Rousseauian echoes in the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata during revolutionary times. The use of the notion of the general will according to Nicolás Valerio Laguna, a Tucumán native, 1810-1813

Abstract

With the crisis of the Spanish monarchy, which began with Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, the territories under the rule of the Spanish monarch on both sides of the Atlantic became a great space for political experimentation. These experiments sought to address the urgent problem of recomposing the community as a political body. At that time, America would demonstrate to Europe the possibilities and limits of the republican language of government. Founded on popular sovereignty, its effective implementation in republican forms and the competition of the monarchical option posed significant challenges. This work focuses on a brief period, between 1810 and 1813, in a specific and limited space, the town of Tucumán. It confirms the presence of Rousseauian elements in local political experience. It aims to contribute to reflection on the role of communities in the River Plate territories beyond the Pampas port region in the use of republican language as a widely circulated language, alongside people, books, and other languages, between both sides of the Atlantic. The presence of republican language, particularly in a Rousseauian vein, was confirmed in the former viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in relation to the city of Buenos Aires and Mariano Moreno, secretary of the first provisional government of the Río de la Plata. However, there are virtually no studies that address the circulation of this language within that space. Thus, this article examines the circulation and use of this language and its Rousseauian version by local elites in the interior spaces of the Río de la Plata. In particular, it focuses on the sayings and behaviors of Nicolás Laguna, a Tucumán native with a literary background, a long political career, and a presence in political and social networks that extended beyond his homeland, San Miguel de Tucumán. Laguna responded to the problem of the recomposition of the political community by proposing a sovereign political subject, appealing to two widely disseminated elements of Rousseauian thought in the Río de la Plata: general will and free consent.