Miguel de San Roman
Miguel de San Román y Meza (Puno, May 17, 1802-Chorrillos, April 3, 1863), was a Peruvian military and politician, who was Constitutional President of the Republic of Peru from October 24, 1862 to April 3, 1863, dying in the exercise of his high office as a result of illness.
Study at the College of Sciences and Arts of Puno. At a very young age he enlisted in the independence forces of Peru. He collaborated under the orders of the liberators José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar. He participated in the battles of Junín and Ayacucho (1824). He then acted in the civil conflicts of the first decades of the Peruvian Republic and in the wars against Gran Colombia (1828-1829) and Bolivia (1835-1836 and 1840-1841). He became notable as an organizer of troops and for the speed of his marches. He supported General Agustín Gamarra until his defeat at the Battle of Ingavi, where he had a poor performance, which contributed in part to the Bolivian victory (1841). He joined the constitutional revolution of 1843-1844, against the Directorate of Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco and fought in the battle of Carmen Alto. He was conferred the rank of Grand Marshal. Under the first constitutional government of Ramón Castilla he held the position of president of the Council of State (1845-1849). He ran for the presidency of the Republic in 1851, without success. In 1854 he collaborated in the insurrection against the government of José Rufino Echenique; After the battle of La Palma and the fall of said regime, he was appointed Minister of War and Navy of the provisional government of Ramón Castilla. Elected deputy for Puno before the National Convention, he presided over its sessions between 1855 and 1856. When Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco's revolution broke out in Arequipa, he was sent to defeat it. He triumphed in the battle of Yumina in 1857 and participated in the capture of Arequipa in 1858. He was later President of the Council of Ministers, from July to October 1858. During the second constitutional government of Ramón Castilla he was military chief of the southern departments. In 1862 he was elected Constitutional President of the Republic for the period 1862-1866, but he died after five months in government, victim of illness. During his brief tenure, he adopted the Golden Sun as currency and introduced the decimal system of weights and measures.
Biography
Military and political career
He was the son of Spanish army colonel Miguel Pascual San Román De las Cuentas and María Meza. On his paternal line he was a descendant of the viceregal aristocracy (his ancestors Juan Pérez de las Cuentas y Valverde, and Bernarda Niño de Guzmán y Valverde, were first cousins and direct nephews of Fray Vicente de Valverde and relatives of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro).[citation required]
His father, won over to the independence cause, took part in the uprising led by Mateo Pumacahua and the Angulo Brothers in 1814; the then adolescent Miguel accompanied him until the battle of Umachiri, which was fought on March 11, 1815 and which resulted in the defeat of the patriots. Miguel Pascual had to hide in Puno, but was captured and later shot by order of Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela. It is said that young Miguel was forced to witness the execution of his father.
Overcoming such a painful experience, San Román went to Cuzco where he completed his studies and later enlisted in the Royal Army of Peru. He was sent to the south coast to fight the expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Miller, an occasion that he took advantage of to desert and join the patriot ranks, being recognized as a second lieutenant. He was in the combat of Mirave, carried out on May 22, 1821 near Tacna; then in the occupation of Lima in the month of July; and in the first site of Callao. He was incorporated into the Peruvian Legion and was present at the patriot disaster of La Macacona, which occurred on April 22, 1822, near Ica. Already with the rank of lieutenant, he attended the Second Intermediate Campaign under the command of General Agustín Gamarra, but said expedition failed. San Román was then counted among those patriots who had to make the painful retreat from Oruro to Ilo, where he embarked along with the rest of the expedition. He then disembarked in Huanchaco, on the north coast, and joined the army of the liberator Simón Bolívar, participating in the liberation campaign of 1824 that culminated in the battles of Junín and Ayacucho. Consummated independence, he was promoted to sergeant major, and intervened in the repression against the Iquichanos of Huanta, who persisted in remaining faithful to the Spanish crown.
He went to Arequipa in 1827, being transferred to another battalion. He participated in the Peruvian invasion of Bolivia in 1828 and went to war against Gran Colombia, being taken prisoner after the battle of Portete de Tarqui, in 1829. When peace was restored, he was released, obtaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. He supported General Gamarra's coup against President José de La Mar, whom he took prisoner in Piura, sending him into exile to Costa Rica.He was elected deputy for the province of Huancané in 1829 and for the province of Puno in 1831
He remained in Piura for some time, until he marched with his battalion through the mountains to Puno, when fears were made of a possible warlike incursion by Bolivia in 1831. He was then promoted to colonel and at the head of the Pichincha battalion, he went on to garrison the department of Puno, whose prefecture it assumed. When the pronouncement of General Pedro Pablo Bermúdez against President Luis José de Orbegoso occurred, he joined the rebellion and marched on Arequipa, occupying it after the battles of Miraflores and Cangallo (April 2 and 5, 1834), after which went to Moquegua. But when the legal order was restored after the embrace of Maquinhuayo on April 24, 1834, he emigrated to Bolivia. He returned to Peru the following year and joined Gamarra in the fight against the Bolivian invaders, led by President Andrés de Santa Cruz in order to establish the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. San Román was surprised during a reconnaissance, being captured and sent prisoner to Bolivia, from where he returned at the end of 1838, when an allied Peruvian-Chilean army was already fighting against the confederates. He hid in Puno to avoid being captured, and after the battle of Yungay (where Santa Cruz was definitively defeated) he placed himself under the command of Gamarra (January 1839).
San Román took over again as prefect and commanding general of Puno, being promoted to Brigadier General. He remained loyal to Gamarra's second constitutional government. Under the command of General Ramón Castilla, he participated in the campaign against the regenerationist revolution started in Arequipa by Colonel Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco. He participated in the combats of Cachamarca and Cuevillas (March 25 and 30, 1841), and pursued Vivanco, who managed to cross the border with Bolivia.
He returned to Lima and accompanied President Gamarra in the campaign against Bolivia. Sent in advance, he achieved a victory over the Bolivians in the battle of Mecapaca, on October 21, 1841, which earned him his promotion to Division General. He then participated in the battle of Ingavi, fought on November 18 of the same year. Once the action began, he received the order to place the cavalry in order to protect the line of withdrawal, but he misinterpreted it and withdrew with the cavalry, which had a demoralizing effect on the Peruvian infantry, which was further aggravated by the death of President Gamarra on the battlefield. To make matters worse, in his retreat to Peru, he destroyed the bridge over the Desaguadero, when the Peruvian infantry was still on Bolivian soil. But he immediately gathered the dispersed and went to Cuzco, where he reorganized the army and faced the Bolivian invasion.
Having made peace with Bolivia in June 1842, he led his troops in a memorable march through the mountains, from Lampa to Lima, during the anarchy that began after the death of Gamarra. In Concepción he recognized the authority of General Juan Crisóstomo Torrico, and both went to meet Generals Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente and Juan Francisco de Vidal, who had made a pronouncement in Cuzco. But defeated in the battle of Agua Santa, on October 17, 1842, he went once more to Bolivia.
He reappeared in Puno, when the constitutional revolution against the directoral government of Vivanco had already begun, and he was admitted as a member of the Provisional Government Junta constituted in the south by the revolutionaries. As general in chief of the revolutionary army, he collaborated in the triumph obtained in the battle of Carmen Alto, on July 22, 1844. He was then elevated to the high rank of Grand Marshal.
He was Minister of War in the provisional government of Vice President Manuel Menéndez and in 1845 he was elected senator for Puno. During the first government of Castilla he was a member of the Council of State, whose presidency he held between 1845 and 1846. Again he served as Minister of War, from March to August 1848. Accused of conspiracy, he was arrested and exiled to Chile, but soon returned thanks to an amnesty given in August 1849. He ran for President of the Republic in 1851, although he only obtained the 6.3% of the total vote; in these elections General José Rufino Echenique won.
Elected deputy for the province of Lampa[citation required], he made a stubborn opposition to the government of Echenique, for which he was forced out of law and exiled to Chile. He returned in 1854 to join the liberal revolution that General Castilla had started in Arequipa, with whom he reconciled.He demonstrated once again his ability to organize forces and move them through rugged Andean landscapes. From Tacna he went to Moquegua and from there to Puno. He then he advanced to Cuzco. Finally united with the bulk of the revolutionary army, he participated in the battle of La Palma, fought on the outskirts of Lima, on January 5, 1855, an encounter that meant the final defeat of Echenique.
After the provisional government of Castile was installed, San Román was Minister of War and Navy. Elected deputy for Puno to the National Convention of 1855 (Constituent Congress), he presided over its sessions between 1855 and 1856. He marched to Arequipa with the mission to put down the conservative revolution started there by General Vivanco, against the Liberal Constitution of 1856. It was the beginning of the bloody Civil War of 1856-1858. Appointed general in chief of the army of operations, he triumphed in the battle of Yumina, on June 29, 1857, and attended the siege and capture of Arequipa, on March 7, 1858.
On May 13, 1858, he was appointed Minister of War and President of the Council of Ministers; but because he was outside Lima, he did not assume his functions until the month of July. And in this capacity, he temporarily exercised the Executive Power, from July 28 to October 24, 1858, due to the absence of President Castilla, until he assumed his second constitutional government. He acted as military chief of the southern departments, while President Castilla personally directed the campaign in Ecuador.In 1860 he was elected deputy for the province of Chucuito, a position that he would also occupy until his death.
The Elections of 1862
At the end of the second government of Castilla in 1862, a bitter electoral struggle was glimpsed between three candidates: the marshal Miguel San Román, the general Juan Antonio Pezet and the doctor Juan Manuel del Mar; the first had official government support. But the fight disappeared when Pezet joined his forces with those of San Román, becoming his first vice-presidential candidate, and when Del Mar became seriously ill. The Liberals also supported San Román.
After the elections, San Román was elected; for first vice-president, general Pezet, and for second vice-president, general Pedro Diez Canseco. Congress proclaimed them on August 29, 1862.
Constitutional President of the Republic
President San Román began his duties on October 24, 1862, for a four-year term, according to the 1860 Constitution, but he would only govern for a few months. His ministerial cabinet was made up of the following personalities: José Gregorio Paz Soldán (Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Foreign Relations); Antonio Arenas (Government); Melchor Vidaurre (Justice); General Isidro Frisancho (War) and Colonel José Santos Castañeda (Finance).
San Román continued the policy of his predecessor. He stood out for his wisdom and sanity as a ruler. One of his first actions was to allow the return of the political exiles. That was how liberals like José Gálvez Egúsquiza and even old leaders like José Rufino Echenique and Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco returned to Peru. In the elections to renew the Municipality of Lima, the struggle between echeniquistas and vivanquistas arose again; The first triumphed and Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente became mayor.
Works
Among the important measures that were taken in this short term, are the following:
- A loan was made with the foreigner in order to alleviate the critical economic situation resulting from the decline in the sale of guano in Europe.
- By law of February 14, 1863, the bimetalist system was established in the economic process of change, adopting as monetary units the Silver Sun and the Golden Sun, in relation to 1 to 20, the old weight being set at 80 cents.
- The foundation of some commercial banks began.
- The metric decimal system of weights and measurements was adopted for the whole country.
- The execution of public works initiated during the Castilla government was maintained.
- A new law was given on the Council of Ministers.
- He issued a decree prohibiting the sale of the property of the Church, which until then was made in small amounts.
Illness and death
At the beginning of 1863, President San Román fell ill, then moving to his residence located in the Chorrillos spa, where he continued working with his ministers. On March 30, his condition worsened. Doctors diagnosed him with liver and kidney disease. Castilla went to visit him and advised him to make his will. On his deathbed, San Román saw Castilla, Vivanco, and Echenique together, bitter rivals in recent Peruvian political life. He died in the arms of Castilla, at eleven o'clock in the morning of April 3, 1863 (Good Friday), being honored with solemn funerals held in the capital, where José Gregorio Paz Soldán and José Antonio Barrenechea gave speeches. Regarding this event, a brochure illustrated with photographs by Eugenio Courret was published, who at that time was beginning to spread this art in Lima.
As the two vice-presidents (Pezet in Europe and Diez Canseco in Arequipa) were absent, Ramón Castilla assumed power temporarily, because he was the oldest military man and because of his prestige. There was fear that the old marshal would perpetuate himself in power, but after a few days he handed over command to the second vice president, Pedro Diez Canseco. On August 3 of that year, Pezet returned to Peru and immediately took over the government.
It is said that a few years later, when Castilla was visiting Brussels and witnessed the funeral of King Leopold I of Belgium (considered the most handsome of European monarchs), he sardonically commented: «The cholo San Román, that was a corpse!"