Historiographical Essay

Abstract

Some of the most valuable sources for this study were written during the first decades after the death of Portales. Ramón Briseño’s Memoria Historico-Critica Del Derecho Publico Chileno, desde 1810 hasta nuestros días (1849), remains one of the very best studies of the early constitutions. His Estadistica bibliográfica de la literatura chilena (1862), is still to be consulted for a knowledge of early Chilean newspapers. One of the first scholarly criticisms of Diego Portales was Federico Errázuriz’ Chile bajo el imperio de la constitutión de 1828 (1861). About the most irascible denunciation of Portales ever written is J. V. Lastarria’s Don Diego Portales, juicio histórico (1861). Melchor Concha i Toro’s Chile durante los años de 1824 a 1828 (1862) is excellent on the estanco contract. Ramon Rengifo’s Memoria biográfica del consejero de estado y senador de la república de Chile D. Manuel Rengifo (1845) is helpful. Liberal historian Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna’s Don Diego Portales (1863) is critical of Portales but attempts to give both sides of the story. The author dedicated the work to Lastarria who was completely scandalized by the unwelcome gesture. Lastarria thought his friend had done more harm with the book than if he had not written it at all. José Zapiola took Lastarria to task and made him look quite juvenile at times in a series of articles published in book form as Recuerdos de treinta años in various editions during the 1870s and 1880s.