Transcription
Madrid Saturday September 23d 1843
Dear Papa
The good steamer Hibernia brought me yesterday your letter of / August 29th and the delightful accounts of the progress of every thing at / Nevis = I am amazed at the performance of the progress of the fruitery and afraid that / this will only be an exceptional year and that the peach trees will / return to their former bareness and inprofitable condition, before I / get back : You say nothing of the trees under glass and the grape vines; / I suppose they are not behind the others : should you break the colts / without accident into a fine span, do not I pray you sell them, until / I have seen them _ I have always been very desirous that you should / have a fine pair of horses of your own raising.
It is delightful contrast to have these pictures of / quiet, home, enjoyment in the midst of the confusion and trouble / which exist in this country, where from a state of dreadful uncertain - / ty you pass into the shocking realities of civil war : When I last / wrote you, I believe I mentioned the conflict going on in Barcelona, since / then the plot has thickened : a Brigadier Gen’l with 1000 men has joined / the Insurgents; most of the principal towns in Catalonia are up; and / Zaragessa, the capital of Aragon + Catalonia formed the ancient kingdom of Ara : / gon and that province has generally followed the other two; the news / of a rising there is next expected _ Yesterday the rumor went about / that all Galicia in the opposite direction had joined in the dance, and / in short that the Nation seemed to be [^ was] rising against this gov’t as the / did three months ago in opposition to Espartero _ Without /
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Claiming to be a prophet which you know is a useless attempt at home / you will remember that in my letters from the Pyrennees, I doubted whether the / Moderados and Liberals could work long together; the split has taken place / much earlier and more decidedly than could have been supposed even here, and / they are now [aride?] as the poles thunder, or in more common phrase they are cutting / each other’s throats: _ When Serrano (War Minister) first gave the countenance / of his name and authority to the movement in Barcelona in July last, he promi: / :sed, no doubt, many things which the Gov’t have not thought proper to make / good _ the poor men shot a monk since for Mutiny in asking their discharge / from the service, had I am convinced good reasons to believe this was to be one / of the rewards for their desertion of the Regent; and the Junta of Barcelona have / undertaken to prove that Serrano, Universal Minister at that time, bound / himself and his Colleagues to assemble a “Central Junta” (two delegates from / each province) as soon as the fight was over and the Coalition victorious.
There is no doubt this plan of a Junta, or great national / Convention with original + indefinite powers to make alterations in the Constitution, / was the favorite object of the Exaltrados or Ultras, who first set the ball rolling / against Espartero’s government which was too moderate and constitutional to / meet their views; and was therefore an [^ the first] obstacle to be removed _ It is said by / many that there is a large party in Favor of a republican form; tho as yet [^ it is] not advocated / very openly by many - at a meeting of liberals in this cl city in August / a man of some note declared that “tho he would be content with abolishing / the veto; he would be better pleased of the would abolish the Queen”, and / this sentiment was not received with any marks of displeasure _ At the / present time however this party of the extreme left desire a Junta in / order to limit a take away entirely the royal veto; abolish the Senate, / and make other changes in the constitution in a republican sense _ you can / easily ? conceive the rage and disappointment of these men, when they find / that a revolution, which they began, has been neutralized and modified by / the Moderados + Christina’s friends who count in their ranks Narvaez, / Concha, and other leading Generals, who perhaps chiefly contributed to the . rapid downfall of the Regent _ The Provisional Gov’t as you have seen, /
Abandoning the idea of a Central Junta convoked the Cortes for the 15h of next / month; in the mean time pledging them by a half way measure to declare / the Queen of Age at once; and [^ hoping] in that case [^ way] to retain their posts : the Elections / have just concluded here and the opposition with my old friend Arguelles at / their head have gained in the City a majority of 300, or about 3000 votes. /
But the difficulties do not end here; besides the open / opposition of several provinces and the abandonment of a large party, the Gov’t / has to contend with a division in its own Councils : _ There are five Ministers / only; the state Depart’t being filled ad interim by one of the others; of there / the Minister of War, is said to be entirely gained over by Narvaez and the Modera: / :dos _ Lopez; the president of the Cabinet, and the most eloquent orator in the cham - / ber is good for attack only; brilliant in a debate he is weak and vacillating / at the head of affairs, and with M. Frias, Minister of Marine inclines to the / side of Serrano + Narvaez _ Caballero Minister of the Interior, universally / acknowledged to be a man of character and cleverness, opposes the others / in their anti-liberal measures, and is followed by Ayllon Minister of Finance / and thus the strong measure of Narvaez and the energetic men about him are / either neutralized or defeated _ In this way the apathy and indecision of / the Gov’t have been accounted for in regard to the insurrection at Barcelona / where they seem to have been copying the course of the late Gov’t and allowing / the rebellion to spread gradually throughout the Country.
Nowhere however is the position of the ministry more / Critical than in this city which was always attached to Espartero, and adhered / to him to the last, against two armies united _ The National Guard of Madrid / began the revolution of 1840, by which Christina was expelled; and the feeling / against them among her friends was most indiscreetly + brutally exhibited in / Narvaez’s c??ters summons to surrender; wherein he declared he considered / himself “the instrument of Providence to shed the traitorous blood of Madrid” / the bitter feeling which this declaration created was increased at the time of the / surrender when a stipulation was [^ said to have been] made with [Asperioz?]; one of the besieging generals, / that the nationals should retain their arms, and a Junta be appointed from / their body +c +c : these stipulations, if interred into were totally disregarded /
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By Narvaez who on the day after his triumphal entry disarmed the whole / body : this measure is now said to have been as ineffectual as it was irrita: / :ting _ each man was required to deliver up one Musket; but it is well known / that through the various disturbances of late, 40.000 stand of arms of have been dis: / :tributed among the Militia of the Capital, and there being only 16 or 17.000 men, it is reasonably supposed that in the event of a row they would be found as / well provided as before _ so bitter is the hatred of these men against Narvaez / that [^ (all the men of)] a Company; it [^ is] stated to have sworn to each other to take his life at / the first outbreak _ Their antecedents have shown that they are just the / men to make; and enable [^fulfill] [^ to make good] such fearful engagement :
Here we are then a present : an insurrection predicted / by many; of various parties; and evidently expected by the Gov’t = the only / question is as to the time, some fixing on one day; some on another _ on the / 10th of October; the Queen’s birthday there is to be a “besa manos” or grand / reception at the Palace, and some have even deferred the uprising to that day. / in the mean time some live in hope; all in expectation _ yesterday the mail / from Aragon + Catalonia did not arrive _ Every body at once determined the / news was unfavourable and therefore intercepted by the authorities _ I walked / at dusk to the Puerta del Sol; the centre + emphatically the heart of the / City, where the political blows are struck _ seven or eight principal streets / meet in an open space; a rectangle, not a square; with the finest building / in Madrid; the Post Office, on one side _ like all public edifices in this / country built with great strength; the lower windows most formidably / barred and grated _ a square court yard in the city centre : This is / the principal Corps de Garde of the City; has witnessed several bloody flights / and the death or defeat of Captains General : the post now held by Narvaez _ / to come back [^ to] my walk : I found an immense crowd on [^ along] the slad sides of / the place and up the principal streets; and at the entrance of the post / office (a large hall) three or four times the usual guard; while officeres / in groups were scattered thro’ the crowd _ throughout the night there was / the same state of alarm and expectation; officers were roused; the streets / constantly patrolled, and all the precautions used to put down any /
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Attempt _ the morning came without any disturbance, and I was quietly / waiting for my breakfast a little after 8 when I was astounded by two / or three thundering discharges in almost instantaneous succession : the windows / rattled [^ glasses] shivered and glasses in all directions; the servants came running to / me to say that no doubt a “cuartel” of troops had pronounced and they were / firing cannon + bombs : when I got to the window people were hurrying up / + down in great confusion _ It was soon rumored however that it instead of a / “pronunciamiento” it was a powder magazine which had exploded : and a / dark heavy cloud which rose over the it the city and the absence of further discharge / confirmed the story _ I was on the spot between 9 + 10; meeting Narvaez with / a brilliant escort and a regiment of infantry to keep oder; the Magazine / was about half a mile from one of the Gates and the people [^ were] flocking to / it from all quarters _ I met some of the men slightly wounded, and the litters / with dead bodies : the explosion was terrible, and as it appears by a flying / [sheet?] which I have just seen destroyed 60 or 70 persons besides woun: / :ding several _ fragments of timber, bombs, balls, and of human bodies were / found scattered over the fields at great distances _ It was a dreadful scene, / and I left it in a very short time, while an immense multitude was / still hurrying to the spot.
Within a few weeks I have seen in influential / foreign Journals projects of European intervention to establish something / like order and even one or two Spanish papers morbidly zealous, as / they are of foreign influence, have admitted candidl;y that this would / be better than to sink into hopeless anarchy _ M. Olozaga, one of the / [cleverest?] man about the Gov’t set off for Paris as Minister a few days / since _ all suppose his mission connected with the Queen’s marriage / which is a most difficult question; there being so many candidates / supported by powerful parties or interests :
I am for my own part losing my faith in / the progress of constitutional principles here, and beginning to think /
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Of absolution as the best; because it is the condition most likely / to keep the people quiet _ if these troubles last much longer they / will sink into it, at in the end from exhaustion _
I am living [^ a] quiet and of course somewhat solitary / life; sometimes not leaving the house during the day + seeing no one but the Servants _ As I became accustomed to it; it is not unpleasant since / it gives me so completely the command of my time _ I am taking / care of my health which has been a little shaken during the last / few months, during which I hope I have become acclimated.
Before leaving Madrid I asked Eliza + Molly / to send me now + then by way of Havre or London the Intelligencer / + American when they contained any thing of interest _ the papers / sent tothe Legation are forwarded by a stupid agent of the State Dept / in N. York by way of Cadiz so that they generally arrive 4 months old _ / the only other ones we have are those sent by Mr. Irving’s family.
Saturday Ev’g _ The alarm last night was greater than I had / anticipated supposed _ The Gov’t rec’d notice that emissaries from Catalonia + Saragossa / had arrived with the intention of raising the cry of “Junta Central” _ Cannon / were placed in the Puerta del Sol; and several regiments in the streets adjacent, / Narvaez + his officers on the spot at 2 o’clock : sentinels today in the / streets leading to the Puerta del Sol prevented the formation of groups _ / I noticed as I rode through this evening that it was much less crowded / than last night : If the struggle does take place, it will be a bloody one; / for Narvaez is bold, active, full of energy and not all scrupulous about / the shedding of blood : __
Rumors of new pronunciamientos at different / points _ If the Gov’t can hold out until the meting of the Cortes there may / be some chance of tranquility; but the interval of three weeks is dan: / :gerously long in this Country :
The Courier is off early in the morn’g and / I close my package tonight : I shall write again for the packet of the / 5th _ A great deal of love to all + many kisses to Mama
Adios; your affectionate Son A.H.Transcriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
