He advised them to wait until the election could be held, and said that he would then assume the executive power in case he were chosen in free elections held according to the law. This letter was the last public defense of his career. The last principle he sought to establish was the most sound of Repúblican principles. "The source of legality," he wrote, "is the free will of the people; not the agitation of a mutiny nor the votes of friends."
