Federalist leader José María Morelos.
The Federalists or Federales were the government faction during the Mexican Civil War of 1806 - 1817. The Federalists supported the separation of church and state established by the Count of Revillagigedo during his brief tenure as President of Mexico. The Federalists were opposed by the Clericalists, who wished to make Catholicism the official religion of Mexico.
When Federalist leader José María Morelos succeeded the Count of Revillagigedo after the latter's death in 1806, the Clericalist leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla left Mexico City and launched an armed uprising at the Battle of Cuautla on 14 April 1806. Hidalgo was never able to command sufficient force to attack Mexico City, and the Mexican Civil War consisted of Clericalist guerrilla attacks on Federalist targets.
The Federalists remained in control of Mexico City and the more heavily populated southern provinces of Mexico throughout the war. Their control was only broken when a combined army of Clericalists under Simón Figueroa and Jeffersonians under Andrew Jackson entered Mexico City on 6 February 1817.
After Figueroa became President of Mexico he initiated a months-long purge of the Federalists, which ended when Jackson seized control of the government in June 1817. After Jackson left for Jefferson City in 1818, Colonel Barton Kelly served as his deputy. The surviving Federalists attempted to overthrow Kelly on 1 February 1820, but were unsuccessful.
During the Mexico City Convention of September 1820, the Federalists were permitted to send nonvoting delegates to act as observers. When the convention, following Jackson's lead, drafted the Mexico City Constitution, the Federalists opposed it, but were unable to prevent its adoption.
Sobel's source for the Federalists is Carlos Ortez's The Mexican Civil War (Mexico City, 1960).