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Regionalism as a Factor in Colombia's 1875 Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

James W. Park
James W. Park*
Affiliation:
La Mesa, California
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Extract

Colombia's 1875 election was one of the most intensely fought and pivotal political contests in the nation's history. It has attracted well-deserved attention because it delineated factionalism within the Liberal party to the point of no return, and it marked the sudden emergence of Rafael Núñez to national prominence as leader of one of the two contending Liberal factions. The Nuñista Liberals in that election posed the most serious challenge the Radical Liberals had sustained since they established their political ascendancy in 1867. Victory by the Radicals in 1875 ushered in the final, brief phase of their political hegemony. The bitter factionalism within the Liberal party revealed by the election directly contributed to the costly civil war of 1876-1877 by leading Conservatives to the mistaken assumption that the defeated Nuñistas would tacitly support an insurrection against the Radicals. The Nuñistas, however, supported the Radicals during the crisis of that partisan war and thereby gained access to power.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , April 1986 , pp. 453 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1986

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References

1 Most accounts of the 1875 election are polemical and tend to stress its violent aspects. Among the most detailed accounts are Monsalve, Joaquín Estrada, Núñez: el político y el hombre (Bogotá, 1946), pp. 136–50Google Scholar; Aguirre, Indalecio Liévano, Rafael Núñez (Bogotá, 1944), pp. 117–39Google Scholar; Vergara, José Ramón, Escrutinio histórico: Rafael Núñez (Bogotá, 1939), pp. 143–74Google Scholar; Vargas, Antonio José Rivadeneira, Don Santiago Pérez (Bogotá, 1966), pp. 84–123 Google Scholar; Aguirre, Antonio Pérez, 25 años de historia colombiana, 1853 a 1878: del centralismo a la federación (Bogotá, 1959), pp. 343–79.Google Scholar The best recent discussion of the election is Delpar, Helen, “Aspects of Liberal Factionalism in Colombia, 1875–1885,” Hispanic American Historical Review 51 (1971): 255–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 A complete text of the 1863 constitution is available in Pombo, Manuel Antonio y Guerra, José Joaquín, Constituciones de Colombia, 4 vols. (Bogotá, 1951), 4: 127–65.Google Scholar The best study of the 1863 Constitutional Convention is Correa, Ramón, La Convención de Rionegro; páginas históricas de Colombia (Bogotá, 1937).Google Scholar

3 To simplify the confusing nomenclature for Liberal party factions in the last half of the nineteenth century, the term Radical is applied to the faction which was also called Gólgota in the 1850s, Parrista in the mid-1870s, and more generally by the opposition, “oligarchy.” The label Moderate refers to the Liberal faction known as Draconiano in the 1850s, Mosquerista in the 1860s, Nuñista in the mid-1870s, and Independent after the 1875 election. For a good discussion of this terminology problem see Delpar, , “Aspects,” pp. 253–55.Google Scholar

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5 Piñeres, Eduardo Rodríguez, “Páginas olvidadas en ‘El olimpo radical; la liga de 1869,” Boletín de Historia y Antigüdades, 38 (1951): 252–73Google Scholar; Holguíin, Carlos, Cartas políticas (Bogotá, 1951), pp. 116–20Google Scholar; Vargas, Rivadeneira, Don Santiago, pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

6 El Republicano (Socorro), May 6, 1875; El Elector Nacional (Barranquilla), March 15, 1875; Teodoro Valenzuela to Luis Bernal, Feb. 20, 1872, in private collection of Horacio Rodríguez Plata, Bogotá (hereafter cited as CdeHRP).

7 The best biographies of Núñez are Aguirre, Liévano, Rafael Núñez; Vergara, Escrutinio histórico; Gustavo Otero Muñoz, Un hombre y una época; la vida azarosa de Rafael Núñez, (Bogotá, 1951)Google Scholar; del Castillo, Nicolás, El primer Núñez (Bogotá, 1971)Google Scholar; the last work concludes in 1863.

8 “Senado 1874,” Vol. IX, fol. 17, Archivo de Congreso, Bogotá.

9 Núñez to Aquileo Parra, Nov. 4, 1873, CdeHRP; see also Núñez to Tomás C. de Mosquera, June 26, 1874, in Archivo Central del Cauca, Popayán, Sala Mosquera (hereafter cited as ATCM); Arosemena, Pablo, Escritos, 2 vols. (Panamá, 1930), 2: 124.Google Scholar

10 (Rouen, France, 1874).

11 Wallis, José María Quijano, Memorias autobiográficas, histórico-políticas y de carácter social (Grottaferrata, Italy, 1919), p. 244.Google Scholar

12 Núñez’s private life has been a matter of lively debate in Colombia. He married Dolores Gallegos of Panamá in 1851, but the marriage failed by 1860 and ended in civil divorce several years later. In the early 1860s in Bogotá he became amorously associated with a married woman whom he followed abroad in 1863. Although Núñez’s marriage to Dolores Gallegos remained valid under church law, in 1877 he married again, in civil ceremony, to Soledad Román of Cartagena. See Castillo, , El Primer Núñez, pp. 217–21,Google Scholar 279–80; Palacio, Julio H., “El segundo matrimonio de Núñez,” Revista Colombiana, 7 (Nov. 1936): 321–33.Google Scholar

13 Some states employed the title “president” for their chief executive, and others referred to him as “governor.” The title “governor” will be used in order to distinguish the office from that of president of the republic.

14 Núñez to Mosquera, April 17, 1874, ATCM. A Costeño was a person from the north coast region.

15 Mosquera to César Conto, Dec. 2, 1874, and Jan. 13, 1875, Ms. 113, Biblioteca Luis-Angel Arango, Bogotá (hereafter cited as BLAA).

16 Núñez to Mosquera, Dec. 1, 1874, ATCM.

17 El País (Bogatá), March 6, 1875.

18 El Progreso (Panamá City), Jan. 24, 1875; La Palestra (Mompós), Jan. 20, 1875.

19 La América (Bogotá), Jan. 20, 1875; El País (Bogotá). March 6 and May 11, 1875.

20 El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena), Feb. 5, 1875; for expressions of similar sentiments see ibid., Jan. 25, 1875; La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), Feb. 1. 1875; El Promotor (Barranquilla), Feb. 6, 1875.

21 Ibid., May 8, 1875.

22 Núñez to Mosquera, Feb. 29 [sic], 1875, ATCM.

23 Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), Jan. 25, 1875.

24 Parra, , Memorias, pp. 415–19,Google Scholar 426–27, 507, 542, 562–63, 592–95.

25 For an evaluation of the Liberal candidates by a Conservative see “Diario de Quijano Otero,” Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades, XIX (1932): 399–400.

26 Parra, , Memorias, pp. 595,Google Scholar 666.

27 Gaceta de Santander (Socorro), April 1 and May 20, 1875.

28 Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), July 2, 1875; see also ibid., Sept. 25, 1875.

29 Ibid., Jan. 9 and May 20. 1875; law 18 of May 4, 1874; law 31 of June 6, 1874; law 32 of June 6, 1874; law 51 of June 19, 1874, in Constitución i leyes de los Estados Unidos de Colombia, expedidas en los años de 1863 a 1875 (Bogotá, 1875), pp. 1047–48, 1057–60, 1076–80. The symbol, $, refers to Colombian pesos in this study.

30 La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), April 10, 1875; see also ibid., Feb. 24 and March 24, 1875; El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena). April 25, 1875.

31 Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), March 18, 1875.

32 According to article 75 of the 1863 constitution, a presidential candidate had to obtain the votes of a majority of the states, each state having one vote, to be elected president. In case no candidate received a majority vote. Congress would elect one of the leading candidates as president. Pombo, y Guerra, , Constituciones, 4: 154.Google Scholar

33 La Illustración (Bogotá), June 22, 1875; election dates for each state are published in this issue. Enactment of a constitutional amendment in 1876 made the presidential election date uniform throughout the country.

34 Froilan Largacha to Mosquera, Jan. 6, 1875, ATCM; El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena), Jan. 25 and Feb. 5, 1875.

35 Froilan Largacha to Mosquera, Feb. 10, 1875, ATCM; the pro-Núñez papers were El Correo de Colombia, La Unión Colombiana, and El Cronista. Two Bogotá papers supported Parra, Diario de Cundinamarca and El País.

36 Núñez to Mosquera, Jan. 3, 1875, ATCM; (Bogotá) Feb. 23, 1875.

37 La Unión Colmbiana (Bogotá), April 10, 1875; see also ibid., Feb. 24, 1875.

38 (Bogotá) Sept. 25, 1875; see also ibid., Jan. 15, 1875, and El País (Bogotá), April 6, 1875.

39 For details of the October 1868 coup by the national government against the state government of Cundinamarca see Parra, , Memorias, pp. 510–41Google Scholar; Moure, Cordovez, Reminiscencias, 7: 115–26Google Scholar; Holguín, , Cartas, pp. 81–102.Google Scholar

40 Froilan Largacha to Mosquera, Aug. 18, 1875, ATCM; Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), July 14, Aug. 2, Oct. 6 and 18, 1875; La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), Aug. 6, 1875; Galindo, Aníbal, Recuerdos históricos, 1840–1895 (Bogotá, 1900), pp. 194–96.Google Scholar

41 Núñez to Mosquera, Dec. 1, 1874, ATCM. Cauca was situated on the pacific coast.

42 La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), April 10, 1875; see also El Telégrafo (Palmira), May 6, 1875.

43 Ortega, Alfredo, Ferrocarriles colombianos, 2 vols. (Bogotá, 1920, 1923), 2: 456–60.Google Scholar

44 La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), Feb. 20, 1875.

45 Froilan Largacha to Mosquera, Jan. 6, 1875, ATCM.

46 César Conto to Mosquera, Jan. 20, 1875, ATCM; Mosquera to César Conto, Dec. 2, 1874; May 27 and Oct. 28, 1874, Ms. 113, BLAA.

47 César Conto to Mosquera, May 5, 1875, ATCM.

48 Andrés Cerón to Mosquera, April 21, 1875, ATCM; Juan de Dios Restrepo to Mosquera, June 8, 1875, ATCM; Gabriel Montaño to Mosquera, July 20, 1875, ATCM; La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), March 20 and May 18, 1875; Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), July 14 and Aug. 12, 1875.

49 M. S. Barreiro to Mosquera, July 17, 1875, ATCM.

50 Wallis, Quijano, Memorias, p. 248 Google Scholar; Los Principios (Cali), Nov. 19, 1875; [ Cerniti, Ernesto] Aventuras de un cocinero (Ernesto Cerruti); crónicas de Cauca (Bogotá, 1898), p. 20.Google Scholar

51 El Escudo Nacional, Jan. 15, 1875.

52 Ibid., March 9, 1875; Diario Oficial (Bogotá), Feb. 14, 1875; La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), Feb. 13 and 20, March 9, 1875.

53 Ibid., Feb. 13, 1875; see broadside signed by Wilches, and Domingo, Santo dated Feb. 13, in El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena), March 9, 1875.Google Scholar

54 Ureta, José P., Cartagena y sus cercanías (Cartagena, 1912), pp. 432–34Google Scholar; Parra, , Memorias, pp. 606–10.Google Scholar Santo Domingo was born in Cuba but came to Colombia in his youth. In 1872 he unsuccessfully fought for state control of the nationally-owned maritime salt works in Bolívar and Magdalena.

55 El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena), March 9, 1875.

56 Ibid.; La Unión Colombiana (Bogotá), March 3, 1875.

57 Ríaseos had seized a state arms shipment shortly after his return to Magdalena from the Barranquilla convention, and he then threatened insurrection unless the governor stepped down. See El País (Bogotá), March 16 and May 21, 1875; El Magdalena (Santa Marta), Jan. 19, 1875; El Ferrocarril del Magdalena (Santa Marta), Jan. 24, 1875; El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena), Feb. 25, 1875; El Elector Nacional (Barranquilla), March 15, 1875; Granados, José Ignacio Díaz, Rectificación histórica (Barran-quilla, 1899), pp. 5–11.Google Scholar

58 El Republicano (Socorro), March 5, 1875; see also El Ferrocarril del Magdalena (Santa Marta), Feb. 24, 1875.

59 El País (Bogotá), April 6, 1875.

60 Miró to Mosquera, May 28, 1875, ATCM.

61 For a pro-Radical account of these events see Esguerra, Nicolás, Certificación del Secretario de Hacienda i Fomento sobre los acontecimientos de la costa (Bogotá, 1875). pp. 1–51 Google Scholar; Diario de Cundinamarca (Bogotá), May 7, June 4, 16, 17, 30; July 6; Aug. 31; Sept. 23; Oct. 12, 20; Nov. 26, 1875. Nearly every issue of El Escudo Nacional (Cartagena) and El Elector Nacional (Barranquilla) from May to July contains useful information from the north coast viewpoint.

62 (Bogotá) June 19, 1875.

63 Aug. 24, 1875.

64 (Bogotá), Aug. 14 and 21, 1875. The phrase merienda de negros means an uproar, disturbance of a chaotic situation.

65 El Tradicionista (Bogotá). July 16, 1875.

66 Restrepo, Carlos E., Orientación republicana (Medellin, n.d.), pp. 14–15 Google Scholar; Parra, , Memorias, p. 665.Google Scholar

67 Núñez to Mosquera, March 31, 1875. ATCM.

68 EI Tradicionista (Bogotá), Feb. 9, 1875; Silva, Carlos Martínez, Por que caen los partidos políticos (Bogotá, 1934), pp. 3–5.Google Scholar

69 Núñez to Mosquera, Dec. 1, 1875, ATCM; see also Núñez to Mosquera, Dec. 8, 1875, ATCM.

70 Wallis, Quijano, Memorias, p. 246 Google Scholar; Muñoz, Otero, Un hombre, p. 62 Google Scholar; Briceño, Manuel, La revolución, 1876–1877; recuerdos para la historia (Bogotá, 1947), p. 13.Google Scholar

71 At the end of the year when neither Núñez nor Parra had obtained the votes necessary for election, Núñez proposed the withdrawal of himself and Parra from contention. An intermediary made the proposal to Parra, but he rejected it. Salvador Camacho Roldán to Parra, Dec. 18, 1875, CdeHRP.

72 Wallis, Quijano, Memorias, pp. 251–55Google Scholar; Parra, , Memorias, p. 720 Google Scholar; Galindo, , Recuerdos, p. 196.Google Scholar