In the homeland of Freedom: Félix Mejía, a Spanish exile in the United States, 1824-1827.

Abstract

This article examines the personal experience of Félix Mejía, a Spanish liberal exiled in the United States, following the restoration of Ferdinand VII as absolute monarch in 1823. Mejía had been one of the most outspoken publicists of the wonders of liberalism during what became known as the Liberal Three Years. In the United States, he engaged in intense intellectual activity, resulting in several plays and essays that are analysed in depth. Mejía’s work shows his familiarity with the main characteristics of American republicanism, participating in the same intellectual circles. It is an example of the presence of traces of civic humanism in early Spanish liberalism. However, his idealisation of the more heroic, mythical aspects of US politics and history, that he found most useful for mobilising the kind of Spanish liberalism to which he aspired, led him to ignore the intense transformation that the United States underwent in the first decades of the 19th century.