José Manuel Tirado

José Manuel Tirado was born in Lima in 1809. He studied at the Convictorio de San Carlos, taught mathematics there, and qualified as a lawyer in 1836. Administrative work led to service with Peru’s mission to Bolivia in 1840, a congressional seat for Lima in 1845, and election as dean of the Lima Bar in 1850. ¹

His Washington assignment interrupted that deanship. After presenting credentials in May 1850, he signed a commercial treaty with Secretary of State John M. Clayton on 13 July. It included a clause promising favourable terms to American guano purchasers if Peru changed its export arrangements. The United States ratified the treaty, but President Ramón Castilla considered the guano provision outside Tirado’s instructions. His successor José Rufino Echenique also declined to send it to Congress. The agreement never entered into force; a different treaty was negotiated in Lima in 1851. ²

Back in Congress, Tirado addressed a constitutional dispute over whether the Supreme Court could initiate proceedings against a former president. On 16 August 1851 he argued that a political judgment required prior congressional authorization, distinguishing it from ordinary civil litigation. He also resisted punishing the judges for their interpretation of an ambiguous constitutional provision. The controversy led Congress to affirm its authority over the initiation of such proceedings. ³

Tirado became minister of Government and Foreign Relations in August 1852, later combining or alternating other portfolios. His ministry defended Peru’s sovereignty over the Lobos Islands and negotiated an independence debt agreement with Venezuela. He left the foreign affairs portfolio in November 1853. Following Echenique’s overthrow, he was among the Supreme Court appointees removed as supporters of the defeated government. He died in Lima in 1855. ^{1, 3}