On the 1st instant Dr. Tejedor, governor of this province, delivered his
annual message to the provincial chambers, a printed copy of which I
herewith inclose that you may the better, understand the present political
situation and the position assumed by this province and Corrientes in
relation to the presidential election. As soon as the message was delivered
the chamber of deputies took up and passed a bill appropriating $5,000,000,
equivalent to $1,070,000 gold, to arm the whole province, and it will
doubtless pass the senate.
The national Congress, in accordance with the requirements of the
constitution, attempted to organize on the 1st instant, but the house of
deputies failed, and has, to this date, failed to organize, for the want of
a quorum.
Under the constitution, one-half of the deputies are elected every two years,
and the other half hold over, and as protests are filed, by either one party
or the other, against the admission of the newly elected members, from all
the provinces, charging frauds and force in the election, and the
“commission of powers” having the credentials in charge has not been able to
agree to report in favor of the admission of the newly-elected members of a
single province, hence no quorum can be obtained, and, so far as the
organization of the chamber is concerned, there is a dead lock.
General Roca has left Córdoba and established his headquarters at Rosario,
province of Santa Fé, with five regiments of the line. It is expected that
he has sent troops further south and near the line dividing the provinces of
Santa Fe and Buenos Ayres.
If this report should prove to be true, doubtless Governor Tejedor will send
a force to meet them in case an invasion of this province should be
attempted.
Petitions are now being circulated in the board of trade and among the
business circles of this city, asking the President and governor for peace,
under all circumstances, and a grand public manifestation will be made in
its favor on next Monday. It is to be hoped that such influence may be
brought to bear that all the disputed questions may be peacefully
solved.
[Inclosure with No. 277.—From the Standard,
May 2, 1880.]
Messrs. Senators and
Deputies:
For the second time I have the honor to address you on the course of the
administration. It is not easy to explain what has been accomplished and
what remains to be done. More than once the situation has worn a serious
aspect; and the history of our country, so full of tears and sacrifices,
appeared about to repeat itself. Both parties were playing with fire,
and the leaders did not always exhibit that prudence and energy which,
combined with patriotism, might maintain peace.
Persuaded as I am that revolution can be avoided by conciliatory means,
opportunely employed, I have tried to bring the political parties
together but in spite of
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my
efforts there is still danger. Perhaps the simplest remedy is to abandon
the factious party names of times long past. If it be within my province
to give an opinion, I should advise the Liberal party, as a first step,
to allow all honorable men to enter its ranks.
I was named candidate for the Presidency in opposition to the candidate
of other provinces. I resigned in the interest of peace, provided my
opponent did the same; but I was not listened to. Again requiring all my
liberty of action, the better to defend the province, I resigned the
second time, unconditionally, thereby breaking promises I ought to have
considered sacred through gratitude. Such a step should have produced a
similar one on the other side; but as yet there is nothing definite from
it, and grave perils threaten the country.
A government confident in its own good intentions should have faithful
administration; it should not be intemperate lest disorganization ensue.
I have always acted on this conviction. The Union is in each one of the
provinces, and each one of them is the Union; but the federal power is
one restrained to certain defined functions. The provincial governments
are before the constitution as independent and supreme as the national,
which has occasionally forgotten this fundamental principle of our
federal Tights, and has even threatened us.
The province of Buenos Ayres is definitely free; camp and town are bound
together, and another Rosas would be at once crushed by the people.
In other provinces it is not the same; every election is a fight or an
intervention. The national government has only a right to interfere when
the republican form is changed in a province; when a foreign foe or
other province invades; when sedition overthrows the authorities, and
the latter ask for intervention.
The last is the case most abused, as it is difficult to decide which are
“the constituted authorities.” The federal government must investigate
the case before meddling, or it might be led to protect fraud and
violence. The federal government of the Argentine Republic would be the
most baneful of governments if it blindly answered the call of
governments sprung from oppression.
Only when the form of government is altered can the federal government
interfere. The people are sovereign in the provinces as in the nation.
When the national government distributes its troops, it has a right to
do so, but the provincial governments have also a right to see that no
attempt be made on their liberties.
We lately saw Buenos Ayres filled with troops, and other armies forming
in the provinces, and the arms in the arsenal distributed everywhere
except in Buenos Ayres. In face of this, the people, fearing something,
armed themselves, quietly at first, then in battalions; and the
government, having the same fears, felt bound to protect these
battalions. Then the national government prohibited armed assemblages in
any part of the republic. Even if it had called out the national guards,
and these refused to obey, it lies with the provincial, not the
national, authorities to chastise the abuse. The constitution itself
orders the citizens to use arms in defense of the country, be the foe
domestic or foreign.
Congress may abolish the army at a stroke, if it likes, but it has only a
concurrent jurisdiction over the militia.
For the above reasons, the provincial government refused to disband the
volunteers, just as the volunteers of Columbia in the United States
refused to disband in 1867.
The government hopes your honorable house will approve its action and
declare that the armed citizens deserve well of their country. Story
says that the militia is the natural defense in insurrections,
usurpation of power, foreign invasion, &c.
Another thing, the national government now exacts payment of duties on
arms for the province, contrary to custom. States do not pay duties, and
this province has not paid, nor will it pay them. The national
government has even gone further and refused to pass some percussion
caps for the national guards, and keeps silence as to its reason. This
is hardly polite, but, with or without permission, the government of
this province is determined to introduce whatever arms it requires.
On another occasion when this government respectfully asked that some
troops at Azul might be sent to the frontier, owing to two of its
officers having killed a man, “Archívese” (let it be
filed) was the minister of war’s answer.
Messrs. Senators and Deputies, I cannot conclude without calling your
attention to the general state of the country in relation to this
province.
Although the President declared he would not interfere in the elections,
we have an official candidate supported by the troops of the nation. In
the last session of Congress one of the ministers admitted the league of
governors. Subsequent telegrams from the governor of Cdrdoba and
minister of war confirmed this.
The people had, then, a right to look for something decisive from the
national government to reestablish confidence, but the resignation of
the minister who made these tremendous revelations was the only result.
This revelation, the distribution of arms, the interferences of the army
in the provinces, and the warlike preparations of all kinds, have raised
alarm on every side.
Senators and Deputies, you and I know well the truth of things, but our
enemies
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must learn it also. The
people of Buenos Ayres will not allow the presidential question to he
settled by force. Some of those who have become like children in the
existing difficulties speak of the capital as a solution.
You cannot improvise a metropolis, and for many years to come the
President, whoever he may be, will have to govern from Buenos Ayres.
A new confederation without Buenos Ayres or Corrientes is more impossible
now than at any time since Buenos Ayres was founded.
The proud are against us, but the weak and oppressed are with us. In such
a strait patriotism suggests an arrangement, necessity forces it on, and
the men or parties who oppose it are very culpable. But it is not in our
power to order it, but all must prepare for it. We must save both our
rights and the nation’s unity, and, in face of the great conspiracy,
Buenos Ayres alone is able to do this.
I have told you all my thoughts. I now await your decision.
