Dimitrije Matić
Dimitrije Matić | |
---|---|
Minister of Justice | |
In office 1 October 1878 – 5 December 1879 | |
Monarch | Milan Obrenović |
Preceded by | Jevrem Grujić |
Succeeded by | Stojan Veljković |
Personal details | |
Born | Ruma, Kingdom of Slavonia, Austrian Empire | 18 August 1821
Died | October 17, 1884 Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia | (aged 63)
Alma mater | Licej Kneževine Srbije University of Leipzig University of Heideberg |
Occupation | politician, professor, diplomat, author |
Dimitrije Matić (
He was a liberal-minded philosopher and politician who believed that the rule of force was unacceptable and that governments should promote and support popular education.[1] A prominent lawyer, writer and translator, he helped organized the college's law school; a prominent statesman, he secured major reforms in education. Matić was a tireless worker who dedicated his life to the creation of modern Serbia.[2]
Early life and education
Dimitrije Matić was born in 1821 in
Matić received a post-graduate scholarship from the government to study philosophy in
During the uprising of the Serbs against the force of Hungary, Matić was a member of the People's Committee in Karlovci and participated in organizing the army as deputy secretary of the Military Council, as an elected member of the Main Board at the May Assembly of 1848 he oversaw the proclamation of Serbian Vojvodina. His younger brother Stevan was severely wounded and later died of his wounds in Belgrade.[8]
Law career
Law Professor
He returned to Serbia in 1848 and is appointed Professor of Political Science and Civil Law at the Lyceum in Belgrade, he will stay until 1851. Since few textbooks existed, he wrote and printed the Civil Code, the Principles of State Law and the Public Law of Serbia.
Dimitrije Matić and
Matić was the first to talk about the "people's rights" (narodna prava), such as personal freedom, political and civil rights, which constituted a "natural limit to the state power"; and about popular representation as to the "organ of the people's rights." A constitutional monarchy with a representative body safeguarding the "people's rights" (not sovereignty) was for Matić the "historical" form of the state that stood closest to the "rational idea of the state". Dimitrije Matić and Kosta Cukić texts and lectures helped lay the theoretical foundations of Serbian liberalism as they criticized the existing political system in Serbia. An entire generation of the future leaders of the Serbian liberal movement were their students, most notably Jevrem Grujić, Vladimir Jovanović, and Jovan Ristić.[1]
Three years later, Matić and Cukić were dismissed from their positions because of what was seen as their negative influence on students.[9] Dimitije Matić is transferred into the administration.[10] He became a member of the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the Serbian judicial system. Together with Dimitrije Crnobarac, he was sent by the Serbian government on a mission to Western countries to learn the judicial organization, and especially the procedure in civil disputes, with the aim to shorten and speed up court proceedings in Serbia.[1] On his return he was tasked with drafting the proposal of the first Serbian university; he also worked in the commission proposing new civil procedures.
In 1848 Matić became a member of the Society of Serbian Letters (Društvo srpske slovesnosti), a precursor to the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The society was founded in November 1841 to promote the codification of the modern Serbian language, work on the issue of spelling and spread literacy and teaching throughout the country. King Mihailo suspended the activity of the society in 1864 as he suspected some of its members of using its offices to spread liberal ideas. Dimitrije Matić was an honorary member then a permanent member of the Department of Philology and Philosophy then the committee for the spread of science and literature. Matić's History of Philosophy (1865) and "Encyclopaedia of Science" was written within the framework of the Serbian Learned Society.
Ministerial offices
Upon the return of Miloš Obrenović, Dimitrije Matić is appointed Minister of Education on 3 November 1859, in the Government of Cvetko Rajović.
In that post, he is succeeded by
In 1868 Matić became Minister of Education again in the government of Đorđe Cenić then in the government of Radivoje Milojković.
For four years, he was able to organize multiple reforms; opening a higher institution of learning such as
Independence of Serbia
Matlć was a member of the delegation that signed a military alliance with Montenegro, before declaring war on Turkey. After the conflict he is a member of the diplomatic corps that negotiated peace with Turkey on 1 March 1877.
On March 3, 1878, The Peace Agreement of San Stefano did not meet the war plans for the expansion of Serbia and caused the dissatisfaction of the Great Powers, which demanded its revision and call for the Congress of Berlin. Serbia tried to attain support for its independence and territorial expansion within the requested borders from many countries. The attempt of the Serbian government to ensure Italian support at the Congress of Berlin was encouraged by the arrival of Italian volunteers who participated In the armed conflict during 1876. The goal or the diplomatic mission and Dimitrije Matić was to ensure Italian support to Serbia, which the Italian representative In Serbia and the Italian government In resignation also supported. The Serbian Prince opted for diplomatic action in Italy and decided to send Dimitrije Matić to
In 1878 Dimitrije Matić is elected president of the National Assembly of Serbia, which accepted the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin and recognized Serbia's independence; Serbia acquired almost 4,000 square miles (10,360 km) on its southeastern frontier. Serbia remained a principality until 1882, when it became a kingdom.
Minister of justice
At the new Assembly, elected on October 29, 1878, the liberals got an even more convincing majority; Dimitrije Matić became Minister of Justice in the second government of Jovan Ristić. After the Muslims had left, the question of their property occurred, in many cases, the Turks were the landowners, and the Serbian peasants were tilling the soil and they had to give a certain part of the harvest to the Turks. After the Berlin congress, the Serbian Government decided to give that land to the peasants, for Serbia was a country of free peasant's estates, but before that, a temporary solution was found. All of the Turkish state property, as well as the private land of those Muslims, who tilled it by themselves, had been rented out. The peasants who worked on the Turkish private land had to continue to do so until the final solution was found [14]
According to article 39 of the Berlin treaty, Muslims, who did not wish to live in Serbia, were allowed to keep their property and to rent it to other people. This article disabled the ceding of the land to peasants without any payments to its owners, and the Serbian government did not have enough money to give compensations to the Turks. Therefore, the government and the Assembly had to agree and a special “agricultural law” was passed by which it was decided that the peasants should pay for the land by themselves. Prices and payment conditions were to be established by a free bargain.
The peasants had misused this law in different ways, so the Government was forced to float a loan abroad and to pay off the former landowners[15]
Personal life
Dimitrije Matić was married and had three children:
- Colonel Dr. Stevan Matić (1855–1913)
- Persida Durić married to General Stanislav Sondermayer, the youngest hero of the battle of Cer and daughter Jadviga); Dragica Sajnović married to Vladimir Sajnović, Spasenija "Pata" Markovićmarried to Major Djordje Ristić and Ljubica married to Colonel Mihailo Naumović.
- Jelena Čolak-Antić married to Colonel Ilija Čolak-Antić, commander of the Ibar Army (1836–1894), a descendant of Vojvoda Čolak-Anta Simeonović; they had a daughter, Jovanka and two sons: Boško Čolak-Antić Marshal of the Court under King Peter I and Division General Vojin Čolak-Antić married to Mara Grujić, daughter of prime minister Sava Grujić[8]
Dimitrije Matić died aged 63 on October 17, 1884, in Belgrade.
Published works
Matić was a prolific and eminent writer in Serbian, German and French, his most important work is The Public Law of the Principality of Serbia.
- The Explanation of the Civil Code in three volumes (1850–1851)
- Public Law of the Principality of Serbia (1851)
- His own diary during his studies in Germany entitled "Đački Dnevnik" (Student's Diary, 1845–1848)[16]
- The Principles of Rational State Law according to Heinrich Zoepfl's (1851) (new edition 1995)[17]
- Short Review (according to Hegel's Psychology in Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences)
- Translated "The Science of Education" by Gustav Adolf Riecke in three parts (1866–1868)[18]
- Translated "Machat's Little French Grammar "by Jean Baptise Machat (1854)
- Translated "The History of Philosophy" by Albert Schwegler in two parts (1865)
- Translated "History of Philosophy" by Albert Schwegler
- Translated "Homage to Marcus Aurelius" by Antoine-Léonard Thomas
- Translated "Marcus Aurelius" by Ignaz Aurelius Fessler in three volumes (1844)
See also
- Dimitrije Matic: History of Philosophy, Part 1 (Digital NBS) and Part 2 (in Serbian)
Notes
Constructs such as named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (March 2022) ) |
- a.^ In 1863 when Matić was Secretary-General of the State Council, Captain Miša Anastasijevic donated his magnificent building for the use of education. It is today the University of Belgrade's administration and governance building.
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d Daskalov 2013, p. 112
- ^ Serbian Studies 2010, p. 341
- ^ Milenko 1987, p. 1
- ^ Zdravko Kučinar. "Facing Europe, but also the Prince". Politika (in Serbian).
- ^ Ljusić 2005, p. 14.
- ^ American Contributions: History, edited by Anna Cienciala Ladislav Matejka, Victor Terras, Anna M. Cienciala Mouton, 1973
- ^ Rudić 2016, p. 127.
- ^ a b Jovanovic 2008, p. 65.
- ^ J. Milićević, Јеврем Грујић. Историјат светоандрејског либерализма, Belgrade 1964, pp. 26-35
- ^ Društvo srpske slovesnosti: Branko Peruničić Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 1973
- ^ Летопис Матице српске, У Српској народној задружној штампарији, 1887 - Letopis Matice srpske
- ^ О Димитрију Матићу - с поводом („Политика“, 3. јул 2010)
- ^ Rudić, Biagini 2015, p. 50
- ^ Ibid., p. 49.
- ^ Jovanović (S.), op.cit. (vol. 2), pp. 14-15.
- ^ Matić, Dimitrije (1974). "Đački Dnevnik (1845-1848)".
- ISBN 9783631610244.
- ^ Die wechselseitige Schul-Einrichtung und ihre Anwendung auf Würtemberg. Esslingen: Harburger, 1846 (Digitalisate Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, MDZ München)
Bibliography
- Roumen Daskalov; Diana Mishkova (2013). Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Two: Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-26191-4.
- Serbian Studies, Volume 16, Issue 2. North American Society for Serbian Studies. 2002.
- Karanovich, Milenko (1987). "Higher education in Serbia during the Constitutionalist regime, 1838-1858, Volume 28 Number 1". Balkan Studies. 28 (1): 125–150.
- Srđan Rudić; Antonello Biagini (2015). Serbian-Italian Relations: History and Modern Times : Collection of Works. Sapienza University of Rome. ISBN 978-86-7743-109-9.
- Milan Jovanovic Stojimirovic (2008). Silhouettes of Old Belgrade (in Serbian). Prosveta. ISBN 978-86-07-01807-9.
- Srđan Rudić; Lela Pavlović (1 September 2016). Serbian Revolution and the renewal of Serbian Statehood (in Serbian). Istorijski institut, Čačak. ISBN 978-86-7743-116-7.
- Rados Ljusic (2005). Government of Serbia: 1805-2005 (in Serbian). Institute for Textbooks and Teaching Aids. ISBN 9788617131119.