Argentine Constitution of 1853
Encyclopedia
The Argentine Constitution of 1853 was the first constitution of Argentina
, approved with the support of the governments of the provinces
—though without that of the Buenos Aires Province
, who remained separated of the Argentine Confederation
until 1859, after several modifications to the original constitution— sanctioned on May 1853 by the Constitutional Convention gathered in Santa Fe
, and promulgated by the head of the national executive government Justo José de Urquiza
.
In spite of a number of reforms of different importance, the 1853 constitution is still substantially the base of the current Argentine juridical system. It was closely inspired by the juridical and political doctrines of the United States
federal
Constitution, establishing for instance a Republic
an division of powers, a high level of independence for the provinces, and a federal power controlled by a strong executive government yet limited by a bicameral national congress to equilibrate the population's representation with equity among the provinces.
The model, elaborated by the constitutional deputies from the precedent constitutional attempts and the pioneer work of Juan Bautista Alberdi
, has been the target of repeated critics; the mechanism of federal model has been objected, and its true effectiveness has been questioned for being based in foreign experiences instead of following the peculiar Argentine history
, far different from the North America
n colonialism by the British
.
Nevertheless, the historical importance of the constitutional project has been unquestionable, and virtually all disputes regarding the political theory and practice in modern Argentina include an either positive or negative reference on the political consequences of the 1853 constitution.
For the Generation of '80
, the settlers of the first liberal conventions on Argentine historiography
, the constitution represented a true foundational act that broke the long government of Juan Manuel de Rosas
. The members of the Generation of '80
praised especially the fact that the Constitution had established a Europe
an-style liberal political regime. However, at the time when it was sanctioned, it had been strongly opposed by some of them. For the UCR, of social-democrat tendencies, the constitution represented an unfulfilled political ideal against the oligarchic
government Generation of 1880s, perpetuated in power through electoral fraud
. At the same time, for the nationalist movements of the 20th century, who criticised the liberal conventions and praised Rosas' figure, the constitution had represented the renouncement of the national identity towards the ruin of liberalism. In different fronts, the discussion remains open, and has inspired several of the most important works of the Argentine thinking.
from the Viceroyalty of the River Plate, was one of the main concerns after the resignation of the last viceroy; though the more urgent concern of making the sovereign control effective against the resisting Spanish
royal forces in an extensive armed confrontation put on hold the organisational decisions of the republic, though much was discussed and written on the matter that would later be taken into account.
The formation of the First Junta
and its continuation in the Junta Grande
, which included provincial delegates, gave testimony of the division of interests between the city of Buenos Aires
and the other landlocked provinces. In part, such division already existed during colonial times, when the port of Buenos Aires gave the city commercial interest far different from the artisanal and agricultural countryside.
Buenos Aires was benefited from the traffic of goods brought by ships from the United Kingdom
, to which it paid with the taxes collected from the exportation of the country's agricultural production —mainly raw leather and minerals— the discrepancies between the merchants that brought industrialised goods from the United Kingdom and the producers of the provinces that couldn't compete with the European industrial power, raised diverse conflicts during the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. With the Declaration of Independence
in 1825, the first juridical bases had a marked Unitarian
characteristic.
The first project to converge the successive attempts that defined the different organs of the national executive power in the first years of organization was the convocation in 1812 of the General Constituent Assembly with the purpose of dictating the fundamental law for the national organization. The Assembly of the 1813
gathered on January 31 of that year, and worked for over 2 years until 1815. It dictated the regulations for the administration, the statute for the executive power, and promulgated several norms regulation for the legislature that would be in use the following years.
But the assembly was unable to dictate the national constitution; there were 4 projects of constitution, one written by the Patriotic Society, another one by the assessorial commission designated by the Second Triumvirate
, and two anonymous republican projects, introducing the division of powers of the model of the French Revolution
, though still strongly centralist, delegating most of the public power to the hands of a central executive branch with seat in Buenos Aires.
This, added to the absence of some provincial deputies, prevented an agreement on the subject. The lack of definitions from the Assembly after two years of deliberations was one of the arguments for which Carlos María de Alvear
proposed the creation of a temporal one-man regime, known as Directorio (Directorate). The Assembly voted favourably, but since it had no support from the effective control of the civilian and military forces it forced the creation of a project for the Congress of Tucumán
of 1816.
The action of the congress in that sense was limited, though fruitful in other aspects; it declared the independence
on July 9, 1816, but deliberations regarding the form of government proved harder. In it struggled liberal thinkers compromised with a republican government, and those in favour of a constitutional monarchy
. Among the later was José de San Martín
, who proposed to establish a descendant of the Incas in the national throne. The monarchic followers claimed it impossible to erect a republic without historically developed institutions, and that it would form an unstable and weak government, while its opponents pointed the lack of inherited prejudices as one of the main reasons to attempt a democratic government.
The congress had to be moved to Buenos Aires at the beginning of 1817 after the threat of the Spanish royal forces advancing over the northern part of the country; on December 3 of that year a provisory regulation was sanctioned, though the provincial delegates considered that moving the congress to Buenos Aires was oriented to give pressure on the congressmen to secure the Buenos Aires porteño
benefit in the concluding constitutional text.
In 1819 these fears became true in the project of the Argentine Constitution of 1819
, characterised by a strong centralism around Buenos Aires. The text didn't even aboard the subject of the method of election of the Director of State, but guarantied him wide competences, including the designation of the provincial governments and the heads of the national administration.
The congress also ordered San Martín and Manuel Belgrano
to return to the capital with their armies, to defend the authority of the Directory; but both generals refused to follow those orders. San Martín held his troops in Rancagua
(present Chile
) and dictated the Act of Rancagua, for which he ignored the authority of the Directory after such orders; Belgrano behave differently, made a pact with the federal forces of José Gervasio Artigas
, while the Northern Army revolved and putting itself under the orders of the governor of Córdoba
. The tension was finally broke at the Battle of Cepeda
of 1820, when the united tropes of the provinces defeated the Director José Rondeau
. As its result the Treaty of Pilar
was signed, establishing a federally organised government in which Buenos Aires would be one of the 13 provinces.
Even though defeated in combat, the Unitarian
idealism kept vigorous in Buenos Aires. Bernardino Rivadavia
, minister of governor Martín Rodríguez, redesigned the project of constitution of 1819 in more republican terms, and was approved by the legislature of Buenos Aires on September 1 of 1826, but rejected by the rest of the provinces. The following years represented the temporal decline of the Unitarism and the rise of provincial Caudillo
s. These saw in the project of the constitution an administrative option to displace the Buenos Aires hegemony; the governors of Santiago del Estero
Juan Felipe Ibarra, Córdoba
Mariano Fragueiro and La Rioja
Facundo Quiroga urged, at the beginning of the 1830, to create a representative assembly directed by Quiroga, who even used the writings of young Juan Bautista Alberdi
, author of the bases
for the 1853 constitution, for the project.
A first attempt of consent was achieved with the Federal Pact
of 1831, signed by Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe, to which the rest of the provinces would eventually subscribe.
The main opposition to a constitutional assembly was from Buenos Aires, yet not from the literate citizens and Unitarian businessmen, but from Buenos Aires caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas
who claimed it was too soon to seal a constitution. The assassination of Quiroga in Barranca Yaco
put an end to the initiative of the caudillos of the interior.
The Federal Pact stipulated the formation of a Representative Commission with seat in the city of Santa Fe
, to which each of the subscribed provinces would send a delegate with certain powers of decision, such as of war and peace declaration, the selection of the heads of the battalions, and voice in the national subjects to be decided by the Federative Congress, such as the country's administration, internal and foreign bossiness, and the range of each province's independence.
Many points of the Federal Pact were never followed; though it is mentioned by the 1853 constitution as one of the pre-existent pacts, it was not in effect during the Rosas hegemony who insisted in the inadequacy of a premature constitution. This attitude became evident in 1847 when Alberdi, from exile, invited the members of the exiled intellectual ambient to collaborate with Rosas to intercede for desired constitution. Rosas seamed to completely ignore the petition, but other federal caudillos, in special Justo José de Urquiza
, would pay attention to it.
that left Justo José de Urquiza
in charge of the national business. On April 6, 1852 Urquiza had a meeting with governors Vicente López y Planes
of Buenos Aires, Juan Pujol of Corrientes, and delegates of Santa Fe, were it was decided to call for a Constitutional Congress under the terms of the Federal Pact
of 1831. The decision of opening the congress in August of the following year was communicated to the rest of the provinces.
Urquiza was aware of the strong opposition within the Buenos Aires elite to his mandate and any attempt of limiting the hegemony of the port city over the rest of the country. To calm that opposition, Urquiza gave Pujol and Santiago Derqui
the assignment of elaborating a constitutional project that would be less harsh to the porteño
interests. On May 5 he gathered with some of the most influential characters of Buenos Aires —among which were Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield
, Valentín Alsina
, Tomás Guido
and Vicente Fidel López
— to propose them to revive the constitutional project of 1826 of Rivadavia
in exchange of support for his authority in front of the national government, but the project was rejected.
The definitive meeting with the provincial delegates took place in San Nicolás de los Arroyos
on May 29.. Deliberations lasted for two days before they signed the San Nicolás Agreement
, which granted provisional Directorship of the Confederation to Urquiza, and set the opening of the constitutional convention for August, to which each province would send 2 representatives. Besides the provinces that were directly represented —Entre Ríos by Urquiza; Buenos Aires by López y Planes; Corrientes by Benjamín Virasoro; Santa Fe by Domingo Crespo
; Mendoza
by Pascual Segura; San Juan
by Nazario Benavides; San Luis
by Pablo Lucero; Santiago del Estero by Manuel Taboada; Tucumán
by Celedonio Gutiérrez; and La Rioja by Vicente Bustos— also adhered to the treaty Catamarca
, who also designated Urquiza as its representer, and Córdoba, Salta
and Jujuy
, who would ratify it later.
The Buenos Aires opposition reacted quickly, Alsina, Bartolomé Mitre
, Vélez Sársfield and Ireneo Portela confronted López y Planes, who they considered had ideals too close to those of Urquiza, and denounced López y Planes' vote had no validity affirming he had no attributions to sign it in name of the Buenos Aires government, and that the treaty jeopardised the rights of the province while giving despotic attributions to Urquiza. The following debates, known as the Jornadas de Junio, concluded with the resignation of López y Planes on June 23 of 1852. The legislature elected Manuel Pinto to replace him, but Urquiza made use of the attributions given to him by the treaty to call a federal intervention that dissolved the provincial legislature and reestablished López y Planes at its head.
When López y Planes resigned for a second time, Urquiza assumed the government of the province himself, naming a state conceal of 15 members as deliberating organ.
Urquiza personally controlled the government of the province until September, when he left to Santa Fe
for the constitutional convention together with elected deputies Salvador María del Carril
and Eduardo Lahitte, leaving General José Miguel Galán as provisional governor.
Three days later, on September 11, Mitre, Alsina and Lorenzo Torres revolted against Galán's forces, and restored the legislature. On September 22 they would revoke their adhesion to the treaty, and rejected the authority of Urquiza. They also sent José María Paz
to extend the revolt to the provinces of the interior, who did not succeeded, but they acquired certain support that prevented Urquiza from directly attacking the revolt, and forced him to negotiate with the revolters, sending Federico Báez to Buenos Aires for that purpose.
Buenos Aires called back its deputies from the Constitutional Assembly, and incited the other provinces to do the same. Given the negative of the governments of the other provinces to cancel the assembly, Alsina y Mitre attempted to weaken Urquiza's position and power, and sent forces to attack the provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe and Córdoba. On November 21 an army under the command of Juan Madariaga attempted to take over the city of Concepción del Uruguay
, but was repelled by the forces of Ricardo López Jordán
, who quickly informed Urquiza of the situation. Also Paz could not advance over Santa Fe, and Mitre didn't succeed in convincing Corrientes governor Pujol to attack Entre Ríos, for Pujol joined Urquiza.
Without the representatives of Buenos Aires but with the support of all the other provinces, the Constitutional Convention started its sessions in November 1852.
established an equalitarian representation for all the provinces of the Confederation, with two delegated for each one. This was one of the points of rupture with Buenos Aires
, the most populated of all the provinces, who pretended an assignation of delegates numbers a proportionally to the provinces' population. Such scheme would have had granted Buenos Aires 18 delegates, little short from achieving its own quorum
.
The differences between provinces resulted in a variety of profiles of the delegates, of which many had no education in law, such as military religious and literates. Some of them had also been in exile during the government of Rosas, while others had political activity in that period. These differences would translate in discrepancies, such as the religious posture of the Constitution, and the position on the problem of the Buenos Aires hegemony.
After Salvador María del Carril
and Eduardo Lahitte had left the assembly as ordered by the Buenos Aires government installed after the revolt, the member of the constitutional Convention were:
Some of the delegates were not native to the provinces they represented, and other had not resided in them for a long time, what the opposition of Buenos Aires exploited, calling them alquilones ("rentals").
The historical revisionism in Argentina has emphasised this, suggesting that these congressmen were not completely representative of the provincial population, to which other point out that the selection of the delegates of all the provinces was not precisely popular, since it was composed of jurists and intellectuals, many of which had been in the exile for years during the government of Rosas.
The president of the convention was Zuviría, who doctored in law at the National University of Córdoba and participated of the redaction of the first constitution of its province on August 9, 1821. Domingo Crespo
, governor of Santa Fe, inaugurated of the sessions on November 20, 1852 in absence of Urquiza, who was fighting the Buenos Aires forces. Zuviría then pointed out the difficulties the convention would have to face, specially regarding the armed confrontation with Buenos Aires, and the lack of a constitutional background. To this, Santa Fe delegate Manuel Leiva replayed that it was imperious to move forwards with celery, before the urgency of a constitution. After a tense deliberation the position of Leiva prevailed.
, Gorostiaga, Colodrero and Ferré.
Even though most provinces already had their own constitution which could have been used as a model, these were judged inconvenient for the national organization, for they followed a centralised model whereas the delegates procured a federal
organization.
The models to follow were the few available constitutions: the Constitution of United States
of 1787, the Spanish Constitution of 1812
, the Constitution of Switzerland
of 1832, the Chile
an Federal Laws of 1826 and Political Constitution of 1833, and the republican constitutions of France
of 1793
and 1848
, but also in the work of Juan Bautista Alberdi
, exiled in Chile, who had sent months before a project of constitution to Juan María Gutiérrez, and in Rivadavia
's Unitarian
constitution of 1826, which was adapted to the federal form, but also kept several parts untouched.
Gutiérrez and Gorostiaga, part of the Constitutional Business Commission, were in charge of the redaction of the fore-project.
Gutiérrez had already part of it through correspondence with Alberdi, to whom he suggested to include to the second edition of his Bases a developed project, to facilitate the constitutional work; the main job was in Gorostiaga's hands, who worked on it from December 25 to mid February. Gorostiaga consulted the Constitution of the United States, a poor but only available translation of Venezuela
n military Manuel García de Sena, the work of Alberdi, and mainly the constitution of 1826. From the later he took the sections on individual guarantees, the composition of the legislative, and the competence of the executive power.
Once finished the project found the resistance within the commission by Leiva, Díaz Colodrero and Ferré, particularly on the status of the Catholic Church within the state, and the position of the Buenos Aires city.
The composition of the commission in charge of the redaction of the text, not very representative of the entire assembly, had to be modified in the session of February 23 to let the project move forwards, though there was a delay of two months due to the political situation. On March 9 Ferré and Zuviría, who had been sent to negotiate with the revolved porteño
s, made a pact the reinstitution of the deputies of Buenos Aires to the Convention, with a representation according to the population. The negotiations though didn't finish positively, and after a long wait the sessions were restarted on April 15 as requested by Urquiza, who pretended to have the full text by May.
The similarity of the constitutional text with that of United States was not welcomed by all the congressmen; Zuviría read at the inauguration of the sessions of April 20 a long speech against the indiscriminate application of foreign principles to a country whose organization, he said, was not habituated to it. He proposed instead to make a study of local institutions and use it as a base. Together with friar Pérez, Centeno and Díaz Colodrero, they were the only ones to vote against the fore-project. The rest of the congressmen, either for ideologic reasons or for the political urgency of establishing a national constitution, decided to support the initiative of the commission; the text would be worked out in the following ten days.
The boycott started by the porteño
s revived an already traditional conflict between Buenos Aires
and the other provinces, sharpened by the strong hand of Rosas who had governed the country favouring the porteños. One of the most controversial issues was the customs taxes, which —being Buenos Aires the main deep-waters port of the country and the only one with active traffic of goods with Europe
— were collected almost entirely in that city.
The negation of sharing those profits for the national finances had always been one of the main point of controversy between Urquiza and the oligarchy
of Buenos Aires; at the same time it confronted the interests of the businessmen of the city, supporters of a liberal commerce
, and the artisans and small industries of the interior, who without any kind of protection or importations restrictions could not compete and develop.
Most of the constitutional delegates, but especially Gorostiaga and Gutiérrez, urged to favour measures for finishing with the hegemony of the port city, federalising the territory of the city of Buenos Aires, and separating it that way from the interests of the Buenos Aires Province
.
At the same time a moderate group, headed by Zuviría and Roque Gondra, considered such federalization wouldn't be convenient, for it would upset the porteños and void any attempt of negotiation to pacifically reincorporate it to the Confederation. The major fraction affirmed that the opportunity to expose their reasons had already been rejected when Buenos Aires withdrew its representatives, and that the constitutional will wouldn't vacillate to take arms against the very capital were it necessary for the future country's welfare.
After arduous negotiations they arrived to a compromise solution, in which Buenos Aires was made capital by the 3rd article, but tied to a special law, approved together with the constitution, in order to facilitate a possible future modification. Nevertheless, the affirmation of the sovereignty of the Convention over the territories of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province was made explicit in several articles, including the 3rd, 32nd, 34th, and 42nd. The 42nd article states the election of senators and deputies also for the capital (federal district), the 64th stipulated for the National Congress the exclusivity of the legislation in the territory of the federal capital, the 83rd conceded to the President of the Nation the control over the capital, and the 91st stated there the residence of the National Supreme Court. The law for a federal capital was finally approved with prescriptions for the case of being unable to immediately set the capital in Buenos Aires, as indeed happened.
Another problematic issue was the Freedom of religion
, to which a group of a few though influent delegates firmly opposed, headed by Centeno, Pérez, and strongly supported by Zuviría, Leiva and Díaz Colodrero. The arguments of the argument ranged from theologic-juridical, for which Centeno affirmed the freedom of cult to be a natural right, to the pragmatic-historical, with Díaz Colodrero and Ferré stating that the existence of other cults could irritate the people and foment the apparition of new caudillo
s that would predicate in opposition to the constitution.
On the contrary, those more influenced by Alberdi
and the ideas of the Generation of 1837 pleaded for the freedom of cults, pointing it would favour the immigration to Argentina, would simplify the relations with other states —such as the treaty with the United Kingdom
in 1925— and that the conscience was not a matter of legislation but of public acts.
The liberal sector prevailed 13 against 5, but the argument was dragged down to the abolition of religious privilege statutes; the obligation of professing the Catholic religion for all the state functionaries; and the conversion of the Native Americans
.
Finally it was decided that only the president had to be Catholic, condition that was held until the constitutional reform
of 1994.
The preamble was destined to affirm the legitimation of the Constitution, synthesising the legislative and political program of the conventional delegates. To clear doubts on their interests it reminded that the dictate of the constitution followed the pre-existing pacts subscribed by the provincial authorities; affirmed the project of guarantying the unity and inner peace and the formation of a common front towards the rest of the world; it stated the objective of populating the territory mentioning all men in the world who wish to inhabit the Argentine land; and invoked God's authority in a form acceptable both to religious persons and to illustrated deists.
; it set the establishment of a federal capital
; the authority of each province to dictate its own constitution and their autonomy in internal issues except in cases of insurrection or foreign attack; the political, judicial and customs unity of the country; and the fundamental rights of the citizens.
Following the dispositions of the Assembly of 1813
who decreed the Law of Wombs, the constitution abolished slavery
and the nobility titles, setting the juridical equality. The protection of the law extended to all the inhabitants of the country, not only to the citizens, in order to foment the immigration; article 20th expressed it implicitly, and the 25th declared the official promotion of immigration.
The rights expressly recognised were gathered mainly in article 14th, that instituted the freedom of work, navigation, commerce, residence and travelling, press, association, cult, education and petition to the authorities. Other articles also detailed the protection of the private property, the inviolability of the domicile, person and mail, and the total freedom on private matters.
Various declaration of the first part were directly related to the national finances, and with challenging the Buenos Aires naval predominance. The 4th article nationalised the custom taxes income, the 9th and 10th reserved to the federal government to charge of rights and eliminated internal customs, and the 11th, 12th and 26th declared the freedom of transit.
Article 29, finally, transmitted the constitutional dispositions of the recent history, forbidding the concession of the sum of public power to any functionary, what had allowed Rosas to reach and sustain his second government.
and judicial. Only the last 7 brief articles were dedicated to the organization of the provincial governments, as they were to settle their own internal organization dictated by their own constitution.
, integrated by representatives of the provinces and the capital; and a Chamber of Deputies
, that directly represent the Argentine people.
In Alberdi
's project was explicitly stated that each deputy would represent a political entity that had chosen him —the province or the capital— and not the people directly, but this part was not included in the final text of the 1853 constitution.
Senators would be elected equitably, two for each provinces and the capital, with capacity of one vote each. The deputies, on the other hand, would be assigned proportionally to the number of inhabitants of the province or the capital, considered for this matter electoral districts. The constitution didn't though recognize in any way the existence of political parties, very much likely to occur at the verge of the country's political organisations.
The incompatibilities inside the exercise of the legislative function extended to the priesthood regular functions —in view of the vote of obedience that links the clerics with their superiors — and the activity in the executive power, as ministry or any other positions alike, unless special authorization. The constitution expressly dictated that the legislative function should be remunerated.
To avoid the influence of the executive power in the legislative activity of the congress, the legislators were granted immunity of judicial interrogation on subjects connected to their activity, and couldn't be arrested unless In flagrante delicto
; only the congress itself could revoke such privileges and allow the investigation to take course by a competent judge.
Only the chambers themselves could make decisions on the election, rights and titles of their own members; they were to elaborate the internal regulations and sanction misconducts of their members.
For the sessions, it was required for the chambers to count with a minimum quorum
of the absolute majority, though a session with a smaller number of members had the right to compel the presence of the absent.
A wider majority was required for the constitutional and regulation reforms. The chambers had the power to question the ministers of the executive power, convoking them to present at them.
Both chambers had self initiative on legislatorial matters, with a few exceptions. The approval of projects had to take place separately in both chambers; corrections and emends by one of the chambers had to be taken back to the chamber of origin for a new voting, while the rejection of the project by one of the chambers forced it to be filed for the rest of the year.
Approved laws where given to the executive power for its promulgation; though they could be vetted making use of its co-legislative power. Nevertheless, if less two thirds of the members of each chamber insisted on the approval of the law, the executive power had to forcefully promulgate it. At the redaction of the law, the phrase "The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Confederation united in Congress sanction as law..." was forceful in the redaction of laws.
The ordinary sessions of the Congress, gathered exceptionally in one single chamber called Legislative Assembly, took place from May 1 to September 30, and started with the presence of the president of the Nation.
The preparatory sessions incorporate the elected members, while the prorogation sessions are called by the chamber itself or the president to finalise the unconcluded matter at the end of the ordinary cycle.
The president can also call to extraordinary sessions on an urgent matter during the period of recess.
The number of deputies was fixed to one per 20,000 inhabitants, or fraction not smaller than 10,000; it was expressly authorised that these figures would be adjusted by the congress after each national census, though the relation could only be incremented.
A transitory clause of the 34th article indicated a minimum of two deputies per province independently of its population; it assigned the Buenos Aires
city, Buenos Aires Province
and Córdoba Province
six deputies, four to the provinces of Corrientes
and Santiago del Estero
, three to Tucumán
, Salta
, Catamarca
and Mendoza
, and two to Santa Fe
, San Juan
, Entre Ríos
, La Rioja Province
, San Luis
and Jujuy
. Due to the absence of the representatives from Buenos Aires city until 1866, the chamber had only 38 deputies.
To qualify for the chamber, candidates had to be at least 25 years old and be Argentine citizens for at least four years. The clause demanding candidates to be born or stably reside in the province to represent wasn't added until the reform of 1860. De Ángelis's proposition of demanding candidates to practice a liberal profession or own lands was finally rejected.
The mandate of the deputies was to last for four years, with the possibility of reelection; the renovation of the chamber would take place by halves each 2 years; a transitory disposition set a casting of lots
to choose the deputies that would have to leave their seats after two years in the first cycle of elections; what had to be repeated in other moments of the Argentine history
, when the national congress was repeatedly dissolved by military governments during 20th century.
The election of the deputies according to the constitution had to be done "by simple plurality of suffrages". The interpretation of this ambiguous phrase was source of later disputes, but until 1912 predominated the doctrine that granted the party with the majority or first minority of votes designated the totality of the deputies for its legislative jurisdiction.
Later laws established a uninominal system of votes bycircumscriptions, such as the Law 4161/02 of "restricted suffrage"; the Law 8871/12 or Sáenz Peña Law
for which the majority or first minority would have two thirds of the seats, giving the rest to the following most voted party; the Law 14032/51 that again installed a uninominal system, and finally the proportional system of D'Hont
.
The Chamber of Deputies had the exclusive power of initiative on laws regarding conscription and troupes recruiting, taxes, and would work as prosecutor
during impeachment
s against authorities of the three power of the nations and the provincial governors, in which the Senate would act as the court. To approve a political trial, two thirds of the chamber of deputies had to agree on the petition presented by one of its members.
The election of the senators, representatives of the provincial entities, corresponded to the legislatures created by the provincial governments, as well as that of the federal district of Buenos Aires city.
The electoral process was similar to the one for the presidential election, through an electoral college
composed by electors directly voted by the people. The duration of the senatorial mandate was fixed to nine years, with the possibility of unlimited reelections, renewing the chamber by thirds each 3 years.
The Senate would hold two representatives of each province, regardless of its population; until 1860 26 senators from the 13 provinces excluding Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires city, conformed the chamber.
The requisites for the senatorial candidates where 30 years of age and six years of Argentine citizenship; the requisite of being born or resident for at least 2 years in the electoral jurisdiction would be added in the 1860 constitutional reform. It was demanded an annual rent of 2,000 pesos fuertes, what some calculate to be equivalent to 3.3 kilograms of gold, what became an issue heavily discussed; though it was finally approved, the lack of funds to supported drove eventually to its forgiveness. the presidency of the Senate corresponded to the vice-president of the Confederation, who could only vote in case of a tie.
This organization, in spite of the oligarchical
characteristic of the minimal rent, differed greatly in the Unitarian
project of 1819, that stipulated one senator per province and three for the Armed Forces, three for the Catholic Church, one for each university, and the former Supreme Directors of the Confederation after the finalisation of their mandates. It much closer resembled Alberdi
's project of one senator per province with one substitute.
The Senate had exclusive competence in the initiatives of constitutional reform, and the judicial function during a political trial. Even though it didn't share with the president of the Nation, as in the constitution of the United States in which the Argentine one was strongly inspired, faculties of foreign politics, the president needed the Senate's approval for declaring siege
and for leaving the federal district.
It was also to be consulted in the designation of the ministers of the Supreme Court and the Federal Tribunals, the national ministers, and the higher positions of the Armed Forces and the representatives to the Vatican
.
The first laws created under application of the constitution were not dictated by the Congress but by the constitutional convention itself, for which the San Nicolás Agreement
empowered to. Among those laws where that of the federalization of Buenos Aires, the custom taxes, the free navigability and the statute of haciendas.
The requisites for the candidates to the presidency were similar to those for the Senate, with the additional conditions of being native Argentine citizens or child of a native citizen, and practice the Catholic religion. The presidential mandate would last six years without the possibility of reelection until a hole presidential period had been taken place, and under no circumstances could the mandate extend for more than six years since the original assumption date of the position.
The procedure for the presidential election was indirect; the electorate of each province would choose a number of delegates equal to twice the number of deputies and senators that that province could choose. The electors of each province would give their discretional vote for the candidate of their preference, and would send a stamped copy of the resolution of the provincial electoral assembly to the Senate. Once received all the lists, the national legislative assembly would immediately elect by the suffrage plurally between the two most votes candidates, or more in case of a tie between the second places.
In case of not having a candidate with an absolute majority in first instance, a ballotage
would take place between the two most voted candidates. The quorum for this second election was three quarters of the congressmen.
According to the first incise of the 90th article, the president was the supreme authority of the Confederation in what was called a presidentialist regime: the president need not answer for his/her actions to any superior authority, inside the mark given by the constitution, and did not required of the Congress approval for the exercise of the competent attributions. He/she was also the chief of the Armed Forces, and head of the executive power of the city designated federal capital of the nation.
The president had also co-legislative powers: besides the promulgationand sanction of laws dictated by the Congress, including the faculty of veto, the president was in charge of the expedition of appropriate regulations for the application of the law, called decree
s, though respecting the spirit of originality of the law. The signature of treaties with other states was subscribed exclusively to the president, as well as the decision of following or not the documents emitted by the Supreme Catholic Pontiff
With the authority in foreign politics, the president is in charge of naming the ambassadors and other ministers in charge of the negotiation with foreign institutions; the designation of the heads of the embassies required of senatorial agreement —another sign of the influence of the constitution of the United States— but could decide of the lower positions without the Senate's interference.
Therefore, the president was the authority in charge of the military business; able to command the Army, designate its officers — with agreement of the Senate for the higher ranks — call for parades, carte blanches, declaring war or siege
in case of a foreign attack.
Regarding the judicial power, it was up to the president to designate the judges of the federal tribunals, but with the agreement of the Senate; the president had also the faculty of pardoning convicted for crimes of federal jurisdiction, except in cases of political trial.
The president didn't have the ability to impose convictions, but could decree —in case of siege— temporal arrest or imposed transfer of persons, unless these preferred to abandon the national territory. Without the consent of the Congress, these measures became void ten days after being dictated.
As responsible of the national administration, the president was in charge of the collection of the national rent and its distribution, within the mark of the law of national budget; the president had also the faculty to grant licenses, and to inquire on any matter of the national administration.
The constitution established as five ministries, for which the president could elect its ministers; this ministries were of Domestic Affairs, Foreign Relationships, Economy, Justice, Cult and Public Instruction (Education), and War and Navy.
The ministerial referendum was necessary for the government decrees. Ministers were also obligated to give reports to the Congress at the opening of the sessions, of which they could also take part, though without the right of vote in order to avoid the incompatibility with the exercise of the legislative power.
The judicial power was integrally under the control of the Supreme Court and the inferior tribunals for constitutional matters, related to federal laws, international treaties, or maritime jurisdiction.
It was explicitly stated that the president could have no knowledge of the judicial whereabouts. Also to the federal tribunals the matters between actors of different provinces, that implied foreign diplomats, or those in which the government of a province or the Confederation itself took part. Matters involving diplomats, provinces or powers of the provincial governments were only competence of the Supreme Court.
The constitution stipulated the regulations for jury trial
s for the penal matters; yet the proceedings were never regulated, and its implementation remains pendant even in the current Argentine constitution, who still conserves this redaction.
The only crime that the Constitution details is that of treason against the Confederation, defined as "To take arms against the Confederation, or [...] join its enemies providing them help or assistance". The punishment was to be decided by the Congress, and it was prohibited to impose sanctions to others than the perpetrator.
The Supreme Court of Justice was composed by a tribunal of 9 judges, and two prosecutors. Its seat would be in the federal capital. It was demanded for the head of the Ministry of Justice to be a lawyer with at least eight years of experience, as well as the requisites of the candidates to the Senate.
The minister would take oath to the president of the court —exceptionally to the president of the Confederation at its conformation— and were unremovable except of cases of misconduct. The remuneration for the position would be set by law, but could not be reduced while in functions. The Court would be in charge of the determination of its own regulations.
The Supreme Court defined by the Constitution of 1853 never became reality, even though Urquiza designated in 1854 its members, among which were Facundo Zuviría and Martín Zapata. After the reform of 1860, the number of its members was to be decided by Law of the Congress rather than being constitutionally fixed.
At the same time, they conserved all the attributions that the national constitution hadn't expressly given the federal government. Among these were the legislation on commerce and navigation; the customs' impositions or weight rights; emission of currency unless delegation of the central government; the establishment of civil, commerce, penal and mining codes; citizenship legislation; gathering of war troupes; and the direct actuation with foreign states, including the Vatican.
War actions between provinces or between a province and the federal state were illegitimate, and such conflicts were to be solved by the Supreme Court of Justice. The provinces were expressly empowered to promote, within the federal legislation, the development of their own territories.
The resulting regime was markedly federal; it was that one of the main reasons for which Buenos Aires refused to subscribe to it, rejecting to get on the level of what the legislative porteño
s qualified mockingly thirteen huts (for the thirteen provinces).
The incorporation of Buenos Aires to the Confederation required the suspension of the constitution and the resignation of the custom rights. This implied that during decades the president of the nation had to put up with the governor of Buenos Aires, who was the direct chief of the administration of the surrounding area, what mean that the presidential power often faced a wall of bureaucracy.
The federalization of Buenos Aires didn't effectively take place until 1880, when the League of Governors, headed by Julio Argentino Roca
, finally imposed it by the use of arms, against the porteño
Bartolomé Mitre
. Nevertheless, by that time the provincial oligarchies had already adopted a profile similar to that of their Unitarian
counterparts, with the development of the model of agricultural exportations, and the formation of extensive Latifundios (large estates) that would control the national economy during the following five decades. The possibility of developing models of provincial powers different from that of Buenos Aires was gone, and with it the effective federalism of the constitution.
and his contemporaries, who saw in the adoption of the federalism a victorious sign of their liberal principles.
When the historical revisionism —criticising the devastation of the national industry, the flourishing of large estates, and the internal colonialism resulting of the liberal politic of the Generation of '80
— revised the origins of constitutional text, it referred to the same general criteria idea but in an inverse sense. Sarmiento and Roca describe the constitution as a mean to modernise the country through free commerce, European immigration, the abolition of provincial political leaderships, and the dislocation of the traditional cultures inherited from Spain
and adapted during centuries to the local peculiarities.
On the other hand, revisionists see in that constitution the means of destruction of the national identity —due to the destruction of the national industry by the unequal competence with the British
manufacture capacity, the displacement of populations from their own lands and way of live by the immigration waves and the consequent social and economical turbulence, and the restriction of political representation to the literate and mercantile bourgeoises.
Both alternatives adopt the same structure, exposed with magistral rhetoric in Sarmiento's exhortation: Civilisation or Barbarism.
The revisionists didn't just revise history limiting to point the barbarian character of Sarmiento's civilisation: founded in the displacement of the aboriginals, the massive sacrifice of gaucho
s and morenos
conscripted for the successive wars of the Triple Alliance
, and the Conquest of the Desert
, the brutal accumulation of lands for the formation of latifundios or large estates for the agricultural exportation, the destruction of the emerging national industry and the systematic electoral fraud.
Historian José María Rosa
pointed out the linguistic game of the lemma:
Later authors, some of them close to the revisionism, have nevertheless pointed out that by accepting the opposition of its general terms, the revisionism lost the opportunity to re-evaluate the opposition in which is based: the liberal porteño
bourgeoises and that of the provincial capitals on one side, and the semi-literate rural population on the other. The Unitarian Doctors —Rivadavia, Echeverría, Alberdi— would represent the first option, of whose plumes would flow the constitution; the federal caudillo
s —Quiroga, Güemes
, Rosas
— the second, reluctant to fix ones and for all the political bonds.
For these authors, the alternative reflects one of the clashes effectively existent in the Argentine politic of that time: between the illustrated classes, based on the principles of the theoretic right of the millenary European tradition; and the pragmatic provincial leaders, men of action rather than theory.
Given the intellectual ambient of the moment, in with the ideologists of the French revolution
ists had given place to the illumining positivism
, it was natural that the thought of the first inclined for the defence of the liberal order, in which the abolition of the historical and traditional limits gave in for a new era of cooperation between people. The free market would give way to a specialisation of the countries in their areas of comparative advantage, resulting in the common improvement.
The interpretation that the revisionists make of this posture in terms of direct personal interest — the illustrated bourgeois was at the same time holder of the porteño commercial capital, that directly benefited of the importation of goods; in several cases the visible hand of consuls and delegates of British business collaborated with the invisible one in the market, establishing treaties and offering support to elements politically more favouring the commercial interest of Her Majesty of the United Kingdom
—results in a true view, though naif. The Marxist
interpretations—that even though centred in explaining the logic of the event that took place rather than the individualities, haven't ignored this criterion— also leave unattended several aspects.
To understand the fractions that converged in the dictation of the 1853 constitution, it has been distinguished two aspects that the conventional historiography
simplified in the dichotomy between Federals
and Unitarians
.
On one side is necessary to note that the high-class had several fractions in unstable equilibrium: the commercial bourgeois of the port, the cattle bourgeois of the Littoral
Mesopotamia
, the small bourgeois layers of the cities of the landlocked provinces; and in he other side, to understand the process of economical and cultural world integration —since by then, 150 years before the common use of the word, the state problem had already the view of globalisation in virtue of the expansion of the world market in the European economical potencies— did not necessarily implied, as did in the Argentine history
, the complete abandon of the national production, and therefore of the country's modernisation would have been taken place without the loss of the national identity. Even if the ideal of the 1853 constitution and Alberdi
's writings that served as its base depended in great part in the project of integrating Argentina to the world processes, the compromise with the economical liberalism was not necessarily coded in them.
The expressed objective of the constitutional project, as that of the political projects exposed short before and after, was that of modernising the nation; what in an emerging state meant little more than creating it.
An important part of the national thinkers considered that the project of modernisation imposed an almost total rupture with the Spanish colonial
past; since Esteban Echeverría
to Sarmiento
and the Generación del '80, the search for the Argentine insertion in the modern world was based in the importation of theories, practices and even people.
Such a rupture demanded a certain kind of conditions and dispositions; the complementation of the European markets would benefit the merchants of the port and the higher classes, capable of consuming material and symbolic luxury goods that this commerce provided, but affecting the rural and lower classes, which were displaced if their source of sustention and the productive system in which they were situated. Aware of this, the leaders most opposed to Rivadavia
's program concealed the task of formation of the state as a 'restoration' of the state that Rivadavia's reforms had broken: therefore Rosas's title of "Restaurateur of Laws" that referred no to the Positive law
s of the Right of Indias, but to the Natural law
of the traditional nationals. The problem of this view was the impossibility, for a long time of Rosas' period, of effectively developing the national state; the restoration of the order that in previous years had dissolved, in successive confrontations between the caudillos and the hegemony of the new Buenos Aires metropolis, resulted in the paralysation of the process of building a state.
When the sanction of the constitution broke that phase, and searching to introduce the new governmental system, the matter returned with all sharpness. The position of Buenos Aires resulted obvious since the beginning: wealthy mainly because of the custom taxes income, and with its main productive bourgeoise class compromised with the market exchange with Europe, it supported the unrestricted aperture.
The federal compromise of the provinces allowed to foresee a different final, still with the adoption of a governmental regime based fundamentally in foreign ideas. The definite fall of the federal idea wouldn't be originated in the constitution but in resignation in the Battle of Pavón
when the leaders of the forces of the Littoral Mesopotamia
preferred to join the commercial interests —being themselves great estate holders— rather than defending the formation of an internal consume market.
Alberdi, usually considered liberal by revisionists and therefore an enemy of the country's interests, harshly criticised Urquiza from his exile, who left the national structure in hands of the porteños, and of Mitre, who used in the years of the police war against the provinces; in this action the triumph of the extreme liberalism of the capital over the integrationist federalism of the provinces of the littoral. Mitre's politic would eliminate the possibility of resistance of the provinces, making impossible Alberdi's, Andrade's and José Hernández's attempts of guaranteeing the union; when under Julio Argentino Roca
's government the unified Argentina became a reality, it was at expense of the disappearing of the social layout of the provinces and their productive capacity. The federal shape of the constitution was during the years of the modern Argentina a simple coalition of the illustrated classes throughout the country; it wouldn't be until the immigration produced its effects and mobilised the masses against the oligarchy
that this order would be altered.
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, approved with the support of the governments of the provinces
Provinces of Argentina
Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...
—though without that of the Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, who remained separated of the Argentine Confederation
Argentine Confederation
The Argentine Confederation is one of the official names of Argentina, according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35...
until 1859, after several modifications to the original constitution— sanctioned on May 1853 by the Constitutional Convention gathered in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
, and promulgated by the head of the national executive government Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...
.
In spite of a number of reforms of different importance, the 1853 constitution is still substantially the base of the current Argentine juridical system. It was closely inspired by the juridical and political doctrines of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
federal
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
Constitution, establishing for instance a Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
an division of powers, a high level of independence for the provinces, and a federal power controlled by a strong executive government yet limited by a bicameral national congress to equilibrate the population's representation with equity among the provinces.
The model, elaborated by the constitutional deputies from the precedent constitutional attempts and the pioneer work of Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
, has been the target of repeated critics; the mechanism of federal model has been objected, and its true effectiveness has been questioned for being based in foreign experiences instead of following the peculiar Argentine history
History of Argentina
The history of Argentina is divided by historians into four main parts: the pre-Columbian time, or early history , the colonial period , the independence wars and the early post-colonial period of the nation and the history of modern Argentina .The beginning of prehistory in the present territory of...
, far different from the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n colonialism by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Nevertheless, the historical importance of the constitutional project has been unquestionable, and virtually all disputes regarding the political theory and practice in modern Argentina include an either positive or negative reference on the political consequences of the 1853 constitution.
For the Generation of '80
Generation of '80
The Generation of '80 was the governing elite in Argentina from 1880 to 1916. Members of the oligarchy of the provinces and the country's capital, they first joined the League of Governors , and then the National Autonomist Party...
, the settlers of the first liberal conventions on Argentine historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
, the constitution represented a true foundational act that broke the long government of Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
. The members of the Generation of '80
Generation of '80
The Generation of '80 was the governing elite in Argentina from 1880 to 1916. Members of the oligarchy of the provinces and the country's capital, they first joined the League of Governors , and then the National Autonomist Party...
praised especially the fact that the Constitution had established a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an-style liberal political regime. However, at the time when it was sanctioned, it had been strongly opposed by some of them. For the UCR, of social-democrat tendencies, the constitution represented an unfulfilled political ideal against the oligarchic
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
government Generation of 1880s, perpetuated in power through electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
. At the same time, for the nationalist movements of the 20th century, who criticised the liberal conventions and praised Rosas' figure, the constitution had represented the renouncement of the national identity towards the ruin of liberalism. In different fronts, the discussion remains open, and has inspired several of the most important works of the Argentine thinking.
Previous constitutional projects
The legal system that would be accepted by the United Provinces of the River Plate formed after the May RevolutionMay Revolution
The May Revolution was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish colony that included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay...
from the Viceroyalty of the River Plate, was one of the main concerns after the resignation of the last viceroy; though the more urgent concern of making the sovereign control effective against the resisting Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
royal forces in an extensive armed confrontation put on hold the organisational decisions of the republic, though much was discussed and written on the matter that would later be taken into account.
The formation of the First Junta
Primera Junta
The Primera Junta or First Assembly is the most common name given to the first independent government of Argentina. It was created on 25 May 1810, as a result of the events of the May Revolution. The Junta initially had representatives from only Buenos Aires...
and its continuation in the Junta Grande
Junta Grande
Junta Grande is the most common name for the executive government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata , that followed the incorporation of provincial representatives into the Primera Junta .- Origin :...
, which included provincial delegates, gave testimony of the division of interests between the city of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and the other landlocked provinces. In part, such division already existed during colonial times, when the port of Buenos Aires gave the city commercial interest far different from the artisanal and agricultural countryside.
Buenos Aires was benefited from the traffic of goods brought by ships from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, to which it paid with the taxes collected from the exportation of the country's agricultural production —mainly raw leather and minerals— the discrepancies between the merchants that brought industrialised goods from the United Kingdom and the producers of the provinces that couldn't compete with the European industrial power, raised diverse conflicts during the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. With the Declaration of Independence
Argentine Declaration of Independence
What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen that were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America, which is still today one of the legal names of the...
in 1825, the first juridical bases had a marked Unitarian
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
characteristic.
The first project to converge the successive attempts that defined the different organs of the national executive power in the first years of organization was the convocation in 1812 of the General Constituent Assembly with the purpose of dictating the fundamental law for the national organization. The Assembly of the 1813
Asamblea del Año XIII
The Assembly of Year XIII was a meeting called by the Second Triumvirate governing the young republic of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata on October 1812....
gathered on January 31 of that year, and worked for over 2 years until 1815. It dictated the regulations for the administration, the statute for the executive power, and promulgated several norms regulation for the legislature that would be in use the following years.
But the assembly was unable to dictate the national constitution; there were 4 projects of constitution, one written by the Patriotic Society, another one by the assessorial commission designated by the Second Triumvirate
Second Triumvirate (Argentina)
The Second Triumvirate was the governing body of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata that followed the First Triumvirate in 1812, shortly after the May Revolution, and lasted 2 years....
, and two anonymous republican projects, introducing the division of powers of the model of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, though still strongly centralist, delegating most of the public power to the hands of a central executive branch with seat in Buenos Aires.
This, added to the absence of some provincial deputies, prevented an agreement on the subject. The lack of definitions from the Assembly after two years of deliberations was one of the arguments for which Carlos María de Alvear
Carlos María de Alvear
Carlos María de Alvear was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1815....
proposed the creation of a temporal one-man regime, known as Directorio (Directorate). The Assembly voted favourably, but since it had no support from the effective control of the civilian and military forces it forced the creation of a project for the Congress of Tucumán
Congress of Tucumán
The Congress of Tucumán was the representative assembly, initially meeting in Tucumán, that declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America on July 9, 1816, from the Spanish Empire....
of 1816.
The action of the congress in that sense was limited, though fruitful in other aspects; it declared the independence
Argentine Declaration of Independence
What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816 by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen that were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America, which is still today one of the legal names of the...
on July 9, 1816, but deliberations regarding the form of government proved harder. In it struggled liberal thinkers compromised with a republican government, and those in favour of a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
. Among the later was José de San Martín
José de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...
, who proposed to establish a descendant of the Incas in the national throne. The monarchic followers claimed it impossible to erect a republic without historically developed institutions, and that it would form an unstable and weak government, while its opponents pointed the lack of inherited prejudices as one of the main reasons to attempt a democratic government.
The congress had to be moved to Buenos Aires at the beginning of 1817 after the threat of the Spanish royal forces advancing over the northern part of the country; on December 3 of that year a provisory regulation was sanctioned, though the provincial delegates considered that moving the congress to Buenos Aires was oriented to give pressure on the congressmen to secure the Buenos Aires porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
benefit in the concluding constitutional text.
In 1819 these fears became true in the project of the Argentine Constitution of 1819
Argentine Constitution of 1819
The Argentine Constitution of 1819 was a Constitution drafted by the Congress of Tucumán in 1819. It was promoted by Buenos Aires but rejected by the other provinces, and did not come into force.-Sanction:...
, characterised by a strong centralism around Buenos Aires. The text didn't even aboard the subject of the method of election of the Director of State, but guarantied him wide competences, including the designation of the provincial governments and the heads of the national administration.
The congress also ordered San Martín and Manuel Belgrano
Manuel Belgrano
Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano , usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina...
to return to the capital with their armies, to defend the authority of the Directory; but both generals refused to follow those orders. San Martín held his troops in Rancagua
Rancagua
Rancagua is a city and commune in central Chile, part of the Rancagua conurbation. It is the capital of the Cachapoal Province and of the O'Higgins Region, located south of the national capital of Santiago. It had a 2002 population of 214,344...
(present Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
) and dictated the Act of Rancagua, for which he ignored the authority of the Directory after such orders; Belgrano behave differently, made a pact with the federal forces of José Gervasio Artigas
José Gervasio Artigas
José Gervasio Artigas is a national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called "the father of Uruguayan nationhood".-Early life:Artigas was born in Montevideo on June 19, 1764...
, while the Northern Army revolved and putting itself under the orders of the governor of Córdoba
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
. The tension was finally broke at the Battle of Cepeda
Battle of Cepeda (1820)
The Battle of Cepeda of 1820 took place on February 1 in Cañada de Cepeda, Santa Fe, Argentina.It was the first major battle that saw Unitarians and Federals as two constituted sides. Federal League Provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos joined forces to topple the 1819 centralist Constitution, and...
of 1820, when the united tropes of the provinces defeated the Director José Rondeau
José Rondeau
José Casimiro Rondeau Pereyra was a general and politician in Argentina and Uruguay in the early 19th century.-Biography:...
. As its result the Treaty of Pilar
Treaty of Pilar
The Treaty of Pilar was a pact signed among the rulers of the Argentine provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires, which is recognized as the foundation of the federal organization of the country...
was signed, establishing a federally organised government in which Buenos Aires would be one of the 13 provinces.
Even though defeated in combat, the Unitarian
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
idealism kept vigorous in Buenos Aires. Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...
, minister of governor Martín Rodríguez, redesigned the project of constitution of 1819 in more republican terms, and was approved by the legislature of Buenos Aires on September 1 of 1826, but rejected by the rest of the provinces. The following years represented the temporal decline of the Unitarism and the rise of provincial Caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
s. These saw in the project of the constitution an administrative option to displace the Buenos Aires hegemony; the governors of Santiago del Estero
Santiago del Estero Province
Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:...
Juan Felipe Ibarra, Córdoba
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
Mariano Fragueiro and La Rioja
La Rioja Province (Argentina)
La Rioja is a one of the provinces of Argentina and is located in the west of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Catamarca, Córdoba, San Luis and San Juan.-History:...
Facundo Quiroga urged, at the beginning of the 1830, to create a representative assembly directed by Quiroga, who even used the writings of young Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
, author of the bases
Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina
Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina is an Argentine book by Juan Bautista Alberdi. Many points from it were incorporated into the Argentine Constitution of 1853.-Creation:...
for the 1853 constitution, for the project.
A first attempt of consent was achieved with the Federal Pact
Pacto Federal
The Federal Pact was a treaty first signed by the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe on 4 January 1831, for which a Federal military alliance was created to confront the Unitarian Liga Unitaria...
of 1831, signed by Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe, to which the rest of the provinces would eventually subscribe.
The main opposition to a constitutional assembly was from Buenos Aires, yet not from the literate citizens and Unitarian businessmen, but from Buenos Aires caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
who claimed it was too soon to seal a constitution. The assassination of Quiroga in Barranca Yaco
Barranca Yaco
Barranca de Yaco or Barranca Yaco is a geographical feature along the ancient camino real of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, located between Villa Tulumba and Sinsacate, in the province of Córdoba, Argentina.The place is famous because General Juan Facundo Quiroga, Governor and...
put an end to the initiative of the caudillos of the interior.
The Federal Pact stipulated the formation of a Representative Commission with seat in the city of Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
, to which each of the subscribed provinces would send a delegate with certain powers of decision, such as of war and peace declaration, the selection of the heads of the battalions, and voice in the national subjects to be decided by the Federative Congress, such as the country's administration, internal and foreign bossiness, and the range of each province's independence.
Many points of the Federal Pact were never followed; though it is mentioned by the 1853 constitution as one of the pre-existent pacts, it was not in effect during the Rosas hegemony who insisted in the inadequacy of a premature constitution. This attitude became evident in 1847 when Alberdi, from exile, invited the members of the exiled intellectual ambient to collaborate with Rosas to intercede for desired constitution. Rosas seamed to completely ignore the petition, but other federal caudillos, in special Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...
, would pay attention to it.
The political landscape in 1853
The 1853 constitution was elaborated immediately after being Buenos Aires defeated in the Battle of CaserosBattle of Caseros
The Battle of Caseros was fought near the town of Caseros, more precisely between the present-day train stations of Caseros and Palomar in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 3 February 1852, between the Army of Buenos Aires commanded by Juan Manuel de Rosas...
that left Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...
in charge of the national business. On April 6, 1852 Urquiza had a meeting with governors Vicente López y Planes
Vicente López y Planes
Alejandro Vicente López y Planes was an Argentine writer and politician who acted as interim President of Argentina from July 7, 1827 to August 18, 1827...
of Buenos Aires, Juan Pujol of Corrientes, and delegates of Santa Fe, were it was decided to call for a Constitutional Congress under the terms of the Federal Pact
Pacto Federal
The Federal Pact was a treaty first signed by the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe on 4 January 1831, for which a Federal military alliance was created to confront the Unitarian Liga Unitaria...
of 1831. The decision of opening the congress in August of the following year was communicated to the rest of the provinces.
Urquiza was aware of the strong opposition within the Buenos Aires elite to his mandate and any attempt of limiting the hegemony of the port city over the rest of the country. To calm that opposition, Urquiza gave Pujol and Santiago Derqui
Santiago Derqui
Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez was president of Argentina from March 5, 1860 to November 5, 1861. He was featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete....
the assignment of elaborating a constitutional project that would be less harsh to the porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
interests. On May 5 he gathered with some of the most influential characters of Buenos Aires —among which were Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield
Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield
Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield was an Argentine lawyer and politician who wrote the Argentine Civil Code of 1869, the vast majority of which remains in use to this day.-Life and times:...
, Valentín Alsina
Valentín Alsina
*For the city, see Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires.Valentín Alsina was an Argentine lawyer and politician.Alsina was born in Buenos Aires and studied law at the University of Córdoba. He occupied diverse posts in government, and had a successful civil career as an advocate and professor of law at...
, Tomás Guido
Tomás Guido
Tomás Guido. was a General in the Argentine War of Independence a diplomat and a politician.-Early life:...
and Vicente Fidel López
Vicente Fidel López
Vicente Fidel López was an Argentine historian, lawyer and politician. He was a son of writer and politician Vicente López y Planes.-Biography:...
— to propose them to revive the constitutional project of 1826 of Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...
in exchange of support for his authority in front of the national government, but the project was rejected.
The definitive meeting with the provincial delegates took place in San Nicolás de los Arroyos
San Nicolás de los Arroyos
San Nicolás de los Arroyos is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the western shore of the Paraná River, 61 km from Rosario. It has about 138,000 inhabitants . It is the head town of the partido of the same name...
on May 29.. Deliberations lasted for two days before they signed the San Nicolás Agreement
San Nicolás Agreement
The San Nicolás Agreement was a pact signed on May 31, 1852 and subscribed by all but one of the 14 provinces of the United Provinces of the River Plate . The treaty consisted of 19 articles, and its goal was to set the bases for the national organization of the young Argentine state...
, which granted provisional Directorship of the Confederation to Urquiza, and set the opening of the constitutional convention for August, to which each province would send 2 representatives. Besides the provinces that were directly represented —Entre Ríos by Urquiza; Buenos Aires by López y Planes; Corrientes by Benjamín Virasoro; Santa Fe by Domingo Crespo
Domingo Crespo
Domingo Crespo was an Argentine politician who was governor of the province of Santa Fe from 1851 to 1854.Crespo was a landowner born in Santa Fe City. In 1851 he supported the movement of the Federales led by the caudillo Justo José de Urquiza against the supremacy of Buenos Aires governor Juan...
; Mendoza
Mendoza Province
The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
by Pascual Segura; San Juan
San Juan Province (Argentina)
San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile at the west....
by Nazario Benavides; San Luis
San Luis Province
San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...
by Pablo Lucero; Santiago del Estero by Manuel Taboada; Tucumán
Tucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
by Celedonio Gutiérrez; and La Rioja by Vicente Bustos— also adhered to the treaty Catamarca
Catamarca Province
Catamarca is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province has a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km². Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are : Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, and La Rioja...
, who also designated Urquiza as its representer, and Córdoba, Salta
Salta Province
Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy...
and Jujuy
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...
, who would ratify it later.
The Buenos Aires opposition reacted quickly, Alsina, Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...
, Vélez Sársfield and Ireneo Portela confronted López y Planes, who they considered had ideals too close to those of Urquiza, and denounced López y Planes' vote had no validity affirming he had no attributions to sign it in name of the Buenos Aires government, and that the treaty jeopardised the rights of the province while giving despotic attributions to Urquiza. The following debates, known as the Jornadas de Junio, concluded with the resignation of López y Planes on June 23 of 1852. The legislature elected Manuel Pinto to replace him, but Urquiza made use of the attributions given to him by the treaty to call a federal intervention that dissolved the provincial legislature and reestablished López y Planes at its head.
When López y Planes resigned for a second time, Urquiza assumed the government of the province himself, naming a state conceal of 15 members as deliberating organ.
Urquiza personally controlled the government of the province until September, when he left to Santa Fe
Santa Fe, Argentina
Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...
for the constitutional convention together with elected deputies Salvador María del Carril
Salvador María del Carril
Salvador María del Carril was a prominent Argentine jurist and policy-maker, as well as his country's first Vice President-Early life:...
and Eduardo Lahitte, leaving General José Miguel Galán as provisional governor.
Three days later, on September 11, Mitre, Alsina and Lorenzo Torres revolted against Galán's forces, and restored the legislature. On September 22 they would revoke their adhesion to the treaty, and rejected the authority of Urquiza. They also sent José María Paz
José María Paz
Brigadier General José María Paz y Haedo was an Argentine military figure, notable in the Argentine War of Independence and the Argentine Civil War.-Childhood:...
to extend the revolt to the provinces of the interior, who did not succeeded, but they acquired certain support that prevented Urquiza from directly attacking the revolt, and forced him to negotiate with the revolters, sending Federico Báez to Buenos Aires for that purpose.
Buenos Aires called back its deputies from the Constitutional Assembly, and incited the other provinces to do the same. Given the negative of the governments of the other provinces to cancel the assembly, Alsina y Mitre attempted to weaken Urquiza's position and power, and sent forces to attack the provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe and Córdoba. On November 21 an army under the command of Juan Madariaga attempted to take over the city of Concepción del Uruguay
Concepción del Uruguay
Concepción del Uruguay is a city in Argentina.It is located in the Entre Ríos province, on the western shore of the Uruguay River, some 320 kilometers north from Buenos Aires. Its population is about 65,000 inhabitants .-History:...
, but was repelled by the forces of Ricardo López Jordán
Ricardo López Jordán
Ricardo Ramón López Jordán was an Argentine soldier and politician, one of the last influential "caudillos" in the history of Argentina...
, who quickly informed Urquiza of the situation. Also Paz could not advance over Santa Fe, and Mitre didn't succeed in convincing Corrientes governor Pujol to attack Entre Ríos, for Pujol joined Urquiza.
Without the representatives of Buenos Aires but with the support of all the other provinces, the Constitutional Convention started its sessions in November 1852.
The constitutional delegates
The San Nicolás AgreementSan Nicolás Agreement
The San Nicolás Agreement was a pact signed on May 31, 1852 and subscribed by all but one of the 14 provinces of the United Provinces of the River Plate . The treaty consisted of 19 articles, and its goal was to set the bases for the national organization of the young Argentine state...
established an equalitarian representation for all the provinces of the Confederation, with two delegated for each one. This was one of the points of rupture with Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, the most populated of all the provinces, who pretended an assignation of delegates numbers a proportionally to the provinces' population. Such scheme would have had granted Buenos Aires 18 delegates, little short from achieving its own quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
.
The differences between provinces resulted in a variety of profiles of the delegates, of which many had no education in law, such as military religious and literates. Some of them had also been in exile during the government of Rosas, while others had political activity in that period. These differences would translate in discrepancies, such as the religious posture of the Constitution, and the position on the problem of the Buenos Aires hegemony.
After Salvador María del Carril
Salvador María del Carril
Salvador María del Carril was a prominent Argentine jurist and policy-maker, as well as his country's first Vice President-Early life:...
and Eduardo Lahitte had left the assembly as ordered by the Buenos Aires government installed after the revolt, the member of the constitutional Convention were:
| Name | Representing | Province of birth | Profession |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juan del Campillo | Córdoba | Córdoba | Lawyer |
| Pedro Alejandrino Centeno | Catamarca | Catamarca | Priest |
| José de la Quintana | Jujuy | Jujuy | |
| Salvador María del Carril Salvador María del Carril Salvador María del Carril was a prominent Argentine jurist and policy-maker, as well as his country's first Vice President-Early life:... |
San Juan | San Juan | |
| Agustín Delgado | Mendoza | Mendoza | |
| Santiago Derqui Santiago Derqui Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez was president of Argentina from March 5, 1860 to November 5, 1861. He was featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete.... |
Córdoba | Córdoba | Lawyer |
| Pedro Díaz Colodrero | Corrientes | Corrientes | |
| Pedro Ferré | Catamarca | Military (Brigadier General) | |
| Ruperto Godoy | San Juan | San Juan | |
| José Benjamín Gorostiaga | Santiago del Estero | Santiago del Estero | Lawyer |
| Juan María Gutiérrez Juan María Gutiérrez Juan María Gutiérrez was an Argentine statesman, jurist, surveyor, historian, critic, and poet.He was a major figure in Argentine liberalism and one of the most prominent promoters of Argentine culture during the 19th century... |
Entre Ríos | Buenos Aires | |
| Delfín B. Huergo | San Luis | Salta | Lawyer |
| Benjamín J. Lavaysse | Santiago del Estero | Santiago del Estero | Priest |
| Manuel Leiva | Santa Fe | Santa Fe | |
| Juan Llerena | San Luis | San Luis | Lawyer |
| Regis Martínez | La Rioja | Córdoba | Lawyer |
| Manuel Padilla Manuel Padilla Manuel Padilla Pontvianne is a Mexican linebacker in American football. He is an international practice squad player for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. He was assigned to the Broncos in 2008... |
Jujuy | Jujuy | Lawyer |
| José Manuel Pérez | Tucumán | Tucumán | Friar |
| Juan Francisco Seguí | Santa Fe | Santa Fe | Lawyer |
| Luciano Torrent | Corrientes | Corrientes | Lawyer and Medic |
| Martín Zapata | Mendoza | Mendoza | Lawyer |
| Salustiano Zavalía | Tucumán | Tucumán | Lawyer |
| Facundo de Zuviría | Salta | Salta | Doctor in Law |
Some of the delegates were not native to the provinces they represented, and other had not resided in them for a long time, what the opposition of Buenos Aires exploited, calling them alquilones ("rentals").
The historical revisionism in Argentina has emphasised this, suggesting that these congressmen were not completely representative of the provincial population, to which other point out that the selection of the delegates of all the provinces was not precisely popular, since it was composed of jurists and intellectuals, many of which had been in the exile for years during the government of Rosas.
The president of the convention was Zuviría, who doctored in law at the National University of Córdoba and participated of the redaction of the first constitution of its province on August 9, 1821. Domingo Crespo
Domingo Crespo
Domingo Crespo was an Argentine politician who was governor of the province of Santa Fe from 1851 to 1854.Crespo was a landowner born in Santa Fe City. In 1851 he supported the movement of the Federales led by the caudillo Justo José de Urquiza against the supremacy of Buenos Aires governor Juan...
, governor of Santa Fe, inaugurated of the sessions on November 20, 1852 in absence of Urquiza, who was fighting the Buenos Aires forces. Zuviría then pointed out the difficulties the convention would have to face, specially regarding the armed confrontation with Buenos Aires, and the lack of a constitutional background. To this, Santa Fe delegate Manuel Leiva replayed that it was imperious to move forwards with celery, before the urgency of a constitution. After a tense deliberation the position of Leiva prevailed.
Elaboration of the Constitutional text
The commission in charge of the redaction for the project was composed by Leiva, GutiérrezJuan María Gutiérrez
Juan María Gutiérrez was an Argentine statesman, jurist, surveyor, historian, critic, and poet.He was a major figure in Argentine liberalism and one of the most prominent promoters of Argentine culture during the 19th century...
, Gorostiaga, Colodrero and Ferré.
Even though most provinces already had their own constitution which could have been used as a model, these were judged inconvenient for the national organization, for they followed a centralised model whereas the delegates procured a federal
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
organization.
The models to follow were the few available constitutions: the Constitution of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
of 1787, the Spanish Constitution of 1812
Spanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...
, the Constitution of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
of 1832, the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an Federal Laws of 1826 and Political Constitution of 1833, and the republican constitutions of France
Constitution of France
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and replaced that of the Fourth Republic dating from 1946. Charles de Gaulle was the main driving force in introducing the new constitution and inaugurating the Fifth...
of 1793
French Constitution of 1793
The Constitution of 24 June 1793 , also known as the Constitution of the Year I, or the The Montagnard Constitution , was the constitution instated by the Montagnards and by popular referendum under the First Republic during the French Revolution...
and 1848
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
, but also in the work of Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
, exiled in Chile, who had sent months before a project of constitution to Juan María Gutiérrez, and in Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...
's Unitarian
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
constitution of 1826, which was adapted to the federal form, but also kept several parts untouched.
Gutiérrez and Gorostiaga, part of the Constitutional Business Commission, were in charge of the redaction of the fore-project.
Gutiérrez had already part of it through correspondence with Alberdi, to whom he suggested to include to the second edition of his Bases a developed project, to facilitate the constitutional work; the main job was in Gorostiaga's hands, who worked on it from December 25 to mid February. Gorostiaga consulted the Constitution of the United States, a poor but only available translation of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n military Manuel García de Sena, the work of Alberdi, and mainly the constitution of 1826. From the later he took the sections on individual guarantees, the composition of the legislative, and the competence of the executive power.
Once finished the project found the resistance within the commission by Leiva, Díaz Colodrero and Ferré, particularly on the status of the Catholic Church within the state, and the position of the Buenos Aires city.
The composition of the commission in charge of the redaction of the text, not very representative of the entire assembly, had to be modified in the session of February 23 to let the project move forwards, though there was a delay of two months due to the political situation. On March 9 Ferré and Zuviría, who had been sent to negotiate with the revolved porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
s, made a pact the reinstitution of the deputies of Buenos Aires to the Convention, with a representation according to the population. The negotiations though didn't finish positively, and after a long wait the sessions were restarted on April 15 as requested by Urquiza, who pretended to have the full text by May.
The similarity of the constitutional text with that of United States was not welcomed by all the congressmen; Zuviría read at the inauguration of the sessions of April 20 a long speech against the indiscriminate application of foreign principles to a country whose organization, he said, was not habituated to it. He proposed instead to make a study of local institutions and use it as a base. Together with friar Pérez, Centeno and Díaz Colodrero, they were the only ones to vote against the fore-project. The rest of the congressmen, either for ideologic reasons or for the political urgency of establishing a national constitution, decided to support the initiative of the commission; the text would be worked out in the following ten days.
The boycott started by the porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
s revived an already traditional conflict between Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and the other provinces, sharpened by the strong hand of Rosas who had governed the country favouring the porteños. One of the most controversial issues was the customs taxes, which —being Buenos Aires the main deep-waters port of the country and the only one with active traffic of goods with Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
— were collected almost entirely in that city.
The negation of sharing those profits for the national finances had always been one of the main point of controversy between Urquiza and the oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
of Buenos Aires; at the same time it confronted the interests of the businessmen of the city, supporters of a liberal commerce
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
, and the artisans and small industries of the interior, who without any kind of protection or importations restrictions could not compete and develop.
Most of the constitutional delegates, but especially Gorostiaga and Gutiérrez, urged to favour measures for finishing with the hegemony of the port city, federalising the territory of the city of Buenos Aires, and separating it that way from the interests of the Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
.
At the same time a moderate group, headed by Zuviría and Roque Gondra, considered such federalization wouldn't be convenient, for it would upset the porteños and void any attempt of negotiation to pacifically reincorporate it to the Confederation. The major fraction affirmed that the opportunity to expose their reasons had already been rejected when Buenos Aires withdrew its representatives, and that the constitutional will wouldn't vacillate to take arms against the very capital were it necessary for the future country's welfare.
After arduous negotiations they arrived to a compromise solution, in which Buenos Aires was made capital by the 3rd article, but tied to a special law, approved together with the constitution, in order to facilitate a possible future modification. Nevertheless, the affirmation of the sovereignty of the Convention over the territories of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province was made explicit in several articles, including the 3rd, 32nd, 34th, and 42nd. The 42nd article states the election of senators and deputies also for the capital (federal district), the 64th stipulated for the National Congress the exclusivity of the legislation in the territory of the federal capital, the 83rd conceded to the President of the Nation the control over the capital, and the 91st stated there the residence of the National Supreme Court. The law for a federal capital was finally approved with prescriptions for the case of being unable to immediately set the capital in Buenos Aires, as indeed happened.
Another problematic issue was the Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
, to which a group of a few though influent delegates firmly opposed, headed by Centeno, Pérez, and strongly supported by Zuviría, Leiva and Díaz Colodrero. The arguments of the argument ranged from theologic-juridical, for which Centeno affirmed the freedom of cult to be a natural right, to the pragmatic-historical, with Díaz Colodrero and Ferré stating that the existence of other cults could irritate the people and foment the apparition of new caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
s that would predicate in opposition to the constitution.
On the contrary, those more influenced by Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
and the ideas of the Generation of 1837 pleaded for the freedom of cults, pointing it would favour the immigration to Argentina, would simplify the relations with other states —such as the treaty with the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1925— and that the conscience was not a matter of legislation but of public acts.
The liberal sector prevailed 13 against 5, but the argument was dragged down to the abolition of religious privilege statutes; the obligation of professing the Catholic religion for all the state functionaries; and the conversion of the Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
.
Finally it was decided that only the president had to be Catholic, condition that was held until the constitutional reform
1994 reform of the Argentine Constitution
The 1994 amendment to the Constitution of Argentina was approved on 22 August by a Constitutional Assembly that met in the twin cities of Santa Fe and Paraná...
of 1994.
The constitution
The final text consisted of a preamble and 107 articles, organised in two parts: one on the rights of the inhabitants, and one on the organization of the government.The preamble was destined to affirm the legitimation of the Constitution, synthesising the legislative and political program of the conventional delegates. To clear doubts on their interests it reminded that the dictate of the constitution followed the pre-existing pacts subscribed by the provincial authorities; affirmed the project of guarantying the unity and inner peace and the formation of a common front towards the rest of the world; it stated the objective of populating the territory mentioning all men in the world who wish to inhabit the Argentine land; and invoked God's authority in a form acceptable both to religious persons and to illustrated deists.
Declarations, Rights and Guaranties
The 31 articles of the first part, entitled Declaraciones, Derechos y Garantías, established the fundament of the political regime; it's in this section in which the difference with the 1826 constitution is most visible. It formally introduced the division of powers of the republican system, the political representation and federalismFederalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
; it set the establishment of a federal capital
Federal capital
A federal capital is a political entity that is or surrounds the capital city of a federal state. In countries with federal constitutions, power is divided between that of subnational states and a federal government...
; the authority of each province to dictate its own constitution and their autonomy in internal issues except in cases of insurrection or foreign attack; the political, judicial and customs unity of the country; and the fundamental rights of the citizens.
Following the dispositions of the Assembly of 1813
Asamblea del Año XIII
The Assembly of Year XIII was a meeting called by the Second Triumvirate governing the young republic of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata on October 1812....
who decreed the Law of Wombs, the constitution abolished slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and the nobility titles, setting the juridical equality. The protection of the law extended to all the inhabitants of the country, not only to the citizens, in order to foment the immigration; article 20th expressed it implicitly, and the 25th declared the official promotion of immigration.
The rights expressly recognised were gathered mainly in article 14th, that instituted the freedom of work, navigation, commerce, residence and travelling, press, association, cult, education and petition to the authorities. Other articles also detailed the protection of the private property, the inviolability of the domicile, person and mail, and the total freedom on private matters.
Various declaration of the first part were directly related to the national finances, and with challenging the Buenos Aires naval predominance. The 4th article nationalised the custom taxes income, the 9th and 10th reserved to the federal government to charge of rights and eliminated internal customs, and the 11th, 12th and 26th declared the freedom of transit.
Article 29, finally, transmitted the constitutional dispositions of the recent history, forbidding the concession of the sum of public power to any functionary, what had allowed Rosas to reach and sustain his second government.
Organization of the government
According to the republican system, the 76 articles of the second part established the division of the government in three independent powers: the legislative, executiveExecutive Power
Executive Power is Vince Flynn's fifth novel, and the fourth to feature Mitch Rapp, an American agent that works for the CIA as an operative for a covert counter terrorism unit called the "Orion Team."-Plot summary:...
and judicial. Only the last 7 brief articles were dedicated to the organization of the provincial governments, as they were to settle their own internal organization dictated by their own constitution.
Legislative power
Articles 32nd to 63rd contain the dispositions related to the legislative power. Its head is the Argentine Congress composed of a SenateArgentine Senate
The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
, integrated by representatives of the provinces and the capital; and a Chamber of Deputies
Argentine Chamber of Deputies
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....
, that directly represent the Argentine people.
In Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
's project was explicitly stated that each deputy would represent a political entity that had chosen him —the province or the capital— and not the people directly, but this part was not included in the final text of the 1853 constitution.
Senators would be elected equitably, two for each provinces and the capital, with capacity of one vote each. The deputies, on the other hand, would be assigned proportionally to the number of inhabitants of the province or the capital, considered for this matter electoral districts. The constitution didn't though recognize in any way the existence of political parties, very much likely to occur at the verge of the country's political organisations.
The incompatibilities inside the exercise of the legislative function extended to the priesthood regular functions —in view of the vote of obedience that links the clerics with their superiors — and the activity in the executive power, as ministry or any other positions alike, unless special authorization. The constitution expressly dictated that the legislative function should be remunerated.
To avoid the influence of the executive power in the legislative activity of the congress, the legislators were granted immunity of judicial interrogation on subjects connected to their activity, and couldn't be arrested unless In flagrante delicto
In flagrante delicto
In flagrante delicto or sometimes simply in flagrante is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence...
; only the congress itself could revoke such privileges and allow the investigation to take course by a competent judge.
Only the chambers themselves could make decisions on the election, rights and titles of their own members; they were to elaborate the internal regulations and sanction misconducts of their members.
For the sessions, it was required for the chambers to count with a minimum quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
of the absolute majority, though a session with a smaller number of members had the right to compel the presence of the absent.
A wider majority was required for the constitutional and regulation reforms. The chambers had the power to question the ministers of the executive power, convoking them to present at them.
Both chambers had self initiative on legislatorial matters, with a few exceptions. The approval of projects had to take place separately in both chambers; corrections and emends by one of the chambers had to be taken back to the chamber of origin for a new voting, while the rejection of the project by one of the chambers forced it to be filed for the rest of the year.
Approved laws where given to the executive power for its promulgation; though they could be vetted making use of its co-legislative power. Nevertheless, if less two thirds of the members of each chamber insisted on the approval of the law, the executive power had to forcefully promulgate it. At the redaction of the law, the phrase "The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Confederation united in Congress sanction as law..." was forceful in the redaction of laws.
The ordinary sessions of the Congress, gathered exceptionally in one single chamber called Legislative Assembly, took place from May 1 to September 30, and started with the presence of the president of the Nation.
The preparatory sessions incorporate the elected members, while the prorogation sessions are called by the chamber itself or the president to finalise the unconcluded matter at the end of the ordinary cycle.
The president can also call to extraordinary sessions on an urgent matter during the period of recess.
Chamber of Deputies
The number of deputies was fixed to one per 20,000 inhabitants, or fraction not smaller than 10,000; it was expressly authorised that these figures would be adjusted by the congress after each national census, though the relation could only be incremented.
A transitory clause of the 34th article indicated a minimum of two deputies per province independently of its population; it assigned the Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
city, Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
and Córdoba Province
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
six deputies, four to the provinces of Corrientes
Corrientes Province
Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...
and Santiago del Estero
Santiago del Estero Province
Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:...
, three to Tucumán
Tucumán Province
Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...
, Salta
Salta Province
Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy...
, Catamarca
Catamarca Province
Catamarca is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province has a population of 334,568 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km². Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are : Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba, and La Rioja...
and Mendoza
Mendoza Province
The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
, and two to Santa Fe
Santa Fe Province
The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
, San Juan
San Juan Province (Argentina)
San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile at the west....
, Entre Ríos
Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
, La Rioja Province
La Rioja Province (Argentina)
La Rioja is a one of the provinces of Argentina and is located in the west of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Catamarca, Córdoba, San Luis and San Juan.-History:...
, San Luis
San Luis Province
San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...
and Jujuy
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...
. Due to the absence of the representatives from Buenos Aires city until 1866, the chamber had only 38 deputies.
To qualify for the chamber, candidates had to be at least 25 years old and be Argentine citizens for at least four years. The clause demanding candidates to be born or stably reside in the province to represent wasn't added until the reform of 1860. De Ángelis's proposition of demanding candidates to practice a liberal profession or own lands was finally rejected.
The mandate of the deputies was to last for four years, with the possibility of reelection; the renovation of the chamber would take place by halves each 2 years; a transitory disposition set a casting of lots
Sortition
In politics, sortition is the selection of decision makers by lottery. The decision-makers are chosen as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates....
to choose the deputies that would have to leave their seats after two years in the first cycle of elections; what had to be repeated in other moments of the Argentine history
History of Argentina
The history of Argentina is divided by historians into four main parts: the pre-Columbian time, or early history , the colonial period , the independence wars and the early post-colonial period of the nation and the history of modern Argentina .The beginning of prehistory in the present territory of...
, when the national congress was repeatedly dissolved by military governments during 20th century.
The election of the deputies according to the constitution had to be done "by simple plurality of suffrages". The interpretation of this ambiguous phrase was source of later disputes, but until 1912 predominated the doctrine that granted the party with the majority or first minority of votes designated the totality of the deputies for its legislative jurisdiction.
Later laws established a uninominal system of votes bycircumscriptions, such as the Law 4161/02 of "restricted suffrage"; the Law 8871/12 or Sáenz Peña Law
Sáenz Peña Law
The Sáenz Peña Law was Law 8871 of Argentina, sanctioned by the National Congress on 10 February 1912, which established the universal, secret and mandatory male suffrage though the creation of an electoral list...
for which the majority or first minority would have two thirds of the seats, giving the rest to the following most voted party; the Law 14032/51 that again installed a uninominal system, and finally the proportional system of D'Hont
D'Hondt method
The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
.
The Chamber of Deputies had the exclusive power of initiative on laws regarding conscription and troupes recruiting, taxes, and would work as prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
during impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
s against authorities of the three power of the nations and the provincial governors, in which the Senate would act as the court. To approve a political trial, two thirds of the chamber of deputies had to agree on the petition presented by one of its members.
The Senate
The election of the senators, representatives of the provincial entities, corresponded to the legislatures created by the provincial governments, as well as that of the federal district of Buenos Aires city.
The electoral process was similar to the one for the presidential election, through an electoral college
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
composed by electors directly voted by the people. The duration of the senatorial mandate was fixed to nine years, with the possibility of unlimited reelections, renewing the chamber by thirds each 3 years.
The Senate would hold two representatives of each province, regardless of its population; until 1860 26 senators from the 13 provinces excluding Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires city, conformed the chamber.
The requisites for the senatorial candidates where 30 years of age and six years of Argentine citizenship; the requisite of being born or resident for at least 2 years in the electoral jurisdiction would be added in the 1860 constitutional reform. It was demanded an annual rent of 2,000 pesos fuertes, what some calculate to be equivalent to 3.3 kilograms of gold, what became an issue heavily discussed; though it was finally approved, the lack of funds to supported drove eventually to its forgiveness. the presidency of the Senate corresponded to the vice-president of the Confederation, who could only vote in case of a tie.
This organization, in spite of the oligarchical
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
characteristic of the minimal rent, differed greatly in the Unitarian
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
project of 1819, that stipulated one senator per province and three for the Armed Forces, three for the Catholic Church, one for each university, and the former Supreme Directors of the Confederation after the finalisation of their mandates. It much closer resembled Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
's project of one senator per province with one substitute.
The Senate had exclusive competence in the initiatives of constitutional reform, and the judicial function during a political trial. Even though it didn't share with the president of the Nation, as in the constitution of the United States in which the Argentine one was strongly inspired, faculties of foreign politics, the president needed the Senate's approval for declaring siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
and for leaving the federal district.
It was also to be consulted in the designation of the ministers of the Supreme Court and the Federal Tribunals, the national ministers, and the higher positions of the Armed Forces and the representatives to the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
.
Transitory exercise of the Legislative Power
The first laws created under application of the constitution were not dictated by the Congress but by the constitutional convention itself, for which the San Nicolás Agreement
San Nicolás Agreement
The San Nicolás Agreement was a pact signed on May 31, 1852 and subscribed by all but one of the 14 provinces of the United Provinces of the River Plate . The treaty consisted of 19 articles, and its goal was to set the bases for the national organization of the young Argentine state...
empowered to. Among those laws where that of the federalization of Buenos Aires, the custom taxes, the free navigability and the statute of haciendas.
The Executive Power
Articles 71 to 90 contained the stipulations related to the executive power. Its control would be relay on one single person with the title of "President of the Argentine Confederation". It had also a vice-president elected together with the president, who would became the head of the power in case of absence, incompetence or resignation of the president.The requisites for the candidates to the presidency were similar to those for the Senate, with the additional conditions of being native Argentine citizens or child of a native citizen, and practice the Catholic religion. The presidential mandate would last six years without the possibility of reelection until a hole presidential period had been taken place, and under no circumstances could the mandate extend for more than six years since the original assumption date of the position.
The procedure for the presidential election was indirect; the electorate of each province would choose a number of delegates equal to twice the number of deputies and senators that that province could choose. The electors of each province would give their discretional vote for the candidate of their preference, and would send a stamped copy of the resolution of the provincial electoral assembly to the Senate. Once received all the lists, the national legislative assembly would immediately elect by the suffrage plurally between the two most votes candidates, or more in case of a tie between the second places.
In case of not having a candidate with an absolute majority in first instance, a ballotage
Exhaustive ballot
The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector simply casts a single vote for his or her favorite candidate. However if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated...
would take place between the two most voted candidates. The quorum for this second election was three quarters of the congressmen.
According to the first incise of the 90th article, the president was the supreme authority of the Confederation in what was called a presidentialist regime: the president need not answer for his/her actions to any superior authority, inside the mark given by the constitution, and did not required of the Congress approval for the exercise of the competent attributions. He/she was also the chief of the Armed Forces, and head of the executive power of the city designated federal capital of the nation.
The president had also co-legislative powers: besides the promulgationand sanction of laws dictated by the Congress, including the faculty of veto, the president was in charge of the expedition of appropriate regulations for the application of the law, called decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
s, though respecting the spirit of originality of the law. The signature of treaties with other states was subscribed exclusively to the president, as well as the decision of following or not the documents emitted by the Supreme Catholic Pontiff
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
With the authority in foreign politics, the president is in charge of naming the ambassadors and other ministers in charge of the negotiation with foreign institutions; the designation of the heads of the embassies required of senatorial agreement —another sign of the influence of the constitution of the United States— but could decide of the lower positions without the Senate's interference.
Therefore, the president was the authority in charge of the military business; able to command the Army, designate its officers — with agreement of the Senate for the higher ranks — call for parades, carte blanches, declaring war or siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
in case of a foreign attack.
Regarding the judicial power, it was up to the president to designate the judges of the federal tribunals, but with the agreement of the Senate; the president had also the faculty of pardoning convicted for crimes of federal jurisdiction, except in cases of political trial.
The president didn't have the ability to impose convictions, but could decree —in case of siege— temporal arrest or imposed transfer of persons, unless these preferred to abandon the national territory. Without the consent of the Congress, these measures became void ten days after being dictated.
As responsible of the national administration, the president was in charge of the collection of the national rent and its distribution, within the mark of the law of national budget; the president had also the faculty to grant licenses, and to inquire on any matter of the national administration.
The constitution established as five ministries, for which the president could elect its ministers; this ministries were of Domestic Affairs, Foreign Relationships, Economy, Justice, Cult and Public Instruction (Education), and War and Navy.
The ministerial referendum was necessary for the government decrees. Ministers were also obligated to give reports to the Congress at the opening of the sessions, of which they could also take part, though without the right of vote in order to avoid the incompatibility with the exercise of the legislative power.
Judicial Power
The organization of the judicial power comprehends the articles 91 to 100; given its short length an important part of its definitions and form of organization was established by the legislative power in the sessions of the Congress, concerning most of the constitutional text to the organization and attributions of the National Supreme Court.The judicial power was integrally under the control of the Supreme Court and the inferior tribunals for constitutional matters, related to federal laws, international treaties, or maritime jurisdiction.
It was explicitly stated that the president could have no knowledge of the judicial whereabouts. Also to the federal tribunals the matters between actors of different provinces, that implied foreign diplomats, or those in which the government of a province or the Confederation itself took part. Matters involving diplomats, provinces or powers of the provincial governments were only competence of the Supreme Court.
The constitution stipulated the regulations for jury trial
Jury trial
A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...
s for the penal matters; yet the proceedings were never regulated, and its implementation remains pendant even in the current Argentine constitution, who still conserves this redaction.
The only crime that the Constitution details is that of treason against the Confederation, defined as "To take arms against the Confederation, or [...] join its enemies providing them help or assistance". The punishment was to be decided by the Congress, and it was prohibited to impose sanctions to others than the perpetrator.
The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Justice was composed by a tribunal of 9 judges, and two prosecutors. Its seat would be in the federal capital. It was demanded for the head of the Ministry of Justice to be a lawyer with at least eight years of experience, as well as the requisites of the candidates to the Senate.
The minister would take oath to the president of the court —exceptionally to the president of the Confederation at its conformation— and were unremovable except of cases of misconduct. The remuneration for the position would be set by law, but could not be reduced while in functions. The Court would be in charge of the determination of its own regulations.
The Supreme Court defined by the Constitution of 1853 never became reality, even though Urquiza designated in 1854 its members, among which were Facundo Zuviría and Martín Zapata. After the reform of 1860, the number of its members was to be decided by Law of the Congress rather than being constitutionally fixed.
The government of the provinces
The last seven articles of the Constitution detail the regime of the provincial governments. Its organization was only tied to the stipulations of the provincial constitutions, independently of the federal government.At the same time, they conserved all the attributions that the national constitution hadn't expressly given the federal government. Among these were the legislation on commerce and navigation; the customs' impositions or weight rights; emission of currency unless delegation of the central government; the establishment of civil, commerce, penal and mining codes; citizenship legislation; gathering of war troupes; and the direct actuation with foreign states, including the Vatican.
War actions between provinces or between a province and the federal state were illegitimate, and such conflicts were to be solved by the Supreme Court of Justice. The provinces were expressly empowered to promote, within the federal legislation, the development of their own territories.
The resulting regime was markedly federal; it was that one of the main reasons for which Buenos Aires refused to subscribe to it, rejecting to get on the level of what the legislative porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
s qualified mockingly thirteen huts (for the thirteen provinces).
The incorporation of Buenos Aires to the Confederation required the suspension of the constitution and the resignation of the custom rights. This implied that during decades the president of the nation had to put up with the governor of Buenos Aires, who was the direct chief of the administration of the surrounding area, what mean that the presidential power often faced a wall of bureaucracy.
The federalization of Buenos Aires didn't effectively take place until 1880, when the League of Governors, headed by Julio Argentino Roca
Julio Argentino Roca
Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz was an army general who served as President of Argentina from 12 October 1880 to 12 October 1886 and again from 12 October 1898 to 12 October 1904.-Upbringing and early career:...
, finally imposed it by the use of arms, against the porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...
. Nevertheless, by that time the provincial oligarchies had already adopted a profile similar to that of their Unitarian
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
counterparts, with the development of the model of agricultural exportations, and the formation of extensive Latifundios (large estates) that would control the national economy during the following five decades. The possibility of developing models of provincial powers different from that of Buenos Aires was gone, and with it the effective federalism of the constitution.
1853 Constitution and the Argentine political history
Though the 1853 constitution was a fundamental step towards the country's unity, being rejected by Buenos Aires, and questioned by some of the most traditionalist constitutional delegates, the history that followed gave it —as with all the symbolically foundational moments— an importance that does not necessarily correspond with the actual impact it had at that time. The constitutional delegates were aware of this fact; Zuviría, in his speech following the original declaration said "You have just exercised the most grave, most solemn, most sublime act that is given to a man in his moral life". The biggest prize fell on SarmientoDomingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history...
and his contemporaries, who saw in the adoption of the federalism a victorious sign of their liberal principles.
When the historical revisionism —criticising the devastation of the national industry, the flourishing of large estates, and the internal colonialism resulting of the liberal politic of the Generation of '80
Generation of '80
The Generation of '80 was the governing elite in Argentina from 1880 to 1916. Members of the oligarchy of the provinces and the country's capital, they first joined the League of Governors , and then the National Autonomist Party...
— revised the origins of constitutional text, it referred to the same general criteria idea but in an inverse sense. Sarmiento and Roca describe the constitution as a mean to modernise the country through free commerce, European immigration, the abolition of provincial political leaderships, and the dislocation of the traditional cultures inherited from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and adapted during centuries to the local peculiarities.
On the other hand, revisionists see in that constitution the means of destruction of the national identity —due to the destruction of the national industry by the unequal competence with the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
manufacture capacity, the displacement of populations from their own lands and way of live by the immigration waves and the consequent social and economical turbulence, and the restriction of political representation to the literate and mercantile bourgeoises.
Both alternatives adopt the same structure, exposed with magistral rhetoric in Sarmiento's exhortation: Civilisation or Barbarism.
The revisionists didn't just revise history limiting to point the barbarian character of Sarmiento's civilisation: founded in the displacement of the aboriginals, the massive sacrifice of gaucho
Gaucho
Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...
s and morenos
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
conscripted for the successive wars of the Triple Alliance
War of the Triple Alliance
The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...
, and the Conquest of the Desert
Conquest of the Desert
The Conquest of the Desert was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples...
, the brutal accumulation of lands for the formation of latifundios or large estates for the agricultural exportation, the destruction of the emerging national industry and the systematic electoral fraud.
Historian José María Rosa
José María Rosa
José María Rosa , also lnown as "Pepe Rosa", was an Argentine historian, one of the most notable of the Argentine nationalist revisionist historians.-Biography:...
pointed out the linguistic game of the lemma:
"Civilisation —related to our city—, was understood in an opposite sense: as of the foreigners; whereas Barbarism —from the Barbarians, that is foreigners— signified, in the liberal language, the Argentine in contraposition to the European."
- J. M. Rosa, Análisis de la dependencia argentina, IV:36
Later authors, some of them close to the revisionism, have nevertheless pointed out that by accepting the opposition of its general terms, the revisionism lost the opportunity to re-evaluate the opposition in which is based: the liberal porteño
Porteño
Porteño in Spanish is used to refer to a person who is from or lives in a port city, but it can also be used as an adjective for anything related to those port cities....
bourgeoises and that of the provincial capitals on one side, and the semi-literate rural population on the other. The Unitarian Doctors —Rivadavia, Echeverría, Alberdi— would represent the first option, of whose plumes would flow the constitution; the federal caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
s —Quiroga, Güemes
Martín Miguel de Güemes
Martín Miguel de Güemes was a military leader and popular caudillo who defended northwestern Argentina from the Spanish during the Argentine War of Independence.-Biography:...
, Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
— the second, reluctant to fix ones and for all the political bonds.
For these authors, the alternative reflects one of the clashes effectively existent in the Argentine politic of that time: between the illustrated classes, based on the principles of the theoretic right of the millenary European tradition; and the pragmatic provincial leaders, men of action rather than theory.
Given the intellectual ambient of the moment, in with the ideologists of the French revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
ists had given place to the illumining positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
, it was natural that the thought of the first inclined for the defence of the liberal order, in which the abolition of the historical and traditional limits gave in for a new era of cooperation between people. The free market would give way to a specialisation of the countries in their areas of comparative advantage, resulting in the common improvement.
The interpretation that the revisionists make of this posture in terms of direct personal interest — the illustrated bourgeois was at the same time holder of the porteño commercial capital, that directly benefited of the importation of goods; in several cases the visible hand of consuls and delegates of British business collaborated with the invisible one in the market, establishing treaties and offering support to elements politically more favouring the commercial interest of Her Majesty of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
—results in a true view, though naif. The Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
interpretations—that even though centred in explaining the logic of the event that took place rather than the individualities, haven't ignored this criterion— also leave unattended several aspects.
To understand the fractions that converged in the dictation of the 1853 constitution, it has been distinguished two aspects that the conventional historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
simplified in the dichotomy between Federals
Federales (Argentina)
Federales was the name under which the supporters of federalism in Argentina were known, opposing the Unitarios that claimed a centralised government of Buenos Aires Province, with no participation of the other provinces of the custom taxes benefits of the Buenos Aires port...
and Unitarians
Unitarian Party
Unitarianists or Unitarians were the proponents of the concept of a Unitary state in Buenos Aires during the civil wars which shortly followed the Declaration of Independence of Argentina in 1816. They were opposed to the Argentine Federalists, who wanted a federation of independent provinces...
.
On one side is necessary to note that the high-class had several fractions in unstable equilibrium: the commercial bourgeois of the port, the cattle bourgeois of the Littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia, Argentina
La Mesopotamia, Región Mesopotámica is the humid and verdant area of north-east Argentina, comprising the provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos and Corrientes. The region called Litoral consists of the Mesopotamia and the provinces of Chaco, Formosa and Santa Fe...
, the small bourgeois layers of the cities of the landlocked provinces; and in he other side, to understand the process of economical and cultural world integration —since by then, 150 years before the common use of the word, the state problem had already the view of globalisation in virtue of the expansion of the world market in the European economical potencies— did not necessarily implied, as did in the Argentine history
History of Argentina
The history of Argentina is divided by historians into four main parts: the pre-Columbian time, or early history , the colonial period , the independence wars and the early post-colonial period of the nation and the history of modern Argentina .The beginning of prehistory in the present territory of...
, the complete abandon of the national production, and therefore of the country's modernisation would have been taken place without the loss of the national identity. Even if the ideal of the 1853 constitution and Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi
Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo and Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.-Biography:...
's writings that served as its base depended in great part in the project of integrating Argentina to the world processes, the compromise with the economical liberalism was not necessarily coded in them.
The expressed objective of the constitutional project, as that of the political projects exposed short before and after, was that of modernising the nation; what in an emerging state meant little more than creating it.
An important part of the national thinkers considered that the project of modernisation imposed an almost total rupture with the Spanish colonial
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
past; since Esteban Echeverría
Esteban Echeverría
José Esteban Antonio Echeverría was an Argentine poet, fiction writer, cultural promoter, and political activist who played a significant role in the development of Argentine literature, not only through his own writings but also through his organizational efforts...
to Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history...
and the Generación del '80, the search for the Argentine insertion in the modern world was based in the importation of theories, practices and even people.
Such a rupture demanded a certain kind of conditions and dispositions; the complementation of the European markets would benefit the merchants of the port and the higher classes, capable of consuming material and symbolic luxury goods that this commerce provided, but affecting the rural and lower classes, which were displaced if their source of sustention and the productive system in which they were situated. Aware of this, the leaders most opposed to Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...
's program concealed the task of formation of the state as a 'restoration' of the state that Rivadavia's reforms had broken: therefore Rosas's title of "Restaurateur of Laws" that referred no to the Positive law
Positive law
Positive law is the term generally used to describe man-made laws which bestow specific privileges upon, or remove them from, an individual or group...
s of the Right of Indias, but to the Natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
of the traditional nationals. The problem of this view was the impossibility, for a long time of Rosas' period, of effectively developing the national state; the restoration of the order that in previous years had dissolved, in successive confrontations between the caudillos and the hegemony of the new Buenos Aires metropolis, resulted in the paralysation of the process of building a state.
When the sanction of the constitution broke that phase, and searching to introduce the new governmental system, the matter returned with all sharpness. The position of Buenos Aires resulted obvious since the beginning: wealthy mainly because of the custom taxes income, and with its main productive bourgeoise class compromised with the market exchange with Europe, it supported the unrestricted aperture.
The federal compromise of the provinces allowed to foresee a different final, still with the adoption of a governmental regime based fundamentally in foreign ideas. The definite fall of the federal idea wouldn't be originated in the constitution but in resignation in the Battle of Pavón
Battle of Pavón
The Battle of Pavón was a key battle of the Argentine civil wars fought in Pavón, in Santa Fé Province, Argentina, on September 17, 1861, between the Army of Buenos Aires, commanded by Bartolomé Mitre, and the National Army, commanded by Justo José de Urquiza...
when the leaders of the forces of the Littoral Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia, Argentina
La Mesopotamia, Región Mesopotámica is the humid and verdant area of north-east Argentina, comprising the provinces of Misiones, Entre Ríos and Corrientes. The region called Litoral consists of the Mesopotamia and the provinces of Chaco, Formosa and Santa Fe...
preferred to join the commercial interests —being themselves great estate holders— rather than defending the formation of an internal consume market.
Alberdi, usually considered liberal by revisionists and therefore an enemy of the country's interests, harshly criticised Urquiza from his exile, who left the national structure in hands of the porteños, and of Mitre, who used in the years of the police war against the provinces; in this action the triumph of the extreme liberalism of the capital over the integrationist federalism of the provinces of the littoral. Mitre's politic would eliminate the possibility of resistance of the provinces, making impossible Alberdi's, Andrade's and José Hernández's attempts of guaranteeing the union; when under Julio Argentino Roca
Julio Argentino Roca
Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz was an army general who served as President of Argentina from 12 October 1880 to 12 October 1886 and again from 12 October 1898 to 12 October 1904.-Upbringing and early career:...
's government the unified Argentina became a reality, it was at expense of the disappearing of the social layout of the provinces and their productive capacity. The federal shape of the constitution was during the years of the modern Argentina a simple coalition of the illustrated classes throughout the country; it wouldn't be until the immigration produced its effects and mobilised the masses against the oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
that this order would be altered.