, [“…the young America, like the virgin, is born and grows carried away by the irresistible impulse of time but was already in a state of emancipation.”] He then continues to explain that after the end of Mexico’s War of Independence, the former colonies of Spain will walk forward and play their proper role in the theater of the world. 

Rare. At the time of cataloguing, no other copy for sale and no auction record in Rarebookhub. 

Pamphlets by Micheltorena are highly desired because he embodied the last attempt by Mexico to directly control its northern provinces. A different Micheltorena pamphlet of merely 4 lvs. published in 1844 sold at Christie’s in 2002 for $3,760. That pamphlet ​“Oracion Civica que Elegido…” is held at seven institutions in the United States. 

Per OCLC the pamphlet on offer here is held in the United States at only three institutions: UC Berkeley, University of Texas, and the Huntington.