page_title: 1842 Wallachian princely election
section_title: National Party emergence
hierarchical_section_title: 1842 Wallachian princely election / Context / National Party emergence
caption_attribution_description: Română: Gheorghe Tattarescu - Renaşterea României - Alegorie concepută la Roma, semnificând renaşterea ţării prin ştiinţă, artă şi credinţă, Muzeul Municipiului Bucureşti, 229x154 cm. Alegorie concepută la Roma, semnificând renaşterea ţării prin ştiinţă, artă şi credinţă. Compoziţia este construită pe două planuri: jos, o femeie trezindu-se din somn, simbolizând România ce-şi rupe lanţurile sclaviei (stânga jos, steagul românesc e desfăşurat parţial). Un înger îi ridică vălul obscurantismului, arătând spre planul superiorsimbolurile personificate ale ştiinţei, artei şi credinţei. În stânga jos este figurat cornul abundenţei iar în dreapta, prin contrast, o familie de ţărani săraci în faţa unei colibe schiţate. Trăsăturile fizionomice sunt bine conturate iar vestimentaţia drapată. În fundal sunt figurate Dunărea, Carpaţii şi ruinele fostei capitale Târgovişte. Compoziţia păstrează caracterele stilistice ale picturii alegorice. Cromatica: bogată gamă de griuri fin nuanţate, ocruuri, brunuri, diverse nuanţe de albastru şi verde.
context_page_description: Elections for the princely throne of Wallachia were held on December 20–21, 1842, marking the start of Gheorghe Bibescu's rule. They were the first of two such elections ever held in Wallachia, and historic in that they restored and modernized the elective monarchy, after a 112-year hiatus. While earlier elections took place under the Vlach law, the 1842–43 race was held under a modernized suffrage: there were multiple candidates, an electoral college, approval voting, and exhaustive ballot. The selection of voters extended beyond the inner circle of the Wallachian boyars, with consultation of the provincial landowners and the guilds. Such practices reflected the modernizing trend instituted by the Regulamentul Organic regime in both Danubian Principalities, under the shared custody of the Russian and Ottoman empires. In Moldavia, however, the regime did not permit princely elections, making Bibescu's the only Regulamentul reign to have been consecrated by a vote.
  The 1842 election also aired disputes between various camps: the National Party versus the Russophiles, and conservatives versus liberals.
context_section_description: These incidents rekindled nationalism in Wallachia, albeit confined to a relatively small portion of the elite, the "National Party". Its roots reached back to 1798, when Scarlat Câmpineanu and other boyars founded a group of that name, inspired by the French First Republic. Reconstructing the party, Ioan Câmpineanu circulated a constitutional project that would have established a crowned republic, before being publicly shunned and forced into exile. Lăcusteanu, at the time an officer in the Wallachian Militia, claims that: "The aristocracy and the people were Russophiles, words such as 'patriotism' and 'public opinion' were only used by the prince and a couple of boyars." Nevertheless, as noted by scholar N. N. Hêrjeu: "With all their submission to the Muscovites, the boyars quickly understood that Russia only offered them apparent protection, in order to slowly strip them of their privileges. In fact, they hated both the Russians and the Turks." The chronicler Zilot Românul recorded that the boyars were particularly worried by Russian tax farming, which they considered predatory. Among the more powerful boyars, some also opposed the prince, but for purely personal reasons—they included Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, who had seduced Ghica's divorcee mother, and was therefore detested by the monarch.
  Nationalist opposition was also concentrated into cultural projects for the "national awakening", which, as historian A. D. Xenopol writes, were particularly resented by the Russian envoys. In repressing them, Rikman and Kotzebue "did not realize that these were ultimately but mere products, effects, and [they could not hope to] destroy their cause". This period also witnessed the alleged conspiracy headed by the low-ranking boyar Mitică Filipescu in Bucharest. Some months later, a revolt was also raging in Brăila County, where treasurer Andrey Deshov, who reportedly wanted to crown himself or Constantin Suțu as Tsar of Bulgaria, rallied troops to fight against the pro-Ottoman Ghica. The capital was pacified quickly, but the military expedition against Deshov required assistance from Hüseyin Avni Pasha and the Ottoman Army. Both Filipescu and Deshov were sentenced to prison, but the details of their conspiracies remain sketchy. Lăcusteanu, for instance, sees Filipescu as an agent of Russian intrigues, "more Russian than Muscovite Russians", whereas the liberal Ion Ghica insists that he was a patriot and a believer in individual rights.
  From 1841, Russia's presence in Wallachia was strengthened by the appointment of a commissioner, Alexander Osipovich Duhamel. He and the prince detested each other, and Duhamel himself was also disliked by Ghica's subjects, who resented in particular his attempts to curb free speech. Ghica himself angered the boyars by celebrating his birthday with 300 promotions of his associates, and allegedly pocketing 11 million French francs from the national treasury. Before the legislative election of 1841, a more conservative opposition group, distinct from the National Party, was slowly emerging among the boyars. It was consolidated around the jurist Gheorghe Bibescu, who had exposed Ghica's favoritism toward foreigners, and had Vornic Alexandru Vilara for its éminence grise. Another affiliate was Barbu Catargiu of Teleorman, who used his maiden speech to denounce Ghica's abuses. Under such influences, the Assembly issued a special report, authored by Bibescu and Filipescu-Vulpea, which depicted Ghica as an anti-patriot, emphasizing his Albanian background. Ion Ghica suggests that his relative was being in fact framed by the Russians, acting in conjunction with Bibescu.
  In October 1842, having received the Assembly's formal complaint, Sultan Abdulmejid signed off on Ghica's removal. The prince was informed of this by his physician, Apostol Arsache, and decided to resign before being handed the firman. He exiled himself to the Austrian Empire, and his trip toward the border saw public displays of loyalism. At Ploiești, the citizens offered to reinstate and defend him against foreign invaders. Ghica refused, n
caption: The national awakening of Romania, in an 1850 allegory by Gheorghe Tattarescu
exif: {}