Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/317

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
VIDAL
VIDAURRI

and began practice. In 1858 he founded " La Asamblea Constituyente," in which he attacked the arbitrary measures of the government, and in De- cember he was arrested in a public meeting and imprisoned for about six months in the penitentiary, where he wrote his unpublished work " Diego de Almagro." In June, 1859, he was exiled by the government with three others, who had taken an active part in the opposition. He visited France and Spain, searching the libraries for historical manuscripts, and in 1861 went to Lima, but re- turned soon afterward to Chili. In 1803 he was appointed chief editor of the " Mercurio," of Val- Saraiso, and in 1864 he was elected deputy to the rational congress for Valdivia. In 1865, after the declaration of war by Spain against the republic, Vicufia-Mackenna was sent to Peru and the United States on a confidential mission, founding in New York the paper "La Voz de America," in defence of the South American republics. Returning to his own country in 1867, he was again elected to congress for Talca, and became secretary to the chamber of deputies. In 1870 he again went to Europe, where he acted during the Franco-German war as correspondent of the " Mercurio" in Berlin and Paris. Afterward, in the archives of the In- dies in Seville, he copied documents on colonial history, acquiring in Valencia the manuscript of Father Rosales's " Historia de Chile." On his re- turn in 1872 he was appointed intendant of the province of Santiago. At the opening of the war with Peru he became editor of " El Nuevo Ferro- carril," and, as president of " La Sociedad Protec- tora," became the friend of the soldiers and their widows and orphans. After the conclusion of the strife his descriptions of it became well known for their impartiality. He wrote " El Sitio de Chil- ian en 1813 " (Santiago, 1849) ; " La Agricultura Europea aplicada a Chile " (London, 1854) ; " Le Chili-' (Paris, 1855) ; " Tres afios de Viajes " (Santi- ago, 1856) ; " Ostracismo de los Carreras " (1857) ; "Revolucion del Peru "(Lima, 1861); "Ostracismo de O'Higgins" (Santiago, 1862); "Historia de la Administration de Montt " (5 vols., 1862-3) ; " Vida de Diego Portales " (2 vols., 1862-3) ; " Historia de Santiago " (2 vols., 1868) ; " Historia de Valparaiso " (2 vols., 1868); " Francisco Moyen, 6 lo que fue la Inquisition en America" (1868; English transla- tion, London, 1869) ; " La Guerra a Muerte " (1869) ; " Historia de la Jornada del 20 de Abril 1851 " (1878) ; " Historia de las Campafias de Arica y Tacna" (1881); "Historia de Tarapaca" (1881); "Mr. Blaine" (1881); "La Guerra con Espana" (1883) ; several books on the mineral riches of Chili (1883) ; " Album de la Gloria de Chile " (1883) ; " Dolores " (1883) ; " Seis afios en el Senado de Chile" (1884); "Las Islas de Juan Fernandez" (1884) ; " Viaje a traves de la Immortalidad " (1885) ; and " Al Galope " (1885).


VIDAL, Alexander, Canadian senator, b. in Berkshire, England, 4 Aug., 1819. He accom- panied his father, a captain in the royal navy, to Canada in 1834, and settled in Sarnia. He was man- ager of the Sarnia branch of the Bank of Upper Canada in 1852-66, and held a similar post in the service of the Bank of Montreal from 1866 till 1875, when he resigned. He is also county treas- urer of Lambton, lieutenant-colonel of militia, was elected chairman of the Dominion prohibitionary convention at Montreal in September, 1875, and is president of the Dominion alliance for the total suppression of the liquor traffic. He represented the St. Clair division in the legislative council of Canada from September, 1863, till 1867, and became a member of the Canadian senate, 15 Jan., 1873.


VIDAURRE, Manuel Lorenzo de (ve-dah- oor'-ray), Peruvian statesman, b. in Lima in 1773 ; d. there, 9 March, 1841. He was graduated in law at the University of San Marcos, and became audi- tor of the Royal audiencia of Cuzco in 1810, but was transferred in 1820 to the audiencia of Puerto Principe in Cuba, and soon afterward sent to Spain, as he began to write in favor of South American independence. Being persecuted for his liberal ideas, he escaped to the United States in 1822, and on his return to Peru was appointed by Simon Bolivar, in April, 1824, first president of the supe- rior court of Trujillo, and in 1825 promoted presi- dent of the supreme court of justice of the repub- lic. He was appointed minister plenipotentiary of Peru for the general American assembly of Pana- ma in 1825, and several times was minister of for- eign relations. In 1838 he was appointed by Presi- dent Orbegozo minister to Ecuador to negotiate her neutrality in the struggle of the Peru-Bolivian fed- eration against Chili and the plots of Agustin Ga- marra, and on the accession of the latter, in 1839, was deprived of his post in the supreme court. He was the author of the Peruvian civil and penal codes and of " Plan de Peru, dedicado al Libertador Simon Bolivar " (Paris, 1822) ; " Cartas Americanas, politicas y morales, que contienen muchas reflex- iones sobre la guerra civil de las Americas " (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1823) ; and " Efectos de las facciones en los Gobiernos " (Lima, 1828).


VIDAURRI, Santiago (ve-dah-oor'-ree), Mexi- can soldier, b. in the province of Nuevo Leon in 1803 ; d. in the city of Mexico, 8 July, 1867. He was descended from a wealthy family of Indian extraction, received a good education, and in 1826 was admitted to the bar, but he soon entered poli- tics, and, after filling some minor offices, took part in the civil wars in Mexico. He had obtained the rank of colonel when, toward the close of 1852, he was elected governor of the state of Nuevo Leon, and when, in April, 1853, Santa- Anna returned to Mexico and declared himself dictator, Vidaurri protested. As he was gathering the militia, Santa-An- na appointed Gen. Pedro Ampudia military chief of thenorthern states; but Vidaurri re- fused to recognize his authority, and when the revolu- tion of Ayutla be- gan, in March, 1854, he joined in the campaign for the overthrow of Santa-Anna. While Juan Alvarez was contending against the latter in the

south, he took the

field in the north, acting independently as commanding general. After the downfall of Santa-Anna he was a candidate for the presidency in the junta of Cuernavaca, 4 Oct., 1855; but Alvarez having been preferred to him, he assumed a semi-independent position and decreed the confiscation of church property in the northern central states. He also refused to submit to Alvarez's successor, Ignacio Comonfort, and decreed, in February, 1856, the union of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, proclaiming himself their governor. This union was disapproved by Comonfort, who ordered an army of