First Triumvirate (Argentina)

The First Triumvirate was the executive body, made up of three members that governed the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata between September 23, 1811 and October 8, 1812.

It was established after the Buenos Aires Cabildo overthrew the Junta Grande, in order to return to the centralist tendencies of the Primera Junta. Its members were:

• From September 23, 1811: Feliciano Antonio Chiclana, Manuel de Sarratea and Juan José Paso.
• Since April 1812: Feliciano Antonio Chiclana, Manuel de Sarratea and Juan Martín de Pueyrredón.

The Revolution of October 8, 1812 produced his overthrow and gave rise to the Second Triumvirate.

Origin of the First Triumvirate

After the May Revolution in 1810, the Junta Grande was the body that should represent public opinion in the cities of the interior, but its executive action was hampered by its excessive number of members, and the opposition accused the Big Board of inoperative. The lack of a regulation made their functions difficult, wasting time in mode discussions, thus postponing other more important matters.

After General José Manuel de Goyeneche, in command of the royalist troops, defeated the revolutionary troops of the Army of the North in the Battle of Huaqui, which occurred on June 20, 1811, the discredit of the Junta Grande began increase.

The decision of Cornelio Saavedra, president of the Primera Junta, to personally take charge of the reorganization of the Army of the North, gave rise to an uprising of the sector that supported Mariano Moreno, who took advantage of his absence to force the election of two new members for Buenos Aires for the Junta. Almost at the same time, it was decided to concentrate power in a Triumvirate, formed by the two new deputies from Buenos Aires: Feliciano Antonio Chiclana and Juan José Paso and by the most voted of the voters who had participated in that election: Manuel de Sarratea. In this way, the representative power of the Junta was reduced to the representation of the parties (if it can be given that name) of the capital.

The formation of the Triumvirate did not mean –at least initially– the dissolution of the Junta Grande, but rather its transformation into a Conservative Junta with legislative powers. This was made up of the members of the dissolved Junta Grande, but from which Cornelio Saavedra and Joaquín Campana were expressly excepted.

• Secretaries without vote:

• Bernardino Rivadavia
• José Julián Pérez
• Vicente López and Planes

Political centralization

The Conservative Junta undertook the task of preparing a document to establish the powers of each power and the functioning of the government. To do this, he drafted on October 22, 1811 an Organic Regulation that adopted the principle of division of powers. According to him, the Legislative Power resided in the Junta Conservadora de la Soberanía del Señor Fernando VII y de las leyes nacionales, with the power to declare war, sign peace, border treaties, create courts and appoint to individuals in the executive branch. The Triumvirate would carry out the Executive Power, which responded to the Junta. The independent Judicial Power was exercised by the Royal Court of Buenos Aires.

The Triumvirate, considering that the Conservative Junta reserved excessive powers, dissolved it, annulled the Organic Regulations, and assumed the entire government.

To justify his action and organize the government, on November 22, 1811, he sanctioned the Provisional Statute, which empowered him to assume the government and "adopt as many measures as he deems necessary for the defense and salvation of the Homeland". He adopted the title of Provisional Superior Government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

In December 1811 a coup broke out against the Triumvirate that had its epicenter in the Regiment of Patricians. The Mutiny of the Braids was triggered when the triumvirate decided to replace the commander of the Regiment, Cornelio Saavedra, with Manuel Belgrano, which caused the soldiers and non-commissioned officers to refuse to comply with some government orders. After troops loyal to the Triumvirate suppressed the mutiny, the Triumvirate ordered the expulsion of the deputies from the interior, accused of having contributed to the uprising.

Demonstrating its centralist tendency, the Triumvirate abolished the provincial boards on December 23, 1811, replacing them with governors and their delegates chosen by it. These were, for the most part, from Buenos Aires.

He also postponed the definition of the declaration of independence and the sanction of a constitution. A stage of marked centralism began, based on the fact that the concentration of command was necessary to lead the country in the midst of the war: decisions were made in the capital and had to reach all the provinces.

In the opinion of Carlos S. A. Segreti, this was the birth of Unitarianism.

In January 1812, he abolished the Royal Audience of Buenos Aires, creating a Chamber of Appeals.

Measurements

Among the measures of the Triumvirate are:

• He declared freedom of the press.
• It passed the individual security law.
• He believed in the Appeals Chamber.
• It created the Rules of Institution and Administration of Justice.
• He believed the Government Intendence of the Province of Buenos Aires on January 13, 1812.
• He ordered Manuel Belgrano to carry patriotic troops to protect the people of Rosario from the Spanish naval attacks from Montevideo.
• It approved the use of the white and celestial skin, for use in the army, on February 18, 1812.
• He appointed Manuel Belgrano as head of the North Army on February 18, 1812.
• He ordered Lieutenant Colonel José de San Martín to form a special body of cavalry, which would be known by the name of Granaderos Regiment to Caballo on March 16, 1812.
• It prohibited the introduction of slaves in the territory of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata on April 9, 1812.
• It founded the Immigration Commission which was the first entity established to promote immigration and colonization of the territory on 4 September 1812. The wars for independence prevented their operation, although it was reactivated years later, when Bernardino Rivadavia was Minister of the Government of the Province of Buenos Aires, in 1824 and was dissolved on August 20, 1830 by order of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

Policy towards Spain

The first Triumvirate -influenced by its secretary, Bernardino Rivadavia- maintained the policy of apparent fidelity to King Ferdinand VII of Spain, postponing any definition on the issue of independence and the constitution, although the war against the royalists continued. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, an ally of Spain in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, advised keeping the recognition of the captive Spanish king. For this reason, Manuel Belgrano was ordered to keep the light blue and white flag that he had presented to the troops in the ravines of the Paraná River, on February 27, 1812.

Strategically, the Triumvirate withdrew to defensive positions: on the coast, forces from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve advanced on the Banda Oriental, in support of the royalists of Montevideo. The Triumvirate decided to negotiate an armistice on October 20, 1811 with Viceroy Francisco Javier de Elío, which ended the siege of Montevideo. Both the troops from Buenos Aires and the Portuguese would withdraw from the Banda Oriental, which together with the Entre Ríos towns of Gualeguay, Gualeguaychú and Concepción del Uruguay, it remained in Spanish power.

On the other hand, Belgrano was ordered to withdraw to Córdoba in the event of a royalist advance to the north, abandoning the entire province of Salta, which at that time also included the current provinces of Jujuy, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero and Catamarca.

The Opposition

The main chief of the gauchos of the Banda Oriental, José Gervasio Artigas, rejected the agreement made between the Triumvirate and the royalists and moved to the Ayuí Camp, followed by a large part of the eastern population, an episode known as the exodus of the eastern town.

On July 1, 1812, Minister Bernardino Rivadavia discovered a conspiracy by Spaniards against the government. During the investigations —based on extremely suspicious evidence and confessions— Rivadavia extended the accusation to Martín de Álzaga, a hero of the time of the English invasions, and to a large group of supporters, almost all of them Spanish.

Álzaga and his alleged followers were subjected to a secret and expeditious criminal process, for which they were sentenced to death. The executions began on July 4, and in all, more than thirty men were executed, including military leaders, friars, and merchants. His assets were expropriated. There are then doubts that the conspiracy was real and if in fact the inclusion of Álzaga among the accused was not a personal revenge by Rivadavia for an old affront.

The Lautaro Lodge and the Patriotic Society

During the Triumvirate, a group of young people from the River Plate who had joined the Spanish army in the fight against Napoleon, arrived in Buenos Aires in March 1812. Their objective was to fight for the independence of Latin America. They had joined the secret liberal lodges that operated in Europe, dependent on the Greater American Union, organized by Francisco de Miranda in London. The Triumvirate incorporated them into the army and recognized their military rank.

Among them were José de San Martín, who was entrusted by the government with the organization of a cavalry corps —the Regiment of Grenadiers on Horseback— and Carlos María de Alvear, a member of one of the main Buenos Aires families.

Shortly after they arrived, they organized a secret society, the Lautaro Lodge, with the purpose of fighting for independence and constitutional organization in America, strengthening the political and military unity of the revolution, and planning a global strategy against the power of the Spanish people. They incorporated personalities who supported the emancipatory ideal, such as Bernardo de Monteagudo, leader of the Patriotic Society.

The parent lodge resided in Buenos Aires; its president was Alvear, being its vice-president San Martín. It also had subsidiaries in the interior. The members were called brothers, they had a code to communicate and they promised to consult the lodge in case they were chosen to integrate the government.

Soon after, the youth of the Patriotic Society, who initially supported the government, began to criticize it. From different newspapers they insisted on the need to declare independence and to gather a congress that would sanction a constitution. With the passage of time, the sights of the Lodge and the Society came to converge in a joint opposition.

The end: Revolution of October 8, 1812

The action of the members of the Triumvirate was limited by successive struggles for power. With this government, the morenistas managed to neutralize their adversaries, but internal struggles and the threat of an invasion of Portuguese Brazil undermined their power.

At the beginning of October the news reached the capital that, contrary to the orders of the Triumvirate, General Manuel Belgrano, head of the Army of the North, had faced the royalist invasion in the battle of Tucumán, achieving an important victory. This news collapsed the prestige that the Triumvirate could have maintained.

José de San Martín, together with the members of the Lautaro Lodge and the Patriotic Society agreed to favor the organization of the Liberation Army and the declaration of Independence. The lodge tried to come to power by supporting the candidacy of Bernardo de Monteagudo in the renewal of the triumvirs, stipulated for October 1812. The Triumvirate achieved the rejection of Monteagudo and the election of Pedro Medrano, a relative of Rivadavia, ensuring the continuity of his policy.

Seeing the road to the government closed, the revolution of October 8, 1812 took place. The Lodge planned a coup and occupied the Plaza de Mayo at dawn on October 8, with troops from the Grenadier Regiment at Horse, under the command of San Martín, and the Arribeños Battalion, under the command of Francisco Ortiz de Ocampo. For its part, the Patriotic Society resorted to public petitions and the mobilization of neighbors.

After some hesitation, the government resigned and the council formed a Second Triumvirate, which was in tune with the Lautaro Lodge. The election was ratified by the people.