Castelar y Ripoli, Emilio

From Philosopedia

Castelar y Ripoli, Emilio (1832—1899) Castelar was a Spanish statesman and journalist who became known for his writing of a novel, Ernesto (1855). He was a professor of history and philosophy at the University of Madrid, was foreign minister, and then president (1873—1874) of Spain’s first republic. He ruled as a dictator and was partially successful in restoring order to the war-torn country. “We have not the same republican traditions possessed by Italy and France,” he wrote. “Our people, always at war, have always needed a chief, and this chief required not only the sword of the soldier to fight, but the scepter of the monarch to rule. Notwithstanding this ancient monarchical character, there are regions which have been saved from the monarchy, and which have preserved their democracy and their republic. There still exist in the north provinces possessed of an autonomy and an independence which give them points of resemblance to the Swiss cantons. The citizens give neither tribute nor blood to the kings. Their firesides are as sacred form the invasion of authority as those of the English or of the Americans. . . . Our Cortes of Castile succeeded frequently in expelling the ecclesiastical and aristocratic estates from their sessions. Our Cortes of Aragon attained such power that they named the government of their kings, and obtained fixed days for their sessions. Navarre was a species of republic more or less aristocratic, presided over by a king more or less respected. And the Castilian municipalities were in the Middle Ages true democratic republics.” Although a representative of Republican Spain, a noble orator, a literary exponent, he was more an idealist than a materialist, according to Putnam, who added that Castelar “studies history, we might say, of Hegel, which makes history a kind of divine romance.” Although a non-orthodox Christian, Castelar was something of a theist. He favored a federative republic like that of America, not a centralized republic like that of France. But he was overthrown by a military coup d’état. After the restoration (1875) of Alfonso XII, Castelar became a member of the political opposition in the Cortes. {BDF; CE; PUT}