The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2Dawson, Thomas Cleland
History
The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2
Dawson, Thomas Cleland
South America -- History
However, the junta's power rested upon a basis too narrow for stability.
Representing only the Santiago aristocracy, there was no certainty that
its orders would be respected in the provinces, or that independent
juntas would not be set up in other cities. To remedy this difficulty a
national congress was summoned, but the junta allotted to Santiago
almost as many members as to all the other municipalities together. The
elections took place in April, 1811, and while they were going on the
Spanish officer in command of a detachment at Santiago revolted. A
member of the junta, Jose Carrera by name, an active and ambitious
young man, who belonged to one of the most influential Creole families,
distinguished himself by attacking and defeating the Spaniard with an
improvised force of armed patriots. When congress met it voted many
reforms; abolishing slavery, reorganising the judiciary, freeing
commerce of vexatious restrictions, decreeing the payment of the clergy
out of the public treasury instead of by tithes, and conferring on the
elective bodies of the municipalities the right to elect their own city
officers. However, divisions soon arose among the members. The
representatives of the outside provinces bitterly complained of the
unfairness of the apportionment; the radicals wished to reorganise
everything, while the conservatives insisted on preserving many of the
old institutions. The Santiago representatives, chosen from the landed
aristocracy, were mostly conservative, while the members from the South
were largely radical. Under the leadership of Doctor Rosas, the latter
withdrew. The Santiago conservatives, left in undisputed control of
congress, displaced the old junta, but Carrera and his two brothers had
made themselves all powerful in the army by cleverly seizing its Spanish
officers. He determined to ally himself with the radicals and assume
supreme power. Marching to the hall of congress at the head of his
troops, he compelled the selection of a new junta with himself as chief,
and expelled the members upon whom he could not rely. Rosas had
meanwhile established a radical junta at Concepcion, and Carrera offered
to associate him in the government. Rosas declined, and the Santiago
leader, now frankly a military dictator, advanced with an army to reduce
the South to obedience. But the news that the Spanish party had gained
the ascendancy in Valdivia and Chiloe intimidated him, and he made peace
with Rosas, retiring to Santiago. His emissaries nevertheless continued
to intrigue in Concepcion and finally stirred up a riot which resulted
in Rosas' expulsion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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