The Importance of Classical Influences

During the Spanish-American Revolutions

By O. Carlos Stoetzer

I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The independence of Spanish America, begun in 1810, although not

with that specific goal in mind, and terminating in 1826, was the result
of certain historical circumstances. It was unintentionally prepared by
the Bourbon reforms of the eighteenth century, specially during the
reign of King Charles III (1759-1788), but its immediate cause was
the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The events which
triggered the so-called Spanish-American Revolutions were in its earlier
phase simply an echo of the uprising of the Spanish people against the
French occupation - the events of May 2, 1808, in Madrid - and the
Napoleonic usurpation - the forced abdication of the legitimate Kings of
Spain, Charles IV and Ferdinand VII, on May 5, 1808, in Bayonne. The
resistance of the Spanish nation, begun spontaneously but with growing
passion, led in the Peninsula to the Spanish War of Independence,
also called the Peninsular War (1808-1814). As in Spain itself, so in
the kingdoms and viceroyalties overseas, citizens acted in defense of
king and empire, in the name of the deposed King Ferdinand VII and
against Napoleonic ambitions. Essentially, with obvious exceptions here
and there, the Revolution that started in the years 1808-1810 was an
aristocratic affair and the controversy with Spain a typical Spanish civil
war.
The events of Bayonne led to the establishment of two governments
in the Peninsula: one, the regime of Joseph Bonaparte, supported by
the French army and a number of radical Liberals who now returned to
184 Ο. Carlos Sloetzer

Spain with the French - the Azanzas, Cabarrus, Ceballos, Mazarredos,

O'Farrils, Pinuelas and Urquijos and the other, the Junta Suprema
Central of Aranjuez, later of Seville, where it was changed into a
five-men Regency, which later fled to Cädiz, and which had been
the consequence of the multiplication of juntas all over the country.
The events of Bayonne thus led to a constitutional crisis with both
governments looking for political support in the overseas empire.
The regime of Joseph Bonaparte was nowhere recognized in Spanish
America, but a misguided Regency in the Peninsula failed to recognize
the similarity of the situations on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Spanish authorities in Cädiz engaged in a fierce resistance
to Napoleon and allied with England (1809); at the same time they
introduced political changes within the spirit of Spanish liberalism
aimed at a constitutional reorganization, including a new constitutional
relationship with Overseas Spain, the highlight of which was the
Spanish Constitution of 1812, the common work of peninsulares and
criollos. But the Spanish authorities of Cadiz continued to cling to
Bourbon centralism denying Spanish America the same rights as Spain,
such as the establishment of provisional juntas. When the Spanish
Cortes of 1810 decreed the equality of rights between Spain and
Spanish America it meant a total break with the traditional concept
which had linked the Indies with its four viceroyalties to the Crown of
Castile and Leon. The proprietary character of the Indies with its social
compact between the king and the early settlers of the sixteenth century
had been forgotten, and the metaphysical link of the viceroyalties to
the crown had now been replaced with a rational construction. The
latter, together with the captivity of the legitimate king, meant that
a further step in the direction of Spanish-American emancipation had
unintentionally been taken.
In its revolt against Joseph Bonaparte Spain had implicite invoked
the traditional medieval pactum translationis - in the case of the
king's death, abdication, or deposition, without a legitimate successor,
sovereignty reverted back to the political community, the people,
whence it had come (Luis de Molina's De iustitia, Francisco Suarez'
Defensio fidei). The Spanish Americans invoked the same theory
explicite. Spanish America had never considered itself a colony, thus,
when Spain set up juntas, and finally a Regency, Spanish America felt
it had exactly the same right in the face of the Napoleonic menace.
The Peninsular authorities replied that in the absence of the legitimate
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 185

king Spanish America should simply follow the Metropolis until the
return of Ferdinand VII. Spanish America, however, argued that Spain
while having the perfect right to defend itself and set up a government,
no longer could legally exercise any authority over the Indies. This
dispute between Spain and Spanish America was clearly recognized by
the agent of the United States, Henry M. Brackenridge, who was sent
to South America in the years 1817 and 1818 to report on political
conditions in that part of the world, and there is no clearer testimony
than his report:
"The Spanish Americans, as the descendants of the first conquerors and settlers,
ground their political rights on the provisions of the code of the Indies. They contend
that their constitution is of a higher nature than that of Spain; inasmuch as it rests
upon e x p r e s s c o m p a c t , between the monarch and their ancestors. They say, it
was expressly stipulated, that all conquests, and discoveries, were to be made at the
expense of the king. In consideration of which the first conquerors and settlers, were
to be t h e l o r d s o f t h e s o i l ; they were to possess its government, immediately
under the king, as their feudal head; while the Aborigines were given to them as
vassals, on condition of instructing them in the Christian religion, and in the arts
of civilization. It was in virtue of this compact, that the American junta denied the
right of bodies similarly constituted in Spain, to exercise authority over them, as this
right alone appertained to the king, in his council of the Indies. They objected, on
the same grounds, to the Spanish Cortes, which proposed to act in the name of the
captive king; and admitting that it was regularly constituted, its authority could not
lawfully extend over any other than the European part of the empire. There appears to
be nothing clearer than this reasoning. Spain had no right to assume the sovereign's
name for any other purpose, t h a n t o p r o v i d e f o r h e r o w n s a f e t y , there being
no conexion between her and the Indies, but through the sovereign; that conexion
ceased the moment the sovereign was in a situation where his acts were null, and
the royal authority for a time completely interrupted. The Peninsula, as a component
part of the empire, was entitled from necessity to establish a Cortes, for the purpose
of taking care of its own concerns; and each viceroyalty of the Indies, had an equal
right to erect its junta for the same purpose..
Spanish America thus divided into two distinct areas: one, in which
in view of powerful Spanish elements, the Peninsular authorities were
indeed recognized - the case of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Peru
proper, and the city of Montevideo; the other, where "revolutionary"
juntas were established - the case of Upper Peru (Chuquisaca and La
Paz), Caracas, Bogotä, Quito, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires.

' H.M. Brackenridge, Voyage to South America Performed by Order of the American
Government in the Years 1817 and 1818 in the frigate CONGRESS, 2 vols. (London 1820),
vol. 1, pp. 34-35.
186 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

Asuncion and Montevideo, at first loyal, later changed, even though

their respective evolution differed.
The area of New Spain and Peru had to wait until the early 1820s
for emancipation. The Spanish element in these two areas was too
powerful and the challenge to its rule too weak to force a different
political course. In the case of N e w S p a i n , independence came
in 1821 with Agustin de Iturbide as a conservative reaction to the
radical Liberal course in Spain after the revolt of Rafael del Riego.
New Spain thus became independent through the very Spanish Plan de
Iguala - independence, one sole religion, equality between Mexicans
and Spaniards — because it wished to remain Spanish in spirit and
perceived the mother country as having lost these qualities. In P e r i l ,
the religious orders, quite numerous, opened the gates of Lima to
General Jos6 de San Martin in 1821 because they considered the
revolutionaries now less dangerous than the radical Liberals at home.
Finally, M o n t e v i d e o was a special case. It had established a loyalist
junta in 1808 under Governor Francisco Xavier de Elio and remained
faithful to the Spanish Regency until it was captured, first by the
Argentines in 1814, then by the gauchos of Jos£ Gervasio Artigas in
1815, and finally by the Portuguese in 1816 and incorporated in 1817
as Provincia Cisplatina into the Portuguese Empire, and in 1822 into
the Brazilian Empire. It finally became independent in 1828 as a result
of the War between the Empire of Brazil and the United Provinces of
the River Plate through British diplomacy.
On the other hand, the "revolutionary" juntas, these provisional
governments, were set up in response to the events in the Peninsula
and through the traditional institution of the cabildo, in an identical
manner as the loyalist Junta of Montevideo. This Spanish-American
townhall took the lead in the Andean regions and the River Plate, except
Peru proper, in the years 1809-1810, and out of this early movement
developed the wars of independence, simply in view of the erroneous
perceptions of both Liberals and Absolutists in the Peninsula. Both were
philosophically rooted in the eighteenth century and thus interpreted the
events in Spanish America, not as a cry of loyalty in line with the old
medieval traditions but in accordance with the more modern spirit of
the Enlightenment and the French and North American Revolutions.
After all, it took German Romanticism to rescue the medieval Spanish
traditions which the Spaniards themselves had so thoroughly forgotten
in the eighteenth century. It was this misunderstanding which logically
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 187

led to a typical Spanish civil war, as the case of Venezuela illustrated

only too well already by 1810-1811: the junta which was set up here
on April 19, 1810, was not recognized by the Spanish authorities in the
Peninsula and the Venezuelan coast was then blockaded by the Spanish
Regency. The reaction of a proud people could only be independence
which was then proclaimed in Caracas, July 5, 1811.
When Ferdinand VII returned to his throne in 1814 he had a unique
opportunity but he missed it: he perceived the situation in Spanish
America not unlike the Liberals, and now with enough experienced
troops at his disposal, he set out to "reconquer" lost territories. Indeed,
between 1814 and 1819 all territories which the loyalists had lost
earlier were recaptured, except for the region of Argentina. However,
the reoccupation of these areas was doomed since pacification and
purification tribunals, and other repressive measures, lost arty sympathy
for the royalist cause, and when the Liberals regained power in 1820
the cup was full. Spanish America then decidedly switched to full
independence, unless already proclaimed earlier - Paraguay, 1811;
United Provinces, 1816; Chile, 1818 which was fully achieved then
through the final blows which Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin
delivered in the years 1821-1824 in New Granada, Peru and Upper
Peru.

I I . T H E INDIRECT LINK: T H E M E D I E V A L T R A D I T I O N

The classical tradition played a remarkable role in this context. In

the first place, the medieval tradition was a powerful bridge to the
classical tradition since much of this classical tradition was transmitted
i n d i r e c t l y by way of philosophy, law and institutions. S c h o l a s t i c
p h i l o s o p h y had been the dominating thought in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and continued on the same path in the eighteenth
century even if in a decaying manner. Thus, after the expulsion of the
Jesuits from the Spanish Empire in 1767 the Scholastic tradition was
maintained with Duns Scotus replacing Suärez. It meant that despite the
increasing inroads of the Enlightenment, and especially of its Iberian or
Christian variety - headed by the Benedictine monk Benito Jeronimo
Feijöo y Montenegro (1676-1764) and Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
(1744—1811) we witness at the end of the eighteenth century and
beginning of the nineteenth "the interminable intellectual 'civil wars'
188 Ο. Carlos Stoctzer

fought between the followers of St. Thomas, Suärez, Duns Scotus

and St. Augustine"; on the other, an enormous curiosity for Bacon,
Galileo, and Descartes, who were used "to demolish the irreligious
systems of Machiavel, Spinoza, Hobbes, Vanini, Voltaire, Rousseau
and Montesquieu" 2 .
It was Scholasticism which in some parts of Spanish America even
developed a certain revival that furnished powerful arguments for the
establishment of provisional juntas, whether loyalist or revolutionary.
Scholastic philosophy was a particularly strong link to the classical
tradition in view of its Aristotelian-Thomistic foundation. The political
argument for the establishment of juntas was based on the Scholastic
pactum translations with its Scholastic syllogism:
"The vassalage of the Indies was a tie which joined them, not to metropolitan Spain,
but to the legitimate King of Castile and Leon [major premiss]; therefore, when
Ferdinand VII renounced the throne, that political link was broken forever [minor
premiss]; hence, the monarchical civil servants, representatives of a non-existant
power, have no right to political authority, and the community of the people, the
customary holder of sovereignty, has to provide for the designation of its legitimate
authorities [conclusion]" 3 .
Another interesting phenomenon was the revival of the study of
S p a n i s h a n d S p a n i s h - A m e r i c a n l a w s at the end of the
eighteenth century and early nineteenth. It was this reawakened
interest in Spanish and Spanish-American legislation, encouraged by
the academies of jurisprudence which had been set up in the Peninsula,
beginning with that of Barcelona in 1778, which furnished a legal
argument for the provisional juntas of the years 1808-1810 based on
provisions of the Recopilacion de las Leyes de los Reynos de Indias
(1680) and Castilian laws, especially the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X,
the Learned (1217-1252). The latter was an improved alternative to the
Fuero real and had been drafted by the king with the aid of lawyers
who had studied in Italy and were well acquainted with Roman law
and canon law.
Finally the cabildo, the typically Spanish medieval institution
mentioned earlier, through which political liberty could express itself,
was the institution which became the executor of both the philosophical

2
Enrique Martinez Paz, Una tesis de fitosofla del siglo XVIII en la Universidad de
Cordoba (Cördoba, Arg., 1919), p. 8. «
3
Gabriel Rene-Moreno, Ultimos dias coloniales en el Alto Peru, 2 vols. (La Paz
1940), vol. 2, pp. 261-262.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 189

and the legal arguments. Intrinsically linked to the rise of towns and
cities, it was the forerunner of the modern State since it laid the
foundation of today's liberties - personal freedom, freedom of property
and of work - , and for special reasons - its link to the Spanish
Reconquista - the rise of towns and cities was a greater achievement
in the Iberian peninsula than in other parts of Europe4.
The cabildo's origin was the concilium, the concejo, and the judicial
assembly, the conventus publicus vicinorum, of the Castilian tenth
century. Until the fourteenth century the cabildo remained a powerful
institution but gradually lost its power with the rise of royal authority.
The insurrection of the Germanlas and Comunidades in 1520-1521 not
only meant the end of a glorious evolution in municipal government but
also a further penetration of the spirit of the Renaissance into Spanish
politics. By a strange historical development the cabildo recovered its
vigor in the Indies until the end of Philip II's reign. It became a true
minor of the Castilian town council of the Middle Ages and achieved
extraordinary significance during the sixteenth century, although it
declined in the seventeenth century. Despite this decline it kept a
strong foundation of municipal authority and self-government, and by
a surprising development in the second half of the eighteenth century it
began to play a powerful role at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Popular and democratic in the sixteenth century, later oligarchic, it
suddenly succeeded in regaining lost prestige. This could be seen in
Chile and New Granada, but particularly in the River Plate area. Here
the Cabildo of Buenos Aires not only deposed Viceroy Sobremonte for
incompetence but appointed Santiago Liniers as Acting Viceroy during
the English invasions of 1806/1807, thus displaying a similar role as
the medieval Cortes in Spain or as the cabildos had done in the past.
The Cabildo of Buenos Aires thus catapulted as the great defender
of municipal freedoms preparing for its paramount role in the fateful
events of the May Revolution in the River Plate.
The Napoleonic usurpation of the Spanish throne provided an ample
opportunity for the application of the Scholastic theory. As soon as
the events in Bayonne became known in Spanish-America the pactum
translationis was used for different purposes: (a) to determine the
holder of sovereignty in a territorial sense, which could be loyalist

4
Eduardo de Hinojosa y Naveros, Estudios sobre la historia del derecho espanol
(Madrid 1903), p. 5.
190 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

or revolutionary, and on three levels: the entire region, the viceregal

area, or the smallest unit, the provincialist approach; (b) to establish the
legitimate basis for the political organization of sovereignty, i, e., the
conservative or Peninsular formula on the loyalist side, and the native
or Spanish-American formula on the other; and (c)the sovereign or
delegated character of the civil authorities in Spanish America, which
could be the Royalist option, the autonomist alternative, and the solution
of the followers of independence. However, the countries followed
individual patterns: each area acted in accordance with its own historic
traditions and political circumstances.
The first question to be settled was the problem of the holder of
sovereignty in a territorial sense, and as soon as Peninsular events
forced the issue different approaches were advanced. On the Spanish or
loyalist side two main positions emerged: one followed the territorial
area of the viceregal borders and succeeded in New Spain until the
very end of the Revolution (1808-1821) but failed in the River Plate;
the other, based on the smallest administrative unit and dictated more
by regional and local conditions than by Peninsular events, triumphed
temporarily in Montevideo (1808-1814). On the Spanish-American
side, there were three approaches: the community or unity approach
based on the territorial integrity of Spanish America, which had the least
chance to be implemented; the viceregal or confederacy approach, based
on the borders of the old viceroyalties, which succeeded temporarily in
New Granada through Simon Bolivar's Greater Colombia. Finally, the
provincialist approach, based on the smallest administrative unit, which
succeeded and which led to the Balcanization of the former Spanish
Empire, the result in large measure, of historic and geographic reasons,
and for which the Spanish-American legal theory Uti Possidetis, ha
Possedeatis furnished the legal framework.
In all these cases - whether on the Spanish or Spanish-American
side, and whether on a community, viceregal or provincialist basis - , the
argument was essentially the same, the medieval pactum translations,
in the sense that the parties that invoked this reasoning always justified
their actions by claiming the right of the people to assume authority in
the absence of the legitimate king. The theory was dangerous since
it was not only invoked against the Spanish Regency but also by
provincial capitals against the old viceregal seats. The provincialist
case prevailed for the simple reason that the only link which had
provided unity for so long had been severed. Local nationalism existed
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 191

before the nineteenth century and a vigorous local nationalism was

all too often antagonistic to the viceregal capitals (Charcas, Asuncion
and Montevideo toward Buenos Aires; Santiago de Chile toward
Lima; Quito, Panama and Caracas toward Bogota; and Guatemala
toward Mixico). It was this local patriotism which was so strong
that it caused the formation of independent units quite apart from
the viceregal jurisdiction to which they once belonged. Indeed it was
so strong that the viceroys and captains general of the eighteenth
century, in contrast to their predecessors, were actually in a subtle
way symbolic personifications of the various nationalities over which
they presided than, strictly speaking, the king's representatives in the
Indies. The cabildo, and also the audiencia, provided an additional
argument. Only the king, far away and invisible, in a metaphysical
sense, provided unity; without him every region had to go its own
way, as it did beginning in 1810. Brazil was the exception in view of
the extraordinary transition from Colony through Kingdom to Empire
without an interruption of the dynastic link.

I I I . T H E C L A S S I C A L T R A D I T I O N I N ITS D I R E C T R E L A T I O N S H I P

While the medieval tradition was thus a true actor in the

revolutionary events and as such also an indirect bridge to the classical
world, the latter was also deeply involved in a direct way, even
though its importance was more in the realm of furnishing models
and examples. The classical tradition may not have provided directly
philosophies, laws and institutions for the revolutionary movement, but
it was present on every level and reference to it was made much of the
time. Thus, the classical tradition was vividly represented all during the
Spanish-American Revolutions.
The Iberian conquest and colonization of America not only meant
the incorporation of the Indies into the respective crowns of Castile
and Portugal, but the expansion of Western civilization to the New
World. It was basically the continuation, of the Reconquista of Spain
with the Indians becoming the new Moors. Besides the purely physical
domination there was a spiritual and intellectual conquest of these
regions, and it meant evangelization and the introduction of European
intellectual currents. As stated earlier, since Spain maintained a
medieval posture well into the eighteenth century, without however
192 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

neglecting the experimental sciences, Scholasticism and its seconda

scolastica, in its various forms, dominated the minds of Latin America
for over three hundred years, to such an extent that even today a true
understanding of this world cannot be obtained without taking into
account this extraordinary Scholastic impact.
In their unusual harmony, at least in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, Church and State cooperated intensively in regard to the
two basic goals of evangelization and education, and both were
totally dominated by the Church. Wherever the State advanced the
Church followed. The religious orders - Dominicans, Franciscans,
Augustinians, Mercedarians, and after 1572, the Jesuits - not
only engaged in missionary activity but were responsible for the
extraordinary high standards in education. By 1767, when the Jesuits
were exiled from the Spanish Empire, there existed some 120 Jesuit
colleges alone all over Spanish America, and by the early nineteenth
century some thirty-three universities functioned here - from the early
universities of Santo Tomas in Santo Domingo (1538), more in line with
the University of Alcalä and which later obtained the title "Athens of
the New World"5, San Pablo in Mixico-Tenochtitlan (1551) and San
Marcos in Lima (1553) to the later ones of San Bartolom^ in Merida
(1806), San Carlos in Nicaragua (1812) and San Agustin in Arequipa
(1827). Although Scholasticism was by no means the only intellectual
movement to be found in Spanish America in the colonial period, since
other currents from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment also found
their way into the Indies, the various Scholastic varieties represented
the dominant philosophy until the early nineteenth century and the
early phase of the Spanish-American Revolution. As Samuel Ramos
commented for Mexico: "Philosophy was the privilege of the clergy,
who used it in a Scholastic sense as an auxiliary of theology; it was
also the fundamental principle of law" 6 .
The entire field of education was traditional during both the colonial
period and the Wars of Independence. It was not liberal by any stretch
of the imagination; it was strictly dogmatic in the religious sphere as
well as in the social and political fields, and this was true of the primary
level as well as the secondary. Colleges and universities followed this

5
Agueda Maria Rodriguez Cruz OP., Historic! de las universidades hispanoameri-
canas. Periode hispänico, 2 vols. (Bogota 1973), vol. 1, p. 149.
6
Samuel Ramos, Historia de lafiloxoflaen Mixico (Mixico 1943), p. 31.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 193

general rule which also applied to the older as to the newer institutions
of learning, such as the recently established Collegium Carolinum in
Buenos Aires (1776/1792). To give an example of the basic curriculum
in an average college, here is the Prospecto of the four-year learning
experience at the Colegio de Santiago in Santiago de Chile which
began its operations on March 4, 1829. This late example has been
chosen purposely to show that the Revolution had changed nothing -
it rigorously maintained its traditional education as can easily be seen.

PRIMER ANO
. . . sintaxis en frases latinas sacadas de los autores c l ä s i c o s , . . .

SEGUNDO ANO
El profesor explicarä sucesivamente,
el Virus illustribus Romae\
las Selectae e profanis;
las fäbulas de Fedro;.
los trozos escogidos de Justino,
de Corneiio Nepote, y
las cartas familiares de Cicerön.

Se darä principio al estudio de la lengua griega.

TERCER ANO
Pasajes selectos de Quinto Curcio y Tito Livius;
los tratados de Amicitia y de Senectute·,
las poesias latinas... de Virgilio y de Ovidio.

Se explicaran las fibulas de Esopo.

CUARTO ANO
Salustio, Tacito, las arengas de Cicerön;
de la Eneida, odas de Horatio, diilogos de Luciano;
de la Ciropedia de Jenofonte y de la Iiiada de Homero.

* * * * * * *

CLASE DE RET0RICA
Cicerön (discursos);
Demöstenes (arengas);
Poetas latinos y trägicos griegos (pasajes);
El arte poitico de Horatio;
La Eneida de Virgilio, y la Iiiada de Homero.
194 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

C1ENCIAS
Filosofla: tres partes (metafisica, logic a, moral),
a. Metafisica: formaeiön de la inteligencia,
ontologia,
existencia de Dios,
inmortalidad del alma.
b. Lögica: Dial6ctica de Aristoteles.
c. Moral: Conciencia;
Libertad moral;
Ley natural;
Deberes para con Dios, la sociedad y consigo mismo.

ECONOMfA POLiTICA
Piatön y Aristoteles;
Serra, Avamate, Carli (tratados);
Quesnay, Montesquieu, Condillac;
Smith, Say.

DERECHO ROMANO
Historia desde Römulo;
Legislaciön romana (bajo los reyes, cönsules, emperadores);
Justiniano (Instituta).

HISTORIA
1. Historia antigua:
Egipcios, Asirios, Griegos, Romanos;
2. Historia del Bajo lmperio:
De Constantino hasta las invasiones bärbaras;
3. Historia moderna:
De Carlomagno hasta el presente.

HISTORIA NATURAL

FfSICA Y QUiMICA
Los profesores: Gay, Portes, Coupeion, Morinifere, Gillet de
Mont, Clochard y Zegers, Beauchemin, Seghers, Gellinet.

Calle de Ayacucho ο de Ahumada, 18297.

On the university level, Scholasticism - whether St. Thomas

(Dominicans), St. Augustine (Augustinians), Duns Scotus (Franciscans)
or Suärez (Jesuits) - meant essentially the Aristotelian-Thomistic
universe to which Spain clung tenaciously, and thus represented a

7
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island),
Collection of Chilean Prints (1811-1840), Box "A" (hereafter JCBL), file 11 (1829),
document 85.333.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 195

direct link to the classical tradition, further stengthened by the general

education on all levels which was firmly embedded in this tradition.
Neither the exile of the Jesuits in 1767 nor the University Reform
of 1771 changed matters. The latter reforms, modelled after those of
Salamanca, influenced most other Spanish-American universities, and
it should not be forgotten that Salamanca remained the model of all
Spanish-American universities until the end of the eighteenth century,
and that Lima in turn influenced the greater part of these universities.
In some cases Alcalä furnished the model.
Salamanca as a model meant, first of all, its curriculum of 1538,
then that of 1561 (Covarrubias) and 1594 (Züniga), and finally, the
curriculum of 1771 in the midst of the Bourbon reforms 8 . This latest
university reform under Charles III attempted to adjust the universities
to the Enlightenment and its latest scientific achievements, but did not
affect the classical tradition. It was also the one which was valid for
the universities during the Spanish-American Revolutions.
The legislation that guided both the Spanish and the Spanish-
American universities was rooted in the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X,
the Learned, of the thirteenth century, which established the obligatory
study of the seven liberal arts together with law (civil law) and Canon
law (Gratian's Decretum). The piice d'or of the Spanish-American
university was the titular chair, always held by a prominent teacher,
and all universities had the following chairs: Canon law, Roman law,
theology (St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Duns Scotus, Suärez), arts, logic,
moral philosophy and natural philosophy on the basis of the Aristotelian
texts9.
The texts which were used in accordance with the latest reform
of 1771 included in regard to Canon law the main collections of
the Corpus iuris canonici, Gratian's Decretum, the Decretalia of
Gregory IX, the Liber sextum decretalium of Boniface VIII and the
Constitutions of Clement V (Liber clementinarum), with the Paratitla
of Innocent Ciron. In Roman law, the Corpus iuris civilis - two chairs
for the Corpus, two for the Instituta, the Digesta and the Pandectae
- together with the commentaries of Vinnius, Heineccius, Cujas and
Gravina. For the chair of royal law, the nine books of the Recopilacion
de Leyes de los Reynos de Indias (edition of 1680) with the texts of

8
Rodriguez Cruz, op.cit., vol. 1, p. 4 3 .
' Ibidem, pp. 3 9 - 4 0 .
196 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

Antonio Perez, Garcia Toledano and Francisco Amaya 10 . In theology,

the following works were required: St. Thomas' Summa theologica
and Summa contra gentes with Francisco Vitoria's commentaries, and
Duns Scotus' Ordinatio with other nominalists. In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries also the works of St. Isidore of Seville, St. Anselm
and Francisco Suärez - the latter until the expulsion of the Society of
Jesus in 1767. The reform of 1771 ended the teaching of Suärez and
St. Isidore, since both were not considered appropriate reading material
in an age of Enlightened Despotism, but at the same time the reform
introduced the works of Melchor Cano".
In medecine, Avicenna's Canon, the systematization of the theories
of Hypocrates, Galenus and Aristotle, was used; also Rhazes [Abu Bekr
Mohammed ibn Zakaria] and his Liber medicinalis Almansoris, and the
texts of Vesalius and Guido de Chauliac. Arts, which later developed
into philosophy, covered the trivium (grammar and rhetoric) and the
cuadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music). The texts for
logic were Pedro Hispano, Aristotle, Domingo de Soto and Domingo
Bäfiez. The 1771 reform stated explicitly that in ethics Aristotle was
to be followed, and in natural philosophy Antoine Goudin, a French
Dominican 12 . In Latin grammar, Lorenzo della Valle's Elegantiae
linguae latinae was the main text together with a Roman historian and
a Roman poet, and they were all obligatory. The books mostly used
were Caesar's Commentaries on both the War in Gaul and the civil
war, Suetonio Tranquilo's De viris illustribus and Vitae XII Caesarum,
Valerio Maximus' Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri, and the
tragedies of Seneca, the texts of Virgil and Horace. Demosthenes and
Cicero were the obvious choices for rhetoric. Interestingly these two
classic authors were only required if a majority of students wanted it
whereas the Reform Plan of 1771 made them obligatory. In languages
besides Latin, Greek, Hebrew, even Chaldean and Arabic were part
of the studies, although the latter two in a more irregular manner.
Francisco Suärez de las Brozas and Heineccius were the texts used for
this subject matter. Finally, in mathematics, astronomy and astrology,
Tolomeus or the newer version by Regiomontanus [Hans Müller] and
Copernicus, provided the required reading 13 .
10
Ibidem, pp. 4 5 ^ 6 .
" Ibidem, pp. 47-48.
12
Ibidem, pp. 48-50.
13
Ibidem, pp. 50-52.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 197

The classical tradition is thus evident in every single subject matter

that the universities offered, and obviously furnished the basis for the
laws and statements, messages and proclamations of the leaders in the
Spanish-American Revolutions. It also provided for institutions, even if
in most cases it simply reflected old Spanish institutions with a classical
label. This classical tradition, even though, as stated earlier, it did not
furnish the basic arguments during the Revolution, nevertheless helped
in an impressive manner to bolster the various opinions expressed. It
thus demonstrated in more than one way how powerful it was and
how it had maintained its strength all through the centuries of Hispanic
government.

I V . THE RIVER PLATE REGION

1. Mariano Moreno, the intellectual leader of the Argentine May

Revolution, was the author of a famous report, the Representation
del apoderado de los labradores y hacendados de la Banda Oriental
y Occidental del Rio de la Plata (1809), written on request of Viceroy
Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, in which he made a plea for the opening
of the port of Buenos Aires. Here is an interesting part of his report
which relates directly to the classical tradition:
"Gracias a Dios que no vivimos en aquellos oscuros siglos en que, separados los
inteFeses del vasallo de los del soberano, se reputaba verdadera opulencia el acopio
de tesoros que dejaban a los pueblos en la miseria. Entonces se vio al Emperador
Yconomaco terciar la Calabria y la Sicilia para exigir el tributo Cetalesion; a Niceforo
hacer escrutinio de las haciendas de sus subditos para imponer las dos Siliquias;
a Dario exigir tributo de las aguas, y a Miguel Paflago cobrarlo hasta del aire
que respiraban sus vasallos. Si lo fueramos de Vespasiano, sufrinamos el tributo
crisalgirio; si de Domiciano, satisfarfan las mercadenas el oro lustra!; si de Alejandro
Severo, pagariamos tributo por cada cabeza de ganado mayor y menor, y si de
Augusto, verfamos cobrar derechos hasta de los soldados muertos. Vivimos por
fortuna bajo un principe benigno, nacido en tiempos ilustrados y formado por leyes
suaves que no permiten calcular el aumento de fondos publicos sino sobre el de las
fortunes y bienes de los particulares" 14 .

14
Mariano Moreno, "Representaciön de los Hacendados" (1809): Jose Luis Romero
and Luis Alberto Romero (eds.), Pensamiento politico de la emancipaciön (1790-1825),
2 vols. (Barcelona 1985), vol. 1, p. 74.
198 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

2. After Buenos Aires established its Junta Provisional Gubernativa

de la Capital del Rio de la Plata on May 25, 1810, Moreno wrote
several historic essays which were published in La Gazeta de Buenos-
Ayres. At the time when delegates from the interior arrived in Buenos
Aires - November/December, 1810 - , Moreno in his Sobre las miras
del Congreso por reunirse (1810), dealt with the difficult subject of
the future constitution of the United Provinces of the River Plate and
stated, among other things:
"... la Am6rica presenta un terreno limpio y bien preparado, donde producirä frutos
prodigiosos la sana doctrina que siembren diestramente sus legisladores; y no ofrecio
Esparta una disposiciön tan favorable mientras ausente Licurgo buscaba en las
austeras leyes de Creta, y en las sabias instituciones del Egipto los principios
de la legislacion sublime que debia formar la felicidad de su patria. Animo,
puis, respetables individuos de nueslro Congreso, dedicad vuestras meditaciones al
conocimiento de nuestras necesidades, medid por ellas la importancia de nuestras
relaciones, comparad los vicios de nuestras instituciones con la sabiduria de aquellos
reglamentos que formaron la gloria y esplendor de los antiguos pueblos de la Grecia;
que ninguna dificultad sea capaz de contener la marcha majestuosa del honroso
empefio que se os ha encomendado; recordad la maxima memorable de Focion,
que ensenaba a los atenienses pidiesen milagros a los dioses, con lo que se pondrian
en estado de obrarlo ellos mismos; animaos del mismo entusiasmo que guiaba los
pasos de Licurgo, cuando la sacerdotisa de Delfos le predijo que su republica seria
la mejor del universo; y trabajad con el consuelo de que las bendiciones sinceras de
mil generaciones honrardn vuestra memoria, mientras mil pueblos esclavos maldicen
en secreto la existencia de los tiranos, ante quienes doblan la rodilla" 15 .

The reference to the Ancients is repeated several times in this famous

essay. Thus, Moreno writes:
"Seremos respetables a las naciones extranjeras, no por riquezas, que excitarian su
codicia; no por la opulencia del territorio, que provocarfa su ambiciön; no por el
niimero de tropas, que en muchos afios no podrän igualar las de la Europa; lo
seremos solamente cuando renazcan entre nosotros las virtudes de un pueblo sobrio
y laborioso; cuando el amor a la patria sea una virtud comün, y eleve nuestras almas
a ese grado de energia que atropella las dificultades y desprecia los peligros. La
prosperidad de Esparta ensena al mundo que un pequeno estado puede ser formidable
por sus virtudes; y ese pueblo reducido a un estrecho recinto del Peloponeso fue el
terror de la Grecia, y fonnarä la admiraciön de todos los siglos ..."16

Again, this time referring to Rousseau, he linked his essay to the

classical tradition when he stated:

15
Ibidem, p. 277.
16
Ibidem, p. 278.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 199

"... Pereciö Esparia, dice Juan Jacobo Rousseau, ique estado podrd lisonjear.se, de
que su Constitution sea duraderal Nada es mäs dificil que fijar los principios de
una administracion interior libre de corromperse; y esta es cabalmente la primera
obra a que debe convertir sus tareas nuestro Congreso; sin embargo, la suerte de
los Estados tiene principios ciertos, y la historia de los pueblos antiguos presenta
lecciones seguras a los que desean el acierto" 17 .

And finally, in the same essay, Moreno makes a fourth reference to

the classical tradition when he points out the dangers of a federalist
constitution. Thus, he warned:
"Oigo hablar generalmente de un gobierno federaticio, como el mis conveniente
a las circunstancias y estado de nuestras provincias; pero temo que se ignore el
verdadero caräcter de este gobierno, y que se pida sin discemimiento una cosa que se
reputarä inverificable despuds de conocida. No recurramos a los antiguos anfictiones
de la Grecia, para buscar un verdadero modelo del gobierno federaticio; aunque entre
los mismos 1 iterates ha reinado mucho tiempo la preocupaciön de encontrar en los
anfictiones la dieta ο estado general de los doce pueblos, que concurrian a celebrarlo
con su sufragio; las investigaciones literarias de un sabio francis, publicadas en Pans
el ano de mil ochocientos cuatro, han demostrado que el objeto de los anfictiones era
puramente religioso, y que sus resoluciones no dirigian tanto el estado politico de los
pueblos que los formaban, cuanto el arreglo y culto sagrado del templo de Delfos" 18 .

3. The Junta Provisional Gubernativa, whose nine members were all

from Buenos Aires, was enlarged in December, 1810, by some twelve
members from the interior of the country. This new Junta Grande
of some 21 members, now representing the United Provinces, though
without members from the Banda Oriental, Paraguay and Upper Peru,
faced incredible problems which it was not able to solve. It was thus
replaced in 1811 by a government of Three - the First Triunvirato
- with Feliciano Chiclana, Juan Jos6 Paso and Manuel de Sarratea,
thus following the Peninsular example of 1808. The Triunvirato was
a clear indication of the classical· tradition as it had been revived
in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, even though the Spanish
character of the institution did not change at all. This Triunvirato
lasted a short time and represented a reaction against the interior of the
country. Its soul was Bernardino Rivadavia, the future first president of
Argentina in 1826. It was replaced in 1812 by the Second Triunvirato
with Antonio Alvarez Jonte, Juan Jose Paso and Feliciano Chiclana,
the latter's place soon to be taken by Nicolas Rodriguez Pena. It lasted

17
Ibidem, p. 279.
18
Ibidem, p. 283.
200 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

until 1813 when a new system of government, the Directory, taking its
name from the Directoire, superseded it.

4. In an Aviso al Publico, published by the government, the Junta

Grande, and appearing in El Censor de Buenos Aires, March 10 and
11, 1811, we read the following statement:
"La causa de la Amirica es evidentemente justa y en nada opuesta al espiritu del
evangelio; ...
Mas el clero de Amdrica no llenarä seguramente su deber si se limitase sölo a
predicar y pedir en sus oraciones por la libertad del pais, acierto y fortuna de sus
magistrados ... Tertuliano encargaba a los cristianos que respetasen y orasen por
los emperadores paganos pidiendo una larga posteridad, egircitos llenos de valor,
victorias y triunfos sobre sus enemigos, que tomasen ellos mismos las armas si era
preciso para defender el estado. San Agustin asegura que a pesar de las ruidosas
combulsiones suscitadas continuamente por los cilebres revolucionarios Casio, Niger
y Albino, que los cristianos se empleaban solamente en obedecer las autoridades y
rogar por ellas" 19 .

5. An obvious illustration of the classical tradition as it dominated the

minds of the elites was the Gazeta de Buenos-Ayres, in its Nr. 18 of
Friday, January 3, 1812, which appealing to patriotism cited Tacitus as
follows:
"'Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias, dicere licet'.
Tacito lib. J. Hist.",

and stated:
"... Sölo la fuerza del genio ο del caräcter que infunde nuestro clima ardiente, ha
podido veneer el häbito casi convertido en naturaleza, y descubrir por todas partes
espiritus dispuestos a hacer frente al error y a la preocupacion. Sigamos su exemplo,
y hagamos ver que somos capaces de tener patriotismo, es decir, que somos capaces
de ser libres, y de renovar el sacrificio de Caton despues de la batalla de Versalia,
antes que ver tremolar nuevamente el pabellön de los tiranos, y quedar reducidos a
la ignominosa necesidad de postrar delante de ellos la rodilla, y saludarles con voz
tremula para subir luego al suplicio, como lo hacfan los romanos en la ipoca de su
degradacion" 20 ,

and it quoted Tacitus: "Safve imperator, morituri te salutant"21.

19
ICBL, file 6 (1819 sic), document 85.212.
20
Article "Patriotismo": Gazeta de Buenos-Ayres (Viemes, 3 de Enero de 1812):
Diego Abad de Santillän, Historia Argentina, 5 vols, (Buenos Aires 1965), vol. 1, p. 490.
21
Ibidem.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 201

6. Another example taken from the newspapers of the period, and in

this case from the official El Redactor de la Asamblea, of Saturday,
February 27, 1813, shows us at the beginning of its first number a
quotation by Cicero, as follows:
"'In poslerum haec lex, imperantibus vestris constituetur'.
Cicer. De Oral. 92"22.

7. Finally, to give a later example of the classical tradition as reflected

in the newspapers of the period, El Argos de Buenos Aires, in its
edition of May 25, 1822, celebrating the twelvth anniversary of the
May Revolution, stated:
"El hombre por las ciencias ilustrado
Ennoblece y eleva su existencia.
Sölo bajo su influxo llenar puede
Sus destinos sublimes en la tierra.
Aquella gran ciudad, modelo ilustre
De ardiente libertad: la antigua Atenas
Triunfando de los bärbaros tiranos
Rindiö sagrados cultos a Minerva" 23 .

8. After the capital of the old Viceroyalty of the River Plate established
its Junta Provisional Gubernativa in May, 1810, and then the Junta
Grande in December, 1810, pursuing in its area the old Bourbon
centralist policy, i.e., trying to maintain the integrity of the old
viceroyalty, Paraguay soon challenged this attitude. On May 17, 1811,
Paraguay set up its own Triunvirato - even before Buenos Aires would
use an identical label for its governments in 1811-1812 - and issued
its first Bando del Triunvirato del Paraguay24 in which it defined its
relations with the Buenos Aires government.

V. CHILE

9. Camilo Henriquez (1769-1825), the Chilean patriot, incorporated

the classical tradition in his famous Proclama of the year 1811 which
circulated in Santiago with the signature of Quirino Lemachez and

22
Ibidem, p. 506.
23
In: Carlos Ibarguren, Juan Manuel de Rosas, su vida, su drama, su tiempo (Buenos
Aires 1961), p. 79.
24
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 2, p. 27.
202 0 . Carlos Stoetzer

which in opposition to other writings of the period expressed the rather

radical point of view of independence. In it he stated:
"Los legisladores de los pueblos fueron los mayores filosofos del mundo; y si hab&s
una constituciön sabia y leyes excelentes las hateis de recibir de manos de los
filosofos, cuya funcion augusta es interpreter las leyes de la naturaleza, sacarlos
de las tinieblas en que los envolviö la tirania, impostura y la barbarie de los siglos,
ilustrar y dirigir los hombres a la felicidad ... Ellos se lanzan en lo future, y leyendo
en lo pasado la historia de lo que estä por venir, descubriendo los efectos en las
causes, predicen las revoluciones y ven en los sistemas gubemativos el principio
oculto de su ruina y aniquilaciön. Arist0teles predice las convulsiones de la Grecia;
Polibio la disolucion del Imperio Romano; Reynal las revoluciones memorables de
toda la America y de toda la Europa. Cuäl es el principio de la fuerza y acciön
de cada Gobierno, cuiles sus vicios y ventajas, cuäl desorden tendril por tirmino ...
todo esto describe Aristöteles. ;Que dicha hubiera sido para el g6nero humano, si en
vez de perder el tiempo en cuestiones oscuras e inu tiles hubieran los eclesiästicos
leido en aquel gran filosofo los derechos del hombre y la necesidad de separar los
tres poderes Legislative, Gubernativo y Judicial para conservar la libertad de los
pueblos! ,.." 25

10. Later, as editor of La Aurora de Chile, in its first number of

February 13, 1812, Henriquez again referred to Aristotle when he said
in his Nociones fundamentales sobre los derechos de los pueblos:
"... De aqui es que no se encuentra algun pueblo que no haya sufrido la tirania, la
violencia de otro mäs fuerte.
Este estado de los pueblos es el origen de la monarquia, porque en la guerra
necesitaron de un caudillo que los condujese a la victoria. En los antiguos tiempos,
dice Aristöteles, el valor, la pericia, y la felicidad en los combates elevaron a los
capitanes, por el reconocimiento y utilidad publica, a la potestad real"2fi.

11. The extraordinary impact of the classical tradition in Chile can also
be seen in the famous Manifiesto del Gobierno de Chile a las Naciones
de Amirica, dated Palacio de Santiago de Chile, May 30, 1813, and
signed by Francisco Antonio Perez, President; Jose Miguel Infante;
Agustin de Eyzaguirre; Jaime Zudänez, Acting Secretary for Foreign
Relations. In it the government declared:
"El honor y la dignidad del Gobierno: ...
La voluntad general de los Pueblos, que habitan el dilatado territorio de Chile, usando
de unos derechos superiores a toda arbitrariedad y prescripcion, eligiö a semejanza, y
con el mismo titulo que la Espana, su Gobierno depositario de la Autoridad Soberana
durante el cautiverio de Fernando. Mantener la justicia, el orden, y la tranquilidad

25
Ibidem, vol. 1, pp. 222-223.
26
Ibidem, p. 229.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 203

interior del estado: respetar los inviolables derechos de la naturaleza a, y de las gentes:
conceder el libre comercio a las Naciones Estrangeras aliadas de la Espana y a los
neutrales: ...
Los primeros ensayos del Virrey [Don Josi Fernando Abascal y Sousa, Virrey de
Lima] en la embriaguez de sus triunfos contra el pacifico y tranquilo Chile, son
insultos groseros, calumnias, epitetos odiosos, retos ultrajantes. El Gobierno evita
comprometer su dignidad en contextaciones indecorosas y despreciando las injurias
que trazan el caräcter de su Autor, reclame s01o sus derechos. No merecen estos la
menor consideraciön al que a semejanza de los bärbaros, que inundaron el Imperio
Romano, no reconoce otros que los de la fuerza ..,"27

12. Another document, of the same period of the Ρ atria Vieja (18 ΙΟ-
Ι 814), the Proclama del menor soldado de la Ρatria, issued by El
Comandante de Granaderos and signed by Juan Jose Carrera (1813),
said the following:
"PATRIOTAS; y compafieros, nuestra libertad esti escrita en el libro de los destinos,
y 6ste es sin duda el tiempo que el eterno ha prefijado para que Chile recobre lo que
en el siglo 16 se le usurpö con tanta inhumanidad como barbarie ... Si os ha sido y
es forsoso hacer algunos sacrificios, sufrido privaciones, incomodidades y trabajos,
acordados [sic] que debdis amar a vuestra Patria que a vuestra misma existencia;
que la posteridad honrarä vuestra memoria: que el dulce fruto es cosecha del trabajo
y del sudor, y que debeis ser imitadores de un Demöstenes nunca mas atento a los
intereses de su Atenas que quando por ella pobre desterrado y perseguido ...
La dura opreciön en que hoy de nuebo gime la desgraciada Provincia de Conception
por la impudente perfidia e ingratitud detestable de algunos, y por la cobardia
vergonsa [sic] de los mas; ... y por el [un golpe maestro de la Providencia]
conocerä todo el reyno que en un estado naciente como el nuestro y con implacables
enemigos por vecinos debe tcner a su frente unos Gefes Jovenes pero robustos,
velicosos, imbencibles como Romulo: francos y afables como Cisar; dulces, amables,
liberales, como Tito: intr^pidos como Alejandro; constantes e infatigables como
Carlos: laboriosos, aplicados, criadores como Pedro; y unidos no superficialmente
como Pompello, Antonio y Cesar; sino hasta mäs adelante del sepulcro, como David
con Jonatas, ο como un cordon de tres dobleses que jamäs puede romperse ...
Yd seguro a llenaros de gloria en los Campos de Belona. Minerva os eubrirä con su
Egida, y Marte os inspirarä su irresistible furor. No olbideis que sois Chilenos y que
vuestra suelo siempre fue fatal a los tiranos ... Desid el ultimo a Dio a vuestras bellas
Esposas: imprimid dulces osculos en las mejillas de vuestros hijos, y aseguradles que
no volberdis a verlos ο vol vereis coronados de laurel. Esparta tratö con ignominia el
unico que de los trescientos que resistiendo al poder todo de los Persas, νοίνϊό a dar
las tristes nuebas a su Patria: asi Chile detesta al que quiera sobrevivir a su libertad
naciente" 28 .

27
JCBL, file 1 (1811-1813), document 85.177.
28
Ibidem, document 85.182. Also in: Josi Toribio Medina, Bibliograßa de la imprenta
ert Santiago de Chile (Santiago de Chile 1891), no. 44.
204 Ο. Carlos Stoctzer

13. Juan Egana (1768-1836), eminent Chilean patriot and lawyer,

elaborated a draft constitution - Proyecto de Constitution Politica de
Chile (1813) - which he published together with his Derechos del
pueblo de Chile. This draft constitution which he wrote on behalf of
the Chilean Government was accompanied by his comments, the Notas
ilustrativas de algunos articulos de la Constituciön (1813) in which the
classical tradition reappeared as follows:
ILUSTRACION IL
SOBRE LA ORGANIZACI0N DE LA ACTUAL CONSTITUCIÖN
La ley peca: primero, por el choque que pone entre los poderes; ya dividiendo el
legislativo entre iguales u opuestas fuerzas, lo que enteramente la enerva y anula; ya
destruyendo la Constituciön, como sucedio en Roma entre el senado y el pueblo luego
que hubo Marios y Silas, y sucederia antes si el senado no se hubiese aprovechado
sabiamente de la pasiön dominante del pueblo por la guerTa; ο separändole del
ejecutivo, de modo que de a iste toda la fuerza y vitalidad del gobiemo. Nosotros
hemos reconcentrado todo el poder directivo en una accion y una magistratura 29 .

14. In 1817, the Army of the Andes under General Jose de San Martin
crossed the Cordillera and engaged the Royalists. It won the battle of
Chacabuco of that same year but lost at Cancha Rayada. However, the
final victory of Maipu in 1818 gave final independence to Chile. It was
before this decisive triumph that the patriots issued several manifestoes,
one of them portraying the classical tradition as follows:
EL SUPREMO GOBIERNO A LOS PUEBLOS
CONCIUDADANOS: el enemigo nos provoca con una nueva expedition. Pu6s bien,
conquistaremos a Lima en Chile, ο mäs bien libertaremos el Peru desgraciado del
Vicir que la oprime. jTemerarios! han olvidado la jomada de Chacabuco: han olvidado
que en la guerra de 812, un punado de visonos sostuvo con mil laureles el honor de
Arauco ... Union conciudadanos, uniön y seremos invencibles. Las pasadas desgracias
nos ensenaron a ser cautos, y m i s virtuosos. El cielo protege nuestra causa como la
mäs justa; y no debemos omitir sacrificios para atraemos las bendiciones de las
generaciones futuras con el exterminio de los tiranos.
£,Pero a que os exorto, quando vuestro entusiasmo, vuestros ofrecimientos generosos,
vuestros voluntarios sacrificios han renovado los tiempos felices de Grecia y Roma? 3 0

This document was signed in the Palacio Directorial of Santiago

de Chile on December 14, 1817, by Luis de la Cruz, Jose Manuel de
Astorga, Francisco Antonio Perez, among others.

29
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 246.
30
JCBL, file 4 (1817), document 85.196.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 205

15. In 1819, the Chilean Government of Director Bernardo O'Higgins,

the Chilean variety of Enlightened Despotism, announced the following
Justificaciön del Decreto Supremo que rebaxö los Reditos de censos y
capellanias which concerned the Government Decree of November 13,
1818, signed by Bernardo O'Higgins and Joaquin de Echevema. The
Justificaciön began with the following quotation:
"Ea enim, quae communiter omnibus, prosunt, iis quae specialiter quibusdam utilia
sunt, praeponimus.
(Authent. de restil. et ea que parit)",

and then proceeded:

'"Considerando atentamente las utilidades que resulian a los Pueblos de la rebaxa

de los reditos' dice el Genovesi - Lecciones de Comercio, part 2, cap. 13 - , 'nos
convenceremos de que esta operation egecutada sin respeto alguno al interis privado,
es la mäs sensata'. En efecto, el demuestra la justicia y conveniencia con razones tail
sölidas, que lo que era problemätico en tiempo de Locke, es hoy una verdad para los
economistas y los que iio lo son. A sus principios y reflexiones politicas se pueden
agregar otras deducidas de la Historia sagrada y profana. Con la luz de esta, vemos
en las Repiiblicas de Grecia y Roma subir ο baxar los intereses del dinero, segun
las varias circunstancias en que se hallaban: vemos frecuentes quejas, tumultos y
guerras intestines, con que el Pueblo escaso de fundos y estos recargados, agoviado
de deudas y tiranizado con usuras, pensö librarse de acreedores inhumanos; de alii
los proyectos de comunidad de bienes, LL agrarias y absolueiön de deudores. En la
Historia Sagrada leemos repetidos preceptos para que el Pueblo de Israel no recibiese
intereses ο usuras de sus hermanos, sino de solo los extrangeros: leemos la celebridad
del ano Sabätico y del Jubileo ...
Cuando el cludadano despreocupado pasa de este bosquejo a considerar la filosofia
politico-legal con que el Supremo Gobiemo rebaxö los riditos de Censos y
Capellanias, no puede menos que admirarse del apurado empeno con que algunos
succitan escnipulos, sobre las facultades del Supremo Poder secular para aquella
rebaxa; como sino fuera condiciön esencial al censo, para que no sea usurario, el que
decresca en proporci6n de la ruina de los fundos; como si el r6dito variado algunas
veces y fijado en otras por Leyes civiles, no pudiese alterarse por las mismas, segiin
los tiempos, necesidad y utilidades; ... (*) que el dominio adquirido en los ^ditos, los
ha hecho bienes eclesiästicos y istos no pueden enagenarse sino por los Prelados de
la Iglesia con interveneiön del Clero, como aparece de varias Leyes desde el Fuero
Juzgo hasta el ultimo C<5digo de Castilla".

In support of the above position (*) it quotes Pope Innocent ΠΙ as

follows:

'"Non debet reprehensibile judicare, si secundum varietatem temporum statuta

quandoque varientur humana, praesertim cum urgens necessitas. vel evidens utilitas
idem exposcunt: quoniam ipse Deus ex iis, quae in veteri Testamente statuerat,
206 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

nonnulla mutavit in novo' (Concil. Lateran, sub. Innoc. HI. in cap. Non debet 8, de
Conseg. et Affin.)' 0 1 .

16. When the "Expeditionary Army for the Liberation of Peru"

under General Jose de San Martin left Chile it had received several
demonstrations of encouragement by the Chilean women of Valparaiso
and Coquimbo. These were written in verses and the Army returned
the gesture with the following poem:
CONTESTAC10N DEL EGfiRCITO LIBERTADOR DEL PERÜ
Α LA DESPEDIDA DE LAS CHILENAS (1820).
No hace impresiön tan grata la luz pura
En quien la ve despuis de haber cegado,
Ni los sublimes versos de Tirteo
Inspiran tanto ardor al Espartano;
Como ese fuego, bellas Compatriotas,
Con que habeis al Egircito inflamado.
Quando sab6is tnostrar al despediros
Que se halla en el Amor la alma de Arauco.
jO PATRIA! jO felix Chile! En-horabuenas.
Sean el ültimo A DIOS, quando al dejaros
Dejamos en tu seno al sexo hermoso
Capaz de hacer dichosos los Estados.

Ο sexo amable - salve -; El Cielo quiera

Que con la LIBERTAD pronto volvamos
Quiera haceros felices, y a nosotros
De Chile dignos, y de vuestros brazos32.

17. In 1825, the new Supreme Director of Chile, Ramon Freire, who
had followed the earlier government of Bernardo O'Higgins, issued
a proclamation after the latter's abdication in regard to the civil war
raging in the southern part of the country. The proclamation again
showed the strength of the classical tradition.
EL DIRECTOR SUPREMO A LOS PUEBLOS DE LA REPÜBLICA
iChilenos! El Archipidlago de Chiloi conquistado despu&s de los mayores sacrificios,
y a costa de vuestra propia sangre, acaba de seros arrebatado por la mäs aleve traicion
y viles e infames maquinaciones de unos hijos indignos del suelo que les dio el ser
... Acardäos del sacrosanto juramento que hateis hecho de que Chile serä la tumba
de sus hijos antes que dejar de ser libres ... Los viles que lo intentan, por el sölo acto
que acaban de cometer, han atrafdo sobre si la indignaciön del mundo entero; y el

31
Ibidem, file 6 (1819), document 85.211.
32
Ibidem, file 7 (1820), document 85.219.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 207

malvado objeto de la publica ecsecracion, el tirano O'Higgins, que en un tiempo hizo

pesar sobre vuestro cuello el yugo mäs odioso, el mäs degradante que pueblo alguno
ha jamas sufrido; ese segundo Tiberio, arrojando la mascara con que pretendia aun
cubrirse aparece ahora como el Corifeo de esos infames, ...33

18. Finally, in the same year, a valuable document shows again the
depth of the classical tradition in Chile. It is a public statement by the
Townhall of Rancagua, dated August 26, 1825, and signed by Domingo
Falcön, Manuel de Valenzuela, Miguel del Castillo, Francisco Angel
Ramirez. Thus, it stated:
EL CABILDO DE RANCAGUA CONTESTA A LA IMPUGNACI0N DEL
DELEGADO RODRIGUEZ, RELATIVA Α LA VOTACI0N Y SUCESOS DEL
11 Y 12 DE JULIO DE ESTE ANO
Con una arrogancia insufrible quiere en seguida el Sr. Ramirez despojamos de la
represcntacion que nos dan las Leyes en las reuniones populäres,... Su primer asercion
manifiesta una supina ignorancia de las atribuciones del cuerpo mismo que preside,
y la segunda una audacia sin ejemplo que se arroja a negar ailn las verdades mis
comprobadas ...
El que propuso esta cuestiön quiso sustraer al influjo, al temor y a la condescendencia
una parte numerosa de los sufragantes, y como en esto se debilitaban los medios de
obrar con que contaba el Delegado, tuvo el malicioso cuidado de omitir su resolution,
y de sincerarse al presente, tachando aquella de anti-liberal. La misma ορίηίόη tenian
los treinta tiranos de Atenas, cuando prohibieron el escnitinio en el Areöpago para
dominar la ορίηίόη de este Tribunal, y la misma llevarän siempre todos los despotas
que queriendo oprimir la Naciön que los tolera, tienen la bärbara astucia de asechar
a los que les son desafectos bajo el pretexto especioso de inspirar a los Pueblos con
la publicidad de los sufragios esa noble franqueza que sölo sirve para senalarles las
victimas de su venganza ..?*

VI. BOLIVIA, PERÜ AND ECUADOR

19. Bernardo Monteagudo, famous Upper Peruvian who played an

important role in the River Plate during the May Revolution, also had
a strong link to the classical tradition. A student at the universities of
Cordoba and Charcas, he became the soul of the Sociedad Literaria
Patriotica in Buenos Aires as well as the editor of La Gazeta de
Buenos-Ayres and El grito del Sur. He was also the founder of Märtir ο
libre and the deputy of Mendoza to the General Constituent Assembly

33
Ibidem, file 8 (1822-1826), document 85.241.
34
Ibidem, document 85.247.
208 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

in 1813. Later in his life he became the secretary of General San Martin
in Lima. In his earlier Diälogo entre Atahualpa y Fernando VII en los
Campos Eliseos (1809) we find a bridge to the classical tradition when
the Inca Atahualpa says to King Ferdinand VII:
"Venero al Papa como ä cabeza universal de la Iglesia, pero no puedo menos
que decir que debiö ser de una extravagancia muy consumada cuando cediö y
dono tan francamente lo que teniendo propio dueno, en ningun caso pudo ser
suyo, especialmente cuando Jesucristo, de quien han recibido los Pontifices toda
su autoridad y a quien deben tener por modelo en todas sus operaciones, les dicta
que no tienen potestad alguna sobre los monarcas de la tierra, ο que a lo menos
no conviene ejercerla, cuando dice: Mi Reino no es de este mundo·, y cuando a sus
apostoles les ensena y encarga que veneren a los reyes y paguen los tributos al Cesar.
Me admira, digo, que Alejandro VI hubiese cometido semejante atentado, cuando
San Bernardo le dice: quid falcem vestram in alienam messem extendis? Si apostolis
inlerdicitur dominates quomodo tu tibi audes usurpare? Non tu ille de quo propheta:
et erit omnis terra possessio eius".

And later, in the same Diälogo, the Inca Atahualpa states:

"Si de la dorninacion de trescientos anos quereis valeros para justificar la usurpation,
debeis confesar primero que la nation espafiola cometio un terrible atentado cuando,
despuds de ochocientos anos que se sujetö a los moros, consiguio sacudir su yugo.
Debris responder a la misma Espa/ia, Francia e Inglaterra que despu6s de haber
sufrido una dilatada serie de anos la dorninacion de los romanos, restablecieron al fin
su libertad y merecieron los elogios de toda su posteridad" 35 .

20. Manuel Lorenzo de Vidaurre (1773-1841), Peruvian author of the

Plan del Perü (1810) which he wrote while in Cadiz at the time of the
Cortes and which he later revised in 1823, represents another example
of the classical tradition during the Spanish-American Revolutions. The
1823-edition of the Plan del Peru was dedicated to Simon Bolivar - the
first had been dedicated to Ferdinand VII - with the following words:
"CONCIUD ADANO:
Yo te dedico mi obra, porque hasta ahora te contemplo el hombre mäs digno de elogio.
Mientras permanezcas virtuoso, serfs el objeto de mi adoration. Te aborrecerd tirano
como te admire heroe. Aprecia lo que eres, no aspires a un nombre que te harä odioso.
El heroismo inmortaliza, la diadema confunde en el rol de los tiranos. El nacimiento,
el vicio, la injusticia, producen reyes; el heroe no tiene otro origen que el noble de
las virtudes. Napoleon asombra en su historia; mas no merece nuestros cultos. El
pone su orgulloso ρίέ sobre imperios y coronas, no para destruirlos ο moderarlos,
sino pare elevar otro poder mis dilatado y absoluto: es grande para si y su familia.

35
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 68 and 70.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 209

no para los demäs hombres. Cesar tiene valor y talento; Alejandro se desvela por
la gloria. ^Son sus nombres escritos con igual aplauso que los del justo Aristides,
el inalterable Caton? En el sagrado templo de la Fama, yo vi clavarse tres altares:
Iturbide, San Martin y clx debian ocuparlos. La justa Astrea derribo ya el primero:
en el segundo se cantan himnos en honra del valiente libertador del Peru y Chile;
el tercero lo sostienen dos genios que te contemplan como el Dios de la libertad
americana; este litulo es mäs grande que el de Emperador y Soberano"3S.

21. Another case in Peru is that of Mariano Alejo Alvarez who in 1811
used arguments taken from the oid Spanish legislation and reinforced
by the classical tradition in order to press for the legal equality between
peninsulares and criollos, one of the main grievances between Spanish
America and Spain in general. In the speech Alvarez delivered in 1811
- which nine years later was published in Lima - , he invoked Law 14,
Title II, Book ΙΠ of the Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de Indias
of 1680 which said: "que los hijos y naturales de ellas sean ocupados
y premiados donde nos sirvieron sus antepasados, y primeramente
remunerados los que fueren casados" 37 . In the same speech he then
referred to both Plato and Aristotle for his philosophical arguments,
and to both Roman and Canon Law for his legal foundation. Alvarez,
as so many of his contemporaries in Peru and the River Plate, had
received his education at the University of San Javier in Cochabamba
(today's Sucre) when that university was the center for the revival of
Spanish and Spanish-American legislation. The basic question he tried
to answer, using both the Spanish legislation and the classical tradition,
in both the legal and the philosophical spheres, was whether "^Nuestras
ciudades serän gobernadas por los que no las fundaron, nuestros templos
regidos por los que no los levantaron?" 38

22. Hipolito Unanue (1755-1833), Peruvian scientist and liberal

politician, was the author, among other works, of "El ciudadano
espanol", published in 1813 in El verdadero peruano, the successor of
El peruano. In this article his author praises Spain and the occasion
is the decision of the Spanish Regency to allow elections for the

36
Ibidem, pp. 185-186.
37
"Discurso de la preferencia que deben tener los Americanos en Ios Empleos"
(Lima 1821), p. 4; in: Victor Andr£s Belaünde, Bolivar y el pensamiento politico de
la Revoluciön hispanoamericana (Spanish ed., Madrid 1959), p. 44.
38
Ibidem,
210 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

constitutional cabildos in 1812. Here are some of Unanue's thoughts

linked to the classical tradition:
"... El nombre ilustre, la encumbrada dignidad del ciudadano espafiol estän
proclamados en ambos mundos. Mäs generosa la Espana que la misma Roma, no
ha querido encerrar las nobles prerrogativas de la ciudadania dentro de sus propios
muros, ni venderlas a precio de oro a las provincias de su imperio. El genio espafiol
extiende sus divinas alas y se remonta a lo alto de la esfera. Desde alii registra los
dilatados paises, las extensas provincias, las numerosas tribus y naciones que domina
en Europa y Amirica, y sobre todas derrama sus influencias ben6ficas.
De esta sucrta ha constituido una sola patria e innumerables y diversas gentes,
haciendo amable su yugo a los hombres que ha conquistado, e incorporändolos en
el numero de sus propios hijos, ha formado una sola ciudad de lo que antes era dos
diferentes orbes.
'Dumque offers victis proprii consortia juris,
Urbem fecisti, quod prius orbis erat'39

[Gratias a tf, Espana heroica, ilustrada y generosa! Tu nos has restituldo

nuestros fueros. Contigo, pueblo inmortal, viviremos siempre; contigo
seremos hechos pedazos. 'Tecum vivere amem, tecum abeam libens'. Horat.40

Padres de la patria, a quienes los representantes del pueblo han elevado a

regirla: al daros nuestro sufragio hemos recordado el acto majestuoso en que por
los mismos medios, y para los propios tines, elegia a sus censores el pueblo
antiguo y soberano de Roma. j,A quienes queriis, sefiores, elegir por censor?"41

23. An interesting document in the area of Ecuador which echoes the

classical tradition is the Discurso sobre la Insurrection de Amirica, que
escribia el Dr. Quijano, secretario quefue del Gobierno Revolucionario
de Quito. It represents an essay written by a former member of the
Revolutionary Junta of Quito while in prison in Chile after Quito had
been recaptured by the Royalist forces of Toribio Montes. Quijano
died in prison in Chile and left this essay. Its publication was
obviously allowed by the Royalist authorities in Chile (1814-1817)
since he repented. The document contains the Scholastic pactum
translationis as the intellectual lever for the Revolution, discusses the
doceanista movement in the Peninsula, refers to the dangerous concept
of federalism, and as a motto for the entire discourse quotes psalms 2,
v. 1 and 3, as follows:

35
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 201.
40
Ibidem, p. 202.
4
' Ibidem.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 211

'"Quare fremuerunt gentes, et populi meditati sunt inania?' ... 'Dirumpamus vinculo
eorum, et projiciamus a nobis jugum ipsorum'. Psalmo 2, v. 1. el J"42.

V I I . COLOMBIA AND VENEZUELA

24. In New Granada proper, today's Colombia, many examples can

be given for the persistence of the classical tradition. Antonio Nariiio
(1765-1823), Colombian patriot and known for his opposition to the
federal idea, made his point known in Consideraciones sobre los
inconvenientes de alterar la invocaciön hecha por la ciudad de Santa
Fe (September 19, 1810), in which he stated, among other things:
"Nunca he ofdo decir que los franceses al tiempo de su revoluciön pensasen en
exceptuar a Pan's, ni que la dejaran de mirar como capital de la Francia despuös
de destruido el gobiemo monärquico; tampoco εέ que despu£s de la revolueiön de
Espafia se sospechara de Madrid para la reunion en ella de las cortes, ni si a los
griegos y a los romanos les ocurriö nunca que sus tribus y sus comicios se juntasen
fuera de Roma y de Atenas; pero todos saben que los americanos ingleses eligieron
la ciudad de Filadelfia, una de las primeras y mäs cultas de aquel continente, sin que
sepamos que hayan tenido que arrepentirse las otras provincias de esta elecciön" 43 .

25. The classical tradition is also reflected in the Discurso sobre la

organization de poderes en la Suprema Junta de Santa Fi por UN
MIEMBRO DE LA MISMA (1810). This speech was delivered by one
of the members of the Junta of Santa Fe and preceded a Prospectus
concerning the organization of powers. The Junta accepted the point of
view of this member thus acknowledging the speech as its own. Among
other things, the document stated:
"Toda ley debe ser general. La ley de Clodio que preparaba la ruina de Ciceron, no
era propiamente una ley, sino un decreto inicuo, de que se queria valer aquel tribuno
para proscribir al padre de la elocuencia romana. El que reparte los premios y castigos
no debe ser el que los establece, porque entonces podria ampliar ο restringir segiin
los varios movimientos que experimentase su corazön. Se debe cerrar el camino a la
venganza, y a la piedad mal entendida. El juez no debe tener arbitrio, su oficio es
aplicar la ley al caso, y absolver al que ella absuelve" 44 .

42
Josd Camilo GaJlardo, "Discurso sobre la Insurrecciün de America, que escribia
el Dr. Quijano, secretario que fue del Gobierno Revolucionario de Quito" (Santiago de
Chile 1815): JCBL, file 2 (1814-1815), document 85.230.
43
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 156-157.
44
Ibidem, p. 161.
212 Ο. Carlos Sloetzer

26. There is perhaps no better example, of the classical tradition than

the famous newspaper La Bagatela, Colombia's first political journal,
whose editor was the aforementioned Antonio Narino, forerunner
of Colombian independence, President of Cundinamarca and Vice
President of Greater Colombia. Written in a satyrical and sarcastic
style, the Bagatela gives an excellent idea of the political thought of
his author and of the times. In the number of Sunday, October 6, 1811
(Nr. 14, Vol. I), under the title "Contestation a la Carta que Don Ramon
Liteceus nos dirige en el Argos de Cartagena", the classical tradition is
invoked several times. Suffice it to quote the following passages:
"Para apoyar lo juicioso de mi pequefio proyecto, contenido en el numero 3, pägina
20, oiga V. lo que dice en este punto un celebre escritor hablando de Amphycciön
hijo de Deucalion, que reynaba en Termopyles - Origen de las leyes, Vol. 3, p. 38:
'Este Principe sabio, y muy afecto a su Patria, hizo serias reflexiones acerca de la
positura y circunstancias en que se hallaba entonces la Grecia. Como estaba £sta
dividida en muchas S o b e r a n i a s i n d e p e n d i e n t e s unas de otras, le parecio que
semejante division podia ser origen de enemistades, y ocasionaria guerras intestinas
que facilitasen qualquicra empresa contra la Nacion a los Pueblos bärbaros que la
rodeaban, quienes la podian oprimir con facilidad. Para evitar tan eminente riesgo
puso Amphycciön todo su conato en enlazar los diferentes dominios de la Grecia por
medio de una liga comun, a fin de que estando estrechamente unidos con los vinculos
de la amistad, procurasen unänimes defenderse contra el enemigo comun, y hacerse
temibles a las Naciones circunvecinas. Con este fin formö una confederation entre
doce Ciudades Griegas, cuyos Diputados se juntaban en Termopyles dos veces al ano.
Este celebre Congreso se denominaba el C o n s e j o d e l o s A m p h y c c i o n e s , con
alusion al nombre del que lo habia establecido'" 45 .

The author of La Bagatela continues to quote from the same source

and then finishes his debate with the following observation:
"Ya ve Vmd. mi amigo, que hay notable diferencia entre el C o n s e j o d e l o s
A m p h y c c i o n e s , y el Gobiemo del Norte America; y sin embargo de eso, uno y
otro sistema gubemativo se apoyaba sobre bases federales ο de compafiia. Mi proyecto
se acercaba mäs a l A m p h y c c i o n a d o que a la federation del Norte America, y no
me apartari de esa opiniön hasta que los grandes ingeniös de los Tertulianos politicos
de esa Ciudad me convenzan lo contrario con razones sölidas y fundamentales. Los
sarcasmos y desvergüenzas no hacen otra cosa que acalorar las disputas en perjuicio
del descubrimiento de la verdad" 46 .

27. In another issue of the same La Bagatela of Sunday, November

24, 1811 (Nr. 21, Vol.!), under the title "Estracto de las observaciones

45
La Bagatela (1811-1812), Edition facsimilar (Bogota 1966), pp. 51-52.
46
Ibidem, p. 53.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 213

hechas por el Autor del Espanol a las Seciones de las Cortes de Cädiz
sobre America", another reference to ancient history is made by the
editor. The article referred to Jose Maria Blanco [White], the Spanish
liberal editor of El Espanol in London. Here Narino states:
"iComo pueden los gobiernos creer que mandan conciliadores a la America
mandändoles V i r r e y e s , y C o m i s i o n a d o s R e g i o s con los poderes mäs
absolutes? Pelean los Americanos por salir de este despotismo horroroso, por sacudir
el yugo de esos tiranos de segundo orden, mas opresores mil vezes que los d6spotas
soberanos, y por pruebas de las buenas disposiciones de los gobiernos espanoles, para
muestra de la debilidad con que piensan tratarlos en adelante, embfan a Caracas un
conciliador revestido del poder absoluto de los Reyes de Espana, que los Espanoles
mismos tratan de limitar para si, y a Buenos Ayres un Virrey, y Capitän general
como en lo antiguo. Esto es ο carecer de sentido, ο burlarse de έΐ abiertamente. iQue
conciliaci6n puede entablarse quando el titulo que lleva el conciliador encierra en
si el principal objeto del odio de aquellos pueblos? jPalabras blandas de un Virrey
y Capitän General! jQuien ha visto otro tanto! ^Que quiere c o n e s e l l a n t o d e
C o c o d r i l o ? Nada: - que lo reconozcan por Virrey - 6ste es el primer paso -
y luego estando en posesiön de los poderes de tal Virrey se tratarä de los demäs
arreglos: es decir dandole las facultades mäs despoticas, juntamente con los medios
de sostenerlas que no deben esperar los pueblos de sus disposiciones conciliatorias:
La Paz mäs Octaviana reynarä bien pronto en aquellos payses; por que no hay cosa
mäs quieta que los esclavos, y los muertos U b i s o l i t u d i n e m f a c i u n t p a c e m
appellant"47.

28. In yet another issue of La Bagatela (Sunday, January 26, 1812;

Nr. 31, Vol.1), under the title "El Filosofo sensible a una Dama su
amiga", the editor states:
"La variedad, mi bella Sibarita, la variedad es vuestra divisa, aun en el idioma del
amor; ^que serd pues si ya no se oye esta ni en el idioma de la Patria? En Athenas se
veia esta variedad, esta transiciön de sentimientos, entre la plaza publica, el Portico,
el Luco, el Teatro y las Tertulias la organization del hombre estä formada para pasar
del descanso al trabajo, de lo agradable a lo serio, de los asuntos püblicos a los
domesticos, de la Patria al amor" 48 .

29. Finally, a continuation of the same discussion in the issue of La

Bagatela of Sunday, February 22, 1812 (Nr. 35, Vol.1) again reveals
the echo of the classical tradition. It is the article entitled "El Filosofo
sensible ä una Dama" in which Narino, among other things, wrote the
following:

47
Ibidem, pp. 82-83.
48
Ibidem, pp. 118-119.
214 Ο. Carlos Stoelzer

"... Juzgalo por las expresiones siguientes. En el numero 32 se dicen estas palabras:
l a s c o n t r a d i c c i o n e s d e l a B a g a t e l a s<51o lo s o n p a r a l o s p o l f t i c o s
d e t i e n d a ; y el Sr. Montalvän supone que yo digo q u e a q u i t o d o s s o n
p o l f t i c o s de t i e n d a . Ya vis que en tomando asi las cosas es muy ficil criticar:
esta sola suposicion le da margen para molestamos en todo su papelucho con l o s
t i e n d e r o s , l o s p o l f t i c o s d e t i e n d a , hace tienderos al Senado Romano, a
Plutarco, Täcito y Cicerön, trayendo el cuento por los cabellos: la expresiön de los
polfticos de tienda recae en la Bagatela sobre las contradicciones que se le suponen,
y el Montalvän las aplica al Sueiio Electoral. Yo le preguntaria al eruditisimo autor
del papelucho Montalvänico, ya que se precia de tan religioso, i,si debemos imitar
todos los agüeros, y sueiios de los Romanos, por que en otras cosas fueron grandes
hombres? <,Si en las obras del inmortal perseguidor de Catilina, no encuentra el
mismo nada que vituperar? <,Si Plutarco, Täcito y Cicerön con toda su filosofia, que
venero y admiro, no tuvieron mil puerilidades vituperables, ο a lo menos indignas de
nuestra imitacion? y ultimamente, ^si la Bagatela vitupera los sueiios en general, sus
alegorfas y su utilidad, para que nos ensaite toda su erudiciön sobre las fäbulas de
Fedro, los poemas fipicos, la punsadura de la lengua de Cicerön, y tanta cosa bonita
como nos embute para que admiremos su sabiduria?

30. Francisco Antonio Zea (1766-1822), Colombian patriot, was

elected Vice President of Colombia at the Congress of Angostura
(1819). In his Manifiesto a los pueblos de Colombia (1820) he referred
to the classical tradition. Appealing to unity he asserted:
"Ninguno de vuestros tres grandes departamentos, Quito, Venezuela, Cundinamarca,
ninguno de ellos, pongo al cielo por testigo, ninguno absolutamente, por mis vasto
que sea y mäs rico su territorio, puede ni en todo un siglo constituir por si solo una
potencia firme y respetable. Pero reunidos, jgran Dios! ni el imperio de los Medos,
ni el de los Asirios, ni el de Augusto, ni el de Alejandro pudiera jamäs compararse
con esa colosal repüblica, que con un ρίέ sobre el Atläntico y otro sobre el Pacifico,
verä la Europa y el Asia multiplicar las producciones del genio y de las artes y poblar
de bajeles ambos mares, para permutarlas por los metales y piedras preciosas de sus
minas y por los frutos aun mäs preciosos de sus fecundos valles y sus selvas ..." 50

In the same speech Zea also made reference to Tyre and Carthage
which the new Republic should view as models for trade51.

31. The aforementioned Antonio Narifio, appointed in 1821 by Simön

Bolivar as Acting Vice President of Colombia, spoke to the Colombian
National Congress on its inauguration day, May 6, 1821, in Rosario de
Cucuta. Here he aired his ideas on a future constitution of the country.

49
Ibidem, p. 134.
50
In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit,, vol. 2, p. 130.
51
Ibidem, p. 131.
 Classical Influences D u r i n g the Spanish-American Revolutions 215

He also told his listeners that elections were not always a sign of purity;
even Rome, Athens and England could testify to electoral abuses and
disorders52. Later in this same Discurso ante el Congreso de Cücuta
(1821) he stated:
"Todo ciudadano en el ejercicio de sus funciones debe votar, y todo el que vota debe
tener opciön a ser elegido. No temamos, sefiores, esta declaration, y äpartemos de
nosotros esos principios consignados en muchas Constitutione.·;, de medir el derecho
de ser electo por la cantidad de dinero que un codicioso ha podido atesorar. ^Qu6
vendrdn a ser entre nosotros los hombres virtuosos y desinteresados que, como
Cincinato y Focion, no conocen mäs caudal que έΐ de sus virtudes? Se dice que
las votaciones caerän en hombres ineptos, y que el que no tiene caudal conocido estä
mäs expuesto a la corrupciön y al cohecho; pero £qui£n serä el hombre que elija
para que lo gobieme a un hombre cuya opinion no esti medianamente establecida?
^No se interesa el amor propio y la conveniencia de cada uno de tos individuos de la
sociedad en hacer los mejores nombramientos posibles? ^No tenemos un ejemplo en
medio de los mismos desördenes de la antigua Roma y actualmente entre nosotros?" 53

Further on, in the same speech, Narino deals with the question of
the militia and the duty every citizen has to defend his country. Here
he says:
"Aunque todos los hombres estan obligados a tomar las armas en los peligros de la
patria, como el progreso de las luces y la divisiön del trabajo han hecho una ciencia
del arte militar, reducida a principios y a una practica continue, ya no es posible
que toda la sociedad se ocupe exclusivamente en la militia, porque en este caso,
ique era lo que ibamos a defender, si todos iramos soldados? Tenemos dos ejemplos
en la historia que han deslumbrado a muchos sabios, porque los sabios tambien se
acostumbran a repctir lo que los otros han dicho sin examen ni anälisis; £stos son
los de Roma y Esparta. Pero, scnores, fueron en esta parte los romanos y los
lacedemonios? El azote del genero humano, salteadores disciplinados; unos y otros
los verbis alimentändose de la sangre de los otros pueblos, ο del sudor de sus esclavos;
sin artes, sin comercio, entregaban la agricultura a manos mercenaries y desgraciadas,
y ellos no sabfan sino destruir los pueblos extraflos, ο hacer tumultos interiores"54.

32. In neighboring Venezuela, Fernando de Penalver (1775-1837),

Venezuelan patriot, wrote a Memoria sobre el problema constitutional
venezolano (1811) which he submitted on June 26, 1811, to the
Venezuelan Congress. In it he defended federalism, which later was
incorporated into the Venezuelan Constitution. The classical tradition
echoes in the following comments:

52
Ibidem, p. 140.
53
Ibidem, p. 141.
54
Ibidem, p. 142.
216 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

"jCuän funesta no fue a La Grccia la preponderancia que se disputaban Esparta y

Atenas en la liga anfictionica, linica causa de las contfnuas guerras que tuvieron estas
dos famosas republicas, y a las que comprometian las otras!"53

33. Venezuela's great hero and Latin America's greatest statesman,

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), was not only a famous military man
and a politician, but an aristocrat with an extraordinary education
which obviously included a profound knowledge of the Ancients.
It is thus not surprising that references to Ancient Greece and Old
Rome appear quite often in his writings and political documents.
We also see this classical tradition especially in his library, which
among the older works, included the following classical texts, either
in Spanish, French or English: Arrien, Expedition d'Alexandre and
an atlas; Plutarque, L'Odyssie d'Homere, Fites et courtisanes de la
Grece, Poesies d'Ossian, La Eneida de Virgilio, Comentarios de Cesar,
L'lliade d'Homere, ßpoques de l'Histoire Universelle, Histoire de
Polibe, Life of Scipio; Verdot, Histoire Romaine', Viaje de Anacarsis,
Commentaires de Cesar56.

34. In all of Bolivar's four main political statements we will find the
echo of the classical tradition. Thus, in the Manifiesto de Cartagena of
the year 1812, in which Bolivar gave an account of the experiences of
the first Venezuelan Republic with all its mistakes, he stated:
"Las republicas, dec (an nuestros estadistas, no han menester de hombres pagados
para mantener su libertad. Todos los ciudadanos serän soldados cuando nos ataque el
enemigo. Grecia, Roma, Venecia, Genova, Suiza, Holanda, y recientemente el Norte
de Amirica, vencieron a sus contrarios sin auxilio de tropas mercenarias siempre
prontas a sostener el despotismo y a subyugar a sus conciudadanos"57.

35. In Bolivar's Carta de Jamaica (1815), which like the earlier

Manifiesto de Cartagena is a stock-taking of the military situation,
he referred to M. de Pradt and the latter's idea of a partition of
Spanish America into seventeen monarchies. Bolivar agreed with the
first point in view of geography and history, but rejected the concept

55 Ibidem, vol. 1, p. 123.

56 Belaunde, op. cit., pp. 141-142, appendix to chapter X. This appendix lists all the
books which Bolivar carried with him during his military campaigns. See also Vicente
Lecuiia (ed.), Cartas del Libertudor, 10 vols. (Caracas 1929-1930), vol.7, pp. 155-156.
57 In: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 132.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 217

of monarchies citing Rome as an example S8 . It was also in this famous

Letter of Jamaica that he hoped a future confederation of the various
parts of Spanish America could be established. "Que bello serfa que
el Istmo de Panama fuese para nosotros lo que el de Corinto para los
griegos!"59

36. In his Discurso de Angostura (1819) Bolivar delved much deeper

than hitherto into ancient history and made several references to Greece
and Rome. He compared the end of the Spanish Empire in America to
the demise of the Roman Empire and said:
"Al desprenderse la Amirica de la Monarquia Espaiiola, se ha encontrado semejante
al Imperio Romano, cuando aquella enorme masa cayo dispersa en medio del antiguo
mundo. Cada desmembracion formo entonces una naci6n independiente conforme a
su situation ο a sus intereses; pcro con la diferencia de que aquellos miembros volvian
a restablecer sus primeras asociaciones. Nosotros ni aiin conservamos los vestigios
de lo que fud en otro tiempo; no somos europeos, no somos indios, sino una especie
media entre los aborigenes y los espanoles. Americanos por nacimiento y europeos
por derechos, nos hallamos en el conflicto de disputar a los naturales los titulos de
posesiön y de mantenernos en el pais que nos νίό nacer, contra la oposicion de los
invasores; asi nuestro caso es el mäs extraordinario y complicado" 60 .

Bolivar favored democracy despite the historic examples that

only aristocracies and monarchies united power with prosperity and
permanence61. In his view, only democracy generated absolute liberty,
and he recalled that "El hombre, al perder la libertad, decia Homero,
pierde la mitad de su espiritu"62. A government like Venezuela's should
be republican based on popular sovereignty with the separation of
powers, civil liberty, proscription of slavery and abolition of monarchy
and privileges, and added:
"... Que la historia nos sirva de guia en esta carrera. Atenas la primera nos da el
ejemplo mis brillante de una democracia absoluta, y al instante, la misma Atenas
nos ofrece el ejemplo mäs melancolico de la extrema debilidad de esta especie de
gobiemo. El mäs sabio legislador de Grecia no vio conservar su Republica diez
afios, y sufrio la humillaciön de reconocer la insuficiencia de la democracia absoluta
para regir ninguna especie de sociedad, ni aiin la mas culta, morigera y limitada,
porque sölo brilla con relämpagos de libertad. Reconozcamos, pues, que Solön ha

38
Ibidem, p. 94.
59
Ibidem, p. 97.
60
Ibidem, vol.2, p. 109.
61
Ibidem, p. 111.
42
Ibidem, p. 115.
218 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

desengafiado al mundo; y le ha ensenado cuän dificil es dirigir por simples leyes a

los hombres.
La Republica de Espaita, que parecia una invention quimörica, produjo mis efectos
reales que la obra ingeniosa de Solon. Gloria, virtud, moral, y por consiguiente la
felicidad nacional, fue el resultado de la Legislation de Licurgo. Aunque dos reyes en
un Estado son dos monstruos para devorarlo, Esparta poco tuvo que sentir en su doble
trono; en tanto que Atenas se prometia la suerte mäs esplindida, con una soberania
absoluta, libre election de magislrados, frecuentemente renovados. Leyes suaves,
sabias y polfticas. Pisistrato, usurpador y tirano, fue mäs saludable a Atenas que sus
leyes; y Pericles, aunque tambiέn usurpador, fue el mäs litil ciudadano. La Republica
de Tebas no tuvo mäs vida que la de Pelöpidas y Epaminondas; porque a veces
son los hombres, no los principios, los que forman los gobiernos. Los codigos, los
sistemas, los estatutos por sabios que sean son obras muertas que poco influyen sobre
las sociedades: j hombres virtuosos, hombres patriotas, hombres ilustrados constituyen
las republicas!
La Constituciön Romana es la que mayor poder y fortuna ha producido a ningiin
pueblo del mundo; alii no habia una exacta distribution de los poderes. Los
consules, el senado, el pueblo, ya eran legisladores, ya magistrados, ya jueces; todos
participaban de todos los poderes. El Ejecutivo, compuesto de dos cönsules, padecfa
del mismo inconveniente que el de Esparta. A pesar de su deformidad no sufrio la
Republica la desastrosa discordancia que toda previsiön habria supuesto inseparable,
de una magistratura compuesta de dos individuos, igualmente autorizados con las
facultades de un monarca. Un gobierno cuya unica inclinaciön era la conquista, no
parecia destinado a cimentar la felicidad de su naciön. Un gobierno monstruoso y
puramente guerrero, elevo a Roma al mäs alto esplendor de virtud y de gloria; y
formö de la Tierra un dominio romano para mostrar a los hombres de cuänto son
capaces las virtudes polfticas y cuin indiferentes suelen ser las instituciones" 63 .

And, finally, in regard to Bolivar's concept of a future hereditary senate,

he pointed out:
"... El Senado hereditario como parte del pueblo, participa de sus intereses, de sus
sentimientos y de su espiritu. Por esa causa no se debe presumir que un Senado
hereditario se desprenda de los intereses populäres, ni olvide sus deberes legislatives.
Los Senadores en Roma y los Lores en Londres han sido las columnas mäs firmes
sobre las que se ha fundado el edificio de la libertad politica y civil" 64 .

It was also in Angostura that Bolivar proposed his famous Moral

Power, a fourth branch of government, the Bolivarian version of the
pouvoir neutre of Benjamin Constant de Rebecque and the Doctrinaire
Liberals of Pierre-Paul Roy er Collard. It also represented a modern
version of the Greek Areopagus and of the Censors and domestic
Tribuns of the Romans, or as he himself stated:

M
Ibidem, pp. 115-116.
M
Ibidem, p. 118.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 219

"La educacion popular debe ser el cuidado primoginito del amor paternal del
Congreso. Moral y luces son los polos de una Republica, moral y luces son
nuestras primeras necesidades. Tomemos de Atenas su Areöpago, y los guardianes
de las costumbres y de las leyes; tomemos de Roma sus censores y sus tribunales
dom6sticos; y haciendo una santa alianza de-estas instituciones morales, renovemos
en el mundo la idea de un pueblo que no se contenta con ser libre y fuerte, sino que
quiere ser virtuoso. Tomemos de Esparta sus austeros establecimientos, y formando
de estos tres manantiales una fuente de virtud, demos a nuestra Republica una cuarta
potestad cuyo dominio sea la infancia y el corazön de los hombres, el espiritu publico,
las buenas costumbres y la moral republicans. Constiluyamos este Areöpago para que
vele sobre la educaciön de los ninos, sobre la instrueeiün nacional; para que purifique
lo que se haya corrompido en la Republica; que acuse la ingratitud, el egoismo, la
frialdad del amor a la patria, el ocio, la negligencia de los ciudadanos; que juzgue
de los principles de comipeiön, de los ejemplos perniciosos; debiendo corregir las
costumbres con penas morales, como las leyes castigan los delitos con penas aflictivas,
y no solamente lo que choca contra ellas, sino lo que las burla; no solamente lo que
las ataca, sino lo que las debilita; no solamente lo que viola la Constituciön, sino lo
que viola el respeto publico" 65 .

Bolivar's Moral Power had two chambers: one, the Chamber of

Morals, a kind of lay Inquisition in the words of Victor Andres
Belaunde66, which was to direct the moral opinion of the country, and
the other, the Chamber of Education which was to oversee the moral
and physical health of youth, a kind of Ministry of National Education
in the words of Charles Minguet67.

VIII. MEXICO

The Mexican case does not differ from the rest of Spanish-America.
Time and again individuals involved in the political struggle during the
Spanish-American Revolutions refer to Antiquity and show that they are
well acquainted with all aspects of the classical tradition using models
from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome to further their political views
and their patriotic causes.

37. There is, first of all, the famous Mexican patriot Francisco Primo
de Verdad y Ramos (1760-1808) of Aguascalientes, the spokesman for

45
Ibidem, p. 123.
66
Op. cit., p. 194.
<7
"D6mocratie et pouvoir chez Simon Bolivar", Paper submitted to the Symposium
El Mundo de los Libertadores. Sentido y proyecciön, held in Mexico City, October 25-29,
1982, p. 5.
220 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

the Mexican party at the Junta General of August 9, 1808, urged by

the Cabildo of the City of Mexico and convoked by Viceroy Jose de
Iturrigaray, in order to deal with the consequences of Bayonne and the
Napoleonic usurpation of the Spanish throne. It was in that meeting
that Primo de Verdad had invoked the pactum translations in favour
of the Mexican people and based his arguments on the legislation of
the Siete Partidas: the reason for the convocation of general Cortes in
New Spain was the fact that the legitimate metropolitan authorities had
vanished and that the people, source and origin of sovereignty, ought to
resume its authority in order to set up a provisional government which
would fill the vacuum created by the absence and apparent perpetual
dethronement of the Spanish kings 68 . Primo de Verdad, who was then
jailed by the Royalist authorities and who died in his cell in 1808,
was also the author of a posthumously published Report which he had
written before his arrest. This Report began by referring to the classical
tradition, as follows:
"DOS SON las autoridades legitimas que reconocemos, la primera es de nuestros
soberanos, y la segunda de los ayuntamientos aprobada y confirmada por aquellos.
La primera puede faltar faltando los Reyes y de consiguiente falta en los que le han
tecibido como una fuente que mana por canales diversas; la segunda es indefectible,
p o r s e r i n m o r t a l e l p u e b l o , y hallarse en libertad no habiendo reconocido otro
soberano extranjero que le oprima con la fuerza, y a quien haya manifestado täcita ο
expresamente su voluntad y homenajes; por esto, algunos publicistas han calificado
de verdadero regicidio, digno de severe castigo, el homicidio que el senado de Roma
cometiö en la persona de Cesar, a quien ya habia reconocido por verdadero soberano
con repetidos actos de sumision y vasallaje, aunque otros lo han proclamado como a
un tirano sin derecho para esclavizar a su patria"69.

38. Another famous Mexican very much linked to the classical tradition
was the patriot fray Servando Teresa de Mier Noriega y Guerra (1763—
1827). "Passionate, arrogant and uncompromising", as Henry Bamford
Parkes called him 70 , fray Servando was also a typical Don Quijote in
the best traditions of the Spanish race. Liberal Catholic and republican,
aristocrat and nationalist, he led a life full of turmoil, permanently in
opposition to civil and ecclesiastical authorities. In his Segunda Carta

611
Ricardo Majo Framis, Vidas de los navegantes, conquistadores y colonizadores
espanoles de los siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII, 3 vols. (Madrid 1954), vol. 3: Colonizadores y
fundadores en tndias, p. 1227. See also Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, El virrey Iturrigaray y
los origenes de la independencia de Mexico (Madrid 1941), pp. 133-180.
69
"Memoria postuma" (1808): Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 89.
70
A History of Mexico (London 1962), p. 119.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 221

de un americano al Espanol sobre su nümero XIX. Contestaciön a su

respuesta dada en el nümero XXIV (London 1812), which was part of
a polemic which fray Servando carried on with Jose Maria Blanco
[White], the editor of El Espanol in London during 1810-1814, he
stated:
"jY que esto se alegue seriamente para que sigamos sometidos a los espanoles, que
pasan en todo el mundo por ser los sarracenos de la Europa! ; , r i s u m r e n e a t i s ,
a m i c i ? Usted mismo ha dicho en otra parte que Espana sin talentos, industria ni
saber, era la menos digna de exigir una sumisiön entera de los americanos: y sin
que usted lo dijese cualquiera sabe, que sus sabios son como las naves de Eneas:
a p p a r e n t rari n a n t e s in g u r g i t e v a s t o

39. In his famous Historia de la revoluciön de Nueva Espana,

antiguamente Anähuac, ο verdadero origen y causas de ella, con la
relation de sus progresos hasta el presente ano de 1813, fray Servando
pointed out:
"Hay en la antigüedad un pasaje semejante, en que a la potencia entonces mäs
poderosa en marina de la Europa que era Atenas, recurrieron los corintios y sus
colonos los corcyreos, entre quienes habfa comenzado una guerra cruel con motivo
del Epidamne, aunque ya estaban desde antes indispuestos los änimos. Alegaban los
corintios que sus colonos no les querian ceder el puesto de honor en los juegos
olimpicos, que no presidia a los auspicios sobre las victimas un sacerdote corintio,
y que no pedian un jefe de aquel pais para conducir a costas lejanas sus nuevos
establecimientos. {Que diferencia de derechos los que exigian a sus colonias las
metröpolis griegas, a la esclavitud y el peso del monopolio que impone a las suyas la
modema civilizada Europa! AI principio de la historia puse por epigrafe parte de la
arenga que hicieron los colonos. El pueblo de Atenas porque estaba confederado con
los corintios no mandö contra ellos sus naves; pero ordenö que istas impidiesen fuesen
subyugados los colonos, los cuales triunfaron en efecto con el socorro ateniense.
Yo bien &έ que si en Inglaterra mandase como en Atica el pueblo, el resultado de
la demanda entre americanos y espanoles hubiera sido el mismo; y aiin igual su
respuesta a la que dieron los atenienses de la escuadra a las quejas de los corintios
desbaratados y confusos. 'Guerreros de Corinto, les dijeron: ni violamos la alianza
con vosotros, ni obramos injustamente. Estamos aqui para defender nuestros aliados
de Corcyra: bogad al puesto amigo que os convenga, y no pondremos obstäculo:
pero si os proponiis desembarcar en Corcyra ο alguna de sus dependencias, haremos
nuestros esfuerzos para frustrar vuestras tentativas'" 72 .

40. In the same work fray Servando referred to Tiberius, when he said:

71
in: Ideario Politico, Pr<51ogo, notas y cronologia de Edmundo O'Gorman (Barcelona
1978), p. 45.
72
2 vols. (London 1813), quoted from: Romero and Romero (eds.), op. cit., v o l . 2 ,
p. 47.
222 Ο. Carlos Stoetzer

"Todo lo preveia la diputacion amencana, y exponia la division que iba a apoderarse

de sus pueblos; pero no reflexionaban que el sembrarla, mantenerla y aumentarla ha
sido el plan constante de la Espana para rcinar a su sombra segiin lo aprendieron de
Tiberio. Era tan groseramente visible esta arteria que Humboldt la noto y anoto en
varias partes ,.."73

41. Still, in the same Historia de la revoluciön de Nueva Espana, fray

Servando quoted Tacitus in relation to the Spanish conquest of Mexico,
as follows:
"... apoyando a los unos como aliados v.g. los tlaxcaltecas, exigiendo la ayuda de
los otros, y al fin agraviindolos a todos para que todos tomasen las armas en su
defensa, y arrollarlos despuis de divididos y debilitados a titulo de darles la paz, ni
mis ni menos que Bonaparte ejecuta: ο por mejor decir, todos los conquistadores,
pues de los romanos en Inglaterra escribfa Tacito: ' a u f e r r e , t r u c i d a r e , r a p e r e ,
i m p e r i u m : ubi s o l i t u d i n e m f a c i u n t , p a c e m appellant"'74.

42. Later, in the same Historia, fray Servando repeated the above
reference to Athens' alliance with Corcyra and its relation to the
Corinthians75, and ended the work with another link to the classical
tradition. His devotion to Bartolome de Las Casas was such that
Mexican independence required, as a first gesture of gratitude, a
monument to his hero, the genius of America and the apostle of the
Indians. Thus he stated:
"En fin, si exterminada esta fuereis libres, la gratitud exige, que el primer monumento
erigido por manos libres sea al hombre celeste, que tanto pugn<5 por la libertad de los
antiguos americanos contra los furores de la conquista, a nuestro abogado infatigable,
a nuestro verdadero apöstol, modelo acabado de la caridad evang61ica y digno de
estar sobre los altares por el voto del universo, menos de algunos espanoles. Casas,
perseguido por ellos trescientos aiios, debe hallar un asilo entre sus hijos. Alrededor
de su estatua formad vuestros pactos y entonad a la libertad vuestros cänticos: ningun
aroma mäs grato puede ofrecerse al genio tutelar de las Americas, obispo del Cuzco y
de Chiapa, para damos en una y otra derecho a sus benedicciones. Su sombra os harä
respetar de todas las naciones, y nadie podrä persuadirse que el pueblo de Casas no
sea virtuoso. Asi como decia un filosofo de la antigiiedad, que desembarcando en una
playa si viese sobre la arena una figura geom6trica, deduciria que habia surgido en un
pueblo culto, en viendo los extranjeros la estatua de Casas conocerän, sin duda, que
se hallan en un pueblo justo, humano, dulce, caritativo y hospitalero. Yo le pondna
esta inscripciön tan sencilla como el hiroe: ' jExtranjero! si amares la virtud, detente
y venera. Este es Casas, el padre de los Indios'"16.

73
In: Ideario Politico, p. 119.
74
Ibidem, p. 141.
75
Ibidem, pp. 159-160.
76
Ibidem, p. 164.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-Amcrican Revolutions 223

This was obviously a reference to Leonid and the Thermopylae (485-

480 BC), the valiant struggle of the 300 Spartans against Xerxes and his
10.000 Persians, and to the inscription which for much time could be
seen and which showed the names of the warriors with the statement:
"Traveller, go and tell Sparta that here we died obeying its laws!"

43. In his Memoria Politico-Instructiva, enviada desde Filadelfia en

agosto de 1821, α los jefes independientes delAnähuac, llamado por los
espanoles Nueva Espana, his third famous book and as classic of the
period as the Cartas de un americano and the Historia de la revolution
de Nueva Espana, fray Servando again made many references to the
classical tradition. Hostile to the idea of a Mexican monarchy, fray
Servando expressed this view:
"|Y todavia queremos emperadores ο reyes! jO hombres nacidos para la servidumbre!
como decia el emperador Sergio enhastiado de la vileza con que se prostituian a
sus caprichos los senadores de Roma: Ό homines ad servitutem natosV Eso se
quem'an nuestros antiguos amos, eso se querrian todos los de Europa. Tener acä
lo que llaman sus hermanos para mancomunar sus inteFeses, encorvamos bajo su
prepotencia, enervamos con la profusion de sus gastos, y dividirnos en pequefios
reinos segün la mäxima de Tiberio, para tenemos bajo su influencia, intimidamos con
sus amenazas, y mantenemos en el fango de la servidumbre. 'Divide ut imperes'"'.11.

44. In his further discussion of the question of monarchy, fray Servando

often referred to the Holy Scriptures, and also to Bishop Bossuet stating
that nowhere was it said that monarchy was of God's design; on the
contrary, the supreme law to be followed had always been the people's
happiness: "salus populi suprema lex est"1*.

45. Still continuing with the same discussion, fray Servando argued,
as follows:
"Los que estän acostumbrados al silencio que reina en las monarqufas al derredor de
la tumba de la libertad, se escandalizan de la inquietud y divisiones que hay en una
repiiblica, especialmente al principio cuando se estän zanjando sus cimientos ... Los
hombres no cantan unisonos sino solfeando bajo la vara del despotismo; porque cada
uno piensa con su cabeza, y quot capita, tot sentenciae. Los que prefieren comer ajos
y cebollas en la servidumbre de Egipto a los trabajos necesarios para atraversar el
desierto, no son dignos de Uegar a la tierra de promision. Yo digo lo que aquel politico

77
Ibidem, pp. 207-208.
78
Ibidem, p. 214.
224 Ο. Carlos Stoetzcr

insigne Täcito: 'Mas quiero la libertad peligrosa que la servidumbre tranquila. Mala
periculosam libertatem, quam liberum servilium'"79.

46. Finally, in his later life as a deputy for the Province of Nuevo Leon,
elected in 1822, fray Servando played an important role in the Mexican
Congress. In most of his speeches he referred to the Ancients. Thus, to
give but one example of the classical tradition, in his discussion of the
nullity of Iturbide's coronation, he brought into it St. Thomas and the
medieval concepts of the tyrannus a regimine and tyrannus ab origine
as well as the Romans. Thus, he stated:
".,, En doctrina de Santo Tomas, aun respecto de un rey legitimo que se hace tirano
porque en el capitulo 6 del libro 1° del Rigimen de los principes ensena, que donde
el pueblo ha elegido a un monarca, tiene derecho para deponerle y castigarle por
medio de la autoridad publica, no obstante haberle prestado juramento de fidelidad,
porque el tirano, fue el primero que faltö al pacto social. Y lo prueba con el ejemplo
de los romanos que dieron muerte a Tarquino, y del senado romano que a pufialadas
se deshizo de Domiciano, aboliendo todos sus decretos, de que resulto la libertad de
San Juan Evangelista. /.Que diria, pues, de un tirano que nunca fue emperador sino
usurpador?" 80

It would be tedious to continue with more examples. Suffice it

to mention only that in all of fray Servando's works, famous Latin
quotations were stated more than once, such as: "vim vi repellere
licet", "popule meus, qui te beatum dicunt, ipsi te decipiunt", "timeo
Danaos et dona ferentes", "... Moriamur et in media arma ruamus.
Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem", "quod ab initio non subsistit,
progressu temporis non convalescit", "Malo periculosam libertatem,
quam liberum servitium", "Ο homines ad servitutem natos!", "Divide
ut imperes", "Salus populi suprema lex est", "Regnum meum non est de
hoc mundo", "Semper bonos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt",
"Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae", "Ab initio autem
non suit sit", "qui debet praesse omnibus, ab omnibus eligatur", "Nihil
volitum quin prae cognitum", "Ne sequaris turbam adfaciendum calum,
nec in judicio plurimorum acquiescas sententiae, ut a vero devies", "Nec
civium ardor prava jubentium, Nec vultus instantis tyrani, Mente quatit

79
Ibidem, p. 217.
so "jy p a ( j r e Mier en el Congreso Constituyente Mexicano": ibidem, p. 253.
 Classical Influences During the Spanish-American Revolutions 225

solida", "Seditione, dolis, scelere, atque libidine, et ria, Iliacos intra

muros peccatur, et extra", "si vis pacem, para bellum"81.

ix. CONCLUSION

In sum, the importance of the classical tradition during the Spanish-

American Revolutions is thus an acknowledged documented fact.
Not only did the classical tradition signify a relevant factor but
represented an impressive demonstration of its strength and vitality,
most remarkably in times of a civil war, of such turmoil and violence.
Time and again statesmen and military leaders, men of letters and
philosophers referred to it as part of their culture, and not only the
more traditional regions of Spanish America, such as New Spain,
New Granada and Peru were affected by this classical tradition, but
also the more modern areas like the River Plate and Venezuela.
Thus, the classical tradition played a truly extraordinary role in this
historic period, even though it did not furnish the intellectual lever
of the Revolution, which was Hispanic and medieval. This medieval
tradition, however, in itself provided a powerful link to the world
of the Ancients, since Francisco Suärez and other magni Hispani of
the Seconda Scolastica and St. Thomas Aquinas based themselves on
Aristotle.

RESUMEN

La tradition cläsica desempefio un papel extraordinario durante todo

el periodo de la emancipation iberoamericana. En primer lugar, la
tradieiün medieval con su filosofia escolästica, que se manifestö como
aut6ntico motor de los acontecimientos revolucionarios, representa un
puente i n d i r e c t o al mundo cläsico de Grecia y Roma, especialmente
a traves de Aristoteles. Si bien la tradieiön cläsica no suministrara
d i r e c t a m e n t e las ideas y las leyes e instituciones al movimiento
emancipador, ella estuvo presente a todos los niveles y con todos y
cada uno de los proceres, lo cual no debe sorprender, ya que todo

81
Ibidem, pp. 27, 59, 71 and 220, 73 and 224, 89, 193, 207, 208, 214, 232, 238, 258,
259, 260, 292, 296 and 298.
226 Ο. Carlos Stoet7.cr

el vasto campo de la education habia sido tradicional y estrictamente

dogmätico en lo religioso, social y politico.
La importancia de la tradition cläsica durante el periodo de la
emancipation estä asi bien documentada y es asunto reconocido. No
solamente signified la tradieiön cläsica un factor de gran relevancia,
sino que demostro, al mismo tiempo, una fuerza y una vitalidad
impresionantes, hecho notable en tiempos de grandes convulsiones, y
dio muestra del alto grado que habia alcanzado la civilization y la
cultura iberoamericanas a fines de la Uamada epoca colonial.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG

Die klassische Überlieferung spielte während der gesamten ibero-

amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitsepoche eine außerordentlich bedeut-
same Rolle, wobei die hier zunächst zu erwähnende mittelalterliche
Tradition, deren scholastische Philosophie als wirkliche Antriebskraft
der revolutionären Geschehnisse zur Geltung kam, besonders durch
den Rekurs auf Aristoteles als i n d i r e k t e s Bindeglied zur griechisch-
römischen Antike fungierte. Auch wenn die klassische Tradition der
Befreiungsbewegung nicht u n m i t t e l b a r das Vorbild für Ideen, Ge-
setze und Institutionen lieferte, war sie doch auf allen Ebenen und bei
allen Unabhängigkeitsführern immer gegenwärtig - ein Umstand, der
nicht überraschen kann, da ja das gesamte Erziehungswesen durch die
Tradition bestimmt und in religiöser, sozialer und politischer Hinsicht
dogmatisch ausgerichtet war.
Die Bedeutung der klassischen Tradition während der Unabhän-
gigkeitsepoche ist daher wohl dokumentiert und allgemein anerkannt.
Darüber hinaus bewies die klassische Überlieferung eine beeindrucken-
de - insbesondere in Zeiten großer Umwälzungen bemerkenswerte -
Stärke und Vitalität, womit sie Zeugnis ablegte von der hohen Stufe,
welche die iberoamerikanische Kultur am Ende der sogenannten Kolo-
nialzeit erreicht hatte.