of Pi y Margall were not enough. It was necessary that four days later, on 12 March, Estanislao Figueras himself went to Barcelona and asked the provincial government to withdraw the independence declaration. A third attempted coup d'état by the Radical Party, attempting to paralyze the convocation of the Constituent Courts, took place on 23 April. The "intransigent" Republicans and the press put pressure on the government to proclaim the Federal Republic without waiting for the Constituent Courts to convene, but the government adhered to the law. Pi y Margall received hundreds of telegrams that said: The proclamation of the Federal Republic In May, the elections for the Constituent Courts were held. Because of the withdrawal of the rest of the parties, an overwhelming victory was achieved by the Federal Democratic Republican Party. But this situation was misleading because in reality the federal Republican deputies of the Cortes were divided into three groups: The "intransigents" with about 60 deputies formed the left of the House and advocated that the Courts build the Federal Republic from the bottom up, from the municipality to the cantons and from these to the federal level. They also defended the introduction of social reforms that would improve the living conditions of the proletariat. This sector of the federal Republicans did not have a clear leader, although they recognized José María Orense as their "patriarch." Alongside him were Nicolás Estévanez, Francisco Díaz Quintero, the generals Juan Contreras and Blas Pierrad, and the writers Roque Barcia and Manuel Fernández Herrero. The model they favored was that of Switzerland. The "centrists" led by Pi y Margall agreed with the "intransigents" that the objective was to build a federal republic, but they wanted to do so from the top-down, first drafting a federal Constitution and then proceeding to the formation of cantons. The number of deputies that this sector had was not very large and on many occasions they acted divided in the votes, although they mostly favored the proposals of the "intransigents". They favored the model used by the United States. The "moderates" constituted the right of the Chamber and were led by Emilio Castelar and Nicolás Salmerón and defended the formation of a democratic Republic that would accommodate all liberal options. They rejected the "intransigent" proposal to convert the Cortes into a revolutionary power and agreed with the "centrists" that the priority of the Cortes was to