“Even that we found ourselves together here at this moment... The entirety of world history, at the very least, were necessary to explain this single moment.”
— Friedrich Schiller, Poet of Freedom, “What Is, and to What End Do We Study, Universal History?” 1789
There was, indeed, a time when collaboration between the patriots of the Americas was based on universal principles of justice and sovereignty.
The birth of the first republic in modern history, the United States of America, had a tremendous impact on a large number of patriots in the Spanish colonies of Ibero-America, who viewed it truly as a “beacon of hope” and a “temple of liberty.” Despite the extensive historical documentation that exists, British historiography has obscured this fact and claims that the main influence came from the “French Revolution” and the Jacobin “Enlightenment.”
In the case of the Republic of Venezuela, we have a very tangible example in the collaboration between the true patriots of both countries during the first decades of the 19th century—a collaboration that extended to the Mexico of Benito Juárez, the “Benemérito de las Américas,” ["Distinguished Hero of the Americas”], and beyond.
Venezuela’s Declaration of Independence, which was presented for signing on July 5, 1811, is a prime example. The Declaration refers to the fact that Spain lacked a legitimate government in the wake of the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the imposition of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain. In fact, it was this event—between 1808 and 1810—that sparked all the wars of independence on the continent, which raged for more than a decade, until around 1820–1821.
One of the most obvious examples of the similarity between the Venezuelan and the United States’ Declarations of Independence is found in the preamble to the latter, which states: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people… to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” a concept adapted to the Venezuelan context.
The Venezuelan Declaration, states from the outset that the patriots “wish to make known to the world the reasons that have arisen from these very events that justify the free exercise of our sovereignty.” And after setting forth these reasons, they state that this is done to “fulfill the respect we owe to the opinions of humanity and to the dignity of other nations, among which we are about to take our place.”
We have no definitive evidence that those who drafted the Venezuela Declaration of Independence were familiar with the works of Friedrich Schiller, but they were certainly familiar with the United States Declaration of Independence, which was translated into Spanish by the Venezuelan Manuel García de Sena, and printed in Mathew Carey’s publishing house in Philadelphia. Likewise, they conclude their decision to be free with an oath very similar to that of Switzerland’s famous Rutli Oath: “And to make this solemn declaration of ours valid, firm, and enduring, we mutually pledge to one another our lives, our fortunes, and the sanctity of our national honor.”
Juan Germán Roscio, Mathew Carey, and Benito Juárez
The principal drafter of Venezuela’s Declaration of Independence was Juan Germán Roscio, one of the most influential intellectuals on the continent who helped shape the first Venezuelan republic. In 1817, Roscio wrote a work that would make its way across the entire continent, from Philadelphia to Oaxaca, Mexico, and all the way to Argentina. “The Triumph of Liberty over Despotism: The confession of a sinner repentant of his political errors, and dedicated to making amends in this regard to religion, which has been offended by the system of tyranny.”
The first edition of the book was published by Thomas H. Palmer’s printing house in Philadelphia in 1817; a second edition was published by Mathew Carey & Sons in 1821. This edition by Carey reached Mexico the following year and became a best-seller among republicans, so much so that in 1824 Martín Rivera’s print shop in Mexico produced an abridged edition of the work, and in 1828 the complete work was printed at Juan Olmedo’s Imprenta de York. This book was one of Benito Juárez’s favorite books, both during his years as a lawyer and activist in the state of Oaxaca, and during his first term as President of Mexico. Indeed, Juárez drew from Roscio’s book the methodology of using legitimate theological arguments to defend freedom against the despotism of monarchies, in order to defend the Reform Laws that institutionalized the separation of church and state in Mexico.
Philadelphia was the center where many Ibero-American republican patriots arrived as exiles and Mathew Carey’s publishing house was a gathering place for patriots from across the continent. Another Venezuelan patriot, Manuel García de Sena, translated the United States Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the works of Thomas Paine into Spanish, and all of these works were published by Carey’s print house. From there, they circulated not only in Venezuela, but throughout the South American continent.
