Act of the Declaration of Independence of Venezuela
The Venezuelan Independence Act is a document drawn up and signed on July 5, 1811, in which representatives of seven of the ten provinces belonging to the Captaincy General of Venezuela in South America, gathered in the Santa Rosa de Lima chapel in the city of Caracas. They declared their independence from the Crown of Spain on July 5, establishing a new nation based on republican and federal principles, abolishing the Monarchy forever under the values of equality of individuals, freedom of expression and the prohibition of censorship. It consecrates the constitutional principle and radically opposes the political, cultural and social practices that had existed for three hundred years in Spanish America. The Declaration is notable for being the first case of a Spanish Colony in America declaring its absolute independence.
The seven provinces explained their reasons for this action, among them, that it was disastrous that a small European nation governed the great expanses of the New World, and that Venezuela had recovered the right to autonomy after the abdications of Carlos IV and Ferdinand VII in Bayonne which led to the occupation of the Spanish throne by the French Bonaparte dynasty. This political instability in Spain dictated that Venezuelans should govern themselves, despite the brotherhood they shared with the Spanish.
The three remaining provinces did not participate in said Constituent Congress due to their decision to remain under the authority of the Spanish Crown represented by the Regency Council of Spain and the Indies.
The new nation that this declaration proclaimed would be the American Confederation of Venezuela, later with the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1811 it would make the name of the nation official as States of Venezuela. It was prepared by Juan Germán Roscio and Francisco Isnardi, ratified by Congress on July 7, 1811, and passed to the Acts book on August 17, 1811, in Caracas.
Every 5th of July is celebrated as Venezuela's Independence Day. The original Minutes Book of the first Congress of Venezuela containing the Declaration.
Background
On April 19, 1810, an extraordinary Cabildo was convened in the city of Caracas as an immediate response to the dissolution of the Supreme Junta of Spain, the resignation of King Fernando VII, inadvertently starting the fight for the independence of Venezuela. The movement originated from the rejection of the people of Caracas to the new governor of the Province of Venezuela and Captain General of Venezuela Vicente Emparan, who had been appointed by the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, José I of Spain, who was serving as king on duty due to to the overthrow of the Spanish King, after the Napoleonic invasion in Spain.
The Supreme Junta was a provisional government that emerged from the events of April 19. It acted until March 2, 1811, and was eventually a transition government, not independent, in favor of the Spanish Crown. However, this Board carried out reforms in the internal order, tried to unify the provinces and strengthen their autonomy, and made efforts abroad to obtain the solidarity of other colonies and the recognition and aid of foreign nations. The character of this government "conservative of the rights of Fernando VII" did not allow it to go beyond the autonomy that had been proclaimed on April 19. For this reason, the Junta resolved to call elections and install a General Congress before which it would decline its powers and decide the future fate of the Venezuelan provinces.
The call was made in June, and was accepted by the provinces of Caracas, Barquisimeto, Cumaná, Barcelona, Mérida, Margarita and Trujillo, but not by the provinces of Maracaibo, Coro and Guayana, because although they were all equally upset by the presence of a French usurper king in the Spanish Crown, these three provinces expressed their disagreement with the ignorance of the authority of the Regency Council of Spain and the Indies meeting in Cádiz. However, the call for elections was the measure of greatest political significance of the Junta, since it ensured the transformation of the de facto government into an independent constitutional regime.
Elections were held between October and November 1810. The electoral regulations were based on census, since they gave the vote to free men, over 25 years of age and real estate owners, and there was no vote for women or slaves, nor the vast majority of the population without wealth. In this way, a Congress made up entirely of representatives of the Creole oligarchy came to be. For this reason, that body could not carry out radical transformations in the social or economic order, and only carried out the political change that was appropriate to its members.
The regulation also provided that the elections be held in two degrees: first, the voters appointed the electors of the parish; and then, these voters, gathered in an electoral assembly in the capital of the province, designated the representatives to Congress, at the rate of one deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants. After the elections, 44 deputies were elected, who were installed and held sessions in Congress for the first time on March 2, 1811 in the house of the Count of San Javier (current corner of El Conde in Caracas). The provinces were represented as follows: Caracas 24 deputies; Barinas 9; Cumana 4; Barcelona 3; Merida 2; Trujillo 1; Daisy 1.
As the sessions of the Congress developed, the idea of Independence was gaining adherents within it. Many deputies supported it with passionate allegations, others with historical arguments. Among the deputies who opposed the definitive break with the Spanish crown, was the priest of La Grita, Fernando Vicente Maya, who soon found himself overwhelmed by the speeches of Fernando Peñalver, Juan Germán Roscio, Francisco de Miranda, Fernando Toro, Francisco Javier Zuarez and many more, favorable to the idea of absolute independence. Meanwhile, the spirits of the young radicals were heated at the meetings of the Patriotic Society, including that of the young Simón Bolívar, who, when faced with doubts about Independence, launched the famous question: "Three hundred years of calm, aren't they enough?"
Declaration of Independence
Preparation and approval by Congress
On July 3 in the Chapel of Santa Rosa de Lima the congressional debate began, and on the 5th at the beginning of the afternoon the voting took place, which ended around 2:30 in the afternoon, resulting in the approval of Independence with forty votes in favor. Immediately, the president of the Congress, deputy Juan Antonio Rodríguez, announced that the absolute independence of Venezuela was "solemnly declared."
On the same afternoon of July 5, Congress held another session, in which it was agreed to draft a document, the preparation of which was entrusted to deputy Juan Germán Roscio and the secretary of Congress, Francisco Isnardi. In this document, the motives and causes that produced the Declaration of Independence should appear, so that, submitted to the review of Congress, it would serve as an Act and pass to the Executive Power.
The Minutes were approved on July 7 by all the deputies, with the sole exception of Father Fernando Vicente Maya, deputy for La Grita. Little by little the representatives signed it, passed to the book of Congress Minutes on August 17, until on that month they stamped the last signatures.
Oath of Independence
As a consequence of the executive decree published on July 8, 1811, the Independence Act was solemnly published on Sunday, July 14 in Caracas. At the head of the crowd that witnessed the acts were the young sons of José María España, one of the forerunners and martyrs of the independence conspiracy of 1797, who carried aloft the tricolor flag designed by Miranda and approved by Congress, being hoisted that day at the San Carlos Barracks and the Plaza Mayor.
The secretary of decrees of the Executive Power, José Tomás Santana, read aloud, in the main corners of Caracas, the Independence Act. That same day he took the oath of the Troop gathered in the Plaza Mayor, currently the Plaza Bolívar in Caracas.
On Monday, July 15, the main authorities took the solemn oath of Independence at the headquarters of Congress: first the Deputies, then the Executive Power, then the High Court of Justice, the military governor of Caracas and the Archbishop.
Finding of the Declaration of Independence
At the beginning of the wars of independence, in 1812 the Congress moved to the city of Valencia since the Spanish officer Domingo de Monteverde, appointed by his government to confront Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda and recover Venezuela, invaded Caracas with his troops, on March 12, 1812. The Congress archive, together with the two minute books, one original and the other a copy or Second Book, was abandoned by the deputies. The handwritten books were hidden in his home by a supporter of the patriot cause, for which reason only part of the text of the Act reviewed in the Second Book, published in "El Publicista Venezolano", a journalistic organ, was released. Congressional official, in its second number on July 11, 1811.
In an article published in a Caracas newspaper in 1884, the Venezuelan historian and writer Arístides Rojas noted that, although the text published by "El Publicista Venezolano" coincided with the texts published by other printed media later, the same did not occur with the number of signatories of the Act of Independence. Six years later, the members of the National Academy of the History of Venezuela, at the request of the academic Julián Viso, on May 28, 1890 decided to take on the task of investigating which of the records printed up to that moment was considered authentic, since it was assumed that the volume with the original act was lost. For this purpose, the president of the Academy appointed a commission made up of General Pedro Arismendi Brito, and the historians Julián Viso and Martín José Sanavria, to study the matter and present a report as soon as possible.
However, after several investigations, in a report presented to the Academy on June 10, 1891, the commission of investigators ruled that the original act was the one found in a pamphlet printed in London in the year 1812, entitled "Interesting official documents of Venezuela", whose text was identical to that presented by "El Publicista Venezolano". To this report, the saved vote of academic Julián Viso was added. On April 19, 1900, the then president of Venezuela, Cipriano Castro, issued a decree considering the official text of the Act of Independence the one that appeared in the aforementioned pamphlet. By order of President Castro and resolution of his Minister of Public Instruction, the publication of all the documents related to the Independence of Venezuela was ordered in the book "Prologo a los Anales de Venezuela", which was edited by the National Academy of History in 1903.
One of the two minute books that was hidden in 1812 passed from hand to hand, remaining hidden from public view for 96 years, until it fell into the hands of Mrs. María Josefa Gutiérrez, by then already the widow of the engineer Carlos Navas Spínola, who originally owned the volume that he had received as a deposit from Mrs. Isabel La Hoz of Austria in 1895. In October 1907, a family friend, Roberto Smith, was shown the document that remained hidden on a piano bench. Smith, surprised to find such a document, asked the owner of the volume to lend it to him so that he could take notes for his text on the History of Venezuela, her friend, the Venezuelan historian and politician Francisco González Guinán, to which she agreed.. González Guinán examined the volume and wrote to President Cipriano Castro, notifying him of the discovery of the book and delivered it to the then President of the Executive Branch, Samuel Niño. Castro then requested the National Academy of History of Venezuela to examine the document, for which its members confirmed its veracity, which caused the manuscript to be acquired by the Venezuelan State. In a private letter to González Guinán dated November 19, 1907, President Cipriano Castro informed him that this book would be exhibited on July 5, 1908 and that the National Executive would allocate a place for its definitive protection, which it has been since then., the Elliptic Hall of the Legislative Palace in Caracas, a place where the historic volume is preserved in a special chest whose key is delivered to the current presidents.
Signatories
The minutes were signed by the deputies present:
- Juan Antonio Rodríguez Domínguez, President Deputate of Nutrias (Province of Barinas)
- Luis Ignacio Mendoza, Vice President of the Villa of Bishops (Province of Barinas)
- For the Province of Caracas:
- Isidro Antonio López Méndez, Diputado de la Capital
- Fernando Toro, Caracas Representative
- Juan Germán Roscio, Diputado de la Villa de Calabozo
- Felipe Fermín Paúl, Diputado de San Sebastián
- Martín Tovar y Ponte, Diputado de San Sebastián
- Juan Toro, Diputado de Valencia
- Francisco Xavier Ustariz, San Sebastian MP
- Nicolás de Castro, Caracas Representative
- José Ángel Álamo, Barquisimeto Representative
- Francisco Hernández, Diputado de San Carlos
- Fernando de Peñalver, Diputado de Valencia
- Gabriel Pérez de Pagola, Representative of Ospino
- Lino Clemente, Caracas Representative
- Salvador Delgado, Nirgua Representative
- The Marquis del Toro, Tocuyo Representative
- Gabriel de Ponte (he did not sign for impediment of the wounds received in Valencia)
- Juan Antonio Díaz Argote, Diputado de la Villa de Cura
- Juan José de Maya, Diputado de San Felipe
- José Luis de Cazorla, Diputado de Valencia
- José Vicente de Unda, Member of Guanare
- Francisco Javier Yanes, Representative of Araure
- For the Province of Cumaná:
- Francisco Xavier de Mayz, Capital Representative
- José Gabriel de Alcalá, Diputado de la Capital
- Mariano de la Cova, Diputado del Norte
- Juan Bermúdez, Diputado del Sur
- For the Province of Barinas:
- Juan Nepomuceno de Quintana, Deputado de Achaguas
- Ignacio Fernández, Barinas Representative
- José de Sata y Bussy, Diputado de San Fernando
- Ignacio Ramón Briceño, Diputado de Pedraza
- José Luis Cabrera, Guanarito Member
- Manuel Palacio, Diputado de Mijagual
- Ramón Ignacio Méndez, Member of Guasdualito
- For the Province of Barcelona:
- Francisco de Miranda, Diputado del Pao
- Francisco Policarpo Ortiz, Diputado de San Diego
- José María Ramírez, Diputado de Aragua
- By the Province of Margarita:
- Manuel Plácido Maneiro, Margarita Representative
- For the Province of Merida:
- Antonio Nicolás Briceño, Diputado de Mérida
- Manuel Vicente de Maya, Representative of La Grita
- For the Province of Trujillo:
- Juan Pablo Pacheco
- Francisco Isnardi, secretary
Content
In the name of Almighty God, we, the representatives of the United Provinces of Caracas, Cumaná, Barinas, Margarita, Barcelona, Mérida and Trujillo, who form the American Confederation of Venezuela on the southern continent, assembled in Congress, and considering the full and absolute possession of our rights, that we recovered justly and legitimately since April 19, 1810, as a result of the day of Bayona and the occupation of the Spanish throneWe do not want, however, to begin by claiming the rights of every conquered country, to recover its state of ownership and independence; we generously forget the long series of evils, grievances and deprivations that the gross right of conquest has indistinctly caused all the descendants of the discoverers, conquerors and inhabitants of these countries, made of worse condition, for the same reason that we should favor them; and running a veil over the other hundred years
This disorder has increased the evils of the Americas, instilling resources and claims, and authorizing the impunity of the rulers of Spain to insult and oppress this part of the nation, leaving it without the protection and guarantee of the laws.
It is contrary to order, impossible to the Spanish government, and it is frightening to the Americas, which, having an infinitely larger territory, and an incomparablely larger population, depends and is subject to a peninsular angle of the European continent.
The sessions and abdications of Bayona, the days of the Escorial and Aranjuez, and the orders of the local Duke of Berg, to the Americas, must have put in use the rights that the Americans had sacrificed to the unity and integrity of the Spanish nation.
Venezuela, before anyone, generously recognized and preserved this integrity by not abandoning the cause of his brothers, while having the least appearance of salvation.
America once again existed, since it could and must have taken its fate and preservation in its charge; as Spain could recognize, or not, the rights of a king who had more appreciated his existence than the dignity of the nation he governed.
How many Bourbons came to Bayona's invalid stipulations, abandoning the Spanish territory, against the will of the peoples, lacked, despised and hallowed the sacred duty that they contracted with the Spaniards of both worlds, when, with their blood and their treasures, they placed them in the bond of the House of Austria; for this behavior they were unfit and unable to rule a slave.
The intrusive governments that abrogated the national representation took a terrible advantage of the provisions that good faith, distance, oppression and ignorance gave the Americans against the new dynasty that was introduced in Spain by force; and against their very principles, they held among us the illusion in favor of Fernando, to devour us and to look at us unpunished when they most promised us freedom, equality and to study
After they dissolved, replaced and destroyed among themselves the various forms of government of Spain, and that the compelling law of necessity dictated to Venezuela to keep itself to ventilate and conserve the rights of its king and offer an asylum to his brothers in Europe against the evils that threatened them, all their previous conduct was unknown, the principles were changed, and they called insurrection, perfidence and ingrat.
In spite of our protests, our moderation, our generosity, and the inviolability of our principles, against the will of our brothers in Europe, we are declared in a state of rebellion, we are blocked, we are harassed, we are sent agents to mutiny each other, and we are trying to discredit each other among the nations of Europe by imploring their help to oppress us.
Without making the slightest appreciation of our reasons, without presenting them to the fair trial of the world, and without other judges than our enemies, we are condemned to a painful incommunicado with our brothers; and to add the contempt for slander we are appointed, against our express will, to have their Courts arbitrarily disposed of our interests under the influence and strength of our enemies.
To suffocate and nullify the effects of our representation, when they were forced to grant it to us, they subjected us to a petty and tiny rate and subjected to the passive voice of the councils, degraded by the despotism of the governors, the form of election; what was an insult to our simplicity and good faith, rather than a consideration to our incontestable political importance.
Always beset by the cries of our justice, the governments of Spain have tried to discredit all our efforts by declaring criminals and sealing with infamy, the perlso and the confiscation, all the attempts that, in various times, have made some Americans for the happiness of their country, as was the one that has lately dictated our own security, not to be enveloped in the disorder that we present, and led to the
When we, faithful to our promises, sacrificed our security and civil dignity for not abandoning the rights that we generously retain to Fernando de Borbón, we have seen that the relations of the force that bound him with the Emperor of the French have added the bonds of blood and friendship, so even the governments of Spain have already declared their resolve not to recognize him but conditionally.
In this painful alternative we have remained three years in a political indecision and ambiguity, so gross and dangerous, that she alone would be sufficient to authorize the resolution that the faith of our promises and the bonds of fraternity had made us differ; until the need has forced us to go beyond what we proposed, impelled by the hostile and unnaturalized conduct of the governments of Spain, that we have relegated to the conditional oath.
But we, who glory in founding our proceeding in better principles, and who do not want to establish our happiness on the misfortune of our fellow men, look and declare as our friends, companions of our lot, and participate in our happiness, to which, together with us for the bonds of blood, language and religion, have suffered the same evils in the previous order; provided that, recognizing our absolute independence from him and from all other strange domination,
In view of all these solid, public and uncontestable reasons for politics, which so much persuade the need to regain the natural dignity, that the order of the events has restored us, in use of the imprescriptible rights that the peoples have to destroy all covenants, agreement or association that does not fill the ends for which the governments were instituted, we believe that we cannot and should retain the bonds that bind us to the government of Spain,
However, we know the difficulties that it brings with it and the obligations that imposes on us the rank that we will occupy in the political order of the world, and the powerful influence of the forms and habitudes that we have been, in our regret, accustomed, we also know that the shameful submission to them, when we can shake them, would be more ignominious to us, and more disgrace to our posterity, than our long and painful servitude,
Therefore, by believing with all these satisfied reasons the respect we owe to the opinions of the human race and to the dignity of the other nations, in whose number we will enter, and with whose communication and friendship we count, we, the representatives of the United Provinces of Venezuela, witnessing the Supreme Being of the righteousness of our proceeding and of the righteousness of our intentions, imploring their divine and heavenly desires to die free, and ratifying, at the moment We, therefore, in the name and with the will and authority we have of the virtuous people of Venezuela, solemnly declare to the world that their United Provinces are, and must be, from today, in fact and law, free, sovereign and independent States and that they are acquitted of all submissions and dependence of the Crown of Spain or of those who say or say to fix their securities or representatives, and that as such a free and independent State it is to execute a free and independent form.
And in order to make our solemn declaration valid, firm and subsistent, we give and mutually commit provinces to others, our lives, our fortunes and the sacred of our national honor.
Given at the Federal Palace and Caracas, signed by our hand, sealed with the great provisional seal of the Confederation, endorsed by the Secretary of Congress, five days from July of the year of a thousand eight hundred eleven, the first of our independence.
Juan Germán Roscio, for the party of the village of Calabazo; Felipe Fermín Paul, for the party of San Sebastián; Francisco Javier Ustáriz, for the party of San Sebastián; Nicolás de Castro, deputy of Caracas; Juan Antonio Rodríguez Domínguez, president of Nutrias, deputy of Juan Ignacio Mendoza
For the province of Cumaná, Francisco Javier de Mayz, deputy of the capital; José Gabriel de Alcalá, deputy of ídem; Juan Bermúdez, deputy of the South; Mariano de la Cova, deputy of the North.
For Barcelona, Francisco Miranda, deputy of the Pao; Francisco Policarpo Ortiz, deputy of San Diego.
Juan Nepomuceno de Quintana, deputy of Achaguas; Ignacio Fernández, deputy of the capital of Barinas; Ignacio Ramón Briceño, representative of Pedraza; José de Sata and Bussy, deputy of San Fernando de Apure; José Luis Cabrera, deputy of Guanarito; Ramón Ignacio Méndez, deputy of Guasdualito; Manuel Palacio, deputy of Mijagual.
By Margarita, Manuel Plácido Maneyro.
For Merida, Antonio Nicolás Briceño, deputy of Mérida; Manuel Vicente de Maya, deputy of La Grita.
To Trujillo, Juan Pablo Pacheco.
By the village of Aragua, province of Barcelona, José María Ramírez.
Reinforced: There is a seal. Francisco Isnardy, Secretary.
A country date
Decree related to the Act of Independence
The Supreme Executive Power, on July 8, 1811, chaired by Cristóbal de Mendoza, ordered the publication, execution, and authorization of the Declaration of Independence Act. This Decree is transcribed below:
Federal Palace of Caracas, July 8, 1811.By the Confederation of Venezuela, the executive branch orders that the previous Act be published, executed and authorized with the stamp of the State and Confederation.
Cristóbal de Mendoza, President in turn; Juan de Escalona; Baltasar Padrón; Miguel José Sanz, Secretary of State; Carlos Machado, Senior Chancellor; José Tomas Santana, Secretary of Decrees.
As a result, the Supreme Executive Orders and orders the ex officio of supplication and commission to the very Reverend Archbishop of this Diocese, to provide that on the day of the solemn publication of our Independence, which must be on Sunday 14, will give, as he has willingly offered and corresponds, a repulsion of bells in all the churches of this capital, which manifests the joy and joy of the virtuoso Caraqueño people. And that in thanksgiving to the Almighty for his benefits, aid and added goodness in restoring us to the state in which his providence and infinite wisdom believe man, he sings the 16 solemn Mass with Te deum in the Holy Metropolitan Church, attending to the function all bodies and communities in the usual way.
May the troops be made general by the act of this publication and the national flag and pavilion are joined in the barracks of San Carlos, giving effect to the order to the military governor by the Secretary of War; and from this day on it is used by all citizens, without distinction, the scarapela and currency of the Venezuelan Confederation, composed of the blue celestial colors to the center, yellow and incarnated to the circumferences, keeping in it.
To illuminate the city for three nights, in a noble and simple way, without profusion or expense, starting from Sunday.
The oath of recognition and fidelity, prescribed by the Supreme Congress, whose solemn act will be made publicly, and in the presence of the so-called military governor and other leaders of the garrison, is immediately received to the troop.
That in the following days to the publication, they shall appear before S. A., the Supreme Executive Power, all the bodies of this city, political, ecclesiastical and military, to give their own oath, and that by the pregnancies and dispensing that this act would be done, if all the individuals had to give it to S.A., the mayors of the barracks should be appointed,
To pass through the respective secretaries warning to the military and political commanders of the ports of La Guaira and Cabello, and to the other justices and regiments of the cities, villas and places of this province, with copy of the record, and decree of the Supreme Congress, concerning it, to have their execution, publication and fulfillment, and to take the oath, as ordered.
Let the confederate provinces also be communicated for their intelligence and observance, as ordered by the Supreme Congress. And finally, that in the notion that by the declaration of independence the inhabitants of these provinces and their confederates have obtained the dignity and honorable vestments of free citizens, which is the most appreciable of society, the true title of rational man, the terror of the ambitious and tyrant ones, and the respect and consideration of the guilty nations, they must at all costs sustain this dignity, sacrificing their passions to reason and
The Supreme Executive Power, finally, exhorts and requires, orders and commands all, and to every one of the inhabitants, that joining with heart and truly determined, firm, strong and constant, sustain with their bodily and spiritual faculties the glory that with such sublime enterprise acquires in the world, and will preserve in history with immortal renown.
Given at the Federal Palace of Caracas, signed by the ministers that make up the Supreme Executive Branch, sealed with the provisional of the Confederation, and endorsed by the undersigned secretary, with the exercise of decrees.
Cristóbal de Mendoza, President in turn.
Juan de Escalona. Baltazar Padrón.
José Tomás Santana, Secretary.
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