Excellent Mr. President, General Ramón Castilla
Lima Boulogne-sur-Mer, September 11, 1848.
Respectable General and Sir:
I have received your very appreciable and frank letter of May 13 with the greatest satisfaction; she was not answered for last month's package because it did not reach me with a significant delay, that is, on August 30, three days after the package left Panama.
You he makes a very interesting exposition of his military career; in my turn let me give you an excerpt from mine. Like you, I served in the Spanish army, in the Peninsula, from the age of thirteen to thirty-four, up to the rank of cavalry lieutenant colonel. A meeting of Americans, in Cadiz, aware of the first movements that took place in Caracas, Buenos Aires, etc., we decided to return each one to the country of our birth, in order to lend our services to him in the fight, since we calculated he would have to commit himself. I arrived in Buenos Aires at the beginning of 1812; I was received by the Governing Board of that time, by one of the members with favor and by the other two with a very marked mistrust; On the other hand, with very few family relations, in my own country, and with no other support than my good wishes to be useful to you, I suffered this contrast constantly, until circumstances put me in a position to dissipate all precautions, and be able to continue unhindered the vicissitudes of the War of Independence. In the period of ten years of my public career, in different commands and states, the policy that I proposed to follow was invariable in only two points, and that luck and circumstances more than calculation favored my views, especially in the first, to namely, that of not mixing in the parties that alternately dominated at that time, in Buenos Aires, to which my absence from that capital for nine years contributed.
The second point was to look at all the States Americans, in which the forces of my command penetrated, as sister States all interested in a holy and same goal. Consistent with this very just principle, my first step was to declare their independence and create their own military force to ensure it. Here, my dear general, a brief analysis of my public life in America:I would have had the most complete satisfaction having put an end to it with the termination of the war of independence in Peru, but my interview His visit to Guayaquil with General Bolívar convinced me (despite his protests) that the only obstacle to his coming to Peru with the army under his command was none other than the presence of General San Martín, despite the sincerity with which he told him. I offered to put myself under his command with all the forces I had.
If America has any service to thank me for, it is my withdrawal from Lima, a step that not only compromised my honor and reputation, but was also very important to me. more sensitive, since he knew that with the gathered forces of Colombia, the War of Independence would have been finished in the entire year 23. But this costly sacrifice, and the not small one of having to maintain absolute silence (so necessary in those circumstances ), of the reasons that forced me to take this step, are efforts that you will be able to calculate and that it is not within everyone's reach to appreciate them. Now all that remains for me to finish my exposition is to tell you the reasons that motivated the voluntary ostracism of my country.
Back from Lima I went to live in a farm that I own near Mendoza:neither this absolute Having studiously severed all my old relationships, and above all, the guarantee offered by my behavior detached from any faction or party in the course of my public career, could not protect me from the mistrust of the government that existed in Buenos Aires at that time. Aires:Your ministerial papers waged a sustained war on me, stating that a lucky soldier intended to subject the Republic to military rule, and replace this system with legal and free order. On the other hand, the opposition to the government used my name, and without my knowledge or approval, stated in their newspapers that I was the only man capable of organizing the State and uniting the provinces that were in dissidence with the capital. In these circumstances I convinced myself that, unfortunately for me, I had figured in the revolution more than I had wanted, which would prevent me from being able to follow an impartial line of conduct between the parties:consequently, and to dispel any idea of ambition to any kind of command, I embarked for Europe, where I remained until the year 29, when invited both by the government and by several friends who showed me the guarantees of order and tranquility that the country offered, I returned to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately for me, on my arrival in this city I encountered General Lavalle's revolution, and without disembarking I returned to Europe again, preferring this new exile to being forced to take part in his civil dissensions. At the advanced age of 71, in completely ruined health and nearly blind with cataract disease, I hoped, though against all my wishes, to end an ailing life in this country; but the events that have occurred since February have raised a problem where I am going to leave my bones, although personally I would not hesitate to remain in this country, but I cannot expose my family to the vicissitudes and consequences of the revolution.
It will be for It is a pleasure for me to engage in a regular correspondence with you:but my lack of sight forces me to use someone else's hand, which annoys me infinitely, since I have been accustomed all my life to writing my private correspondence by myself, it costs me incredible work and difficulty dictate a letter for lack of custom; so I hope that you will dispense with the inaccuracies that you find.
The four years of order and prosperity that under your leadership have made known to Peruvians the advantages that were unknown to them for so long will not be easily wrested away by an ambitious minority and turbulent. On the other hand, I am convinced that the subversive maxims that, in imitation of France, they want to introduce in that country, will find in every honest Peruvian, as well as in the chief who presides over them, an insurmountable stumbling block:in any case, it is necessary that the good Peruvians interested in sustaining a just government, do not forget the maxim that ten men who shout make more noise than a hundred thousand who are silent. As a general rule, revolutionaries by profession are men of action and boisterous people; On the contrary, the men of order do not expose themselves except with reservation:the February revolution in France has demonstrated this truth very clearly, since an imperceptible minority and despised for its subversive maxims of all order, has imposed by its audience thirty and four million inhabitants the critical situation in which this country finds itself.
The passage of time that seemed to improve the situation of France after the February revolution, has not produced any change and continues the same or worse both because of the events of May 15 and June, as well as because of the lack of confidence inspired in general by the men who are currently in charge of the administration. The maxims of hatred infiltrated by the demagogues against the working class against those who own it, the different and powerful parties into which the Nation is divided, the uncertainty of a very likely general war in Europe, the paralysis of industry, the increase in spending For an army of five hundred and fifty thousand men, the notable decrease in revenues and distrust in commercial transactions have made the base security of public credit disappear:this sad picture is not the most alarming for the country's politicians; the great difficulty is to feed a million and a half or two million workers in the midst of the industrial paralysis, who will find themselves unemployed next winter and deprived of all means of existence:this future inspires great mistrust, especially in Paris where everyone the inhabitants who have something to lose ardently want the current state of siege to continue, preferring the government of the military saber to falling into the power of the socialist parties. In short, the state of derangement and disorder in which France finds itself, as well as a large part of Europe, does not allow us to fix ideas about the consequences and outcome of this immense revolution, but what is more likely today is a civil war which will be difficult to avoid; unless, in order to distract the parties, a European war is not resorted to accompanied by revolutionary propaganda, half disastrous but the party men do not consult the consequences.
Thanks a million for your frank offers; I believe them all the more sincere when they are made to a man who, due to his age and infirmities, is completely worthless; I accept them for one thing only, namely, to pray to you that the scope resulting from the adjustments to my pension made by those offices may, if it is fair, be recognized by the State; but with the precise circumstance that nothing will be satisfied until after my death, when my children find this reserve body for their existence. This letter is too long for a boss who has to deal with large issues:in subsequent ones I will bear this consideration in mind. By showing you my gratitude for the sentiments you express to me in your letter, receive my sincere wishes, my appreciable general, because success presides over all your deliberations, allowing me, at the same time, the honor of calling yourself your friend. Your servant Q.S.M.B.
José de San Martín
Peruvian Magazine, Lima 1879, volume II, pgs. 40-43 Autograph notes, Editorial Del Nuevo Extremo, Buenos Aires, 2009.
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