It is said the President will also issue an address denying many of the
statements in the address of the governor, and at the same time will set
forth that since the close of the rebellion the provincial legislature has
been guilty of acts both treasonable and revolutionary. The national
interventor has summoned the people of the province to elect a new
legislature on the 26th instant. The complexion of the new legislature will
undoubtedly be in conformity with the desire of the national government, as
the opposition will very probably refuse to vote.
At any other time the sweeping changes of the provincial authorities would
probably have led to serious consequences, but as a result of the
suppression of the late rebellion, the people accept the situation with
becoming silence and resignation. Gold in the market has fallen, Argentine
stocks have advanced, and business men look forward to the administration of
President Roca with confidence.
[Inclosure with No. 296.—From the Standard,
February 2, 1880.]
address of the executive to the people of buenos
ayres.
When the vice-governor assumed power on July 1, circumstances clearly
traced his line of action. After the bloody events of June, negotiations
for peace, the details of which the people already know, were opened
with the President of the republic, who, as constitutional
commander-in-chief, commanded the army operating against Buenos
Ayres.
The reciprocal obligations contracted in those negotiations included the
submission and obedience of the province to the national government, the
city forces to be disbanded, and their arms to be deposited in the
arsenal, the President, on his part, recognizing the existing public
powers of the province, and refraining from any civil or military
prosecutions, without prejudice, however, to his administrative and
military faculties.
The details of the due execution of the foregoing bases were arranged
privately, as the people already know.
The government at once adopted every means to loyally carry out the
obligations entered into, and to insure complete pacification. The
vice-governor officially announced the submission of the province to the
national authorities, and this was fully accepted by the President of
the republic in documents already published. All measures necessary for
disbanding and disarming the city forces were subsequently taken, and
the details set forth in a note to the national government, stating that
each and every one of the obligations entered into by the province had
been duly fulfilled, according to the bases agreed on with the President
of the republic.
(Here follows the governor’s note to Minister Zorrilla, the contents of
which are already known.)
[Page 33]
To this hour no answer has been received to this note. On the contrary, a
national commissioner has ruled in the camp districts, since the 18th
June, whose chief duty was to protect life and property while the
governor of Buenos Ayres was in armed resistance and the war lasted, and
whose authority should have ceased when the circumstances to which it
was due had disappeared.
The Government of Buenos Ayres was made every effort, privately and
officially, to induce the national government to fulfill its
obligations, but every day there was some delay, while the public
authorities of the province were curtailed in their attributes, and at
last the legislature was dissolved by an act of congress, declaring it
in rebellion, although since peace was made it had done no legislative
act to warrant such a declaration, and without congress having any legal
or constitutional right to make it.
Buenos Ayres has laid down its arms, disbanded its forces, submitted to
the national government, and resumed the regime of peace, relying on
arrangements which, although wanting the formality of a treaty between
political entities, were not the less solemn and binding on Argentine
honor and the good faith of the nation.
The president has twice corroborated this, first in congress, when he
said that in recognizing the vice-governor he recognized the
legislature; and, again, when he declared that, as commander-in-chief,
he had accepted the submission of the Buenos Ayres revolutionists, while
leaving the public authorities of the province intact. This included the
legislature and condoned its previous acts.
These declarations, which are in exact conformity with the agreement
made, show that the act of congress maintaining the intervention and
dissolving the chambers is in direct opposition to them, disclosing
quite; a different system of pacification, tending to a dissolution and
reconstruction of the public bodies of the province.
To this end a special commissioner has summoned the people to elect a new
legislature, ignoring the provincial executive and riding rough-shod
over article 105 of the constitution, which allows the provinces to
elect their own governors, legislators, &c., without any
interference by the federal government. In this way the basis on which
the government that succeeded Governor Tejedor’s was to restore order
and its regular institutions to the province has disappeared: and the
dignity of the province, with which is linked the dignity of its
government, imperiously demands that the, latter should abandon a post
which they can only consent to retain on the conditions stipulated with
the national government.
The legislature has been dissolved by national troops, without any
intimation to either chamber: and, as no public body now exists in whose
hands the members of the executive can place their resignation, and it
being impossible for them to fulfill their constitutional duties, we
hereby declare before the people of Buenos Ayres that we leave our posts
with the consciousness of having done our duty in the present critical
times, with regret at not being able to accomplish the task set us by
public opinion and necessity, and with the hope that more elevated ideas
of justice and political honesty may soon produce happier days for the
province and for the country.
- JOSÉ M. MORENO.
- F. ALCOBENDAS.
- F. L. BALBIN.
Buenos
Ayres, September 1,
1880.
