HIST362: Modern Revolutions

Elections for the new representative government occurred while warfare engulfed the Peninsula and parts of America. Because many of the occupied provinces of Spain could not hold elections, and because distance delayed the arrival of many American deputies, the Regency decreed that fifty-five suplentes, among them thirty from America and the Filipines, be elected by individuals from those areas who were in Cádiz. In 1810, the city was swollen with refugees, Americans as well as peninsulares, who had retreated to the port from other regions of Spain to escape French control.

On September 8, the Regency announced the electoral procedures. It allocated the overseas realms thirty suplentes, fifteen to América Septentrional: New Spain seven, Guatemala two, Cuba two, the Filipines two, Santo Domingo one, and Puerto Rico one; and fifteen to America Meridional: Perú five, Santa Fé three, Buenos Aires three, Venezuela two and Chile two. Suplentes had to be at least twenty-five years of age and naturales of the provinces that elected them. Members of the regular orders, convicted felons, public debtors, and domestic servants were not eligible. As in the case of the Spanish provinces, the electors were to gather by province and choose seven compromisarios, who then would select three to form a terna from whom one would be picked by lot. Because there were not enough Americans in Cádiz from each province to hold individual elections the procedure had to be abandoned. Instead, the 177 American electors met as four regional groups to pick the New World suplentes: New Spain, Guatemala and the Filipines; Santo Domingo and Cuba; New Granada and Venezuela; and Perú, Buenos Aires and Chile. Puerto Rico did not participate because its proprietary deputy, Ramón Power, was the only one from America who arrived in time for the opening of the Cortes. New World suplentes were a varied group; they included military men, lawyers, academics, clerics, and government functionaries. Two were grandes of Spain and one, Dionisio Inca Yupangui, was a Peruvian Indian who had served as a lieutenant colonel of dragoons in the Peninsula ¹⁹.

The suplentes played a major role in the Cortes on behalf of their patrias and America as a whole. Indeed, some of them like José María Couto and José María Gutiérrez de Terán of New Spain and José Mexía Llequerica of Quito became outstanding parliamentarians. Moreover, when the proprietary deputies from America arrived, most suplentes remained in the Cortes representing New World realms that had failed to send proprietary deputies. The election of substitute deputies has confused many historians who believe that America was only allotted thirty deputies to the Cortes. They confuse the number of suplentes assigned to the overseas territories with the number of proprietary deputies allocated to these areas. As a consequence, these historians overstate the supposed inequality of representation between the Peninsula and the other regions of the Spanish Monarchy ²⁰.