Proceso original justificativo...

Proceso original justificativo contra los reos acusados de Alta Traicion en el Congreso y Directorio, mandados juzgar por el articulo septimo del tratado de paz firmado por este gobierno con los gefes (sic) de las fuerzas federales de Santa Fe y la Banda Oriental, en veintitres de febrero del corriente año de 1820. Buenos Aires. Imprenta de Álvarez.

Quarto major (30.7 x 20.7 cm / 12 x 8.14 in), 4 pp. Exemplar with an old water mark in the center, otherwise in good condition, with a later portrait of Sarratea as a Frontis, added by the bibliophile. Preserved in a folder, former Octavio Assunção collection. Zinny -n. 27, year 1820, pp. 279 - 280-, gives it with 58 pp., On folio.

This form gives an account of a historical fact of great relevance, the trial of those who had exercised power until shortly before, a trial led by Manuel de Sarratea, who had been appointed governor of Buenos Aires shortly before, assuming a complex and controversial role in full formation of our republic.

Regarding this episode, we read Irina Polastrelli: “After the sanction of the centralist Constitution in 1819, and the rejection it aroused in the Litoral provinces, the central power entered an insurmountable crisis that culminated in its military defeat at the hands of of the federal forces of Estanislao López and Francisco Ramírez in Cepeda, at the beginning of February 1820. The dissolution of the General Constituent Congress and the disappearance of the Directory caused an unprecedented power vacuum, known in traditional historiography as the “anarchy of the year twenty". The winners pressured the Buenos Aires Cabildo to assume authority over the city and its rural surroundings and appoint a new government, in line with their interests, to negotiate peace. Through an open council, on February 16 the twelve members were elected by the city that made up the Board of Representatives of Buenos Aires. As the representatives of the campaign had to join, the Board provisionally appointed Manuel Sarratea as governor”. (1)

And we continue with the aforementioned researcher: “On February 23, 1820, Sarratea signed the Treaty of Pilar with Ramírez y López. In addition to ending hostilities, the agreement determined that the federal principle would govern the future organization of the country, which would take place in a congress to meet in San Lorenzo. But it also stipulated that the members of the Board of Directors and Congress should be subjected to a public trial to justify the "powerful reasons" for which the "Chiefs of the Federal Army" had declared war on Buenos Aires.

Note:

1. Irina Polastrelli: “Castigar los crímenes de la anterior administración”. El juicio contra los miembros del Directorio y del Congreso en 1820. En Anuario del Instituto de Historia Argentina, vol. 17, n ° 2. Dec. 2017. National University of La Plata.

S.O-XIV-DBM