May Revolution: How did Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros live on May 25, 1810?

Proclaimed the First Government Junta by the Cabildo of Buenos Aires on May 25, 1810, it is interesting to know how the ousted viceroy, Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, experienced these events that ended his term as the last viceroyal authority in the Río de la Plata.

Cisneros himself, in a memorial he wrote shortly thereafter, addressed to the Regency of Cádiz, expressed that after the Cabildo of Buenos Aires deliberated on the resignation of the members of the Junta proclaimed the day before, which lasted less than twenty-four hours, he attempted to maintain it at all costs. However, seeing that the City Council realized this decision lacked military support and that the unrest in the streets was immense, he was forced to yield and approve the formation of a new Junta, as outlined in a petition that the demonstrators in the Plaza had sent him.

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (Naval Museum of Madrid)

Don Baltasar narrates: “On the morning of the 25th, the Cabildo, to hear this new request, gathered in its hall, not to do anything but to comply with whatever was demanded by those who, armed, crowded at the doors of the City Council, trying to enter the capitular hall, and demanded a resolution based on the assurance that the troops were on their side.

Put in such a tight spot, the Cabildo sent me a verbal delegation, with two councilors and the body’s notary, to make an absolute resignation of the Government, without any hindrance, because otherwise, they could not guarantee my life or public tranquility; I agreed to the resignation, with the general advisor of the Viceroyalty present as he had been at all previous acts, but I demanded that the notary record my formal protests against the violence and force I was suffering; however, the delegates replied that I should not record any protest at all, because they were in need of imposing my plain response on the claimants and that they were in the most risky conflict.

I finally had to yield to this scandalous violence, contenting myself with the testimony and certificate that the Delegation offered to give me of this incident, with the notary's faith, and that I have requested from the Cabildo, with testimony, of the entire file, which I will present to Your Majesty when it is granted to me.

Once again deposited the Government in the Cabildo, with whose representation the factions wanted to authorize their disorders, and seeing the Municipal Body in the same state of coercion as I was, it did nothing but lend its approval to the request of the party, whose leaders designated, in writing, the individuals who should compose the Government Junta; thus, the City Council created it, as appears from printed document no. 6). A new Edict was published, notifying the people of this third novelty, and thus the current Superior Government of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata was established, composed of the president, who is the lieutenant colonel of Militias, Don Cornelio Saavedra, six Members, who are the colonel of Provincial Militias Don Miguel Azcuénaga, Don Manuel Belgrano Pérez, secretary of the Consulate, Don Juan José Castelli, private lawyer, the presbyter Don Manuel Alberti, parish priest of San Nicolás, Don Pedro Mateu and Don Juan Larrea, merchants, and as secretaries the lawyers Don Mariano Moreno and Don Juan José Passo.”

First Junta (Francisco Fortuny)

That is to say, pressured by the unstoppable popular agitation, and fearing for the safety of its members and Cisneros' family, the municipal body decided to yield and approve what was put before them.

The former Viceroy Cisneros would say about the First Junta and its intolerable connivance with the British who were in Buenos Aires at that time: “In all public acts concerning the installation and recognition of the Junta, the English officers present here have been brought in a manner of greater solemnity, and on the day of the oath, their ships, and even those of private Englishmen, responded to the salute of the plaza; it is also very strange that, without notice and surely against the intentions of their court, they have publicly approved this disorder and even facilitated vessels to the Junta for sending their commissioners who, it is said, are heading to London.”

Don Baltasar continues narrating: “On the 26th and 27th of May, the new Junta demanded a solemn and public oath of recognition and obedience from all the Courts, Bodies of employees, and troops; which was verified in the City Council Hall; having been sworn, with the most serious protests, by the dean of the Royal Audience, the ordinary Mayor of first vote by the Cabildo, and an accountant for this Tribunal; and however, despite such public resistance to the limitations and restrictions with which the magistrates and employees swore in that act, and the fact that no more people attended the main plaza than the troops and a very small number of commoners, driven by curiosity; the Junta has portrayed this function in its public papers as the most solemn and consecrated by the acclamation of the people, as can be seen in the printed Gazette no. 9; noting in passing, Your Majesty, that this newspaper has also been published, under the title of Gazette of Buenos Aires, in this way, acquiring the Junta, or usurping, the rights, or at least, the apparatus and outward appearances of supreme authority.

And indeed, it has begun the functions of its Government, exercising acts of true sovereignty, which are reserved only for the Supreme Power of Your Majesty. It removed from his position the general advisor of this Viceroyalty, Don Juan de Almagro, with a salary of one thousand pesos. It issued to the commanders of these Urban Militia Volunteer Corps commissions of army colonels, with treatments and salaries of such. It granted its president Don Cornelio Saavedra the title of Excellency and assigned salaries to its Members.

Oath of the members of the First Government Junta before the canopy of the City Council

Don Baltasar distilled an understandable resentment towards those who succeeded him in the command of the Viceroyalty; especially towards its President: “they formed another new junta with the president being the commander of the Corps of Patricios, leaving him in the enjoyment of all the honors of the viceroy that he enjoyed as evidenced by the corresponding documents he keeps”.

In this passage, Cisneros laments that the honors he had received until then, as the highest representative of the King, passed directly to the newly appointed head of the First Government Junta, Cornelio Saavedra.

Furthermore, he reaffirms his resentment against the president of the First Patriotic Government: “I confess to Your Majesty that I misjudged my previous concept based on the repeated assurances made to me by the commanders, especially Saavedra, both verbally and in writing that I keep, that they would uphold my authority to the last extreme, as they had executed with my predecessor; but the conspiracy against him, by the Europeans on January 1, 1809.”

In another fragment of his defense, the ex-viceroy will say that Cornelio Saavedra inherited: from his residence, to his escort, honors and other privileges; which would trigger a scandalous internal fight within the First Patriotic Government months later: “The president resides in the Royal Fort, from where he forced me to move to a private house; he has the same guard and receives the same honors as a Viceroy; this numerous people is oppressed; I would do them an injustice if I did not assure Your Majesty of their loyalty and true patriotism; they have been surprised by force and only seek a favorable moment to shake off such unexpected and unheard-of violence; I have never been more honored and respected by the neighborhood than when I find myself stripped of command, and it is that their fidelity respects in me the true representation of Your Majesty, while they detest, in very notorious ways, the authority of the Junta.”

Another aspect to highlight about Cisneros is that, like various prominent royalist leaders, he was not deceived regarding the ultimate aims of the revolutionaries; which was to achieve independence from these colonies; despite the public pretext being that the revolution was made to preserve these domains for Don Fernando VII.

To this end, he tells us: “that most of the neighborhood, both Europeans and Creoles, observing the sinister ideas of the Junta directed towards Independence, which very soon after its installation began to manifest with its writings and provisions, displeased with such conduct desired and sought to oppose means of force against it, decided to seek the possible [means] to flee to Montevideo where they assured him he would be obeyed and from where he could contain the other provinces of the viceroyalty, for this purpose he negotiated with the governor, Cabildo, and commander of the Navy through an emissary who came from that plaza, in the way that the planned escape could be verified [the planned escape], although the utmost vigilance with which his person was observed made it difficult.”

In another passage of his extensive memorandum, addressed to the Hispanic Regency, Cisneros reiterates this belief, just days after being deposed from his position: “what is more, the concept they formed of the total loss of that metropolis, from where, consequently, they could not expect rewards, nor fear punishments, is what decided them to such a scandalous act, whose object is absolute independence from these Americas; and the means, violence, seduction, usurpation of the rights of the interior provinces; without whose consent they have erected six particular Governors, with the aid of the force of arms, and other thousand iniquities, which will necessarily produce: disorders, popular upheavals, disturbances, parties, and waste of Your Royal Treasury, with which considerations I believe it is indispensable for Your Majesty to send, without losing a moment, at least two thousand troops with good and proven officers, to impose respect and restore subordination; for with this province and with the disillusionment of the court of London; with whose protection these miserable and inexperienced factionaries have counted, all the m