Gervasio Antonio de Posadas y Dávila (18 June 1757, in

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 ...

– 2 July 1833, in Buenos Aires) was a member of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

Second Triumvirate The Second Triumvirate was an extraordinary commission and magistracy created for Mark Antony, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian to give them practically absolute power. It was formally constituted by law on 27 November 43 BC with ...

from 19 August 1813 to 31 January 1814, after which he served as Supreme Director until 9 January 1815. Posadas' early studies were at the convent of San Francisco. Then he studied and practiced law with Manuel José de Labardén. In 1789 Posadas was appointed notary general for the bishopric, and held that post until the events of the

May Revolution The May Revolution ( es, Revolución de Mayo) was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the terri ...

. He was unaware of the impending revolution and was caught by surprise when the

Buenos Aires Cabildo The Cabildo of Buenos Aires ( es, Cabildo de Buenos Aires) is the public building in Buenos Aires that was used as seat of the town council during the colonial era and the government house of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Today the bu ...

(town hall) was occupied on 25 May 1810; he did not agree that it had been legitimately done. His donations to the ''Sociedad Patriótica'' made him an associate of the Saavedrist faction, so the leaders of the riots of 5 April 1811 exiled him to Mendoza. A month later he was appointed solicitor-procurator for the City of Buenos aires. Like many other nineteenth century Argentines prominent in public life, Posadas was a

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

.The list includes Juan Bautista Alberdi,

Manuel Alberti Manuel Máximiliano Alberti (28 May 1763 – 31 January 1811) was an Argentine priest from Buenos Aires, when the city was part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He had a curacy at Maldonado, Uruguay during the British invasions of the ...

Carlos María de Alvear Carlos María de Alvear (October 25, 1789 in Santo Ángel, Rio Grande do Sul – November 3, 1852 in New York), was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1815. Early life H ...

Miguel de Azcuénaga Miguel de Azcuénaga (June 4, 1754 – December 19, 1833) was an Argentine brigadier. Educated in Spain, at the University of Seville, Azcuénaga began his military career in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and became a member of the ...

Antonio González de Balcarce Antonio González de Balcarce (June 24, 1774 – August 15, 1819) was an Argentine military commander in the early 19th century. González de Balcarce was born in Buenos Aires. He joined the armed forces as a cadet in 1788. In the battle for Mo ...

Manuel Belgrano Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano y González (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He ...

Antonio Luis Beruti Antonio Luis Beruti (1772 – September 24, 1841) was an Argentine revolutionary who participated in the May Revolution that started the Argentine War of Independence, and later fought in the Argentine civil wars. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, ...

Juan José Castelli Juan José Castelli (19 July 176412 October 1812) was an Argentine lawyer who was one of the leaders of the May Revolution, which led to the Argentine War of Independence. He led an ill-fated military campaign in Upper Peru. Juan José Castel ...

Domingo French Domingo María Cristóbal French (November 21, 1774 – June 4, 1825) was an Argentine revolutionary who took part in the May Revolution and the Argentine War of Independence. Biography Domingo María French was the son of ''peninsular'' Patri ...

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Francisco Narciso de Laprida Francisco Narciso de Laprida (October 28, 1786 in San Juan – September 22, 1829) was an Argentine lawyer and politician. He was a representative for San Juan at the Congress of Tucumán, and its president on July 9, 1816, when the Declarati ...

, Juan Larrea,

Juan Lavalle Juan Galo Lavalle (17 October 1797 – 9 October 1841) was an Argentine military and political figure. Biography Lavalle was born in Buenos Aires to María Mercedes González Bordallo and Manuel José Lavalle, general accountant of rents and t ...

, Vicente López y Planes,

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Carlos Pellegrini Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini Bevans (October 11, 1846 – July 17, 1906) was Vice President of Argentina and became President of Argentina from August 6, 1890 to October 12, 1892, upon Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation (see Revo ...

, Gervasio Antonio de Posadas,

Domingo Faustino 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 ...

, and

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is known to have been a member of the

Lautaro Lodge The Lautaro Lodge ( es, Logia Lautaro) was a revolutionary secret lodge active in Latin American politics in the 19th Century. It was initially known as the Lodge of Rational Knights ( es, Logia de los Caballeros Racionales). Its initial purposes w ...

; but whether the lodge was truly masonic has been debated: The Second Triumvirate commissioned Posadas,

Nicolás Rodríguez Peña Nicolás Rodriguez Peña (1775, in Buenos Aires – 1853, in Santiago de Chile) was an Argentine politician. Born in Buenos Aires in April 1775, he worked in commerce which allowed him to amass a considerable fortune. Among his several successfu ...

and Juan Larrea to draft a Constitution for consideration by the

Asamblea del Año XIII The Assembly of Year XIII ( es, Asamblea del Año XIII) was a meeting called by the Second Triumvirate governing the young republic of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (modern-day Argentina, Uruguay, part of Bolivia) on October 1812 ...

, then he became part of the Triumvirate when the Assembly granted Executive Power to the Triumvirate. Then on 22 January 1814 the same Assembly decided to concentrate the Executive Power in him as a Supreme Director for the United Provinces, and so he took that office for a one-year period. During his rule, Saavedra and Campana were exiled,

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

fell to the United Provinces but serious problems arose with

José Gervasio Artigas José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (; June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) was a political leader, military general, statesman and national hero of Uruguay and the broader Río de la Plata region. He fought in the Latin American wars of in ...

and the

Liga Federal Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga ...

on the

Banda Oriental Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Bank), was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata that comprise the modern nation of Uruguay; the modern state of Rio Gra ...

. Moreover,

Ferdinand VII of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_p ...

regained his throne in 1815. Posadas was succeeded in office by his nephew,

, who was removed soon afterwards by a military ''coup d'état''. By August 1815 the whole ''Alvearista'' faction was in disgrace and Posadas was jailed. The former Supreme Director spent the next six years in 22 different jails. He began writing his memoirs in 1829.

Notes

References

* 1757 births 1833 deaths Lawyers from Buenos Aires 19th-century Argentine lawyers Supreme Directors of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata Members of Argentine triumvirates Argentine Freemasons 18th-century Argentine lawyers {{Argentina-politician-stub