Autobiographical fragments

The autobiographical fragments relate the life of Manuel Belgrano, after assuming command of the expedition to Paraguay. Famous moment in Argentine history because during it he designed the national flag, on February 27, 1812.
The work is actually an incomplete and fragmented text. Even the three writings that appear gathered under this title could not affirm that they have a very clear unity.
The work begins with a reflection on public life and its consequences. As a public man, he recognizes that he will serve as an example to future generations under the premise that

“Public men, whatever they may be, must always present themselves, either to serve as an example to be imitated, or as a lesson that retracts from influencing their defects.”

You also acknowledge that your image may be subject to media manipulation. He is aware of the slander and defamation of which he was a victim so he decides to put himself “under cover of slander”.
The second part of the Autobiographical Fragments deals with the expedition to Paraguay and the third and last with the Battle of Tucumán.

“It matters nothing whether or not to know the life of a certain class of men that all their labors and labors have contracted to themselves, and not for a single instant have they granted to others; But that of public men, whatever they may be, must always be presented, or to serve as an example to be imitated, or to give a lesson that retracts from influencing their defects. It has been said, and said very well, “that the study of the past teaches how man should handle himself in the present and the future”; Because let us be deceive, the basis of our operations is always the same, even if circumstances sometimes disfigure it.
I undertake to write my public life—it may be that my self-esteem may hallucinate me—with the object that is useful to my countrymen, and also with that of sheltering myself from slander; for the only prize to which I aspire for all my labors, after what I expect from the mercy of the Almighty, is to preserve the good name which from my tender years I have achieved in Europe, with the people with whom I had the honor of dealing when I had an indefinite liberty, I was given to myself, at a distance of two thousand leagues from my fathers, And I had everything I needed to satisfy my whims.
The place of my birth is Buenos Aires; my parents, Mr. Domingo Belgrano y Peri known as Pérez, a native of Onella, and my mother, Mrs. María Josefa González Casero, also a native of Buenos Aires. My father’s occupation was that of merchant, and as he had the time of monopoly, he acquired wealth to live comfortably and give his children the best education of that time.”

Fragment of the work