Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso López y García

Received secondary education at the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de Almería; entered the University of Granada, where studied law and philosophy; transferred to Madrid (1856), where he finished his education; a brilliant scholar, he entered the Ateneo de Madrid, a center for cultural and intellectual debate and became known as eloquent orator and philosopher, defending the principles of democratic socialist society; worked as professor at the Instituto San Isidro (until 1858); in the 1860s was involved in managing newspapers; edited La Discusión and La Democracia; quit editorial job to assume the position of assistant professor at the University of Madrid; moved to Oviedo (1864), where he held the chair of history in local university; returned to Madrid where he taught as professor in the Central University (1866); was clandestinely named a member of El Saladero, a democratic committee (1867); arrested for his political views and spent five months in jail (1867); upon his release, he was forced by health problems to return to his home town, but rushed to the capital when the news of the Revolution of 1868 reached Almería; served as a member of the Junta Superior Revolucionaria de Madrid (8 Oct 1868 - 19 Oct 1868); refused to support the plans of provisional government to set up constitutional monarchy in Spain; was defeated at the election to the Cortes Constituyentes (Constituent Cortes, 1869); returned as a deputy at the election to the Cortes, representing Badajoz (1871-1872, 1872-1873) and Cartagena (1872); appointed minister of justice (12 Feb 1873 - 11 Jun 1873) in the first republican government of Estanislao Figueras; elected to the Constituent Cortes (1873-1874) as a deputy for Badajoz; upheld the ideas of federal republic and citizens' equality; upon resigning his ministerial position, he was elected President of the Constituent Cortes (13 Jun 1873 - 25 Aug 1873) [4]; elected President of the Executive Power (18 Jul 1873 - 7 Sep 1873); resigned the presidency over a controversy resulting from his refusal to sign death sentences; was again elected President of the Constituent Cortes (9 Sep 1873 - 8 Jan 1874) [5]; with the restoration of the Borbon monarchy, he was dismissed as professor (1875) and moved to France; acted as a leader of the republican movement in exile, working for creation of a progressive republican party; briefly returned to Madrid after the amnesty had been proclaimed in 1881, but did not reside permanently in Spain until 1884; elected to the Cortes (1886-1887) as a deputy for Madrid; gave up his seat in the Cortes due to disagreements with his republican colleagues (19 Feb 1887); emerged as a founder of the Partido Republicano Centralista (Centralist Republican Party) in 1890; elected to the Cortes to fill in a vacancy (1892-1893) in Barcelona electoral district; reelected on a number of occasions as deputy for Barcelona to the Cortes (1893-1895, 1898-1899, 1903-1905, 1907-1908). Biography source: [6]