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As much as they partake of similar historical momentum, it is difficult to compare the declarations of independence of the United States and Mexico. My goal is simply to outline essential facts and ideas in order to explore basic differences between the two founding documents of 1776 and 1821.
News of the English colonies' independence had resonance in the Spanish territories, including New Spain (later called Mexico), but mostly as an event. In papers that Mexican insurgents published in 1810 and later, they mentioned George Washington and the United States as models and hoped for plentiful aid. But they did not read the document signed July 4, 1776. We have to consider that even after the United States took possession of the Louisiana Territory in 1804, when the United States and New Spain became neighbors, the notions they had of each other were very vague. It is significant that the Constitution of 1787 was published in 1812 in New Spain, although only after 1823, when the Mexican Empire, the first independent postcolonial government of Mexico, had failed and a republic was chosen as the form of government, could it be considered of great importance.l
In the 1820s a flurry of publications indicated increased interest in American institutions. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 was printed by Jose Maria Luis Mora in 1821 in his influential liberal newspaper Semanario Politico, Econ*mico y Literario. Mora expressed his wish to publish documents "relating to the first revolution on the continent." The first document published was the declaration of the representatives of the United States of North America, July 6, 1775 (the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms), followed by the declaration of July 4, 1776, and several constitutions. He announced that printing those documents was important in view of the upcoming meeting of the Mexican Congress in February 1822. Mora did not offer any particular remarks about the Declaration of Independence.2
The writings of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier and Vicente Rocafuerte, enthusiastic publicists of the American system, began to circulate as a way to combat the Mexican Empire.3 And, indeed, during the 1823 and 1824 debates in the Mexican Congress, American institutions became the center of attention, and thus began their idealization.