99 Facts About Mariano Moreno

Mariano Moreno's father was Manuel Moreno y Argumosa, born in Santander, Spain, who arrived in the city in 1776 and married Ana Maria del Valle.

Mariano Moreno married Maria Guadalupe Cuenca and returned to Buenos Aires, becoming a prominent lawyer for the Cabildo.

Mariano Moreno worked for the next viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros.

Mariano Moreno wrote the economic paper The Representation of the Landowners, which persuaded the viceroy to open trade with Britain.

Mariano Moreno organized military campaigns to Paraguay and Upper Peru and ensured the execution of Santiago de Liniers after the defeat of his counter-revolution.

Mariano Moreno established the first Argentine newspaper, La Gazeta de Buenos Ayres, and translated Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract into Spanish.

Mariano Moreno's supporters were still an influential political party for some years after his death.

Mariano Moreno studied at Colegio Grande de San Carlos, but without living in it, as his family could not afford the price.

Mariano Moreno met influential people within the literary field, who helped him to continue his studies at the University of Chuquisaca, even when his father could not afford the cost.

Mariano Moreno studied the books of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and other European philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment.

Mariano Moreno studied English and French languages as well, to understand authors from Britain and France.

Mariano Moreno was convinced that society could be changed by the power of intelligence and reason.

Mariano Moreno studied philosophical texts of the Spanish Enlightenment under the tutelage of the priest Terrazas and aspired to implement the new ideas in his country.

Mariano Moreno wrote a thesis with strong criticism of the native slavery at the mines of Potosi, influenced by the Spanish jurist Juan de Solorzano Pereira, the foremost publisher of Indian Law, and Victoria Villalva, fiscal of the Audiencia of Charcas and defender of the indigenous cause.

Mariano Moreno started his professional career between 1803 and 1804, in the office of Augustine Gascon, officiating as labor counselor for Indians.

Mariano Moreno left the city after being threatened and returned to Buenos Aires in 1805 with his wife Maria Guadalupe Cuenca and their newborn son.

Mariano Moreno defended Melchor Fernandez, aggrieved by Bishop Benito Lue y Riega, in one of his first cases.

Mariano Moreno wrote a diary that noted all the events, so that, in the future, his countrymen would know the circumstances which occurred in the city that allowed for an invasion to succeed.

The Royal Audiencia of Buenos Aires banned the newspaper and requested Mariano Moreno to write articles refuting those of the publication.

Mariano Moreno refused because, although he remained loyal to the Spanish crown, he agreed with some of the criticisms made by the newspaper against the Spanish colonial government.

Several friends of Mariano Moreno helped Beresford to escape and move to Montevideo, but it is unknown if Mariano Moreno was aware of the plan.

The historians who support the latter perspective try to make attempts to excuse or justify Mariano Moreno's involvement; those who support the former consider instead that Mariano Moreno was a revolutionary a year before most other Argentines.

Mariano Moreno was Alzaga's lawyer in the trial that followed, which was labeled a trial for "independentism".

Mariano Moreno wrote The Representation of the Landowners, a report that represented the export interest of the landowners, encouraged free trade and condemned the privileges of the merchants benefited from the monopsony.

Mariano Moreno voted for Saavedra's proposal: to remove viceroy Cisneros and replace him with a Junta.

Mariano Moreno felt betrayed when the Cabildo twisted the results of the open Cabildo and created a Junta that would be headed by Cisneros.

Mariano Moreno refused any further contacts with the revolutionaries and stayed home during the remaining events.

Mariano Moreno was supported by the popular leaders Domingo French and Antonio Beruti, Dupuy, Donado, Orma, and Cardozo; and priests like Grela and Aparicio.

Mariano Moreno issued a freedom of the press decree, which allowed the press to publish anything that did not offend public morals or attack the Revolution or the government.

Mariano Moreno published some works of Gaspar de Jovellanos and his translation of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract.

Mariano Moreno considered that if Ferdinand VII returned to the throne, he would not be able to challenge a Constitution written in his absence.

Mariano Moreno issued several decrees during his first days in government.

Mariano Moreno ordered punishment for anyone attempting to generate disputes, and for those concealing conspiracies against the Junta or other people.

Mariano Moreno did this by invoking the rulings of the Catholic Monarchs during the early Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Mariano Moreno wrote in the Gazeta that the Audiencia attacked the good faith of the government and that the Junta left their usual moderation for the safety of the people.

Mariano Moreno supported the legitimacy of the Primera Junta by criticizing the Regency Council and stating that the overseas Spanish territories were equally capable of creating Juntas, as it was debated during the open cabildo.

Mariano Moreno called for unity and support of the metropolis, and that both cities recognize Ferdinand VII as their legitimate monarch.

Mariano Moreno argued that the Junta treated the exiles initially with moderation, but their obstinacy, particularly on the part of Cisneros, generated popular discontent.

Mariano Moreno did not accept it and told Ocampo that a general should simply obey orders.

Castelli proposed to advance the military campaign even closer to Lima, but Mariano Moreno asked him to stay at his position.

Mariano Moreno gave them full civil and political rights, granted lands, authorized commerce with the United Provinces, removed taxes for ten years, abolished any type of torture, and lifted restrictions on taking public or religious office.

Mariano Moreno promoted a new decree of the Junta that called for trial and confiscation of goods for anyone that left the city without authorization, kept military weapons in secret, promoted popular alienation or discontent against the government, or wrote letters to people in other cities for such a purpose.

Mariano Moreno thought that Jose Gervasio Artigas would be an invaluable ally and that Buenos Aires should use any resource at its disposal to have him join the fight against absolutism.

Mariano Moreno noted the internal conflicts in Chile and Paraguay and urged support of local patriots against local royalists.

Mariano Moreno proposed to distribute large numbers of Gazeta de Buenos Ayres newspapers, filled with libertarian ideas and translated into Portuguese, and provide military support to the slaves if they should riot.

Mariano Moreno considered the risk of a complete Spanish defeat in the Peninsular War or a restoration of absolutism great menaces and regarded Britain as a potential ally against them.

Mariano Moreno criticized the relationship between Britain and Portugal, in particular the junior position of Portugal in regards to her alliance with Britain and claimed that British influence in Brazil was so high that the colony might eventually become British instead.

Mariano Moreno held the same ideas about being simultaneously friendly and reserved with Britain in the pages of the Gazeta newspaper.

Mariano Moreno proposed simply to confiscate the money and nationalize the mines.

Mariano Moreno reasoned that five or six thousand people would be harmed by such action, but eighty or a hundred thousand would benefit.

The state would not manage those areas indefinitely; Mariano Moreno proposed that this should be done only until there was a strong economic activity in each area, and then the state would just observe, making sure that they followed the laws enacted for the common good of society.

Mariano Moreno thought that state-sized fortunes managed by a few individuals were detrimental to civil society, and those individuals would tend to manage the economy for their own benefit, without fixing the problems of society at large.

Saavedra was the president, and Mariano Moreno was a secretary with the support of other vocal members.

Nunez described how Mariano Moreno was resisted by some criollos who initially supported the revolution without being aware of the long-term consequences.

Mariano Moreno was resisted by criollos alarmed by his straightforward way of talking about concepts like self-determination, tyranny, slavery, and freedom.

Mariano Moreno was resisted by conservative lawyers and by most of the military.

Mariano Moreno proposed executing them as a deterrent, accusing them of working with the Montevideo Cabildo, the enemy of the Junta.

Mariano Moreno sought to modify the military balance of power by reforming the promotion rules.

Up until that point, the sons of officials were automatically granted the status of cadet and were promoted just by seniority; Mariano Moreno arranged that promotions were earned by military merits instead.

Mariano Moreno thought that support from the lower classes was instrumental to the success of the Revolution, and wrote letters to Chiclana instructing him to generate such support at Upper Peru.

Mariano Moreno was not allowed to pass by the guards at the door, which generated a small incident.

The next day, when Mariano Moreno heard about the incident, he wrote the "Honours Suppression decree", which suppressed the ceremony usually reserved for the president of the Junta and inherited privileges of the office of viceroy.

Duarte was exiled, and Mariano Moreno's act was justified by stating that "An inhabitant of Buenos Aires neither drunk nor asleep should be expressed against the freedom of his country".

Mariano Moreno rejected sending a representative and told him that the Junta did not work for the interests of Brazil, but for those of the United Provinces.

Mariano Moreno rejected the mediation as well, considering that no mediation was possible under a military threat.

Mariano Moreno described Moreno as "the Robespierre of the day", and accused the Junta of attempting to build a republic.

Funes, allied with Saavedra, calculated that they could stop Mariano Moreno by joining the Junta, as his proposals would be agreed to by a minority.

Mariano Moreno said that there was popular discontent with the Junta.

The supporters of Mariano Moreno said that such discontent was only among some rebels, and Mariano Moreno said that it was only the discontent of the Patricians in respect of the Suppressions decree.

Hipolito Vieytes was about to make a diplomatic mission to Britain, but Mariano Moreno requested that he should be given the appointment instead.

Mariano Moreno traveled to Britain with his brother Manuel Moreno and his secretary Tomas Guido, on the schooner Fame.

Mariano Moreno's health declined and there was no doctor on board, but the captain refused requests to sail into some ports which were positioned along the route such as in Rio de Janeiro or Cape Town.

Mariano Moreno suffered great convulsions after ingesting the emetic and considered that in his state he could not have ingested more than the quarter of a gram without effect.

Mariano Moreno's body was wrapped in a Union Jack and thrown into the sea, after a volley of musketry.

Manuel Mariano Moreno speculated later that he was poisoned by the captain.

Manuel Mariano Moreno was unsure of whether the captain really gave him that substance, or if he substituted something else, or gave an even higher dose.

The son of Mariano Moreno commented to the historian Adolfo Saldias that his mother, Guadalupe Cuenca, received an anonymous gift of a mourning hand fan and handkerchief, with instructions to use them soon.

Mariano Moreno was still considered an Anglophile but in a negative light.

Mariano Moreno is regarded as the first Argentine journalist, as he created the Gazeta de Buenos Ayres.

Mariano Moreno was the only one to sign the decree that established the newspaper, but the text implies that it was the result of a discussion of the whole Junta, and not just his initiative.

Mariano Moreno has been promoted as a supporter of the freedom of the press, but the Gazeta was actually a state-sponsored newspaper, and the Junta allowed such freedom only for information that was not against the interests of the government.

The Mariano Moreno family was poor but could afford a house and some slaves.

Ana Maria del Valle y Ramos, Mariano Moreno's mother, was one of the few literate women in Buenos Aires.

Mariano Moreno met Maria Guadalupe Cuenca in this city, after seeing a miniature portrait of her at a silversmith's house.

Mariano Moreno studied laws all the same and married Maria in secret to avoid family resistance.

When Mariano Moreno left for Europe on a diplomatic mission in 1811, his wife and son stayed in Buenos Aires.

Mariano Moreno requested a widow's pension from the First Triumvirate, which was in power by then; its value was thirty pesos.

Mariano Moreno studied French and Spanish authors of the Age of Enlightenment during his studies at Chuquisaca.

Vicente Fidel Lopez claimed that Mariano Moreno reprinted the translation made by the Spaniard Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, but the two translations differ.

Paul Groussac thought it was a reprint of an Asturian translation, and Ricardo Levene said that Mariano Moreno was not the translator, but neither gave any indication as to who they thought had completed it.

Enrique de Gandia considers that the comments of contemporary people and the lack of an earlier similar translation of Rousseau's work allow us to conclude that Mariano Moreno must have been the translator, at least until an earlier translation is found.

Mariano Moreno kept a strong Spanish cultural heritage, and both Levene and Abelardo Ramos agree that his stay in Chuquisaca influenced him more than the books.

In line with the Spanish Enlightenment, Mariano Moreno kept strong religious beliefs.

Mariano Moreno removed the chapter from Rousseau's work that is critical of religion, and never became a Freemason.

Mariano Moreno gave up his religious studies to study law and get married, but never actually became a priest, so there was no defrocking.

Mariano Moreno studied with priests such as Terrazas, who approved and perhaps even encouraged the change of vocation.

The canonical image of Mariano Moreno is the one from the portrait Mariano Moreno en su mesa de trabajo.

Mariano Moreno asked for a picture that was consistent with this image.

Later a portrait of Mariano Moreno was discovered that had been done from life, by the Peruvian silversmith Juan de Dios Rivera.