Manuel Pardo y Lavalle

Manuel Justo Pardo y Lavalle (Lima, August 9, 1834-Ib., November 16, 1878) was a Peruvian economist and politician who held the mayoralty of Lima in 1869. to 1870, and the presidency of Peru in the constitutional period from 1872 to 1876, being the first constitutional civilian president in Peruvian republican history. He was also president of the Chamber of Senators, in 1878.

Son of politician and writer Felipe Pardo y Aliaga and Petronila de Lavalle y Cavero, he belonged to a family linked to the colonial ruling class. He was educated in Chile and Europe, especially in Barcelona and Paris, showing preferences for economics studies. In 1864 President Juan Antonio Pezet entrusted him with a mission in Europe to manage a loan. Upon returning, he was appointed Minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Mariano Ignacio Prado in 1865. Director of the Sociedad de Beneficencia Pública de Lima in 1868, mayor of Lima from 1869 to 1871, founder of the Civil Party in 1871, with whom he ran and he won the presidency of the Republic in 1872.

Already in power, he found an acute fiscal deficit, which he tried to remedy with a prudent tax increase, the nitrate store, and the revision of the guano sales contracts. He also signed the Defensive Alliance Treaty with Bolivia in 1873. On the other hand, he implemented important reforms in the field of public education and supported intellectual culture. He took over the government in a period of deep financial crisis and undertook a thankless but patriotic task.

When his term ended, he went to Chile, from where he returned to be elected senator for Junín before the Congress of the Republic, being elevated to the presidency of his chamber. He died assassinated from a bullet in the back given to him by an army sergeant, Melchor Montoya, when he was entering the Senate compound. He was only 44 years old. His son, José Pardo y Barreda, became President of Peru twice (1904-1908 and 1915-1919).

Birth, family and education

The son of the politician and writer Felipe Pardo y Aliaga and Petronila de Lavalle y Cavero, he was born in the house located on the corner of San José and Santa Apolonia streets, in Lima.

Her paternal grandparents were Manuel Pardo Ribadeneira, regent of the Audiencia of Cuzco, and Mariana de Aliaga, second daughter of the Marqueses of Fuente Hermosa de Miranda and descendant of the conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Simón de Lavalle y Zugasti, II Count of Royal Prize, and great-grandson Colonel José Antonio de Lavalle y Cortés, First Count of Royal Prize, Viscount de Lavalle, Corregidor of Piura and Lawyer of the Royal Court of Lima, an extremely revealing figure of what was the mercantile aristocracy of the XVIII century.

When he was barely one year old, he traveled to Chile in 1835 with his father, who had been named minister plenipotentiary in the government of Felipe Santiago Salaverry. He returned to Peru with his family in 1839, to travel again to Chile, when his father was again named Plenipotentiary Minister, this time representing the first government of Ramón Castilla, in 1846. For this reason, Manuel began his studies at the Valparaíso Commercial School., to later continue them at the National Institute of Chile. Back in Lima, he completed his secondary studies at the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe College (1848), the most prestigious in the country at the time, later moving on to the Convictorio de San Carlos (1849), which would later be part of the University of San Marcos..

He traveled to Spain where he studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Barcelona (1850), and Literature and Political Economy at the College of France (1852). Until then inclined towards humanistic studies, he began to be interested in the rigor and practical applications of Economics. He was a man of considerable literary culture, shrewd and lucid judgment, and high principles.

Professional and political training

Approach to the public function

After returning to Peru in 1853, he was appointed second officer of the Statistics Section of the then Ministry of Government (June 22, 1854), but he declined to assume his functions and dedicated himself to agriculture, helping his relative José Antonio de Lavalle in the administration of the Villa estate.

During the second government of Marshal Ramón Castilla and after the abolition of slavery, he directed the commission for the creation of the Rural Police together with prominent politicians such as Pedro Paz Soldán Ureta, Ignacio de Osma Ramírez de Arellano and Antonio Salinas y Castañeda.

He was also one of the founding members of the National Club, established in Lima in 1855.

Development of his political conception

Victim of a lung condition, he moved to Jauja to recover (1857-1858). This trip was of great importance both in her vital orientation and in the development of a political-intellectual model. In 1862 she published an essay: Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja , presenting to Lima readers “some pieces of the Andes” that very few knew about and that many looked at with “the highest contempt”. There he exhibits a conceptual richness, clearly outlining his own version of the civilization-barbarism dichotomy and the relationship between Peru and the West. That was the starting point of that joint vision that was slowly being articulated about Peru. An approximation to it will allow to clarify certain essential features of the civilizing project that he would develop in the following decades and that would serve as support to the civilist movement that, under his leadership, emerged in 1871.

The construction of the «practical republic» was a topic that occupied much of the interest, time and energy of Manuel Pardo. It was a project that sought the creation of a new Republic with the participation of citizens and with a liberal economic agenda for development. In the Lima Magazine, a means of intellectual and political expression, Pardo wrote important articles, more than academic, technical and practical, where he detailed and warned about the gradual depletion of guano reserves and suggested that the government of that time invest the huge capital existing in the Public Treasury in productive infrastructure works throughout the country., before these capitals ran out and the crisis arrived. In this sense, he promoted an advertising campaign to launch the railway project as the great investment company in Peru. His proposal was to unite the ports with the agricultural, livestock and mining production areas of the coast and mountains by means of railways, revitalizing the country's economy and moving it away from dependence on foreign capital. Pardo's political project was thus presented as an alternative modern, capitalist and democratizing, confronting the old militarism and traditional political conservatism.

In 1860, he married Mariana Barreda y Osma, daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Guano consignee, banker and landowner

At that time he also ventured into commerce as a consignee of guano and as an importer; He was manager of the Guano Consignment Company for Great Britain, director of the Bank of Peru, president of the La Paternal life insurance company, and director of the South American Maritime and Fire Insurance Company.

In 1863, in order to carry out private explorations in China, he entered into commercial relations with Casa Canevaro and that same year he was one of the six Peruvian businessmen who consigned and exported guano to Great Britain through the Consignment Company of the Guano. The following year, he was one of the founders of the Bank of Peru, of which he was a director.

In 1864 he traveled to London in the company of José Sevilla, to manage a loan for the defense of Peru against the aggression of the Spanish Pacific Squadron. But he had to return soon, again suffering from lung disease. He settled again in Jauja to recuperate, this time accompanied by his friend, the Venezuelan writer Juan Vicente Camacho. He was still in the Mantaro Valley, when he joined the nationalist revolution led by Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado, against the government of Juan Antonio Pezet.

Pardo was also a landowner in northern Peru, in the great Tumán sugar estate, in Lambayeque, who bought it in 1872 from Diego Bueñano for 404,000 pesos, attracted by the good prospects of profit that the sugar business offered.

Secretary (minister) of Finance (1865-1866)

The Talent Cabinet. Year 1865. Parados: José Simeón Tejeda (Justice), José María Químper (Government) and Manuel Pardo and Lavalle (Hacienda). Sentados: José Gálvez Egúsquiza (Guerra y Marina), Mariano Ignacio Prado (provisional chief) and Toribio Pacheco and Rivero (Foreign Relations).

With the Prado dictatorship consolidated, he assumed the Ministry of Finance in 1865 and thus integrated the famous Cabinet of Talents. Under this ministry, which he held for exactly one year, he carried out an active task of tax regulation and in favor of increasing public revenue.

At that time, Guillermo Bogardus filed a complaint against Pardo's management as tax commissioner in Europe in 1864, and against guano consignees in general, whom he accused of a series of abuses to the detriment of the State, such as a surcharge in freight, undue collection of commissions, lack of opportunity to raise the price of the fertilizer, etc. Pardo defended himself in a writing published in 1867, and took the matter to court.

Director of the Public Welfare of Lima (1867-1868)

In 1867 he was elected director of the Sociedad de Beneficencia Pública de Lima. From this position he fought the ravages of the yellow fever epidemic that caused the death of 25% of the population in Lima and Callao. He worked for the construction of the Dos de Mayo Hospital, led the foundation of the Savings Bank and was concerned about school education in the capital.

After leaving the Beneficencia in 1868, he assumed the presidency of the La Paternal Insurance Company and later the direction of the Sur American Insurance Company.

Mayor of Lima (1869-1870)

In 1869 he was elected mayor of Lima by the Junta de los Cien, a position he held until the following year, carrying out one of the most transparent and effective municipal tasks in the city's history. He managed credits for the creation of arts and crafts schools, free primary education and promoted the first Great National Industrial Exhibition, for National Holidays, in which producers from all over Peru were summoned. Some presented its saltpeter, others its sugar, the artisans their leather work, the woolen workers from Puno their wool. His message was: «This is who we are as a Nation; We are an Economic Nation and these are our advantages and our strengths”. He wanted Lima to be once again the Pearl of the Pacific; he harbored the idea of placing Peru in a relevant position in the world context.

Among other public building works that he carried out are the sanitation and decoration of the city, canalization of ditches, the paving of streets, the inauguration of squares and the construction of the highway from Lima to Callao.

President of the Republic (1872-1876)

Civil Party Foundation

Manuel Pardo and Lavalle.

Enjoying great popularity in all social strata, Pardo founded what would be one of the most transcendental creations in the republican history of Peru: the Electoral Independence Society, which would later adopt the name of the Civil Party, the first political party of the country, created as a response to the military predominance in Peruvian politics (April 24, 1871). It brought together wealthy merchants, guano consignees, industrialists and landowners, representatives of the nascent national bourgeoisie. They were also joined by numerous intellectuals, such as lawyers from San Marcos and journalists from El Comercio and El Nacional. This group of citizens saw in Pardo the figure that could redeem Peru after half a century of militarism, since he was a member of a new generation that had been born after independence. In addition, he repudiated the disorder, anarchy and despotism of the men of saber. Militarism was for them the curse that had been postponing the takeoff of Peru as a nation; This was denounced for absolutism, for postponing the social classes from managing politics and for being the spur of revolutions or seditions. This being the case, they maintained that it was not the popular will or public opinion that made the president make decisions. There was enthusiastic support in Lima and the provinces at the possibility of a civilian as ruler. From there the name of the civil party was born, organized that same year for the electoral boards.

Elections of 1871-1872

In 1871, as the end of the constitutional government of President José Balta drew near, presidential elections were called. Balta, who at first wanted to launch the candidacy of his brother Juan Francisco Balta, finally decided to support that of a former president, the elderly General José Rufino Echenique. Dr. Manuel Toribio Ureta, Supreme Prosecutor, who was postulating as leader of the Liberals, also presented himself as a candidate.

But it was Pardo's candidacy, as leader of the recently founded Civil Party, that gained strength throughout the country and in various social groups. On August 6, 1871, he managed to gather 14,000 citizens in the Plaza de Acho, who gathered to listen to him, a very significant number for the time, so it was undoubtedly quite an event.

Sectors of the army opposed Pardo's candidacy. The most repeated accusations made against Pardo were those of being an aristocrat and a monarchist; not to represent the nation, but a select group of people. The military was still viewed by many as the most selfless and commanding men.

Elections were held in two phases: in the first, the voters were chosen, who were grouped into Electoral Colleges, and in the second, the voters elected the President and Congress. On October 15, 1871, the first election took place. The civilistas managed to have representatives in almost all the departments, thus avoiding the traditional and violent seizure of the tables. The result favored Pardo. Ureta declined his nomination. President Balta then sponsored a candidacy for national conciliation in the person of the jurist Antonio Arenas, seeing Echenique forced to renounce his candidacy to give space to the new candidate.

But it was too late to reverse the popular orientation. Between the months that mediated between the first and the second election, there was a tense struggle between militarism and civilism. In April 1872 the electoral colleges met. In Lima Pardo triumphed; in the following days the telegrams from the interior ratified the triumph. Of 4,657 voters, Pardo obtained 2,692 votes. But before this official result was given, the Gutiérrez coup d'état took place.

The Gutiérrez rebellion

There were only a few days left before the end of Balta's term and Pardo's ascension to power, when on July 22, 1872, the rebellion of the Gutiérrez brothers broke out, four colonels led by Tomás Gutiérrez, then Minister of War. This, fearful that under a civilian government the military would lose their privileges, and, apparently, instigated by prominent politicians, arrested President Balta and proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Republic. The navy, whose officers included sailors of the stature of Miguel Grau and Aurelio García y García, spoke out against the Gutiérrez attempt.

Pardo took refuge in the Brazilian embassy; Through the roofs he went to a friendly house, Dr. Ygarza's, and fled disguised as a carter from the city, heading south. He arrived as far as Chilca, where a ship from the squadron was to pick him up, but when this did not appear, he took a fisherman's boat and was taken out to sea, where Miguel Grau finally picked him up on the Huáscar monitor, then going on to the frigate Independencia.

The coup led to the assassination of President Balta and the subsequent popular rebellion against the de facto government, which ended with the deaths of three of the Gutiérrez brothers in the streets, including Tomás.

Pardo returned disembarking in Callao, being received in triumph. He moved to Lima, where before an impressive crowd, he delivered a speech that began with exactly these words:

People of Lima! a work of justice... Those three corpses that stand before our Metropolitan involve a tremendous lesson that I will never forget..

After a short period of indecision, in which there was no shortage of those who asked that the results of the elections be ignored, Congress decided to abide by the popular mandate and named Pardo Constitutional President of the Republic, who took office on 2 August 1872, a day planned from the beginning, for a four-year term, in accordance with the Peruvian Constitution of 1860.

First Civil Constitutional President of Peru

Manuel Pardo and Lavalle, First Civil President of Peru.

Pardo was the first civilian president of Peru, constitutionally elected by popular will. Previously, there had already been civil republican rulers (such as Manuel Menéndez, Justo Figuerola and Domingo Elías), but only as provisional or interim, without popular election. The first civilian to run for president was precisely Domingo Elías, in 1850, the same man who founded the Progressive Club. Elías then lost the elections, which General Echenique won.

Pardo delivered a speech upon receiving the insignia of supreme command from the President of Congress, José Simeón Tejeda, on August 2, 1872, in which he expressed, among other concepts, the following:

Designated by the popular suffrage to exercise the highest position with which one of his sons can be honored, and raised to him, (...) allow me, gentlemen, to bow the forehead to the mysterious designs of Providence and to the great victory that the opinion has achieved after fighting incarnately against arbitrariness. Thus, Providence wanted to end the political history of half a century, helping us visibly to inaugurate your work, on the fiftieth anniversary of national independence, on the basis of victorious opinion and of the right to the empire of force.

Let us leave, gentlemen, to posterity, the historical appreciation of the unfortunate, whose facts led the country to the dangerous extent that patriotism has saved it, and let us take care at this moment only of the political teaching that throws our fervent campaign of fourteen months, and study it, today and always, with the careful yearning and with the elevation of spirit with which the public forces are to apply the same service and aspirations. My object is not so much to present to you a pompous program, as to ask your high lights in the form of laws, the means that I consider necessary for the realization of the purposes that we must achieve, and that is summarized in this definitive formula: The practical Republic, the Republic of truth. She encloses my program, or rather, the program that I have received from the nation that has emerged from the hearts of every citizen, and that is today the synthesis of national opinion.

Lawmakers: In the realization of this program, the highest and most brilliant part is yours, because it is up to you to mark in the law, the principles that must govern the nation, the basis on which public services should be organized, and even the regularization of these in the budget vote, I have the most modest, enforcer of your provisions, and of zealous vigilante of the compliance of the laws.

Even limited to it, my constant purpose will be to conform my policy with the opinion of the majority of the Houses, which is equally the opinion of the country; and in my desire to establish with allegiance the parliamentary system, I assure you, gentlemen, that I deplore the fact that a constitutional provision does not allow me to bring the government to the members of Congress without losing their right to represent the country.

Without that, the representatives of the nation would personally bring to the executive branch the spirit of the Houses, which is the spirit of the country, and should therefore be the one who constantly encourages the administration.

My will to arrive at that result will, as far as possible, be subject to this serious inconvenience, while time allows us to introduce into our code so important improvement.

Obeying the oath I have just given, with the constancy of duty and with the rigidity of conviction, is the only way to satisfy the immense debt of gratitude with which I exhaust the distinction I have deserved from my fellow citizens.

They create them, and believe you, lords, that if my faculties do not allow me to correspond to their hopes, the righteousness of my conscience will never fail to the confidence they have placed in me.

Pardo considered education and work to be keys to socioeconomic development. Education, together with the participation of the population in government tasks, was for him the only path for the structural transformation of the country. Likewise, he sought to reduce militarism through the professionalization and democratization of the armed forces. But the economic crisis would make it impossible to carry out all these projects.

Manuel Pardo never lived in the Government Palace. He lived in his private house and there he received any citizen in audience without paying attention to the economic or social position of the one who requested to see him.

During his government there were three ministerial cabinets: the first, chaired by the elderly General José Miguel Medina; the second by doctor José Eusebio Sánchez; and the third, by General Nicolás Freire.

Economic aspect

Critical situation

On September 21, 1872, Pardo presented to Congress the situation of the Treasury. It was in a dire situation. The sale of guano, the main source of income for the treasury for 30 years, was in decline, and all of its product was committed to pay the debt. This amounted to 60 million pounds sterling and annual interest that they totaled £4 million.

The reason for the crisis was that guano had suffered a sharp drop in its price due to competition from nitrate (another natural fertilizer that was imposed on the world market) and the decline in its quality; for the rest, the guano reserves were on the way to being exhausted. The Dreyfus Contract was no longer bearing fruit. The Nation's budget, greatly enlarged under the Balta government, could only be covered 50% with taxes; the annual deficit reached 8,500,000 soles.

Measures to alleviate the crisis

Pardo set out to obtain the resources required by the Treasury in the following way:

• It established fiscal decentralization to increase tax collection across the country. As this did not result, it established administrative decentralization, i.e., that each department manages its own rents, thus creating departmental councils.
• He proposed to Congress the creation of a mobile-scale tax on the export of the salitre that was exploited in Tarapacá. The government was interested in this wealth that was already beginning to compete with the guano as income generator. The bullfighters protested and raised their complaint to Congress, which sought another exit: by law of 18 January 1873 he created the salitre slope, i.e., it was established that the state would buy all of its production from the state entrepreneurs at a fixed price, and then sell it at a higher price to the consumers. But the stake did not give the expected result and then, by law of 28 May 1875, the Congress authorized the Executive to expropriate the salitreras to obtain their complete nationalization; the State purchased much of them through the issuance of certificates to two years and with a fund of 4%. This measure did not give the expected results either.
• It reorganized customs and increased tariffs.
• It reduced public expenditure to a minimum, trying to accommodate the needs of the nation to its own resources. He was unable to perform any important work, but only to continue those undertaken by Balta, to the extent possible.
• In replacement of the former Dreyfus Contract, a new contract was signed in London, on June 7, 1876, for the sale of 1 900 000 tons of guano, between the delegate of Peru, General Mariano Ignacio Prado, and the capitalists Raphael and sons, Carlos González Candamo and Arturo Heeren, who founded the company The Peruvian Guano. It thus turned to the regime of the consignors.

Worsening of the crisis

The measures taken did not give the expected results. Only the increase in customs tariffs had any success, to the point that over time it became the most important item of tax revenue, but for the time being, the budget deficit continued to rise. For the 1874-76 biennium, income was 30 million soles, while expenses exceeded 74 million.

To all this we must add that since 1873, the world capitalist system entered into crisis and began a great depression that would last until the end of that century. The Peruvian economy was profoundly affected, as international prices for raw materials fell and exports declined.

The financial crisis brought with it the monetary crisis, and gold and silver coins began to disappear from circulation and from banks, forcing the government to decree the inconvertibility of the banknote (1875).

On the other hand, the payment of the external debt could not continue due to the decrease in the sale of guano; This caused the loss of Peru's credit abroad, therefore, the impossibility of obtaining loans.

The country was going straight to economic bankruptcy. As expected, there also arose the concomitant phenomena of rising prices and unemployment, and the inevitable discontent of the population.

International look

Crisis of the politics of American solidarity

The international situation in the South American context was very delicate at that time. The continental solidarity policy, which was once sponsored by Peruvian President Ramón Castilla, was in crisis. Peru was gradually losing its maritime superiority in the Pacific, while Chile was gaining it and showing tendencies of territorial expansionism towards the north of its borders, as was glimpsed in the territorial disputes that it was facing with Bolivia at that time, originated by the wealth Existing nitrate mine in the Atacama desert.

The Defensive Alliance Treaty with Bolivia

In this context, the signing of a Treaty of Alliance between Peru and Bolivia, of a strictly defensive nature, took place in Lima on February 6, 1873, between the Bolivian Minister Plenipotentiary Juan de la Cruz Benavente and the Minister of Relations Foreign Affairs of Peru José de la Riva Agüero and Looz Corswarem (son of the hero of the Independence of the same name). According to the treaty:

The high contracting parties join and bind each other to ensure their independence, sovereignty, and integrity of their respective territories, by being bound by the terms of this Treaty, to defend themselves against any external aggression, either from other or other independent states, or from force without a banner that does not obey any recognized power.

As can be read from the beginning, the treaty had a strictly defensive character against any foreign aggression. Each party reserved the right to decide whether the danger threatening the other fell within the spirit of the treaty. But if the casus foederis were to be declared, the stipulated obligations had to be fulfilled. It was immediately provided that all conciliatory means should be used to avoid a rupture, and, especially, that a settlement should be sought through arbitration by a third power. It was agreed that, in due course, the adhesion of the other American states to the defensive alliance would be requested.

An additional article stipulated that the treaty should be kept secret, as long as the contracting parties did not deem its publication necessary. It has been said later that this additional article was effectively fulfilled and that Chile ignored the existence of the treaty until it broke hostilities with Bolivia; but it was not like that. The Argentine Republic was officially invited to adhere to the pact, and the matter was debated in 1877 in the Senate of Buenos Aires, where the Chilean Minister was informed of the existence of the treaty. The Chilean Minister in La Paz learned of its text in 1874; he activated negotiations accordingly and alluded to it in a work that he published in Santiago in 1876.

After the treaty was approved by the Peruvian and Bolivian Congresses, negotiations began for the accession of Argentina, which was also in dispute over the border with Chile, for the possession of Patagonia. The Argentine government of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento accepted the treaty and submitted it to the Congress of his country for its approval, but there it was trapped before the refusal of the Senate, where Sarmiento's opponents predominated. In the end, the Argentine government chose to settle its differences with Chile diplomatically.

The alliance was thus reduced to Bolivia and Peru. The treaty only had application and compliance if either of the two countries was attacked. It was not to attack a neighboring country, as Chilean historiography has traditionally been interpreting. If no one attacked Peru or Bolivia, it had no application. It only took effect when Chile attacked Bolivia in 1879.

Chile's concern about the nationalization of saltpeter

Pardo's laws, first stagnating and later nationalizing the Tarapacá nitrate mines, also caused the displeasure of the Chilean upper class, since many of its members had capital invested in the exploitation of the Tarapacá nitrate; That was one of the main reasons for them to start drafting plans for the expansion and conquest of those territories. However, according to Sir Clements R. Markham, this could not constitute a just pretext for war.

Neglect of national defense

Manuel Pardo y Lavalle, a few days after assuming command of the Republic, decided to seek advice from expert advisors on everything related to the needs of the Army and the Navy. For this purpose he issued a supreme decree, on August 14, 1872, creating Advisory Commissions for War and the Navy. The Navy Commission was made up of eight heads of the Navy. This Commission was installed on August 26 and was made up of the following officers: Rear Admiral Domingo Valle Riestra, Navy Captains Manuel J. Ferreyros, Aurelio García y García, Miguel Grau, José R. Carreño, Camilo N. Carrillo, Juan Pardo de Zela Urizar and José Elcorrobarrutia. Also specially invited was the captain of the ship Lizardo Montero, senator for Piura. All of them were advisors to President Pardo on issues of National Defense.

It was during the years of the Pardo government when the battleships arrived in Chilean waters. Cochrane and White Stair (in the image). Despite the fact that the Peruvian Navy was underpowered in front of its Chilean counterpart, Pardo was unable to counter this situation, due to the serious economic crisis left by its predecessors.

Although it had a competent team of military advisers, the concrete fact is that the Pardo government neglected the equipment and modernization of the two defense arms: the Army and the Navy. However, it must be recognized that he did have an initial intention to acquire armored ships in imitation of Chile, thus continuing the management initiated by the Balta government. He even managed to get Congress to authorize in a reserved manner an item of four million soles for the acquisition of armored vehicles (November 20, 1872). But due to the serious economic crisis, that item could not be covered in 1873 (the year when the alliance treaty with Bolivia was signed) and was finally withdrawn from the budget in 1874. The contract for the acquisition of the armored vehicles ended up being annulled. There is a version that affirms that this annulment was made after listening to the opinion of Navy consultants, who considered that the Peruvian squadron, in the state it was in, could resist the Chilean squadron. It is also stated that only two sailors opposed this annulment, one of them being Miguel Grau. These are only oral versions, there being no document to confirm it.

Meanwhile, Chile was conducting an arms race with a view to carrying out its expansionist policy. Precisely, in December 1874, the armored frigate Almirante Cochrane arrived in Valparaíso, and in January 1876, its sister ship, the frigate Blanco Encalada, with which Chile acquired maritime supremacy in the South Pacific.

Historian Rubén Vargas Ugarte said about it:

The biographers of D. Manuel Pardo do not fail to say that he urged that Peru arm itself and strengthen its squad, commanding to build in England two armoured as Chile had done, gave those who questioned him for answer: “Peru has two powerful armoured and they are but their alliance with Bolivia and Argentina.” It must be agreed that it was wrong, which was certainly fatal to the country.

We have already seen that Argentina did not join the alliance, thus leaving Peru tied to an alliance with the disarmed Bolivia, which lacked a navy. Peruvian historians consider that it was a serious mistake by Pardo to neglect national defense, relying on an international alliance where obviously the greatest weight would fall on Peru. Even with the economic hardship, they consider that the greatest effort should have been made to repower the navy, even more so seeing that Chile was arming itself. And it was precisely the disarmament of Peru that encouraged Chile to unleash the war of 1879, known as the guano and saltpeter war.

As for the Army, it was reduced to less than 3,000 troops, although some improvements were made in terms of personnel training, such as the creation of the Corporals and Sergeants School and the Special Artillery and State School Mayor, the reform of the Military School and the reinstatement of the Naval School.

It has also been said that the expenses destined to put down the continuous uprisings (including that of Nicolás de Piérola) was another factor that prevented the purchase of armored ships and war material in general. But Basadre considers that this argument is not consistent and that internal subversion should have been another reason for the government to worry even more about acquiring new defense elements.

Educational and cultural aspect

In contrast to the economic and international crisis, the educational and cultural work of the Pardo government was extremely important.

• Castilla had been the first republican ruler worried about the organization of public education. Pardo continued this work through General Regulation of Public Instruction promulgated on 18 March 1876. These regulations provided that primary education would be compulsory and free of charge in its first grade and that it would be entrusted to municipalities. As to the average instruction, which was not mandatory, it would be carried out by the departmental councils. In order to extend primary education to the whole country, a personal contribution was created, from a sun to a semester in the mountains and two suns on the coast to all citizens between the ages of 21 and 60.
• Higher education also merited attention. In order to prepare technicians and specialists in the various professions of the public administration, the Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences of the University of San Marcos (1875), the current Faculty of Economic Sciences, was established.
• The School of Civil and Mine Engineers (now National University of Engineering) was established.
• The Normal School of Women of Lima was set up in the former convent of the Jesuits of San Pedro (for women who would like to dedicate themselves to the Magisterium).
• University autonomy was granted.
• The universities of Ayacucho, Trujillo and Puno were abolished, while the universities of Lima, Arequipa and Cuzco continued. The University of San Marcos de Lima was given the designation of Major.

In the cultural aspect, the state printing press was put at the service of publishing important works. El Perú by the Italian scholar Antonio Raimondi was published, as well as the Diccionario Geográfico Estadístico del Perú by Mariano Felipe Paz Soldán; The latter also printed the second part of his History of Independent Peru, the first of which was published during the Balta government. The Peruvian Traditions of Ricardo Palma began to be published. Also published, among other works, were the collection of Historical and Literary Documents of Peru by General Manuel de Odriozola, and the Dictionary of Peruvian Legislation by Manuel Atanasio Fuentes.

Other works

• He promoted European immigration. There were 3,000 European immigrants who were mostly sent to colonize the region of Chanchamayo, in the jungle brow, where they consolidated the town of La Merced (1874). Asian immigration was also encouraged to benefit coastal agriculture.
• It organized the Bureau of Statistics as a unit of the Ministry of Government and Public Works.
• In 1876 the General Census of the Republic was made, the first technical fact, since until then the population was only calculated. This census dropped the amount of 2 704 998 inhabitants.
• Civil Records were established in the Municipalities, to lay down the birth, marriage and death of the citizens, which until then was the privilege of the parishes.
• He re-established the National Guard, reorganizing it in order to prepare citizens for the defense of public order. All citizens aged 21 to 25 years who were not enrolled in the active army or in the reserve would form the National Guard in each province, training them regularly and being able to be called to active service for no more than six months.
• He gave a General Post Regulation to improve the postal service and ordered to build an appropriate building in Lima.
• The submarine cable between Peru and Chile was installed by the company, and then between Callao and Panama, which connected with the rest of the world.
• The Monument of the Two of May was inaugurated in Lima in the square of the same name, in tribute to the victory of the Callao of 1866.
• The railways from Arequipa to Puno, from Ilo to Moquegua, from Pacasmayo to Chilete and from Salaverry to Ascope were opened, and the construction of the central railway to La Oroya continued.
• Three departments and one coastal province were established:
  • The Department of Lambayeque (segregated from the department of La Libertad) by law of 1 December 1874.
  • The Department of Apurímac (segregated from the department of Cuzco), by law of 28 April 1873.
  • La Provincia Litoral de Moquegua y el Departamento de Tacna, por ley de 25 de junio de 1875.

Parliamentary opposition and rebellions

Manuel Pardo and Lavalle returning to Callao in January 1875, after obliging Piérola's uprising.

Pardo began his government in the midst of immense popularity, however this gradually decreased due to the economic crisis that worsened until it directly affected the population, due to the partial stoppage of public works and consequent unemployment, as well as the increase in basic necessities.

Naturally, the opposition in parliament took advantage of this situation to attack the government. Two unfortunate events further exacerbated spirits: the Ocatara incident and the double murder in Chinchao, committed by Mariano Herencia Zevallos (the vice president who succeeded Balta) and Domingo Gamio.

Ocatara Incident

In Ocatara, some Chilean workers from the central railway, while drunk, attacked a civilian camp where they committed a series of misdeeds; but instead of being tried by the courts of Peru, they were shipped and returned to their homeland, which gave rise to the opposition fiercely criticizing the government for such an unusual behavior. The reason given by the Minister of Government, Dr. Francisco Rosas, was that the government mistrusted the judiciary and that the healthiest thing for the Republic was to expel these criminals from the country. This originated a bitter debate in Congress, provoking exalted words from Rosas, who was accused of disrespecting the majesty of Parliament. Two days later, Rosas resigned from his position, it is said that at the request of Pardo himself.

Murders in Chinchao

The other unfortunate event occurred in Chinchao, where Colonels Mariano Herencia Zevallos and Domingo Gamio, who had risen up against the government and were taken to a garrison located on the border with Brazil, were assassinated by the patrol that led them. The crime was apparently motivated by an old enmity between the chief of the patrol, Major Cornejo, and Gamio, but public opinion did not hesitate to blame the Pardo government for this double crime, which received harsh criticism in the Parliament and the press.

The rebellion of Nicolás de Piérola

One of the most important rebellions that Pardo had to endure was that of the civil leader Nicolás de Piérola, the former Minister of Finance of Balta. After a stay in Europe, Piérola went to Chile, where he organized a revolution against Pardo. He set sail for Peru in a small boat called El Talismán , on October 11, 1874. In full voyage he was appointed Provisional Supreme Chief. He first anchored at Pacasmayo but eluded the Peruvian fleet and headed south, landing at Ilo. He occupied Moquegua and planned to occupy Arequipa, but forces from Lima, led by President Pardo himself and General Juan Buendía, defeated him in Los Angeles, between December 6 and 7, 1874. Thus ended the so-called Talisman Expedition.

1874 assassination attempt

Caricature The Mascarada (August 15, 1874) where President Pardo is represented, in the role of Julio César, entering the Senate, while an anonymous character, in the role of Brutus, is alert to give him the homicidal stagnation. Caricature was premonitory, as one week later, Pardo was the victim of the first attack on his life. Four years later, as President of the Senate, he would be killed, coincidentally, when he entered the Senate compound (16 November 1878).

Freedom of the press was broad during Pardo's government and on several occasions it overflowed. On August 15, 1874, the satirical newspaper La Mascarada published a cartoon that covered an entire page and was illuminated in full color. It was titled "The Last Day of Caesar" and subtitled "History is a mirror where humanity finds advice." In it, President Pardo is seen representing Julius Caesar and entering the Senate, surrounded by his cabinet and other characters, all of them dressed in Roman-style togas. To the left of the senatorial portico, there is a pedestal where the statue of General Mariano Ignacio Prado (representing Pompey) stands, and in front of it, there is a mysterious character, who, representing Marco Junio Brutus (Caesar's assassin)., awaits the opportunity to inflict the murderous stab, instigated by another (with the physiognomy of Piérola). In the upper part, a flock of supposed angels flutters, but when seen up close they resemble vultures, and represent José Balta and Tomás Gutiérrez. The graphic composition was highly symbolic. Although the intention of the cartoon was humorous or festive, it ended up being considered macabre and prescient.

A week after said publication, Pardo suffered an attack on a public thoroughfare, at the hands of army captain Juan Boza, who fired several shots at the president from a revolver, none of which hit the target. Pardo himself confronted his assailant, yelling "murderer" and "infamous" and deflecting the firearm with his cane (August 22, 1874). A group of men who were accompanying Boza, and who were apparently his accomplices, fled firing shots into the air. This attack occurred when Pardo was crossing the corner of Palacio street on foot to the Escribanos portal. As a consequence, the editor of La Mascarada and the cartoonist were imprisoned, accused of inciting rebellion and murder, although the legal case was unsuccessful.

Peaceful transfer of power

Pardo managed to complete his presidential term in 1876 (something that had not been seen since the end of the second government of Castilla in 1862) and handed over power to his chosen successor, General Mariano Ignacio Prado, for whom the investiture was not new presidential, since he had held it between 1865 and 1868, albeit in a dictatorial manner.

Exile, return and murder

Exile in Chile

As soon as the second government of General Prado began, Pardo was involved in the mutiny of the Callao garrison on June 4, 1877 (the so-called rebellion of the cabitos). According to the testimony of Pardo himself, in a letter that he addressed to his wife, this riot was the work of some of his exacerbated supporters, without his order. However, he was persecuted and had to take refuge in the French legation. He then left in exile for Chile, on the 15th of the same month.

In absentia, he was elected senator for Junín before the National Congress, in the elections for the renewal of the parliamentary thirds of 1877, where his party triumphed widely, in both chambers. Installed the Congress on July 27, 1877, Pardo was elevated to the presidency of the Senate. His followers eagerly awaited his return to Peru.

Return to Peru

Despite the fact that his wife and some friends in Chile advised him not to return to Peru, Pardo decided to undertake the trip, arriving in Callao on September 2, 1878. Previously, anonymous flyers had been distributed in the port inciting the population to attempt on his life. In fact, there was widespread fear that Pardo would confront the government, but instead he reconciled with Prado, who received him at the palace.

According to an account by Pedro Dávalos y Lissón, Pardo returned convinced of the imminent outbreak of the war with Chile, a concern that he conveyed to President Prado himself. However, Basadre, who reviewed Pardo's writings from that time (including his extensive correspondence with Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna), found nothing to indicate his concern in this regard.

President of the Senate

As soon as he took possession of his seat as senator, Pardo became president of his Chamber (September 7, 1878). On this occasion, he uttered these words:

In the midst of political dissidences, which drive men away, there is always a bond that unites them: the love of their country and the longing for their happiness. Let us all therefore seek to win the favors of the nation in this field, which by our saying is wide enough for all to complain: let us all come together to serve the ideas that satisfy their needs and to fight the passions that stir it up: and so we will not only have done good laws but have restored calm to the spirits and peace to society.

Murder

Murder of Manuel Pardo and Lavalle.

The assassination of Manuel Pardo occurred on the afternoon of Saturday, November 16, 1878, when he was President of the Senate, four years after the first attack he suffered when he was constitutional president of Peru. By macabre coincidence, he was assassinated when he was entering the Senate premises, just as the cartoon The Masquerade had predicted years before.

Some time ago, Pardo, presaging his death, had stated in a letter to Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, a Chilean historian and politician and his personal friend, the following:

I am not afraid of death but of the way of dying. Because disappearing from the scene of life drowned by a membrane, with the neck broken by a link of the horse, on a dissipated train covered with oil and coal, is something I would certainly not like. But to die in his position, fulfilling his duty worthyly, serving his country, that's something else and that doesn't scare me.

Two days before his death, on November 14, Pardo gave a speech in the Senate on a tax bill. On the 15th he continued to deal with the same matter. Both speeches were to be published in El Comercio, so on the 16th (the fateful day) he went to the printing press of said newspaper, where he reviewed the proofs of the text, until two in the afternoon. Finished this work, he went by car to the door of the Congress. He was accompanied by Manuel María Rivas and Adán Melgar. At the entrance, the Pichincha battalion guard presented him with weapons and Pardo gestured for the honors to cease. Then he entered the first courtyard of Congress, when suddenly, one of the members of said battalion, Sergeant Melchor Montoya (who still had his weapon raised) shot him in the back, shouting: "Long live the people." While the guard remained impassive, Mr. Melgar launched himself in pursuit of the murderer, who fled to the neighboring plaza (called Plaza de la Inquisición, now Plaza Bolívar), finally being apprehended by a civil guard named Juan Bellodas.

Pardo received a bullet that penetrated his right lung, went through his chest and went into the wall. When receiving the wound he hesitated and had to lean on the wall for a moment, to end up collapsing on the tiles of the lobby, which led to the interior of the Senate building. There he remained lifeless, but after a few minutes he wanted to get up and exclaimed: "Who has killed me?" "A soldier," they answered. "I forgive him," he replied. "And I forgive everyone." He then added: "My family! my family!" And immediately he lost the use of the word. Despite the fact that he was treated by several doctors, the bleeding could not be stopped. Father Caballero, who was present, was able to confess and acquit him. Pardo himself asked for the holy oils that were administered to him by the priest Andrés Tovar. He passed away after an hour of agony.

Pardo was buried in the Private Mausoleum of the Pardo Family in the Presbítero Matías Maestro Cemetery.

Mausoleum Privado de la Familia Pardo en el Cementerio Presbytero Matías Maestro.

In the trial against the murderer and his accomplices, it was determined that Sergeant Melchor Montoya, a 26-year-old youth, had planned the crime with three other sergeants from the Pichincha battalion, whose names were Elías Álvarez, Armando Garay and Alfredo Decourt. They themselves confessed, giving details of his plan. The reason they gave was that a law on promotions was being discussed in Congress that would have prevented their promotion to the officer class and they agreed to make a rebellion by raising their battalion and assassinating the president of the Senate, whom they considered the author of the project. The next step in the plan was to go out into the streets with the troops, set up barricades and wait for the support of the people, but none of that came to pass. Montoya was sentenced to death and shot on September 22, 1880; At that time he governed Piérola, in the sad days of the war with Chile.

Consequences of murder

Pardo's death sparked surprise, indignation, anger, and despair throughout the country. In addition, it left the Civil Party headless and meant the death of a leader of great weight and social influence.

“Peru is in mourning. America has lost one of its highest-ranking statesmen,” said the editorial in El Comercio, which came out in an extraordinary edition that same day of the murder. And the same newspaper announced that, after a secret session, Congress had just declared that "The Homeland is in danger."

"The Homeland is in mourning. Manuel Pardo, the illustrious patrician, the great citizen, the distinguished statesman, the honest magistrate, the exemplary father of a family, has died today, cowardly and villainously murdered by his political enemies," said one of the editorials. La Tribuna (not to be confused with the Aprista newspaper).

A neutral observer, such as the Italian historian Tomás Caivano, wrote about it:

The murder of Manuel Pardo, we can say safely, especially in consideration of the circumstances and the moment it took place, was more than the murder of a man: it was the murder of Peru.

His public performance, upright although disputed, his intellectual enlightenment and the circumstances of his death, quickly turned Manuel Pardo y Lavalle into a sort of civil martyr. "The best of our public men" was called by J. M. Rodríguez in his Libro de Estudios Económicos y Financieros published in 1895, when taking stock of the Republic. Even Manuel González Prada, who was a fierce critic of the civilistas, treated him with respect:

Pardo had a nice figure, fine manners, affable treatment, sparkling conversation and an irresistible atmosphere of attraction. By treating him once he wanted to treat him often, and by frequenting him he did not stop loving him. He inspired so sincere and durable conditions that are intact today...

Offspring

On July 17, 1859, he married Mariana Barreda y Osma, daughter of wealthy businessman Felipe Barreda Aguilar and Carmen de Osma y Ramírez de Arellano. The couple had ten children:

• Felipe Pardo and Barreda, V Marquis de Fuente Hermosa de Miranda (1860-1939).
• Juan Pardo and Barreda (1862-1943), president of the Chamber of Deputies. Mining Engineer; Mining Company.
• José Pardo and Barreda (1864-1947), President of the Republic. Counselor. Married with Doña Carmen Heeren Barreda.
• María Pardo and Barreda (1865-), married to Enrique Ayulo Mendívil.
• Ana Pardo and Barreda (1868-1942), religious.
• Luis Víctor Pardo and Barreda (1869-1944), agro-industrial entrepreneur, married Doña María Cecilia de Althaus Dartnell (1874-1935).
• Enrique Pardo and Barreda (1870-1930). Married to Elena Del Alcázar Alvarez.
• Rosa Pardo and Barreda (1871-1944), married to Vicente González de Orbegoso, grandson of Luis José de Orbegoso.
• Victoria Pardo and Barreda (1876-), married to the baron Thomas Vincent d'Ornellas.
• Manuel A. Pardo and Barreda (1877-1906), a Jesuit religious.

Among his grandchildren, we can mention:

• Juan Pardo Heeren, former Minister of Finance
• Ana Teresa Pardo, duchess consort of Sanlúcar la Mayor
• José Pardo Heeren, VI Marquis de Fuente Hermosa de Miranda
• Carmen Pardo Heeren, marquesa consorte de Villavieja
• Vicente González de Orbegozo Pardo, cousin of Count of Olmos
• Enrique Pardo Heeren is the founder of the Banking and Trade Club that exists to date in Lima, Peru.

Likewise, the current Marquis of Fuente Hermosa de Miranda, José Manuel Pardo Paredes, is the great-grandson of Manuel Pardo y Lavalle.

Ancestors