New Democracy in America: Travels of Francisco De Miranda in the United States 1783-1784

255 Pages·1963·5.027 MB·English

by  Francisco de Miranda, John S. Ezell, Judson P. Wood

THE NEW DEMOCRACY
IN AMERICA

THE NEW DEMOCRACY
IN AMERICA
Travels of Francisco de Miranda
in the
United States, 1783—84
Translated by Judson P. Wood
Edited by John S. Ezell
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS NORMAN
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-9959
Copyright 1963 by the University of Oklahoma Press,
Publishing Division of the University.
Printed in the United States of America
To the memory of
Henri and Charlotte Pittier

EDITOR’S PREFACE
The circumstances under which Francisco de Miranda’s diary
of his American sojourn came to be translated are, in themselves,
unusual. They might go almost unnoted in the normal order of
things, for the translator has shown a degree of modesty that has
all but kept his role from being known to this and future genera­
tions of his countrymen.
As a Harvard undergraduate studying under Professor Samuel
Eliot Morison, Judson P. Wood was arrested by one of the
suggested readings for the course in the American Revolution
and the Making of the Constitution. It was William Spence Rob­
ertson’s Spanish-language edition of Miranda’s diary. Having been
born in Venezuela of American parents, Mr. Wood was early
bilingual. The reading of Miranda’s American journal was there­
fore doubly attractive to him. From it came a term paper. But he
came away from the experience with a deeper conviction, he tells
us, occasioned in part by the fact that these materials had been
consulted, apparently, only twice in a period of twenty years
at the Widener Library. They had an abiding importance to an
understanding of the early American republic, in no sense less
meaningful than Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations nearly half
a century later. And they had never been translated in their en­
tirety into English.
After graduation and after a law degree, Mr. Wood settled
almost simultaneously into the practice of law and into the chal­
lenging task of translating, in his spare time, the commentaries of
the Venezuelan patriot of a century and three-quarters ago. By a
happy chance, I was invited to prepare an introduction and notes
vii
THE NEW DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
for the completed work. To say that I was delighted for the
privilege is understatement.
A double concern confronts an editor in dealing with diary
material written in a foreign language: the accuracy of the trans­
lator and the verity of the source. The translator has truthfully
reproduced the intent of the original diarist without the sacrifice
of readability, and his account checks against the two principal
printed sources, both in Spanish: William Spence Robertson, The
Diary of Francisco de Miranda (New York, Hispanic Society of
America, 1928), and Archivo del General Miranda, Viajes,
Diarios, 17$0-178y (Caracas, Parra León Hermanos, Editorial
Sur-America, 1929), I, 192-351.
Not only was Miranda a broadly educated person, but he also
studied English before coming to the United States; thus his
orthography was better than that of most foreign travelers during
this period. Naturally, however, he committed some errors, and
therefore, whenever possible, proper names misspelled in the text
are given correctly in the footnotes. It must be candidly admitted
that on a number of occasions, when Miranda gave only the last
name of an individual without other identifying information,
I was forced to make educated guesses concerning the complete
identity—guesses based upon the probability of the person’s being
in the place described at the time assigned. One must also not be
misled by the frequent use of dots or periods. Miranda used them
(...) to indicate strong feeling, an intentional break, or a greater
pause than that provided by the traditional period. Materials
which have obviously been inserted, such as mileage charts and
the like, usually appeared as marginal notes in the manuscript
diary. All pertinent portions of that document are included in
this translation, the only major omission occurring in Miranda’s
description of his voyage from Boston to London. Gaps in the
original are indicated at the points at which they occur.
I have departed somewhat from standard scholarly procedure
in using the Latin word sic (“thus”). Its occasional use in the text
or in quotations indicates, as is normally the case, exact reproduc­
tion of the original. In the notes, however, I have used it to show
viii
Editor's Preface
the correct spelling of a name misspelled by Miranda. Since most
of the scores of names mentioned by Miranda are or may be as­
sumed to be spelled correctly, the latter method seemed to me the
most plausible and least confusing way of handling variant
spellings.
The most useful sources for biographical data concerning
Miranda are William Spence Robertson, “Francisco de Miranda
and the Revolutionizing of Spanish America,” American His­
torical Association, Annual Report for the Year 1907,1, 189-528,
and Life of Miranda (2 vols.; Chapel Hill, University of North
Carolina Press, 1929); Joseph F. Thorning, Miranda: World
Citizen (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1952); and
[James Biggs], The History of Don Francisco de Miranda's At­
tempt to Effect a Revolution in South America (Boston, Edward
Oliver, 1810). Shorter sketches are numerous and easily found.
I would also like to express my personal indebtedness to Pro­
fessors Eugene R. Craine and Lowell Dunham and to Dr. Guil­
lermo Morón of Caracas, Venezuela, for their patient assistance
in clearing up troublesome points in the diary. Part of the cost of
preparing the manuscript for publication was borne by the Uni­
versity of Oklahoma Faculty Research Fund.
J. S. E.
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA
MAY 27, 19Ó3