Antonio María Fabié

In this Spanish name, the family name is Fabié.

Antonio María Fabié Escudero (19 June 1832 – 3 December 1899) was a politician, writer, philosopher, historian, and bibliophile, noted for his Hegelian Philosophy which he became interested in during the mid-nineteenth century while a student at the University of Sevilla. He studied pharmacy, exact science, and law.

Fabié was elected to seat R of the Real Academia Española, he took up his seat on 24 May 1891.

Biography

Antonio María Fabié was born in Seville, the son of the Sevillian pharmacist, Antonio María Fabié y Gálvez (1797–1871) and of María Amparo Escudero de Vega (1805–1836).

He studied primary education at the Colegio Hispalense, which was directed by Alberto Lista. At the age of fourteen he obtained the extraordinary annual prize, consisting of some books, with a dedication in Lista's handwriting that read: "To the most outstanding of the disciples of the Colegio Hispalense don Antonio María Fabié. — Alberto Lista." At the beginning of October 1846 he went to Madrid to study pharmacy. There he lived under the same roof as Antonio Delgado, author of New Method of Classification of the Autonomous Medals of Spain, who was his proxy until he finished his studies in Pharmacy and Natural Physical Sciences in 1851.

During this period, dragged by his literary interests, he established close friendships with several notables of the time, older than him, such as García Gutiérrez, Cayetano Rosell, Santos Álvarez or Miguel Agustín Príncipe, among others. He received several honorary mentions and extraordinary awards from his professors, mainly from Miguel Colmeiro Penido and Mariano de la Paz Graells.

Due to his character and hobbies, he was not used to working in his father's pharmacy, the most reputable at that time in Seville, so he asked for permission to study law. As his father did not allow him to do so, he paid for all the expenses of his studies with the interest of his mother's inheritance. Fabié obtained great success in his studies and when he received his degree in 1856 he already had a considerable reputation. Doctors Álava, Beas y Dutari and Bedmar praised the student highly and, previously, the professor of Logic and Ethics, Nicolás María Rivero, predicted a very bright future for him.

In 1857, he returned to Madrid against his father's wishes, and began to work in several newspapers. He wrote his first articles in El León Español. In La Patria he wrote a series of articles on the Moyano Law of Public Instruction that attracted much attention. It was then that he established a close friendship with Cánovas del Castillo, which lasted a lifetime.

He married María Teresa Gutiérrez de la Rasilla y Castañeda in Seville on December 30, 1860, with whom he had five children. He immediately returned to Madrid where he settled permanently.

He was a founding member of the Athenæum of Madrid where he held polemics about philosophical matters with José Moreno Nieto and literary ones with Manuel de la Revilla, Roberto Robet, Tomás Rodríguez Rubí and others. In the Cortes of 1863 he was elected deputy for Aspe (Alicante), giving several speeches, including one on the regime of the Spanish overseas possessions.

When José de Salamanca y Mayol founded the newspaper El Contemporáneo, José Luis Albareda was appointed director, Fabié editor-in-chief and Ramón Rodríguez Correa, Juan Valera and Eulogio Florentino Sanz editors. Fabié took Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, his close childhood friend, and made him write the first prose pages against his will. Becquer and Fabié lived together, on Prado Street, for several months in 1864, during the absence of his wife, who was in Seville due to her mother's illness. From the beginning of April 1863, he began to write in the oldest newspaper of the peninsula, the Diario de Barcelona.

In 1865 Fabié was once again elected deputy for Alcoy, serving for several months as public debt prosecutor. On May 6, 1865, he defended his anti-slavery position in the Cortes in a speech in which he seconded a motion against the slave trade. In 1867 he was again deputy for Jerez de los Caballeros and senior official of the Ministry of Overseas. He signed the manifesto addressed to Queen Isabella II in April 1868, asking her to open the Cortes, and when the revolution of 1868 came, he condemned much of her policy.

In 1871 he was elected deputy for Jerez de los Caballeros without knowing it, due to a stratagem of his friend Mr. Peche. He then formed part of the group called the canapé, captained by Cánovas del Castillo. From the beginning of January 1872 he devoted himself fully to the preparatory work for the restoration. He was appointed secretary general of the Alfonsino committee, doing everything possible to remove Antonio de Benavides y Fernández de Navarrete from the representation of the dethroned dynasty, and had a great influence on the designation of Cánovas del Castillo as his substitute.

He persistently insisted to obtain the association of the old Liberal Union to the cause of the restoration, obtaining that the ex-ministers Pedro Salaverría and Constantino de Ardanaz y Undabarrena came to an understanding with Cánovas. During the summer and autumn of 1872 Fabié made several trips through Catalonia and abroad, all related to the restoration campaign. At the end of 1872 he wrote the draft of the first manifesto of King Alfonso XII to the Spaniards, which appeared in the columns of the Diario Español when Salaverría lost it in the street.

In the spring of 1873 Fabié asked General Blas Villate for a conference with Cánovas regarding the military works in favor of Alfonso XII. Cánovas refused the meeting for more than a month, but finally had to give in and met with the general, who showed him the powers of twenty-four comrades-in-arms. Since Villate was absent from Madrid, the generals named as their representative the artillery captain Federico Sánchez Bedoya, and Cánovas appointed Romero Robledo and Fabié to negotiate with him. The negotiation failed due to the opposition of Cánovas del Castillo to the purpose of proclaiming the King by raising the garrison of Madrid and the forces that were in the North and Catalonia fighting the Carlists. On January 6, 1874, Sánchez Bedoya announced to Fabié that the generals were released from any commitment and that they would proceed to restore the Bourbon monarchy at their own risk. On February 13, 1874, he was elected academician (medal number 20) of the Royal Academy of History. He took office on April 4, 1875.

Once the restoration was consummated, Fabié occupied the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance. He belonged to the Moderate Party and was elected deputy for Casas-Ibáñez (Albacete), in the Constituent Courts. President of the General Budget Commission, together with Salaverría, he made the arrangement of the Public Debt and the Budget Law of 1876.

On April 4, 1875 he became a member of the Royal Academy of History. In January 1877 he was appointed Councilor of State. In the Cortes of 1879 he was elected deputy for Seville (capital), and again in the Cortes of 1881, occupying the post of president of the Contentious Section of the Council of State. In the Cortes of 1883 he was senator for the Province of Ávila and was appointed Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Justice, a position he never took up. In 1886 he was elected senator for the Province of Castellón and was President of the International Congress of Americanists held in Copenhagen (1883) and Turin (1886).

On April 18, 1890, the Royal Academy unanimously named him a full member. On July 4 of that year, when the ministry of Cánovas del Castillo was constituted, he occupied the portfolio of Overseas (Royal Decree of July 5, 1890), a position he abandoned a year later, receiving the appointment of president of the Council of the Philippines and possessions of the Gulf of Guinea (Royal Decree of November 27, 1891), and assisting Francisco Silvela in the reorganization of the Liberal-Conservative Party. The following February 23, 1891, he was named senator for life. On May 24, 1891 he took possession of the chair R of the Royal Spanish Academy, with the speech The Literary Works of Rodríguez Rubí, answered by José de Castro y Serrano. He later occupied the presidency of the Administrative Litigation Court. On March 20, 1894 he resigned from his position as president of the Council of the Philippines and possessions of the Gulf of Guinea. In 1886, 1887 and 1888, he made long trips through Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Norway, Russia, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. He was appointed in 1889 president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of the North and a member of the Berlin Geographical Society.

He was Minister of Overseas Territories from July 5, 1890 to November 23, 1891.

In 1895 he was named president of the Council of State. He held this position until September 15, 1897. A few days before Cánovas del Castillo left for Santa Águeda (July 27, 1897), the latter indicated to Fabié, while they were walking together in El Retiro garden, as they usually did, that he should prepare himself to occupy the Ministry of Development in October. During the opposition period of 1898, he led the conservative minority in the Senate, by order of Silvela, preparing, with the Duke of Tetuán, the fall of the Sagasta cabinet in the vote of the Treaty of Paris.

In 1899 he was appointed president of the Council of Public Instruction, replacing Montero Ríos, a position from which he resigned due to incompatibility of criteria with the Minister of Development, Marquis de Pidal, in matters of education. In September he was named honorary president of the Spanish Gymnastic Federation. On October 1 of the same year he was appointed governor of the Bank of Spain, a position in which he was surprised by death on December 3, 1899 due to a stroke.

Works

• Biografía del Sr. D. Antonio María Fabié y Gálvez (1871)
• Examen del Materialismo Moderno (1875)
• Vida y escritos de Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas. Obispo de Chiapas (1879)
• Notas y apuntes de un viaje por el Pirineo y por La Turena hecho en el verano de 1878 (1879)
• El Principado de Asturias. Rápido examen del estudio histórico-legal (1880)
• Disertaciones jurídicas sobre el desarrollo histórico del derecho, sobre las bases del Código civil y sobre la organización de los tribunales (1885)
• Estudio filológico (1885)
• Vida y escritos de Francisco López de Villalobos (1886)
• Estudio crítico sobre la obra de D. Manuel Rodríguez de Berlanga (1888)
• Comentarios a la Ley para ejercicio de la Jurisdicción Contenciosa (1889)
• Biografía del Excmo. Sr. D. Pedro Salaverría (1892)
• Mi gestión ministerial respecto a la isla de Cuba (1898)

References

• Pasamar Alzuria, Gonzalo; Peiró Martín, Ignacio (2002). Diccionario Akal de Historiadores españoles contemporáneos. Ediciones Akal.

External links

• Works by Antonio María Fabié at Gallica
• Works by Antonio María Fabié at Open Library
• Works by Antonio María Fabié at National Library of Spain