Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1873, Part I, General Correspondence; and Papers Relating to Naturalization and Expatriation, Volume I
No. 11.
Mr. White to Mr. Fish.
Buenos Ayres, June 13, 1873. (Received July 22.)
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the message of President Sarmiento to the Congress of this republic, relative to the rebellion in the province of Entre Rios.
I have not been able to obtain any official information, except what is contained in this document, and an oral statement made to me by the secretary for foreign affairs, that the insurrection was not considered formidable by the government.
So far as I am able to learn, no important engagement between the armed forces of the insurgents and those of the government has occurred.
I am, &c.,
The President’s message to the Congress of the Argentine Republic relative to the affairs of Entre Rios.
To the Honorable Legislative Congress:
The executive have the honor of informing your honorable body that Entre Rios is in open rebellion against the provisional and national authorities, that rebellion being set on foot and influenced by Don Ricardo Lopez Jordan, (complicated in the assassination of Captain-General Don Justo Jose Urquiza,) who has invaded that territory with an armed force, depending upon accomplices in the interior, and threatening, by inducement to revolt, or by other means, the other two provinces of the Litoral, which places the nation in danger, and, in the opinion of those who are acquainted with the designs of the invader, imperil the institutions of the country, which have become the first boast of all patriotic Argentines.
The former rebellion having been suppressed by the national arms in conjunction with the national guard of that province in 1871, after a very serious outlay of funds which were destined by the treasury for other purposes, a general amnesty was declared in favor of those who had taken part in that outbreak, and not one of its promoters was either expelled the country or submitted to the proper authorities for trial. For the purpose of electing a governor, the law of Congress which ordered the repression of the criminal attempt of Lopez Jordan, had suspended the state of siege, and the loyal militia, who had so valiantly contributed toward the re-establishment of order, were disbanded and paid, thus causing a disbursement of several thousand dollars.
It is necessary to refer to these matters in order to show that no ostensible reason existed for again taking up arms and putting the country into a state of commotion, such as now occurs.
The lenity of Congress and of the executive inspired the citizens of Entre Rios with a spirit of temperance and forbearance, as shown by the election as governor of a worthy citizen, of unimpeachable conduct and liberal tendencies. These qualities, of the greatest importance in moments of public tranquillity, and in a country where a military regimen had not prevailed for years, were made the subject of complaint and induced him to resign; his successor, who, besides being adorned with similar qualities, had exercised the judicial power with credit to himself and satisfaction to others.
These facts, although they may prove the inexperience of the inhabitants of the province in question as regards the election of the person requisite for the circumstances, show, at all events, that said election was the true expression of the popular vote, without any attempt at coaction, or the exercise of any tyrannical act. The national government, foreign to all these local proceedings, maintained a small force of the line to preserve public order, which was continually threatened by fresh rumors of revolution, under the direction of the man who had been declared a rebel by your honorable body, and who was reclaimed by justice as a traitrous assassin.
Nevertheless, for months past, a rumor has been gaining ground of a vast revolutionary plan which was to involve the provinces of Entre Rios, Corrientes, and Santa Fé, and the national government being in possession of reliable statements of the proximity and certainty that Entre Rios would be the first attacked, warned the governor thereof, who, in reply, gave the most ample assurances that he was in a position to frustrate any such plan, in the event of its being attempted.
Nevertheless, on the 1st of May, several villages and towns were simultaneously surprised by bands of marauders, the only ones that successfully resisted the attack being Parana, defended by its own police force; Concordia and Uruguay, garrisoned by national troops, and Gualeguaychu, saved by the inhabitants themselves, who spontaneously took up arms and courageously drove the rebels back.
Gualeguay was delivered over to rebellion by the authorities themselves, and, although this circumstance proves a deplorable want of experience on their part, this very reproach is the strongest proof that neither those who had been recently admitted by the law of amnesty, nor any one else, were under persecution for past political opinions, and that no important reason existed for provoking a conflict.
The national government, requested to interfere, and, in obedience to its duty, to suppress rebellion, issued the annexed decrees, and has taken the necessary measures to protect the towns which still continue loyal, until the true extent of the revolution be ascertained and measures organized to repress it.
As far as can be at present judged, the movement is a general one throughout Entre Rios, but has not extended to Corrientes as expected, and, having been forestalled in Santa Fé by the prudence of its governor, will be confined to the first-named province.
The origin of this rebellion, which no apparent cause appears to have warranted, has, in the opinion of the national government, a tendency so anarchical that, were it left unchecked, it would endanger the institutions, which have been the work of the last twenty years, with the overthrow of a tyrant in the first place, with the incorporation of Buenos Ayres in the next, and, lastly, with that reconciliation which has tacitly [Page 46] been agreed upon by the federal and Unitarian parties. General Urquiza had regained the respect of all; and the title of liberator of his country, bestowed on him in Caseros, together with the glory of having been the founder of the present constitution, and, what is still more meritorious, of having devoted all his efforts to cause it to be accepted by those who were formerly its strongest opposers.
Unfortunately the elements which he turned to account for his own personal aggrandizement, which murmured and clamored for former military sway, which he himself had abdicated and abandoned, in obedience to the national constitution, to civilization, and to the public liberties of the people.
Entre Rios for twenty years was traditionally organized, not by civil law, but as a vast military encampment.
Upon the formation of the first Spanish and English colonies in North and South America, under the dominion of that time of the wild Indian, the colonists, as a condition of existence, had to arm themselves repeatedly to drive back the savages who sought their extermination. The community of danger made soldiers of them all, and victory gave authority to the most daring, or to the first who gave vent to a bellicose ardor of expression, clothing themselves in a garb of military pre-eminence.
Such is the origin of the American militia. Upon the emancipation of the colonists the English portion produced a Washington, chief of a fortunate expedition, detached against the Indians. In this country the first appearance of any organization of the nature referred to may be found in the proceedings of Artegas, followed by those of Quiroga, Lopez, Rosas, and Urquiza himself, assassinated by Lopez Jordan, should not be excluded, the latter of whom has basely taken advantage of elements already prepared, and by one decisive blow, however criminal, has brought to his standard those who, abandoning civilized life, depend for their support on a state brought about by terror and pillage.
This is not an imaginary picture, but the real cancer which preys upon the vitals of the republic; the former militia, converted into a warlike element, fatal to all pastoral pursuits. The history of the country abounds in similar examples. Almost fifty years of continual struggle have been employed by our predecessors against Quiroga, Ramirez, and Artegas. The tyranny exercised subsequently by Rosas will not readily be effaced, and whatever claims may be urged to civilization and advancement, there is yet much to be done before the Argentine nation can sit quietly down to partake of the banquet at which the principal nations of the world reclaim a seat.
Such, in a few words, is the situation and danger that the executive now lays before congress, in order that the latter may accept the melancholy but inevitable task of carrying on the self-imposed duty of their forefathers, the struggle of civilization against barbarism; of terminating a civil war which has no other object than the lust of an irrational ambition, and the pretended soldiers of which never presented their faces to the enemy in Chacabuco, Ituzaingo, or Paraguay, and whose only proceedings, to their lasting disgrace, were their insurrections in Basilaldo and Toledo, the greatest dishonor that could have been conferred upon the Entre Riano militia.
When the flag, triumphantly unfurled by San Martin and Rivadavia, to which Urquiza became a convert in the latter part of his life, is again shaken to the breeze, Argentines forget their dissensions and become the renowned champions of civilization and liberty. This was proved yesterday in the message to your honorable chambers; let it now be proved by a strict adherence to the principles we proclaim, suppressing anarchy wherever its fangled head becomes apparent.
No state is entirely free from internal turmoil. In the same way that Holland may become a victim to inundation by the destruction of a pile, so, also, have the United States experienced the most disastrous civil war, simply because their forefathers, three hundred years before, introduced to the country a slave population. In the same manner, France has suffered the greatest humiliation and loss, frightful even to contemplate, in a mistaken opinion regarding true military glory and moral worth.
In the self-same manner we, also, have to undertake a crusade against our own countrymen unless we are prepared to deliver ourselves over to a state of barbarism and the most frightful period of retrocession, as the first inhabitants of this country were a set of barbarians, but becoming mixed with those of European descent, a change of government was gradually introduced, and a state of civilization supplanted one of pillage and bloodshed.
Such is the character of the insurrection promoted by Lopez Jordan, the threefold assassin of the family of Urquiza, and now the cut-throat and confiscator of property, as he may capriciously determine upon.
The executive, in use of the faculties with which it is invested, and in protection of the public peace, have determined on placing in the field a certain number of the national guard, declaring in a stage of siege the province now threatened, and purposes requesting from your honorable chambers the organization of other powerful means of action, until the ruthless invasion by the criminal Jordan be entirely stamped out.
God preserve your honors.
- D. F. SARMIENTO.
- LUIS L. DOMINGUEZ.