San Nicolás, Acuerdo de (1852)

Acuerdo de San Nicolás (1852), an agreement reached on 31 May 1852 by representatives of the United Provinces of the Río De La Plata at a small town on the Arroyo del Medio, the brook that forms the boundary between the provinces of Buenos Aires and Sante Fe. The three provinces whose governors arrived late—Salto, Jujuy, and Córdoba—later approved the accord. Justo José de Urquiza, representing Entre Ríos and Catamarca, called the meeting to organize the nation. The governor of Buenos Aires was authorized by the provincial legislature only to attend the meetings, while the others received instructions from their provincial legislatures. The accord declared that the Treaty of the Littoral (1831)—an alliance between the provinces of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, and Santa Fe—was the fundamental law of the nation, and asked each province to send two deputies without restrictions to a constituent congress. A majority vote would suffice to approve a constitution. Urquiza was appointed temporary director of the Argentine Confederation. Free trade was approved and transit duties abolished. Each province was to contribute to the administrative expenses in proportion to its customhouse revenues. The provincial legislature of Buenos Aires rejected the accord.

See alsoUrquiza, Justo José de .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

David Rock, Argentina, 1516–1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alfonsín, rev. ed. (1987).

Joseph T. Criscenti, ed., Sarmiento and His Argentina (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Laferrère, Alfonso de. El Acuerdo de San Nicolás y su política. Buenos Aires: Instituto Urquiza de Estudios Históricos, 2002.

Szuchman, Mark D., and Jonathan C. Brown, eds. Revolution and Restoration: The Rearrangement of Power in Argentina, 1776–1860. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

                                      Joseph T. Criscenti