“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Littoral and Buenos Aires. In 1863, Diego Lamas had written to Urquiza’s lieutenant,
Ricardo Lopéz Jordán, warning: “if the colorados obtain the Uruguayan government . . . they
will soon strike blows against parties in Entre Ríos in the interests of the circle of
demagoguery in Buenos Aires, our common enemy.” 4 Radical federalists increasingly
clamored to intervene in the Estado Oriental on behalf of the blancos. The factional conflicts
across the river threatened to explode.
Urquiza struggled to contain the Uruguayan fighting by arranging negotiations
between the combatants. Urquiza possessed relationships with both sides. Despite
opposing him militarily on several occasions, Flores had entered into a number of
commercial arrangements with Urquiza. He also had ties to many of Flores’ Brazilian allies
like Manuel Ferreira Bica. Urquiza hoped to use his connections with “so many friends on
each side” to forge an end to the “unjust conflict.” 5 Urquiza also correctly sensed the
potential for the factional struggles in Uruguay to upset the delicate balance in the
borderlands, particularly if Brazilian forces intervened on behalf of the colorados. Urquiza
stressed that “I have undertaken [negotiations] at the last moment in order to avoid
complications with Brazil, whose part in this struggle I can do nothing but condemn.” 6
By the mid-1860s, however, the factional divisions in Uruguay had become too deep
to be resolved by negotiations. Local disputes over borderlands legalities had, throughout
the 1850s, sharpened political tensions as each side struggled to protect the personal
reputations and property rights of factional allies. These local clashes over borderlands
courthouses had equally become intertwined with disputes between successive “fusionist”
4
María Amalia Duarte, Urquiza y López Jordán (Buenos Aires: Librería Editorial
Platero, 1974), 61.
5
Bosch, Urquiza y Su Tiempo, 610.
6 Ibid.
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