Mariano Moreno
Mariano Moreno (Buenos Aires, September 23, 1778- Alta mar, March 4, 1811) was a doctor of law, journalist, politician from the River Plate, and one of the main ideologues and promoters of of the May Revolution, who had an outstanding performance as Secretary of War and Government of the First Junta, resulting from it.
He is widely considered one of the most influential lawyers of his generation. He stood out for promoting liberal and contractarian ideas, defending both free trade and the rights of the Indians. He was the author of the Representation of the Hacendados in favor of the restoration of free trade (which turned out to be the most complete political economy report of the time, in which he described in detail the economic situation of the Viceroyalty).
He founded the newspaper La Gazeta de Buenos Ayres (1810) as secretary of the Primera Junta —with the collaboration of Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and Manuel Alberti— and whose first official bulletin was a translation of Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract, which he made himself.
He opposed Carlotism, a project that had proposed the creation of an independent monarchy headed by Princess Carlota Joaquina, sister of King Ferdinand VII of Spain and wife of Prince Regent Juan of Portugal.
After his departure from the Board, he was appointed as a diplomat in London, but died suddenly at sea at the age of 32, aboard the frigate Fame. His body was wrapped in an English flag and thrown 120 kilometers from the coast of Santa Catarina.
Family facts
Mariano Moreno was born in Buenos Aires on September 23, 1778, in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata.
She was the first of fourteen children born to Manuel Moreno y Argumosa, born in Santander, Spain, who arrived in Buenos Aires in 1776, and Ana María Valle, one of the few women who knew how to read and write in Buenos Aires. His maternal grandparents were Antonio Valle and Luisa Ramos, owners of large tracts of land in the province of Buenos Aires.[citation required]
He was the brother of Manuel Moreno (politician with a long career and ambassador to England), nephew of Tomás Antonio Valle (of outstanding public performance in times of the viceroyalty and in the Assembly of the Year XIII) and first cousin of Ángel Salvadores, José María Salvadores, Gregorio Salvadores, Juan José Salvadores, Bonifacio Salvadores, Pedro Salvadores, Toribio Salvadores, Desiderio Salvadores, Lucio Salvadores and Manuel Antonio Salvadores, linked to the Unitary Party.
Studies
Moreno completed his primary studies at the Escuela del Rey and secondary studies at the Real Colegio de San Carlos. de Moreno for the study and became his protector. To this end, he gave him access to the library of the convent of San Francisco and put him in contact with Felipe de Iriarte, a priest from Alto Peru, who occasionally visited Buenos Aires, who suggested that he should continue his university studies at the Universidad Mayor, Real and Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, for which purpose he offered him the protection of the Archbishop of Chuquisaca, Fray José Antonio de San Alberto, and an "allowance" or monthly so that he could pay his expenses in that city. The parents, with great effort, paid for the trip.
After a long and painful journey of two and a half months, Moreno arrived in Chuquisaca in 1800, he was then 22 years old, and he joined the Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca and the Real Carolina Academy of Legal Practitioners of Charcas. The Carolina Academy was a para-university institution, compulsory attendance and whose objectives were to give students useful knowledge about the general laws of the Kingdom and municipal. The method used was to go to the sources and not to the "comments" that were made of them and carry out practices of "cases" where the students performed different functions that familiarized them with the various forensic and procedural aspects.
According to a certificate issued in October 1804, while Moreno was doing his internship at the Carolina Academy, he was distinguished, for his "outstanding merits," as Prosecutor of that institution. The function of the position consisted of ensuring compliance with the president's resolutions, examining the documentation required for admission presented by the applicants, signing the expenses paid by the treasurer, acting as master of ceremonies in official acts and taking a seat next to of the president of the Academy.
There he also read the theorists of the European Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, who had a great influence on his ideological thinking. To understand these authors in his original language, he studied English and French, and translated some of his works. The translation of The Social Contract by Rousseau took him several years and he published it only in 1810 in the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres , with a prologue written by him:
If the peoples are not illustrated, if their rights are not vulgarized, if every man does not know what is worth, what can and what is due to him, new illusions will happen to the ancients, and after hesitating some time between a thousand uncertainties, it will perhaps be our luck to move from tyranny without destroying tyranny.
This immortal man who formed the admiration of his century and will be amazed at all ages, was perhaps the first one who, completely dissipating the darkness with which despotism enveloped his usurpations, made clear the rights of the peoples, and teaching them the true origin of their obligations, demonstrated those that correlatively contradicted the depositaries of their governments.
Under the tutelage of Canon Matías Terrazas, in whose house he was staying, he became acquainted with the texts of the Spanish Enlightenment, such as those of the Spanish jurist Juan de Solórzano Pereira and Victorián de Villava, appointed in 1790 as Prosecutor of the Royal Audience of Ponds and who also had the royal title of Natural Protector of the Indians.
Legal dissertation on the personal service of the Indians
One of the characteristics of the Upper Peru region at the end of the XVIII century was the high population and social conflict indigenous.
The Cuzco council, in August 1768, warned of the danger implied by the "ruthless tyranny" that the natives suffered due to the work of corregidores and bad doctrinal priests. The insurgency of Túpac Amaru and Túpac Katari in 1780, which was put down by a bloody and exemplary military reaction, did not alter the socio-economic conditions that supported it, so social tension continued.
Another important event was the progressive depletion of the mining establishments in Potosí that since their discovery in the mid-XV century had been a determining factor in the local and viceregal economy. From 1560 it became evident that the increasingly intensive exploitation of indigenous labor was the sine qua non condition for obtaining profitability from these silver mines.
In this context, the presence of teachers and students from the Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, the Carolina Academy, professionals and certain officials of the Court of Charcas, created in Chuquisaca an atmosphere of discussion linked to the indigenous problem, especially the institution of the "mita" potosina defined by Villava as a form of "temporary slavery" and obligatory of the Indians destined to serve in the mining exploitation.
In 1793, the jurist Villava, upon witnessing the transfer of thousands of mitayo indigenous people from areas further away than allowed, with the consequent abandonment of their families, filed a complaint with the Council of the Indies entitled Discourse on the mita of Potosi. In 1794, when the contents of that presentation became public due to its dissemination in pamphlets, the mayor of Potosí, Francisco de Paula Sanz, advised by Dr. Pedro Vicente Cañete, refuted with special determination Villava's concepts in a letter called Answer. Villava was not far behind and in 1795 he wrote the Counter-Reply . The legal controversy between the prosecutor who argued that the indigenous were equal to the "vassals of Castilla" and the mayor who affirmed that these were "servants" having been defeated in a war of conquest, it ignored what was the core of the problem: the need to perpetuate the appropriation and intensification of the indigenous labor force at little or no cost, for the benefit of owners, tenants, azogueros and others, in order to maintain the mining rent.
Two parties emerged from these legal disputes and the interests at stake led to personal attacks and dangerous accusations:
- Those who held the derogation of the myth: the Royal Audience, the prosecutor Villava, Archbishop San Alberto, Terrazas and the exploited mitayos.
- Those who wanted to keep it: the mayor Sanz, his adviser Cañete, certain officials and clergy, owners of the mines, tenants and the guild of scourges.
When Moreno arrived in Chuquisaca these two groups were already constituted. The ideological position and exhibition that would perform two years later in the academy has influences of his protector, the archbishop San Alberto, of Terrazas, in whose house he stayed, and fundamentally from Villava, his professor at the University. In addition, during his visit to Potosí, he was able to verify what was public knowledge: the frightening exploitation to which the indigenous people were subjected under the conditions that the mita had reached in the late colonial stage.
On August 12, 1802, legal dissertation on the personal service of the Indians in general and on the individual of Yanaconas and Mitarios presented at the Carolina Academy. The theme that Moreno chose was conflictive, of great actuality and on which serious controversies had developed in previous years.
After describing the historical background of exploitation in mining in general and Yanaconazgo and the Mita in particular, he carried out a detailed analysis of the laws of the Indies that considered the Indians as free men and who had been revoked by ID cards subsequent or de facto actions contrary to them. Following his Master Villava, whom he cited twice, he detailed the violence that was exercised over the natives to perform tasks against his will and criticized the alleged advantages of giving them & # 34; work & # 34; mandatory to correct the alleged " Rangery " of these. Then it contrary to the utility generated by the exploitation versus the resistance of the workers to a benefit that described as " disgusting ".
To demonstrate the validity of the topic, he set two recent cases as an example:
- The Indians of Siporo, who demanded their release from the yanaconazgo against the owners of a hacienda.
- The new granting of mita to a certain Luis Orueta, azoguero of Potosí, a case that had provoked "with greater ardor" the reaction of the inhabitants of Chayanta.
From the discovery the malice began to persecute some men who had no other offence to have been born in a land that nature enriched with opulence and who prefer to leave their peoples to subject themselves to the oppressions and services of their masters, judges and priests. It is continually seen to violently remove these unhappy people from their homes and homelands, to come to be the victims of a dissimilar immolation. They are required to enter through narrow and underground channels carrying on their shoulders the food and tools necessary for their work, to be locked for many days, to remove the metals that have excavated on their own backs, with notorious violation of the laws, which prohibit that they may still voluntarily carry burdens on their shoulders, sufferings that, coupled with the evil treatment that is resulting from them, cause them to return from the four parts. Legal provision on the personal service of the Indians in general and in particular of yanaconas and mites en (Moreno, 1915)
Moreno ended his exhibition by holding that as the parcels had been eliminated for being " little in accordance with the freedom and privileges of the Indians, the same can be expected with the service of the Mita ".
On February 3, 1804, Moreno appeared to give his first exam " departure " In the Carolina Academy. It was the last examination of " theoretical " and his dissertation dealt with one of the laws of Toro, a frequent issue in that institution at the end of 1803 and early 1804. The law on which Moreno spoke was number XIV [6th, title 9, book V of the Collection ] that dealt with the right to heritage of consorts that contracted new nuptials. With moderation, references to commentators and scholastic style, Moreno presented his analysis to the examiners. His presentation ended with a strange justification and personal request:
Notorious evils have ruined in me the limited knowledge I had acquired and in a long time I will be incapable of my replenishment. If with this sad memory I could excite to my conmiseration, I would have gathered in them an abundant fruit. (Moreno, 1915, p. 76)
Levene, by mistake, dated the exam in 1802 (what other historians repeated), considered it as " university exam " although he was not and placed as a place the audience of Charcas instead of the Carolina Academy.
Between 1803 and 1804 he conducted his professional practices in the study of Esteban Agustín Gazcón [Gascón], officiating as a defense lawyer of Indians against abuse of his patterns, reaching powerful characters as the mayor of Cochabamba and the mayor of Chayanta.
Marriage
At the beginning of 1804, Moreno met María Guadalupe Cuenca, 14, daughter of a Chuquisaca widow raised in a monastery of nuns. A few months later, on May 20, 1804, they married in the Cathedral of Chuquisaca. The ceremony was carried out by Matías Terrazas, a master canon, licensed by the oldest governing priest. Among the witnesses of the marriage were: the presbyter José Antonio Medina, professor of the University; Dr. Manuel Josef Antequera and Dr. Pedro Josef Agrelo. Medina will be one of the signatories of the revolutionary proclamation in La Paz in 1809 and member of the Board Tuitive.
RETURN TO BUENOS AIRES
In September 1805 Mariano Moreno arrived in Buenos Aires along with his wife and eight -month -old son, " Marianito ", going to live at the home of his parents. According to Manuel Moreno, except for those who inherited an important fortune, the professions that could be accessed in the viceroyalty were three: the ecclesiastical, who gathered the honor with poverty; the militia, which linked poverty with corruption; and the law, which required a lot of previous investment, both material and intellectual, with a long -term performance. One of the consequences of Carlos III's university reform was that at the end of the <span style #34; multitude of lawyers ", most American Spaniards. To contain this economic-social phenomenon, on December 22, 1802, a general disposition was issued in Buenos Aires to limit what was qualified as " serious prejudice of the public, good governance and administration of justice ". For this purpose, hearings were asked to report the number of lawyers in each of the jurisdictions. The following year, the Buenos Aires Audience determined the maximum amounts in each of them. To these limitations in the number other requirements were required such as the prior authorization of the place where they would exercise their trade. To improve the training of these professionals, it was tried to avoid the readings of " risky and pernicious works ".
In 1802, when Moreno was studying in Chuquisaca, Buenos Aires had 98 years in exercise that increased to 152 in the following 8 years. Among the prestigious lawyers were Chiclana, which he exercised since 1788; Castelli, since 1791; and Step and Echavarria, since 1802. In this environment of limitations and qualified competition, Moreno achieved his qualification shortly after his arrival. In the report of the Supreme Court of Justice signed by Villota it is stated that it was exempted from the four years of mandatory practices for its competent action in Chuquisaca. His name appeared on the list of lawyers enrolled in the hearing of Buenos Aires as of November of 1805.
In 1806 the first of the two English invasions to the Río de la Plata took place, during which Buenos Aires was occupied by a British military force. Although Moreno did not actively participate in the military counteroffensive with whom he expelled them, he opposed the English presence in Buenos Aires and during the same wrote a newspaper where he took note of all the events that happened. His purpose was that his compatriots knew in the future why circumstances such an event had taken place. Moreno affirmed the following:
"I have seen many men mourn for the infamy with which they were given; and I myself have cried more than any other, when at three o'clock in the afternoon of 27 June 1806, I saw 1560 English men coming in, who took over my homeland, stayed in the fortress and other quarters of the city."
On March 9, 1807, a month after the English occupation of Montevideo, a Prospectus was published in that city announcing the upcoming appearance of a newspaper. The first issue of The Southern Star, Estrella del Sur appeared on May 23, 1807. It was a weekly newspaper with 4 columns per page, paired the bilingual Spanish-English parts, with 4 pages, who went out on Saturdays. Its editorial contained political propaganda in favor of the English with criticism of Spanish institutions: Vg. he compared the advantages of being a subject of a limited monarchy with the lack of freedom of being a subject of an absolutist monarch. Idem to enjoy a free trade system versus the limitation of a monopolistic trade. The rest were commercial offers, requests for bilingual personnel, lists of ships entering and leaving the port, European news, and literary or artistic criticism.
The reaction of the Audiencia of Buenos Aires was to prohibit the introduction, public or private reading, retention, etc. of the weekly In addition, in a confidential manner, he commissioned Moreno to refute its political content. Historian Ravignani commented on the "serious difficulties" that Moreno had to fulfill the order without clarifying what those "difficulties" were. In any case, Moreno managed to convince the members of the governing audience that the best thing to do was "silence and forgetfulness".
The weekly had several editors: Lt. Col. Thomas Bradford, Edward Butler, William Scollay, all with the pen name "Veritas". Manuel Aniceto Padilla from Cochabamba collaborated as a translator. According to Ángel J. Carranza, the priest Juan Francisco Martínez also did it. It is not easy to assess the impact it had as a propaganda element due to adverse factors: low literacy, different languages, cultures, religions, and qualifications of "invaders" of those responsible and the short time of their appearance. Only seven numbers were published, the last one on June 7, 1807 and on the 11th, on a loose sheet, the suspension was communicated due to the military failure of General Whitelocke in Buenos Aires. The printing press, machinery and equipment were bought from the English for 3,190 or 5,000 pesos and moved to Buenos Aires, reinforcing the existing one in the Real Imprenta de Niños Expósitos.
First public performances
One of the first causes with political resonance for Moreno was acting as a defender of the clergy against the excesses of the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Benito Lué y Riega.
The case was entrusted to him by his former professor at the Real Colegio de San Carlos, Dr. Melchor Fernández, who accused the bishop of not complying with canonical rules, pressuring the civil courts against the clergy —even taking their property— or manage the Church according to their particular interest, with humiliation and arbitrariness. The cause produced great resonance in Buenos Aires due to the social and political importance of the bishop, particularly because a civil court, through a recurso "de fuerza", evaluated measures that should be taken in an ecclesiastical court. On November 20, 1805, Moreno presented his final argument; upon completion, he hurried back to his home to be with his dying father in his final moments. The defense made by Moreno, his speech and the arguments used humiliated the bishop, who was found guilty; since then, the bishop considered her his enemy. This case was also the beginning of his prestige as a lawyer.
On February 13, 1806, Moreno was appointed to the vacant position of substitute rapporteur of the Royal Court of Buenos Aires, a position of no economic importance but which granted prestige and honors, and which did not prevent him from continuing to perform his lawyer's profession As of August 14, the date of the deposition of Viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte, the Regent of the Royal Audience, Lucas Muñoz y Cubero, had to perform additional functions, since the Audiencia took over the government of the viceroyalty. Muñoz y Cubero delegated an important part of his duties to Moreno, who performed this in delicate matters of state.
After the expulsion of the first English invasion, Montevideo reclaimed the distinctive title of "Very Faithful and Reconquering". In turn, the Buenos Aires council, taking into account his important performance in the English defeat of 1807, commissioned Moreno, in his capacity as advisor to the Council, to request the King the title of "Defender of South America and Protector of the Cabildos of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata". The text that Moreno sent in December 1807 expressed the complaint of the town council regarding the governors and "subdelegates" in general that "humiliate and despise the councils", and that it was "rare" find an official of that level who, in order to demonstrate his authority, would not & # 34; disdain & # 34; or "despise" the authority of the capitulants. The council thus sought to reinforce its authority over the viceregal bureaucracy.
On January 1, 1809, Moreno wrote the justification for the rejection of the Cabildo de Buenos Aires to the appointment as royal ensign of the young Bernardino Rivadavia. This event started the Álzaga Revolt, in which Mayor Martín de Álzaga tried to replace Viceroy Santiago de Liniers with a government junta, in which Moreno would have been secretary. They were defeated by the energetic reaction of Colonel Cornelio Saavedra, in command of the Patricios Regiment. Moreno was Álzaga's defense attorney in the trial that followed him, labeled the trial for independence.
When the new viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, arrived in Buenos Aires, those arrested for said uprising were released by virtue of a favorable report written by Moreno and the trustee Julián de Leyva. Moreno was promoted to rapporteur of the Royal Court of Buenos Aires.
The Representation of the Landowners
In July 1809, Cisneros arrived at the port of Montevideo to take care of the viceroyalty in replacement of Liniers. He did it practically escorted by English ships loaded with merchandise that were heading to the Río de la Plata because the Rio de Janeiro market was saturated. They came under an article attached to the Apodaca-Canning Treaty, Peace, Friendship and Alliance between Spain and England, signed in London on January 14, 1809. This addenda established that until a Trade Agreement " with care and reflection ", the parties could be granted mutually facilities to trade through " provisional and temporal regulations ".
Already in mid -1809, Liniers had thought to authorize trade with the English and Portuguese. This motivated Manuel Belgrano to the annual Memory of the Consulate treated precisely on free trade. It was read on June 16 and subsequently sent to the viceroy. According to Kossak, Belgrano's new position in relation to free trade " led to an unfair forgetfulness " Its previous position that was to encourage activities with added value. In the case of the capes in a natural state, one of the main export products implied the installation of tanners that additionally avoid the losses that originated the moths.
The assumption of Cisneros cleared the fears of monopoly supporters hit by the political events of January 1, 1809. One of them, Jaime Alsina and Verjés, the former attorney of Buenos Aires trade, commented that " if [cisneros] had taken 15 or 30 days, many would be seen today without head and looted their houses, or I will say that they would have run blood streams through these streets ".
On August 16, 1809, two English merchants, John Dillon and John Thwaites, asked Cisneros permission to download their merchandise in the port of Buenos Aires. In any case, despite the annex of the Apodaca-Canning Treaty, Cisneros acted very prudence and consulted first with all institutions in a topic that affected strong interests between the different groups of local merchants and producers.
These conflicts, which had long data at the Consulate of Buenos Aires, were a reflection of what also happened in Europe, Spain and Cádiz in relation to free trade with the English. The consultation that Cisneros made to the Consulate motivated that at the September 4 meeting the memory that Belgrano had written three months earlier. The hard core of the merchants linked to the monopoly of Cádiz could not prevent the consulate approve the application of the viceroy, so that the representations of an institution are not always equivalent to what the majority or all of its associates want.
In a last attempt, those who opposed trade with the English designated Miguel Fernández de Agüero, to review the file and thus present his representation of the Royal Consulate University of Chargers to Indies of Cádiz to the viceroy cisneros. The main arguments of Fernández de Agüero against trade with the English were:
- The total ruin that would result in the trade of Cadiz and the Spanish merchant fleet;
- That in a few years the commercial links with the Spanish peninsula would disappear and that the same would happen with the political ties;
- In crisis, any local production that would have to compete with English products, for example, Tucuyo or cotton fabric. This would accentuate the misery of the interior and hatred against Buenos Aires.
Fernández de Agüero proposed that in order to overcome the economic crisis of the public treasury, the main reason that promoted the opening of trade with the English, taxes should be increased to the circulation of products and tax the owners of fields and merchants of fruits from the country.
Although these proposals were hardly going to prevent the approval of the provisional trade with the English, the landowners appointed Dr. Moreno as their attorney to refute Fernández Agüero's position.
Moreno carried out the Representation of the Landowners of the Río de la Plata campaigns before the viceroy. Limited by this directive, he defended the right of those he represented to sell, especially leather, at higher prices, driven by greater English demand, and indirectly obtain greater benefits from the fall in domestic prices of imported English products.
Moreno's economic arguments on free trade largely coincided with those put forward by Belgrano in his Memoria since both were based on the same physiocracy theorists: Adam Smith, François Quesnay, Nicholas de Condorcet and Gaetano Filangieri. These authors were known in Buenos Aires through the Spanish economists themselves who criticized the current economic and financial system and cited the trade of Cádiz with the American colonies as an example. Belgrano had also published in 1796 a translation from French of the Principles of Political-Economic Science which he dedicated to Viceroy Melo of Portugal. Already in the debate on foreign trade held at the Consulate in 1797, one of its members, Francisco Antonio de Escalada, cited Adam Smith in favor of his position & # 34; whose compendium by the famous Condorcet we have translated & # 3. 4;.
On November 6, 1809, at the third consultative meeting attended by the viceroy, members of the Royal Court, the Cabildo, the Consulate, the Royal Treasury, the head of the Patricios regiment, business representatives, and Juan José Castelli and Miguel de Azcuénaga on behalf of the landowners, the provisional trade with the English was approved. However, Cisneros established some limitations:
- He fixed higher tariffs on English goods.
- He determined that in the return the ships should contain 2/3 of the country's fruits (cueros, sebos, etc.) and the remainder of metal.
- To avoid the possibility of smuggling, the ships would have a short time to download, load and leave the port. In fact, of the 17 ships waiting for approval to download, only half had requested authorization to do so.
- Foreign merchandise should be recorded on behalf of local merchants, which involved their participation in the operation.
English merchants protested saying that the requirement that the return is equivalent to 2/3 of the downloaded merchandise would imply bringing 11 ballast ships for each ship with merchandise due to ratio 12 to 1 of the value per ton of the merchandise English on the ton value of the country's fruits. Some of these measures were quickly eliminated after May 25, 1810. On June 5, the limitation in the amoned metallic or numerary was replaced by the payment of a 7.5% tariff on its value.
The May Revolution
During the events prior to the May Revolution, Moreno remained away from the most active politically active groups: he participated in the open council of May 22, 1810, but retired shortly after casting his vote.
In the following days, very little participated in the meetings of the revolutionaries - although he did participate in a key meeting at the house of Nicolás Rodríguez Peña, from which he retired with Feliciano Chiclana and Matías Irigoyen - nor of the demonstrations of May 25. He neither he took part, at least publicly, of the formation of the list of what would be the First Board.
The revolutionary nucleus flatly rejected that the Viceroy Cisneros participated in a national government. After the list of members of the new Board was acclaimed by all, a document called the " representation ", in which the council to comply with the popular will was urged. On the night of May 24, a group of patriots had gone out to tour the narrow streets of the colonial Buenos Aires to get the most possible amount of neighbors to stamp in the document that was presented in the Cabildo the next day. Finally, in the face of the pressure of the revolutionary nucleus and the people, Cisneros resigned. The Cabildo had no choice but to accept the list of the new Governing Board. That May 25, 1810, Moreno already knew that the new Government will be subject not only to external pressures but also to found internal bids.
"Therefore, it is necessary to embark on a new way in which, far from finding a path, it will be necessary to practice it among the obstacles that despotism, venality and concerns have piled up after centuries before the progress of the happiness of this continent. After the new authority has escaped the attacks to which it will be exposed by only the quality of being new, it will have to suffer those of the passions, interests and inconstantial of the same ones that now foster the reform. A righteous man at the head of the government will perhaps be the victim of ignorance and emulation."Mariano Moreno, quoted by his brother Manuel Moreno in (Moreno, 1812, p. 213-214)
THE FIRST BOARD
The First Governing Board emerged on May 25, 1810 was formed by three supporters of Martín de Álzaga: Domingo Matheu, Juan Larrea and Secretary Mariano Moreno; Three members of the Manuel Belgrano group: this same, Juan José Castelli and Secretary Juan José Paso; and three moderate: President Cornelio Saavedra, Miguel de Azcuénaga and Manuel Alberti.
Moreno was the author of the proclamation of May 28, whereby the First Board announced its installation to the peoples of the interior and the governments of the world, and summoned the representatives of the other cities to join the same.
In just seven months, his name was linked to a long list of revolutionary accomplishments: he established a census office and planned the formation of a national public library; He reopened the ports of Maldonado (Uruguay), Ensenada and Carmen de Patagones; Through several decrees, trade and mining farms released from the old restrictions. He tried to regulate the exercise of the Board of Trustees on the Church, established military ordinances for officers and cadets, created new volunteer companies and organized the Municipal Police.
founded and directed the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres , the official newspaper, from which he disseminated his ideas. Almost every week he published long and detailed government notes, which gather filled hundreds of pages. He published a decree of freedom of the press according to which anything that did not offend public morality could be published by the press, nor attacked the revolution or the government.
The economic policy of the Board was librecamista for three reasons: a certain commercial opening was urgently needed, the opening would bring an increase in public income - since customs was the main source with which it was counted - and it was also needed Some ally against Spain, and the most powerful was England. However, in a gazette note, he wrote:
"The foreigner does not come to our country to work in our good, but to draw as many advantages as possible. Let's get it in good time, learn the improvements of your civilization, accept the works of your industry, and let's give it the fruits that nature gives us to full hands. But let us look at their counsels with the greatest reservation, and do not incur the error of those innocent peoples, who were left to wrap themselves in chains in the midst of the embellishment that the chiches and beads had produced them..."[chuckles]required]
Reactions against realistic movements
In order to subtract influences and power to the old regime, the First Board ordered the exile of both Virrey Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, as well as all members of the Royal Audience of Buenos Aires. Some time later, he appointed a new audience, composed of Creoles loyal to the revolution.
When knowing the counterrevolution of Córdoba, directed by Governor Juan Gutiérrez de la Concha and former Virrey Santiago de Liniers, the First Board organized an army under the command of the head of the Arribeños Regiment, Francisco Ortiz de Ocampo. This was taking the order to shoot the counterrevolutionary leaders at the time of being captured, a decision that had been taken by the First Board in full, except for Manuel Alberti, who excused himself by his ecclesiastical character.
Ocampo defeated the rebel forces and, at the request of the inhabitants of Córdoba, sent them prisoners to Buenos Aires instead of executing them. The Board was alarmed, since it was feared that if Liniers arrived in Buenos Aires he could be released due to his popularity, and took arms again against him. Moreno's response was to send Castelli, Nicolás Rodríguez Peña and Domingo French to intercept the transfer of prisoners and shoot them at the spot. Moreno ordered Castelli the following:
"You go and I hope you do not incur the same weakness as our general; if the determination taken is not yet fulfilled, the Larrea vowel will go to whom I think will not be missing resolution, and finally I will go myself if necessary (...)".[chuckles]required]
The prisoners were shot, with the exception of Bishop Rodrigo de Orellana, out of respect for his religious investiture.
His management helped the auxiliary army, under the command of Ocampo and Castelli, to become the Northern Army, with which the first auxiliary expedition to Alto Peru was launched. And Belgrano's expedition to Paraguay was also sent; Both failed some time later, and the War of Argentine Independence lasted for fifteen years.
OPERATION PLAN
The so -called operations plan , whose authorship was mistakenly attributed to Moreno, is an extensive document that was found by Eduardo Madero in the Archive of the Indies, between the years 1886 and 1887. It consists of a Exordio and nine articles, and contains instructions for foreign and interior policy, military measures, economic and methods to achieve tactical and strategic objectives. It has an appendix, which contains five minutes in which the previous steps taken by the Board of Buenos Aires for the elaboration of the Plan , a few months after its constitution.
In 1896, Norberto Piñero published in Buenos Aires the full version that, for its total novelty, produced a great impact on intellectual fields. Conflicts were immediately emerged between those who considered it true, awarding its authorship to Moreno, and those who considered it false and contrary to the ideology of the May and Moreno Revolution.
The debate continued until the beginning of the century XXI </s against. Slowly the debate languished. In the end it ended up accepting that in general, except some interpolations, the document was true and that Moreno was its author. In 1952, historian Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú categorically said:
The historicity and authenticity of the Moreno Plan cannot and should not be denied" in (Guiñazú, 1952, p. 186)
However, a new contribution arose in 2015: Diego Bauso, following subtle traces and wide search in the files, demonstrated in his book a bicentennial plagiarism , which much of the Plan contained long paragraphs and literally copied words of a French historical novel published in the period 1800-1801: The Cemetery of the Magdalena of J. B. P. Regnault-Warin.
This finding was as remarkable and surprising as the one that had produced the publication of the Plan in 1896. The simple comparison of both texts makes it difficult to argue that the author was Moreno. Nor can they be based on that document:
- the attribution to Moreno of a certain model of political order with their respective methods to achieve it;
- the proof of the Robesperian "jacobinism" of Moreno, whether to exalt him or denigrate him, nor to support "as some of them have intended to this day, a revolutionary mystique";
- the possibility that the Board first, and Moreno's supporters later, would guide their political action in a programmatic manner based on a previously designed plan.
Moreno y Saavedra
Cornelio Saavedra and Mariano Moreno are pointed out by historians as the main exponents of the internal currents of the First Board, differentiated in the way they interpreted the events of the May Revolution and how to direct the national government.
The classical vision assumes that Moreno aspired to generate deep changes in society, while Saavedra sought only the arrival of the Creoles to power but maintaining the continuity of the social system of the exvirreinato. There are other visions of the conflict, which suppose from a personal matter or dispute of authorities between the two leaders, to the relatively extensive version that Saavedra would have embodied the initiation of federal and Moreno positions the unitary.
In October 1810, a regulation was issued by which a body of career officers and a military academy was created and a new regiment of militias was created, the so -called Union or “De la Estrella” regiment, entrusted to The Morenistas Domingo French and Antonio Luis Beruti. All this weakened military bosses addicted to Saavedra.
The night of December 5, 1810, a banquet was held in celebration for the victory in the battle of Suipacha. It is said that he was right to pass Moreno through the barracks door and tried to enter it, which was prevented by the sentry, which did not recognize it. That same night, the Atanasio Duarte officer, in a drunk state, offered Saavedra a sugar crown and gave him by calling him " the first king and emperor of America, Don Cornelio Saavedra &# 34;.
The next day, when he met these events, Moreno proposed the " Decree of Honors ", which was suppressed by the ceremonial reserved for the president of the Board and the privileges inherited from the position of the viceroy. Duarte was banished outside the city, an act justified by Moreno stating that:
"An inhabitant of Buenos Aires neither drunk nor asleep must have expressions against the freedom of his country."
The same decree also intended to limit the author's authority in matters that until then had been of his exclusive incumbency, since he ordered that any decree emanating from the Board had to bring the signing of at least four of its members " with that of the respective Secretary ", which assigned to the Moreno himself the ability to veto in any issue of government or of a military nature that would pass through his secretariat. If it is true, as some historians intend, that Moreno intended to force a Conflict with Saavedra, he avoided it, signing without any observation the decree.
At the end of the year, the deputies of the peoples of the Interior arrived in the capital, convened by the circular of May 27. But there was a conflict between the possible interpretations of that circular, and there was no agreement on which body they should be incorporated: the thesis defended by Moreno was that they should meet in Congress. The deputies, occurred by the Cordoba Gregorio Funes, Dean of the Cathedral of Córdoba, observed that that would have been the right thing at first; But that, at that height of the events, a purely Buenos Aires Board ruled especially. Moreno replied that such a large collegiate executive would be inoperative.
Saavedra joined the deputies of the interior to stop Moreno's influence: on December 18 he ordered to submit the incorporation or not of the deputies to the Board, in a meeting in which they were present. He achieved a favorable vote, which led to the formation of the Big Board. Moreno, defeated by the vote of the majority, presented his resignation, which was rejected by the Board. So he requested and obtained a mission before the Courts of Brazil and Great Britain, to manage support for independence.
Diplomatic mission and death at high seasOfficially, Moreno marched in a mission entrusted by the Board Grande, but in practice it was an exile of Buenos Aires, where his enemies had supported Saavedra and where he had lost much of his influence.
The Board also ordered him to appear before the Portuguese Court in Rio de Janeiro, but Moreno chose to dispense with this part of the mission and traveled directly in the direction of England.
Moreno died on the high seas in the early hours of March 4, 1811, aboard the English frigate Fame , on the trip as a diplomat towards Great Britain. His body was wrapped in an English flag and thrown into the sea (latitude 27 ° 27 's), a few kilometers from the coast of Brazil and 120 km south of the fortress São José da Ponta Grossa, of the island of Santa Catarina, After rifle savings.
According to the testimony of his brother Manuel Moreno and Tomás Guido, his secretaries and companions on that trip, he died due to a convulsion produced by an overdose of a medication administered by the captain of the Walter Bathurs ship: when they arrived at the cabin of Moreno, the captain said that he had supplied four grams of a usual use vomitive at that time, prepared with antimony and potassa tartare, 40 times that dose known as mortal.
according to Manuel Moreno later:
...If Moreno had known that he was given such a quantity of that substance, he would certainly not have taken it because in the sight of the havoc that caused him and revealed the fact, he himself came to say that his constitution would not admit but a quarter of gram and therefore report himself dead. There was still doubt as to whether the amount of that drug or other corrosive substance was greater than that administered to it, there were no circumstances allowed for the autopsy. This was followed by a terrible convulsion, which barely gave him time to say goodbye to his homeland, family and friends.
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Both witnesses later conjectured that it was poisoned by the captain of the ship, and that the order would have been taught by Saavedra. But the historiographic sources do not confirm the fact, and there is not even a defined mobile: for Saavedra, his opponent had already been defeated, and he had no history of killing his enemies. On the other hand, Moreno's republican vision favored the economic interests of Great Britain in the Río de la Plata, so in that sense the implication of the English in their death is not logical. However, on February 9, 1811 (Only 15 days after the departure of the former Secretary of the Board of May), the Buenos Aires government of Saavedra and Funes had signed a contract with David Curtis Deforest, awarding a mission identical to that of Moreno for the equipment of the National Army. In this he explained that to execute the agreement and certify the payments, Moreno was required, despite article 11 of this document, it was clarified with an nothing frequent forecast in our rulers “that if Mr. Dr. Mariano Moreno had passed away, or by an unforeseen accident, Mr. Aniceto Padilla must not be understood in England in England in the same terms that Dr. Moreno would have done ”.
HISTORICAL VALUATION
For more than a century, some historians -such as Enrique Ruíz Guiñazú- attributed the authorship of the controversial Plan of Operations to him, despite suspicions of its true origin. Finally, it was verified that Moreno was not its author and that the document, in its most relevant parts, was a copy of a French novel published at the beginning of the century XIX.
Since the late XIX century, classical historians elevated and extolled the figure of Moreno. They were also liberals and almost all of them legal, and they saw in him a revolutionary, patriotic and liberal lawyer. They came to affirm that he was the “soul of the Revolution” and accused Saavedra of being a counterrevolutionary for opposing him.
An example of this tendency was the work La Revolución de Mayo y Mariano Moreno by Ricardo Levene. Biographers described him as a serene statesman, a noble economist, a resolute democrat and a great leader. For these historians, Moreno could have been an Anglophile, and "La Representación de los Hacendados", the government platform of the May Revolution.
For Scalabrini Ortiz:
"With Moreno's fall, a historic route closes... The Nation must be entirely constituted in the conception of Moreno... The path of prospects that opened Moreno's clairvoyance was definitely concluded... He foretold a greatness and a way of achieving it by precavating the craftsman of England. The other route is incarnated in Rivadavia".
Subsequently, some authors unloaded many accusations against him. The most extreme position is led by the conservative Hugo Wast, pseudonym of Gustavo Martínez Zuviría, who in his book Year X considers him an extremist, violent, anticlerical, demagogue Jacobin, in contrast to Saavedra:
In the Board, Moreno represented the liberal demagogue against the Catholic and democratic tradition that Saavedra embodied. That is why modern demagogues, masons, anti-Catholics in any party in which they milite (socialists, communists, etc.) discover in Moreno their first ancestor in Argentine history. (Martínez Zuviría, 1970)
[citation needed] His position has not had a large following.
For his part, Federico Ibarguren disqualified the radical criteria used in the Operations Plan, seeing in it similarities with Marxism:
"50 years later, nothing less than Karl Marx will also simultaneously write this key thinking of current communism".
Moreno's opposition to the incorporation of the deputies from the interior is seen by some historians as one of the first steps in the conflict between Buenos Aires and the rest of the provinces, which would dominate Argentine politics for the following decades; Consequently, he is classified as a precursor of the Unitary Party, while others find in his phrases or actions a greater coherence with the Federal Party. However, the historians Norberto Piñero and Paul Groussac agree in considering this debate an extrapolation of future contexts to a time in which they did not yet take place. Piñeiro considers it an error to classify Moreno as unitary or federal, affirming that he prioritized the organization of the State over the secondary aspect of centralism or federalism; while Groussac similarly points out that Moreno devoted all his energies to the immediate problem of achieving independence, without giving too much consideration to possible long-term scenarios.
Physical appearance
There is some controversy among historians regarding Moreno's physical aspect.
It is believed that the Peruvian silversmith Juan de Dios Rivera painted a painting of Moreno in 1808 or 1809, in life of it.
In 1910, on the occasion of the centenary of the May Revolution, historian Adolfo Carranza asked Chilean Pedro Subercaseaux Errázuriz to carry out various allegorical paintings of said event. Carranza belonged to the current of historians who professed a great admiration for the secretary of the First Board, which he described as follows:
"It was the soul of the government of the May Revolution, its nerve, the statesman of the distinguished group who handled the ship repented against absolutism and doubt, eager to reach the goal of its longings and its destiny. Moreno was the compass and he who roasted the rudder also, as he was the strongest and most capable of those who were going to direct it."
Consequently, he requested a painting in which Moreno's appearance was coherent with the image that was transmitted of him.
Later interpretations of Moreno, such as Antonio Estrada's, took the canonical image made by Subercaseaux and not Rivera's.
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