page_title: Free and Independent Faction
section_title: 1866 troubles
hierarchical_section_title: Free and Independent Faction / 1866 troubles
caption_attribution_description: English: Official address posted by Grigore M. Sturdza, the Prefect of Iaşi County, to the Romanian populace of Iaşi City, in reaction to the antisemitic agitation which placed in danger the city's large Jewish community. The Romanian government had recently pacified Iaşi, the center of a separatist movement. The text reads: "Cetăţenilorŭ! Nişte individ̦ĭ care nu să sfiesc de nimică, şi care sunt nişte instrumente oarbe a le inimicilor Ţăreĭ, aŭ cutezat de a forma un Comitet spre a face o Propagandă în contra Israeliţilor aruncând spaĭmă şi îngrijere în sânul acestor pacĭnicĭ locuitorĭ, Guvernul ne putând tolera asimenea stare de lucrurĭ, m'aŭ autorizat de a aresta pe membriĭ acestuĭ Comitet şi pe toţĭ aceĭ care sunt uneltiţĭ uneĭ asemine Propagande. Îndeplinind acest ordin fac cunoscut tuturor locuitorilor din Oraşŭ, ca să fie liniştiţĭ, şi maĭ ales Israeliţilor de a se răzăma pe Guvern, căcĭ el este decis, de a menţine liniştea şi buna ordine cu orĭ ce preţ, lovind şi pedepsind cu asprime orĭ care ar cuteza de a urma acesteĭ propagande barbare. Prefect judeţului Iaşiĭ. Colonel, G. STURDZA. Iaşiĭ, 25 Maĭ 1866" ("Fellow citizens! A bunch of individuals who know no shame, and who are the blind instruments of our Country's enemies, have dared to form a Committee dedicated to distributing in Romania Propaganda against the Israelites, casting fear and insecurity over such peaceful citizens; the Government, being unwilling to tolerate this state of affairs, has authorized me to arrest the members of this Committee and all those who are made to conspire by that Propaganda. In carrying out this order, I bring it to the knowledge of all City inhabitants that they feel secure [or: that they behave], and especially to the Israelites that they may place their confidence in the Government, for [Government] is acting resolutely to preserve quiet and proper order at any cost, to strike down and punish with severity anyone who might attempt to act on that barbaric propaganda. The Prefect of Iaşi County. Col. G. STURDZA. Iaşi, 25 May 1866")
context_page_description: The Free and Independent Faction or Free and Independent Fraction was a nationalist and national-liberal party in Romania, regionally centered on Western Moldavia. Originally informal, and defined by its adversaries, the Faction mainly comprised pupils and followers of the philosopher Simion Bărnuțiu. During most of its existence, it had as its recognized leader the academic and polemicist Nicolae Ionescu.
  Consolidated during the election of Carol I as Domnitor, the Faction opposed his rule, favoring either an elective monarchy with a native prince or a republican system. Secondary Factionalist leaders included Dimitrie Tacu, Alecu D. Holban and Nicu Ceaur-Aslan, who had varying levels of involvement with Western Moldavian separatism in 1866. The group's nativism bordered on violent xenophobia, endorsing economic antisemitism and anti-Germanism. The party also stood for democratization, including radical land reform and a reshaping of the census suffrage, while its regional ethos resulted in support for federalism, then communalism.
context_section_description: While their initial opposition to Carol had by then been reduced to abstentionism, the Factionalists' core constituency of Iași experienced a separatist rebellion, instigated by Calinic Miclescu, Nicu Ceaur-Aslan, Constantin Moruzi Pecheanu, and Teodor Boldur-Lățescu. The movement was almost immediately quashed, but moderate federalism was preserved by a plan of moving the Court of Cassation to Iași, making that city a judicial capital of Romania. In the city itself, the Faction's "group of electors" held meetings during which some advocated full federalism with a separate civilian government for Moldavia. A motion supporting a preferential treatment for Iași was proposed by the lawyer Gheorghe Cigaras with support from Ceaur-Aslan—and also signed by Gheorghiu, Holban, Alexandru M. Șendrea, Petre Suciu, Tacu, Sandu Dudescu, Grigore Cobălcescu, Anastasie Fătu and Vasile Gheorghian, alongside priests Iosif Bobulescu, Neofit Scriban, and Climent Nicolau. However, to the dismay of other deputies who endorsed decentralization (including Tacu and Lateș), Ionescu spoke out against the Court of Cassation proposal, as he expected Iași to be more thoroughly assisted by government.
  Carol was ultimately able to take the throne, but, during the same period, there was a breakdown of consensus inside the "monstrous coalition", with heated debates over the passing of the Constitution. A "White" party, comprising centrist and conservative elements, backed Carol's hands-on and gradualist approach to institutional modernization. As claimed by the independent radical Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, the emerging anti-liberal coalition, a "scandalous phenomenon", "always paralyzed Romanianism with alienism, and democracy with reaction". Although "too archaic", Hasdeu claimed, the Faction "rekindled the Romanian spirit" and mounted resistance against "cosmopolitan ideas". Defining itself as "decentralist and anti-absolutist unionist", the Faction was organizing throughout Western Moldavia, relying on a network of academics, schoolteachers, and youths. At Bârlad, its "national-liberal" chapter was supported by local intellectuals, including brothers Ion and Constantin Codrescu, Ioan Popescu, and Scarlat Vârnav.
  Within this context, a deeper controversy erupted over what Hasdeu referred to as "alienism": the issue of Romanian Jews and their political emancipation, which the "Reds" and the Faction opposed. The latter upheld the notion that a national bourgeoisie could be consolidated "not through free competition, but with legislation that would expel Jews from the country." In May 1866, while a petition to block Jews from obtaining commercial rights was signed by Ionescu and circulated throughout Moldavia, antisemitic riots possibly instigated by the Faction erupted in Iași, Bârlad, Roman and Botoșani. The clampdown was led by Prefect Grigore Sturdza, and resulted in the temporary arrest of various party leaders, including Fătu, Gheorghian, Gheorghiu, Holban and Suciu—alongside sympathizers such as Petru Poni. As noted by historian A. D. Xenopol (who was for a while a Factionalist sympathizer), antisemitism was only present "up front" within the Moldavian Faction and taken up in Wallachia by Cezar Bolliac, but also spread out, more discreetly, among the other political groups. Adolphe Stern, the Jewish community leader, decried the Faction's "mystical and intransigent dogmatism", infused with an "awful hatred" by the "pseudo-intellectual" Bărnuțiu.
  Ionescu sided with the moderate-liberal Prime Minister, Ion Ghica, who wanted unrestricted freedoms to be codified by the Constitution. The "Reds" and the Factionalists were pushed into cooperating with each other, mainly because the "Reds" were virtually unrepresented in Moldavian cities, but remained distinct parties; in crucial moments, the Faction voted against radicalism, rallying with the centrists. The Factionalists' extreme nationalism and antisemitism embarrassed most of the "Reds", who generally refrained from directly associating with the Faction outside of elections. The other side of the allian
caption: Grigore Sturdza's proclamation upon retaking control of Iași in May 1866, condemning the "barbaric propaganda" of local antisemites
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