Elections for the princely throne of Wallachia were held on December 20–21, 1842 (New Style: January 1–2, 1843), marking the start of Gheorghe Bibescu's rule. They were the first of two such elections ever held in Wallachia, and historic in that they restored and modernized the elective monarchy, after a 112-year hiatus. While earlier elections took place under the Vlach law, the 1842–43 race was held under a modernized suffrage: there were multiple candidates, an electoral college, approval voting, and exhaustive ballot. The selection of voters extended beyond the inner circle of the Wallachian boyars, with consultation of the provincial landowners and the guilds. Such practices reflected the modernizing trend instituted by the "Regulamentul Organic" regime in both Danubian Principalities, under the shared custody of the Russian and Ottoman empires. In Moldavia, however, the regime did not permit princely elections, making Bibescu's the only "Regulamentul" reign to have been consecrated by a vote.
The 1842 election also aired disputes between various camps: the National Party versus the Russophiles, and conservatives versus liberals. These protracted battles had marked the rule of Alexandru II Ghica, deposed by collusion between Bibescu and his aging conservative rival, Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea. The electoral campaign, touched by corruption and slander, also opposed Bibescu to his brother Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, who became a leading contender. Bibescu won when Știrbei effectively transferred him his electoral votes, leaving the senior boyar Iordache Filipescu in third-place.
Bibescu's reign was marked by concessions to the National Party, but later the prince asserted his independence, and, like Ghica before him, governed with a hostile Ordinary Assembly. He also broke with precedent by ruling without consultation and tampering with the legislative elections of 1846, but maintained a friendly rapport with the liberal camp. Eventually abdicating and leaving the country during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, his brother Știrbei replaced him on the throne following the resumption of Ottoman control. Both brothers remained active in political life after the Crimean War, when, by renouncing their ambitions, they contributed to the union of the Principalities. This was achieved by the princely election of January 1859, when Moldavian Alexandru Ioan Cuza was granted the Wallachian throne.
Context.
Ghica's ascendancy.
During the early 19th century, both Moldavia and Wallachia were Ottoman vassals ruled upon by Phanariote princes (or "hospodars"). This era, inaugurated in 1714 by the ouster of Constantin Brâncoveanu, signified "150 years of Greek cultural predominance". This also led to the erosion of the elective monarchy—under the adapted Vlach law of the Middle Ages, electors included the boyardom and all bishops of the Wallachian Orthodox Church, thus opening the way for the erosion of princely powers. The Phanariote regime did away with elections from 1730, when Constantine Mavrocordatos was the last elected prince of Wallachia. Reigning for just one month, he was later restored without elections by Sultan Mahmud I. Although such appointments became the standard, the Phanariote regime developed into a boyar oligarchy, which was largely dominated by the local families—up to 80% of the Boyar Assembly were of indigenous descent. Their opposition to the immigrant Greeks produced the early forms of Romanian nationalism, which seeped into a liberal movement, feeding the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and the social philosophy of Dinicu Golescu.
The Phanariote era came to an abrupt end in 1829, when the Russian Empire occupied both principalities during a war with the Ottomans. The subsequent Treaty of Adrianople called for a new constitutional regime, under shared Ottoman–Russian custody: "Regulamentul Organic" was drafted by a special Commission of boyars, overseen by the Russian envoys Peter Zheltukhin and Pavel Kiselyov. In obtaining their mix of liberalizing and conservative articles, they repressed both the liberal current and the traditionalist boyars, leading them to compromise on the core issues. "Regulamentul" was adopted in Wallachia by May 1831, after two years of deliberations. With this, the old Boyar Assembly was refashioned into a 42-member "Ordinary National Assembly", based on the estates of the realm: 20 members were elected by plurality from among the 56 boyars; 18 more, similarly elected, were representatives of the counties, with one additional deputy for Craiova; the other seats were held by the Orthodox bishops. All eligible seats were contested in 1831—"the first time [in Romanian history] when elections were used for producing a deliberative assembly".
"Regulamentul" and the preceding Akkerman Convention also specified the reintroduction of an elective monarchy to both principalities, but an exception was immediately made under a special protocol between Russia and the Ottomans. In Wallachia, Alexandru II Ghica was appointed prince in March 1834 and anointed in October, his rise curbing that of another favorite, "Ban" Iordache Filipescu. From its beginnings, the reign was controlled by the Russian Consul, Baron Peter I. Rikman, who imposed his favorites, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei and Constantin Suțu, as ministers. This episode produced frictions among the boyars and the Russians, exacerbated over the following years. During the legislature of 1836, boyar envoys discovered that sections of "Regulamentul" had been forged or purposefully left unclear, giving legislative oversight to the Russian envoys. Prince Ghica was mandated by Karl Nesselrode to impose the controversial fragments on the Assembly, but his motion failed to pass, and so he dissolved the Assembly; the new Assembly also refused to accept his version of "Regulamentul".
Ghica, in turn, refused to dissolve the Assembly a second time, and Rikman was ordered by his government to seek resolution with the Ottoman partners. As a result of this intercession, Sultan Abdulmejid I issued a "firman" dissolving the Assembly altogether, and replacing it with a non-elective "ad hoc Divan", comprising only the top 27 boyars of Wallachia. The project never took off because of Rikman's personal failings. His passionate love affair with boyaress Mimica Glagoveanca resulted in her divorce and marriage to Rikman, both of which were facilitated by Prince Ghica, who expected leniency in return. Nesselrode was informed of this and recalled Rikman. Memoirist Grigore Lăcusteanu notes that Ghica's "naive" sexual diplomacy was also attempted, with less success, on Rikman's replacement Vladimir P. Titoff, before the later was replaced by Karl Evstafevich Kotzebue.
National Party emergence.
These incidents rekindled nationalism in Wallachia, albeit confined to a relatively small portion of the elite, the "National Party". Its roots reached back to 1798, when Scarlat Câmpineanu and other boyars founded a group of that name, inspired by the French First Republic. Reconstructing the party, Ioan Câmpineanu circulated a constitutional project that would have established a crowned republic, before being publicly shunned and forced into exile. Lăcusteanu, at the time an officer in the Wallachian Militia, claims that: "The aristocracy and the people were Russophiles, words such as 'patriotism' and 'public opinion' were only used by the prince and a couple of boyars." Nevertheless, as noted by scholar N. N. Hêrjeu: "With all their submission to the Muscovites, the boyars quickly understood that Russia only offered them apparent protection, in order to slowly strip them of their privileges. In fact, they hated both the Russians and the Turks." The chronicler Zilot Românul recorded that the boyars were particularly worried by Russian tax farming, which they considered predatory. Among the more powerful boyars, some also opposed the prince, but for purely personal reasons—they included Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea, who had seduced Ghica's divorcee mother, and was therefore detested by the monarch.
Nationalist opposition was also concentrated into cultural projects for the "national awakening", which, as historian A. D. Xenopol writes, were particularly resented by the Russian envoys. In repressing them, Rikman and Kotzebue "did not realize that these were ultimately but mere products, effects, and [they could not hope to] destroy their cause". This period also witnessed the alleged conspiracy headed by the low-ranking boyar Mitică Filipescu in Bucharest. Some months later, a revolt was also raging in Brăila County, where treasurer Andrey Deshov, who reportedly wanted to crown himself or Constantin Suțu as Tsar of Bulgaria, rallied troops to fight against the pro-Ottoman Ghica. The capital was pacified quickly, but the military expedition against Deshov required assistance from Hüseyin Avni Pasha and the Ottoman Army. Both Filipescu and Deshov were sentenced to prison, but the details of their conspiracies remain sketchy. Lăcusteanu, for instance, sees Filipescu as an agent of Russian intrigues, "more Russian than Muscovite Russians", whereas the liberal Ion Ghica insists that he was a patriot and a believer in individual rights.
From 1841, Russia's presence in Wallachia was strengthened by the appointment of a commissioner, Alexander Osipovich Duhamel. He and the prince detested each other, and Duhamel himself was also disliked by Ghica's subjects, who resented in particular his attempts to curb free speech. Ghica himself angered the boyars by celebrating his birthday with 300 promotions of his associates, and allegedly pocketing 11 million French francs from the national treasury. Before the legislative election of 1841, a more conservative opposition group, distinct from the National Party, was slowly emerging among the boyars. It was consolidated around the jurist Gheorghe Bibescu, who had exposed Ghica's favoritism toward foreigners, and had "Vornic" Alexandru Vilara for its "éminence grise". Another affiliate was Barbu Catargiu of Teleorman, who used his maiden speech to denounce Ghica's abuses. Under such influences, the Assembly issued a special report, authored by Bibescu and Filipescu-Vulpea, which depicted Ghica as an anti-patriot, emphasizing his Albanian background. Ion Ghica suggests that his relative was being in fact framed by the Russians, acting in conjunction with Bibescu.
In October 1842, having received the Assembly's formal complaint, Sultan Abdulmejid signed off on Ghica's removal. The prince was informed of this by his physician, Apostol Arsache, and decided to resign before being handed the "firman". He exiled himself to the Austrian Empire, and his trip toward the border saw public displays of loyalism. At Ploiești, the citizens offered to reinstate and defend him against foreign invaders. Ghica refused, noting that his "children the Romanians" could not hope to defend the land against two imperial powers. A controversy ensued between those who saw him as a "victim of Muscovite ambitions" and those who believed he was a paragon of corruption.
Ground rules and campaigning.
With Ghica gone, an alliance of the factions, represented by Câmpineanu, Vilara, Filipescu-Vulpea, and Ion Ghica, suggested the appointment of Mihail Sturdza, the reigning Prince of Moldavia, as ruler over Wallachia. This initiative for personal union was quickly vetoed by Russia. Instead, the Sultan designated a regency of three "Caimacami": Prince Ghica's rival, "Ban" Filipescu, alongside "Logothete" Mihalache Cornescu and "Vornic" Teodor Văcărescu-Furtună.
In vague terms, the "firman" also included provisions for the election of a new prince by males of "all classes", seen by boyars and nationalists alike as a restoration of the ancient Vlach law. Election was to be done by an Extraordinary National Assembly, and the "Caimacami" and the Council of Ministers were tasked with designing rules for the electoral race, beginning with the voting age, set at 30. There were in all 190 or 191 members, a number later set at 188. In accordance with the table of ranks, 50 of these were 1st Class boyars, who were electors "ex officio", as were three bishops. 73 more delegates were sortitioned from a pool of 2nd and 3rd Class boyardom, 36 more were elected by the qualified boyars from the counties, with 26 more deputies representing the urban guilds. Bibescu's son and biographer, Georges Bibesco, argues that the representation of guilds and counties meant that the race of 1842 was the first in history to signify election "by the country", being in this more liberal than 18th-century precedents.
Candidates were only eligible if they were 1st Class boyars, aged 40 and over, and fulfilled the grandfather clause: they had to be born in Wallachia, to Wallachian parents, and have a yearly income of at least 2,000 ducats. Voters from the county class also had to be native-born. They were selected among landowning families of that county, with preferential voting done by the four estates of each county. They also could not register in multiple precincts—a restriction which was met with public protest by some of the boyars. Other such restrictions were imposed on the guild voters, who were required to own assets worth at least 5,000 "kuruşlar". Bucharest voted 9 such electors through indirect election, and Craiova 3; Ploiești, Roșiorii de Vede, and Râmnicu Vâlcea had 2 each; Buzău, Câmpulung, Caracal, Cerneți, Focșanii Munteniei, Pitești, Slatina, Târgoviște, and Târgu Jiu sent 1 deputy per town.
There were originally as