Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield (February 18, 1800 – June 30, 1875) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who wrote the

Civil Code of Argentina The Civil Code of Argentina was the legal code in force between 1871 and 2015, which formed the foundation of the system of civil law in Argentina. It was written by Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, as the culmination of a series of attempts to cod ...

of 1869, which remained in force until 2015, when it was replaced by the new ''Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación''.

Life and times

Vélez Sarsfield was born in Amboy, a small town in the Calamuchita Valley, in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Córdoba. His parents were Rosa Sarsfield Palacios (daughter of Jorge Sarsfield), whose ancestors were Irish, and Dalmacio Vélez Baigorri, who died before his son was born.''The Guardian''
/ref> He studied at the Jesuit college at the

National University of Córdoba The National University of Córdoba ( es, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba,) is an institution of higher education in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Founded in 1613, the university is the oldest in Argentina, the third oldest university of t ...

, and was particularly adept at mathematics and

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

s, fluently speaking English, French,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. He earned a '' juris doctor'' in 1822. Upon finishing his studies, he married the former Paula Piñero, and became very active in politics. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, and was nominated as the

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

in 1825, a position that he took up the following year, becoming the position's youngest holder, as well as a vocal supporter of President

Bernardino Rivadavia Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia (May 20, 1780 – September 2, 1845) was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827. He was educated at t ...

and the latter's policy in favor of

centralized government A centralized government (also united government) is one in which both executive and legislative power is concentrated centrally at the higher level as opposed to it being more distributed at various lower level governments. In a national contex ...

. Vélez Sarsfield was awarded a professorship of Economics at the Law Faculty of the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most prestigi ...

in 1826. He represented the Buenos Aires Province Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas in a number of legal disputes with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, as well as with

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco (divided by the 28th parallel south), Corrientes, Entre R� ...

Governor

Estanislao López Estanislao López (26 November 1786 – 15 June 1838) was a ''caudillo'' and governor of the , between 1818 and 1838, one of the foremost proponents of provincial federalism, and an associate of Juan Manuel de Rosas during the Argentine Civ ...

, and was named President of the Academy of Jurisprudence in 1835. Monumento a Vélez Sársfield en Córdoba 1

Souring relations with Governor Rosas forced Vélez Sarsfield to leave in exile to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1842. He befriended Unitarians

José María Paz Brigadier General José María Paz y Haedo (September 9, 1791 – October 22, 1854) was an Argentine military figure, notable in the Argentine War of Independence and the Argentine Civil Wars. Childhood Born in Córdoba, Argentina, the son ...

and

Domingo Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (; born Domingo Faustino Fidel Valentín Sarmiento y Albarracín; 15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the second President of Argentina. His writing s ...

(staunch opponents of Rosas), and worked with the latter in Europe before returning. He arrived to find his home destroyed by vandals and occupied by squatters; but despite their earlier dispute, Governor Rosas had the property returned to the respected lawyer. Vélez Sarsfield allied himself with General Bartolomé Mitre, a staunch advocate of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

interests, following Rosas' overthrow, and served as counsel to Mitre in his opposition to the San Nicolás Agreement of 1852 (which Buenos Aires rejected). Following the province's secession, Vélez Sarsfield drafted the

State of Buenos Aires The State of Buenos Aires ( es, Estado de Buenos Aires) was a secessionist republic resulting from the overthrow of the Argentine Confederation government in the Province of Buenos Aires on September 11, 1852. The State of Buenos Aires was nev ...

Constitution of 1854 for Governor Pastor Obligado. The province's defeat at the Battle of Cepeda resulted in its reunification with Argentina, towards which Vélez Sarsfield helped craft a series of requisite amendments to the

Argentine Constitution The Constitution of the Argentine Nation ( es, Constitución de la Nación Argentina) is the Constitution, basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing Law of Argentina, law in Argentina. Its Argentine Constitution of ...

. Mitre's election to the presidency in 1862 made Vélez Sarsfield the nation's Finance Minister. He obtained congressional passage in 1863 of the Commercial Code he had earlier created for Buenos Aires, and in 1864 began work on his landmark Civil Code. He also advanced the modernization of the agrarian sector, then dominated by livestock ranching, by funding the nation's first institute of agronomy. Vélez Sarsfield was appointed Internal Affairs Minister by Mitre's successor,

, in 1868. He encouraged

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

by having the numerous, private assistance leagues merged into the Central Immigration Commission, and on September 25, 1869, had Congress approve the Civil Code by acclamation; the document, since amended, was enacted on January 1, 1871. The aging jurist retired afterwards, and founded ''El Nacional''. The new periodical coincided with the launch of Mitre's ''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal '' Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argentina. Its motto is: "''La Na ...

'', however, and ''El Nacional'' closed. Dr. Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield died in

in 1875, at the age of 74; he was interred at

La Recoleta Cemetery La Recoleta Cemetery ( es, Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, ...

. The barrio of Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires is named after him. The Vélez Sarsfield sports club, best known for its First Division football team, is indirectly named after him, having taken its name from a railway station bearing his name.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velez Sarsfield, Dalmacio 1801 births 1875 deaths People from Córdoba Province, Argentina Argentine people of Irish descent Argentine people of Spanish descent National University of Córdoba alumni 19th-century Argentine lawyers University of Buenos Aires faculty Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in San Luis Argentine Ministers of Finance Argentine newspaper founders Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery Ministers of Internal Affairs of Argentina

Life and times

See also

References

External links