The parents of Morelos dedicated him to the career of a muleteer, as the local history expresses it, and a muleteer he remained until he was thirty years old. At that advanced age he had the courage to enter the Colegio de San Nicholas, where Hidalgo was then superintendent. It is easy to see that other lessons were taught there besides those of the school curriculum; Morelos made rapid progress in all branches of education, was ordained to the church, and obtained several successive curacies. Thus employed, when the Grito de Dolores sounded over Anahuac, he offered his services to the Generalissimo Hidalgo on the side of independence. He was sent to raise the standard of liberty on the Pacific coast, and starting from his village with twenty-five men, arrived at Acapulco with a thousand.
In various encounters with the royalists, Morelos and his men were successful. He showed great perception in the management of troops, and marched from one triumph to another as far as Cuautla, a picturesque town eighty-five miles southeast of the city of Mexico. Its lower level makes it tropical and picturesque, with lanes winding about among the adobe huts of the Indians, hedged with banana and orange trees, and hung with all manner of wandering vines and brilliant blossoms. Water trickles everywhere, and across the broad valley rises toward the north the peak of Popocatepetl.
Here Morelos sustained a siege against the well trained army of Calleja, still in the field, and ripe with the honors of victory in the campaigns at Hidalgo. The Independents held out from the 19th of February to the 2d of May, with great valor and endurance, repulsing three assaults, and sustaining daily attacks, while their sufferings were great from lack of food and water. The fame of Morelos, heroic defender of Cuautla, spread far and wide. After sixty-two days of steady resistance, Morelos, recognizing that he must abandon the place, succeeded in coming out at night without molestation, retiring in order towards the north.
Until the end of the year 1812, Morelos was engaged in leading his army from one victory to another, and gathering everywhere additions to his forces. The next year he ventured as far as Acapulco, scene of his first expedition. The garrison there capitulated, and he took possession of the fortress of San Diego in August, 1813.
On the 14th of September, Morelos called together the first Mexican Congress, at Chilpantzingo, not very far from the Pacific coast. Among its members were many whose names have since been repeatedly before the Mexicans as liberals. The first act of this Congress was to nominate Morelos Captain-General of the Independent forces. It was thought significant that on the same date, September 15th, three years before, Hidalgo had placed himself in the same post of honor and difficulty.
The declaration of independence issued by this Congress was as follows:
"The Congress of Anahuac, lawfully installed in the city of Chilpantzingo, of North America, solemnly declares, in the presence of God, arbitrator of kingdoms and author of society, who gives and takes away according to the inscrutable designs of his providence, that, through the present circumstances of Europe, it has recovered the exercise of its sovereignty, hitherto usurped, its dependence upon the throne of Spain being thus forever disrupted and dissolved."
During this year the viceroy, Venegas, was recalled by the regency, and the office conferred upon Calleja, who had so valiantly defended the royalist cause.
The plan of Morelos was to take Valladolid, and establish there the seat of Congress. Bringing together all his forces, he approached the capital of Michoacan on the 23d December, and demanded its surrender. But the city was now occupied by the royalist forces of two commanders, one of whom was Agustin de Yturbide, already renowned for his repeated victories over the insurgents and the unrelenting vigor with which he pursued them. These forces attacked the army of Morelos, and completely routed it on Christmas eve.
Morelos escaped, and with a few soldiers returned to Acapulco. The prestige of his army was lost; apparently his star was declining. One mishap after another followed, and the royal forces pursued him with unrelenting vigilance, which he evaded several times with very narrow escapes. The campaign of Yturbide was vigorous; several of the best captains of the Independents were captured, and paid with their lives for their devotion to the cause of liberty. Among them was Matamoras. Meanwhile the first Mexican Congress, like many another, was not harmonious; divisions arose between its deputies and its general. The patriot was learning that it is harder to keep a government well in hand than it is to seize it by force.