Bartolomé Mitre

Bartolomé Mitre died in 1906, affected by a gastrointestinal illness. The charismatic leader was mourned by a crowd rarely seen until then, who accompanied the funeral procession from his home to La Recoleta Cemetery.^[4]

Bartolomé Mitre was the paradigm of the Argentine statesman of the 19th century. Mitre thematically returns to the ideals of May Revolution and lists the principles of the Freedom Party, the first Argentine party that consciously launches itself into political struggle with a liberal program. The program of the Freedom Party is the faithful synthesis of the democratic progressivism that Esteban Echeverría longed for to overcome the sterile antagonism of unitarians and federalists.^[8]

As an intellectual, he wrote poetry, theater, countless newspaper articles, cemented historical science with his exemplary biographies, translated classic works, and authored fiery harangues. Mitre was a leading figure in politics and culture until his death in 1906.^[8]

Mitre supported the establishment of universal direct suffrage, which was ultimately established in 1912, during the presidency of Roque Sáenz Peña.^[8]

When he assumed the presidency in 1862, the conditions in which the republic was found were precarious. The treasury was exhausted, the debts were large, the three national powers needed to be organized, buildings to house them separately from the provincial authorities had to be established, the question of the residence of the national authorities in the city of Buenos Aires had to be solved, the army and updated salaries had to be established, the minimum structures of the national public administration were created, and the basic program of their generation was promoted: education, immigration, foreign investment, railways, and land occupation. An appreciation of Mitre's government work that ignores his point of origin will not do him enough justice.^[8]

Referring to Mitre's financial rectitude, the explorer Sir Richard Burton wrote:^[9]

He has been Provisional Governor, Provisional President, and since 1862 actual President and Commander-in-chief, yet his friends lately subscribed to buy for him a house – surely this is high praise, here and elsewhere.

Wrote Robert Avrett:^[10]

[Mitre] included in his career enough action to fill the lives of a dozen ordinary men, despite the fact that his health was never robust... He was soldier, statesman, political propagandist, first president of the Argentine Republic, orator, historian, journalist, newspaper editor and publisher, as well as poet, translator, and critic; and at each of these roles he worked with a seemingly tireless energy.

Bibliography

Mitre ranks as an important South-American historiographer. He wrote the best accounts of South America's wars of independence and published many works, amongst which are:

• Historia de Belgrano y de la independencia argentina
  ["History of Belgrano and of the argentine independence"] (1857; fifth edition, four volumes, 1902)
• Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana ["History of San Martín"] (1869; third edition, six volumes, 1907)
• Rimas ["Rimes"] (new edition, 1890)
• Ulrich Schmidl, primer historiador del Rio de la Plata ["Ulrich Schmidl, first historian of the Rio de la Plata"] (1890)

There is an abridged translation of the Historia de San Martín, entitled The Emancipation of South America (London, 1893) by W. Pilling. Mitre's speeches were collected as Arengas (third edition, three volumes, 1902).

Gallery

• 
  Bartolomé Mitre at age 33, 1854
• 
  Mitre's presidential portrait, 1861
• 
  Mitre, perhaps around age 49, 1870
• 
  1889 ad with caricatures of Mitre and other politicians
• 
  Mitre's portrait on an 1895 bill

References

• J. J. Biedma, El Teniente General Bartolomé Mitre, in Bartolomé Mitre, Arengas, volume iii (Buenos Aires, 1902).
• William H. Katra, The Argentine Generation of 1837: Echeverría, Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996).