Abstract

CASTELFRANCO, Diego. The american model as a disputed ideal: Between a christian republic and the reign of unfettered freedom (Buenos Aires, 1855-1860). Andes [online]. 2020, vol.31, n.1, pp.00-00. ISSN 1668-8090.

The article analyzes the different appropriations of the North American model that a group of actors, belonging to the political and intellectual elite of Buenos Aires, put forward during the 1850s and early 1860s. More specifically, in the first place, it focuses on journalistic controversies that involved Félix Frías, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Héctor Varela in 1855 and 1856, and, in the second place, during the debates that took place during the Reform Convention of the National Constitution of 1860.  It considers that the divergent understandings of the North American republic were framed in two different political languages. One of them, associated with an emerging Buenos Aires laity, regarded freedom in a negative way and observed a genuine democracy in the United States because of its Christian character, in so far as this religion permitted to contain the passions of the subjects. The second one expressed a positive image of human freedom, emphasizing the ample liberties that the American institutions permitted.

Keywords : Félix Frías; Domingo Faustino Sarmiento; United States; 19th century; Christianism.

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