"intransigents", the granting of extraordinary powers, equal to those requested by Pi y Margall to fight the Carlists in the Basque Country and Catalonia, but now extended to all of Spain to end both the Carlist war and the cantonal rebellion. The next step was to propose the suspension of the Cortes sessions, which among other consequences would paralyze the debate and the approval of the draft federal Constitution. On 18 September, the proposal was approved with the votes of the "moderate" federal republicans and the opposition of the "centrists" of Pi y Margall and the "intransigents", who had returned to the House. Thus, the Cortes were suspended from 20 September 1873 until 2 January 1874. The extraordinary powers that Castelar obtained and the suspension of the sessions of the Cortes allowed him to govern by decree, a faculty that he immediately used to reorganize the artillery corps, to call the reservists and summon an army of 200,000 men, and ask for a loan of 100 million pesetas to meet the war expenses. On the same day, 18 September, when the Cortes voted to suspend their sessions, the newspaper ‘‘El Cantón Murciano’’ in Cartagena published the address that "Antonete" Gálvez had addressed to the cantonalist troops when he was appointed general commander of the citizen forces: «to whoever tells you that this place will be handed over, immediately apprehend him, for he is a traitor. This place will never be handed over. ” The morale of the 75,000 inhabitants of Cartagena at that time was still high, as shown by this song that was sung throughout the city: Around that time, the cantonal five-peseta coins began to circulate, replacing the two-peseta coins that had been minted in early September, and which had a higher intrinsic value than was attributed to them. In the decree of the Junta in which its coinage was approved it was said: “[Cartagena] wants to be the first to spread a living testimony of imperishable memory throughout the world that remind future generations of the cry of justice and brotherhood. ' At the end of October and beginning of November 1873 the first signs of fatigue appeared among the population, due to the long siege to which Cartagena had been subjected since mid-August. Thus on 2 November a demonstration demanded the holding of elections, to which the Sovereign Salvation Junta agreed, but its result did not