Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, with the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1875, Volume I
No. 6.
Mr. Osborn
to Mr. Fish.
Buenos Ayres, October 13, 1874. (Received Nov. 26.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform your excellency that at half-past one yesterday, Dr. Don Avellaneda was inaugurated President of the Argentine Republic, taking the oath of office in the presence of both houses of Congress.
The plazas and adjacent streets were filled with troops; there was no outbreak or disturbance, as apprehended by some, but, on the contrary, the city was remarkably quiet.
I received this morning, from the foreign office, a copy of a decree of the President, announcing his cabinet. On comparison, I find that the Standard has printed the names of the different gentlemen who compose the President’s cabinet correctly, hence I inclose the printed list:
The New Cabinet.—President Avellaneda has formed his cabinet of the following gentlemen: Interior—D. Simon Iriondo, senator for Santa Fé, and formerly governor of that province, a lawyer by profession, and said to be of active business habits. Foreign Affairs—D. Felix Fries, at present Argentine plenipotentiary at Santiago, and engaged for some years back in the negotiations with Chili about Patagonia. He is a native of Buenos Ayres, of high family and respectable talents. Finance—Dr. Santiago Cortines, native of San Juan, who has held the same portfolio since the appointment of D. Luis Dominguez as envoy to Peru. He was formerly accountant-general, and is generally esteemed. Justice—Dr. Onesimo Leguizamon, deputy to Congress, native of Entre Rios, for some time editor of the Nacional, a very fluent speaker and writer. War—Dr. Adolfo Alsina, late vice-president of the Republic, previously governor of Buenos Ayres, author of the Oficina de Cam bios, son of Dr. Valentine Alsina, who made the rural code. He fought under General Mitre at Cepeda, and is the only one of the new cabinet who has visited Europe.
I also inclose a printed copy of the farewell address of President Sarmiento, (marked 1,) and a copy of the address of President Avellaneda, [Page 10] (marked 2,) and a copy of the manifesto of General Mitre, (marked 3,) putting himself at the head of the revolution.
There has been some skirmishing in the upper provinces, but nothing serious. It is reported this morning that General Rivas has advanced with a column of about four thousand troops toward this city as far as Villa Mercades, and that General Alsina (appointed secretary of war) is marching at the head of about six thousand national guards to meet him.
The armies are said to be only about ten miles apart, and the first battle may be expected any hour.
I am, &c.,
farewell address of president sarmiento.
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, President of the Republic and commander-in-chief of the army and the national guard, to his fellow-citizens:
I hoped to vacate the chair of chief magistrate without again addressing you. Six years of assiduous labor were written on the face of the republic in works of public utility, a general spread of knowledge, a well-disciplined army to defend you fro in domestic or foreign enemies, a name and credit abroad even superior to our merits, since this last ranked before that of many powerful nations.
Errors or omissions there may have been, since no government can pretend to perfect justice or wisdom.
I had hoped mean lime that in retiring to my humble cottage I could have silently said to the nation, “I have left you a government based on principle, not on individuals. You have to elect your own rulers; perhaps you may not always choose the best. In other countries the ruler is born to office; but a nation never perishes, whatever its faults, unless it lose its institutions.”
But I was not to enjoy such a satisfaction, although in fifty years of labors, travels, and constant study, I have endeavored to induce my fellow-citizens to strain every nerve for the consolidation of their institutions. Half a century of “caudillos” ought to convince you that these pretended predestinators of government make the country pay very dear for the favor they do it.
My countrymen, under the sbade of our institutions you have seen a conclave of men pretend to be the lawful government of the country, and two or three chiefs in the field, favored by a free press and individual credit, form a conspiracy to rectify the public vote, which had been proclaimed by law as your sole guide, perfect or imperfect, as things in this world go.
The government saw what was coming, and prepared accordingly to frustrate the last effort of “caudillos,” whether in ponchos or frock-coats, at the same time advancing the interests of peace and progress, and securing the nation from becoming a pedestal to personal ambition. The contempt and indignation of the public should be invoked against the conspirators for their base conduct, which, if your children were to imitate, would imperil the ground-work of society, and hold up our name to dishonor before the world.
They not only conspired against the country, ruining its credit, destroying its wealth, and putting in jeopardy its railways, telegraphs, and other works of civilization, but committed a crime that must forever cover us with shame, a treason to friendship, as the only means to carry out their iniquitous plans.
In the name of public morality and outraged friendship, I hold up to execration, here and hereafter, the names of Ignacio Rivas, Miguel Arredondo, and Erasmo Obligado; the last of whom I made commander of one of the gunboats, because he came to my private house with strong letters of recommendation from a friend who answered for his loyalty, and seeing that I did not suspect him he shook my hand, thanked me, and promised fidelity to the government. Before his hand had cooled from the touch of mine, he went and told the conspirators, “We must make haste; the whole plan is in the hands of government;” and, betraying his friend and comrade, he went away in the silent night, with the two gunboats, intending to blockade us, which would have put us in straits, if he succeeded.
[Page 11]But there is a Divine Providence which protects nations and chastises treason. One of the gunboats went aground, and the plot failed. The traitor had learned from my lips the state of affairs. The plot was precipitated but the half of it fell through.
General Rivas abandoned his post without call from government, and, abusing the friendship which retained him in command and refused to accept his resignation, he came forward, of his own accord, to effect a reconciliation between the President and General Arredondo, who had been suspended for errors than nowise affected his military reputation. Rivas urged that Arredondo was spitting blood; that his health required camp air; and, invoking the old associations and campaigns of the President and Arredondo, induced them to embrace each other, thus giving Arredondo an opportunity to try and seduce General Ivanowski, who, like the President, relied on the honor of his friends as on his own. Justice ordained that the false friend should become an assas in. The generous Pole, Ivanowski, who had made himself one of us by several times shedding his blood under the Argentine flag, was killed in his bed; not on the battle-field, which is the soldier’s couch of glory.
For the honor of my country, I halt in the recital. Suffice it to say, that the great conspiracy amounts to a general murdered and a gunboat stolen. There are, no doubt, also fortunes ruined, speculations undone, and a train of like miseries. Millions have been spent in the elections; but it is you, my countrymen, and your posterity who will have to pay all, with compound interest, for the outrage on morality.
Let us inquire what are the pretexts or real causes for a disaster that throws us back fifty years.
1. The elections were fraudulent.
In the elections of 1852, directed in this city by Colonel Bartolomé Mitre, it appears there were 9,000 votes against the Urquiza party, who counted 2,500 votes. The Diario de Sesiones of the provincial legislature of Buenos Ayres shows that it was the men who form the present nucleus of conspirators in the name of popular suffrage, that fraudulently kept back the electoral law of 1858 for reforming same During the administration of General Mitre, no law was proposed by his party to correct fraud or violence in elections, but several employés were dismissed for not siding with the government in elections. Why, then, complain of the fruits of their own work?
It is, however, your duty now to frame proper electoral laws, free from party spirit, to enable your adversaries to appear at least in a minority, or to win the election if they can. If you fail to devise such laws it will cost you one hundred millions every six 3’ears to remedy the perverse system heretofore kept as a medium of holding power.
The coming government is one de facto.
Phrases of this kind are often used for stratagems. Human society cannot subsist an hour without a government. In monarchies the crown passes to the next prince or a regency. Republics have vice-presidents, &c., for such cases.
In case of a revolution, or colony declaring independence, the government which succeeds is called a government de facto, and everybody obeys it. The sentences of the judges are as valid as before, and as soon as things get into order the de facto government is recognized by foreign powers.
The junta of the Cabildo on May 25, 1810, was a de facto government, and laid the ground-work of our nationality. General Mitre, after a certain battle, (Pavon.) was saluted as de facto President, and the provinces quietly obeyed his government until a regular Congress was convened. The people, who never commit frauds, after a decisive battle made the victor their President.
At present European powers are arranging to recognize the de facto government of Madrid, just as we previously recognized King Amadeo de facto. Thus, even if it were true, which it is not, that the government after mine were merely a de facto government, it would be the duty of all honest citizens to obey it, leaving to the conspirators the risk of involving our happy and prosperous country in the troubles of war, bringing in a de facto government of the sword after the people had been overcome, terrified, and stripped of their goods. This is their beau ideal, conquest.
It pains me to utter such words in the hearing of all men. My whole life has been a struggle with wrong and with “caudillos.” My career ought to terminate in the privacy of my cottage, instead of creating posthumous enemies, seeing that I have friends as had Ivanowski, ever ready with the poisoned dagger to plunge into me.
But if I have not left you, as I fondly hoped, a well-constituted government, I at least bequeath you a nation welded together as one people, desirous to live in peace and to uphold the authorities, even though the latter be neither saints nor philosophers.
The moment the telegraph announced the first alarm of civil war, 50,000 Argentines took up arms. Buenos Ayres is on foot with all its power, Santa Fé has 6,000 armed men in the field, and Entre Rios, so long the patrimony of “caudillos,” has 12,000 more ready for action. Corrientes, Cordoba, Mendoza, Tucuman, and the other provinces, are likewise in arms, waiting for my orders, while I am uncertain what to do, since I only know at present of three traitors, my sworn friends of yesterday—Rivas, Arredondo, and Obligado.
Let the humblest peasant of the interior know that the President of the republic [Page 12] thanks him for his noble conduct, and that every upright man is bound to overcome the energumenons who are carrying devastation through the provinces like railway-engines that have lost their drivers.
I must also congratulate the army and navy. The officers who refused the gold of the conspirators put into my hands all the particulars of the plot. Some forces have been seduced by the murder of Ivanowski and the treason of their commander. Arredondo has fled from the field, and thought it more glorious to attack the unprotected city of Cordoba. Rivas goes through the frontier bow us asking, what news from Buenos Ayres? What forces has the government? Who betrayed the traitors? The sailors of the Uruguay refused to serve their captors, and return from Montevideo to rejoin our navy.
Soldiers, the terrible military law makes a drummer an accomplice if his commander turn traitor. Don B. Mitre cannot command you, because he has resigned his rank. He has no title or commission, and whoever freely obeys him is a traitor. Rivas, Obligado, and Arredondo cannot command you, as they hold no commission even from a revolutionary government, on land or sea, such as the rights of nations treat of. They are merely chiefs of bands of marauders, at the mercy of whoever captures them.
Fellow-citizens, take my parting word as good advice. Rally round government. Shut your ears to political or military adventurers, and to all those who talk largely of patriotism in order to get their hand into the treasury.
Hitherto we have been going on well, without wars, troubles, or revolutions. Railways will save you, if the Vandals do not tear them up. Telegraphs have bound together all the provinces with the national government, making the Argentine watchword be “Liberty, with government, peace, and institutions.”
Having said so much to the people that obey the law, let me now say a word to the enemies who have produced this situation. I did my best to save them from their own errors. And now I can point out my modest cottage, where I had hoped to spend the rest of my days in quiet, and where, perchance, I may meet the dagger which I have never deserved.
National guards of the republic, soldiers of the army, support the new President D. Nicolas Avellaneda. He is to-day the greatest triumph of the Argentine Republic. If you think him weak, support him. Character and energy are not always to be found under a pair of epaulettes, or in the midst of popular plaudits.
Put down this revolution, and you will have given to the rest of America and to Europe the proof that you are a people, not a stepping-stone for ambition.
Wishing you every happiness and wisdom, I now say farewell.
the new presidency—speech of president avellaneda.
Business was suspended yesterday partly on account of the rumors of revolution, most of the, shops being closed, and partly by reason of numerous brokers, merchants, &c., going to see the ceremonial at Congress, of President Sarmiento handing over the reins of power to Dr. Avellaneda.
Soldiers on foot, gunners, cavalry, national guards, and extramuros, besides contingents from Entre Rios and Santa Fé, kept the streets in animation from an early hour, giving a military aspect to our usually peaceful city. At noon the display of horse and foot in the Plazas Victoria and 25 de Mayo was quite imposing. The national guards occupied the south and west sides of the Plaza Victoria, the Entre Riano or Santa Fé cavalry forming in parade along the front of the cathedral and bishop’s palace, while general officers, attended by brilliant staffs, all in a blaze of gold lace and splendid accouterments, galloped up and down by the Arch of Triumph of the Recoba Vieja, facing the obelisk of independence and Mr. Coghlan’s fountains.
The Plaza Mayo was still more decorative. The artillery were stationed near the angle of the Hotel Argentino; the escolta, in Hungarian hussar uniforms, formed a line between General Belgrana’s statue and the government-house; a double file of national guards connected the two plazas, and the infantry of the line were drawn up from the doors of the Congress-hall, in front of the custom-house and the new post-office, as far as the site of the old gate of San Esteban, (occupied by the English in 1859) recently removed to make way for the new post-office.
The number of spectators in both plazas hardly numbered 500, but the balconies were pretty crowded. The state-coach of the President was at the entrance of the government-house facing Paseo Julio, waiting to convey Don Domingo Sarmiento for the last time, and to receive its new occupant as soon as the Congress ceremony was [Page 13] over. The windows of the government-house were open, showing inside a variety of grand uniforms and gentlemen in black, but we could not see any of the foreign ministers or consuls. Some of the consulates had their flags flying in honor of the occasion; the public offices also displayed the Argentine flag of blue and white. General officers and others might be seen proceeding from the government-house to Congress, but there was no cheering or disturbance, and the guards were motionless as statues around the entrance of the Congress-hall.
At 2 p.m. the grand cortege left the government-house, and in proceeding to the Congress-hall, Dr. Avellaneda wore a cheerful appearance, as if there was no civil war or the least trouble to damp his spirits. At the same moment an imperial salute of 101 guns was fired from the Plaza 25 battery, the troops presenting arms, the bands playing the national hymn, the members of Congress rising in their seats; and as soon as Dr. Nicolas Avellaneda was sworn in as the new President, he made the following speech:
“Messrs. Senators and Deputies, I have come on the day appointed by the law to take the usual oaths as incoming President of the republic. I have just taken these oaths in this place, whence for the last twelve years have emanated the laws that govern the republic. This is sufficient proof that the predictions of anarchy and treason were false, that subversive efforts were powerless, because in spite of the disturbances which make the occasion doubly grave and solemn, our constitutional system is not interrupted, but the reins of power are transmitted, and a new Presidency commenced according to law.
“On the 12th of June the electors of the fourteen Argentine provinces met and elected the new President and vice-president; friends and strangers and all the provinces watching with intense anxiety the upshot of the great electoral struggle which had so much agitated the country.
“When the contest was over, the result of the scrutiny decided the question irrevocably. Our institutions had sustained a rude shock and come out victorious. Quiet began to settle down on the minds of all, and that generous expansion took new life, which is a national virtue of ours, tending so powerfully to still past dissensions, and re-establishing the soft reign of harmony and good feeling in all our social relations.
“Suddenly a fraction of the beaten party persists in prolonging the struggle, calling in question the result already notorious. This was surprising, although it might be explained by the preceding agitation. Nor had the congress yet solemnly proclaimed the issue. It was only prudent to use toleration, although the shouts became of a menacing character. Moreover, the case was so plain, that we rationally supposed that the weight of conviction would at last quiet the agitators.
“At last the scrutiny by congress took place in legal form; the result of the presidential election was announced to the world, and so great was the disparity between the votes for the rival candidates that, even granting all the concessions called for by the opponents, there was still a considerable majority for the candidate declared by congress as duly elected president of the republic for the next constitutional period.
“But the excited passions did not cool down before the declaration of the law. We had, on the contrary, a spectacle never before witnessed in well-governed countries—the revolutionary emissaries spread themselves over the republic, generals perfidiously allied themselves with treason, conspiracy was carried on in broad daylight, and the press day by day indicated the course to be followed by the conspirators. All this was tolerated, although the party which had won was exercising power throughout the provinces.
“A revolution was hinted, but nobody believed in such a folly. The republic was making such progress and enjoying such liberty, that it was impossible to imagine any attempt would be made to snatch from its the blessings so dearly purchased after 60 years. We did not wish to use repressive measures to irritate the angry or to stir up bad passions, hoping that a sense of patriotism and duty would make them stop short of their sinister designs.
“We were, however, mistaken. The revolt began with the capture of two vessels and two wicked mutinies in the forces placed to defend the frontier from Indian forays. The assassin’s dagger laid low two noble martyrs. The intention was to strike terror by means of crime, and at once the enthusiasm of the provinces rose up against it. Already we see Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe, Corrientes, Entre Rios, and Cordoba in arms. The rebel Arredondo traverses ninety leagues without being joined by a single man; while Colonel Roca, who escaped from the treason with barely 200 men, is able in six days to place himself at the head of a powerful army. His march is one of triumph, while the rebels disband or take to flight. It is a civic victory over a barrack mutiny. The revolt continues weak, relying no longer on its own elements, but on the flotsam and jetsam of twenty years of revolution. The institutions will be victorious our republican system is safe, and we shall again show, as we have so often done before, that fundamental liberties are only obtained by blood and sweat.
“Messrs. Senators and Deputies, you will come next year to resume your sessions without anxiety for the present or alarm for the future; and it will be my pleasing duty [Page 14] to assure you ‘that we form at last a real republic, ruled by the majority; that all Argentines are in the equal enjoyment of liberties and suffrages; that we have suppressed the last conspiracy of an oligarchy which was blinded by the long possession of power, and wished to raise its pride or its folly above the will of the people.
“But let us pass from the present circumstances, from a criminal episode produced by morbid or strange causes, and which will speedily disappear. The present advanced condition of the Argentine provinces is neither the work of men nor the effect of transitory occurrences. It springs from the public enlightenment, social advancement, wealth, trade, and industry of our actual state. Before long we shall resume the ordinary course of business, completing our lines of telegraph, pushing forward railways, and increasing the number of schools, consolidating and reforming our institutions, not altering the text of existing laws, but carrying out their real letter arid spirit in all the provinces of the republic.
“I had intended to speak to you of many different subjects, but they would be of little interest to-day. A president of the Argentine republic can happily form his programme in a few words. His programme is his oath, and he has only to say that he has sworn it with religious sincerity, and will fulfill it with loyalty, perseverance, and patriotism.
“A famous historian, commenting on the progress of the nineteenth century, says that we do not go forward by a chance, but following fixed routes and landmarks. We see at present some of the oldest nations of the world checked in their march, uncertain which way to go, because they seek to solve all political and social questions by dogmatic or partisan rules, often contradictory, representing either the exploded theories of a remote antiquity or the suggestions of a wild utopia, that appears harmless in the abstract, but proves of a most sanguinary and cruel character.
“We have many of the faults of a young country; but we know what we are in search of, and what remedies we must apply to existing evils. Our political organization is clearly defined in our constitution, which may be more luminously explained by the constitutional history of the United States. Our social dogma is contained in the definition of certain rights and certain principles that are acknowledged by all our public men, and bear upon them the seal of common consent. The intentions of government are equally clear, because they simply imply the development of the country according to the wisest manner. For example, everybody knows that when immigration flows’ in upon our shores we have to foment and increase it, to turn it to good account, by dictating suitable laws, instead of allowing an accumulation of immigrants in a confined area, and thus causing an apparent blessing to become the source of new calamities.
“The increase of population, the gradual reduction of Indians, and their disposition to become civilized, are sufficient to point out the expediency of a new frontier law, such as the executive will think conformable to public opinion. The same may be said of other matters affecting our internal administration on which public opinion has already expressed itself.
“As regards internal policy, my programme is this: I consider the sole legitimate tradition that which overturned Rosas, suppressed arbitrary government, founded the present constitutional system, and sealed the unity of the republic. I do not, however, think that a government founded by liberal parties should be monopolized by a religious caste, as in India, but that office should be open to every honorable man who accepts the existing facts and principles and has enough talent to serve his country.
“A policy of reparation and tolerance is what we most require, for the more we overlook past dissensions the more we efface their recollection or causes, giving to our government a more administrative character, and tending more preferently to the advancement of the interests of public economy.
“As regards our foreign relations, it is unnecessary to say that I shall cultivate them by following the same course of loyalty and justice observed by my predecessor. This is now a national tradition, and America knows that we spare no consideration to be faithful to our international contracts.
“Nevertheless, I must observe that it is high time to settle questions of limits with some of our neighbors. These questions have been luminously discussed for some years back, and the ground is thus prepared for some definitive solution. I believe the same feeling is shared by the governments of the neighboring countries, because a prolongation of such controversies is apt to keep alive sentiments of jealousy, antipathy, and distrust in our mutual relations, thus weakening or endangering the fraternal harmony that has hitherto bound us together by reason of our common origin, language, and religion, and our common glories in the emancipation of this continent, which harmony can never be disturbed unless an aggressive, obstinate, or narrow-minded policy stir up artificial antagonisms among the various countries.
“Messrs. Senators and Deputies, I begin my presidency surrounded by difficulties, but I come by the straight path, bearing in my hands the credentials of the majority of the republic, which will lighten on my shoulders the task of government that I have just assumed. Relying on my own conscience and the support of my fellow-citizens, guided by your wise resolutions, I dare assure you that the credit of the nation will not decline under my administration, and that no act of mine shall sully its honor. [Page 15] All of us, Argentines, learn from our cradle that the banner of the country must be kept pure and spotless, like the sun emblazoned on its colors of white and blue. In placing myself in so elevated a position, I am mindful that my countrymen now view me in the chair where Rivadavia and Sarmiento have sat before me.
“Nations have at times to learn bitter lessons. We have learned in the present instance that the means of repression placed in the hands of government can never be abandoned without putting society in danger, that we may allow public opinion to erect pulpits or found newspapers, but that we can never allow sedition and mutiny to be preached in broad day; because a free people admits discussion and free suffrage, but is bound to shut the door on deeds of violence and arms.
“Messrs. Senators and Deputies, we shall soon have to witness a new spectacle, namely, the resumption of our normal routine of progress, each day marking a new step forward. We shall continue to count the miles of railway made, the steamers arriving, and the thousands of immigrants entering port. We shall push forward our telegraph-wires to the farthest frontiers, where barrack-mutinies have now taken place because we forgot to connect them with Buenos Ayres by wire. The learned men in the national employment will prosecute their scientific inquiries in our territories and our skies, and tell the world, as Dr. Gould has just done in the Athens of North America, the wonders of our unexplored regions; and, when next you meet in this congress hall, it will be to devise, with lofty feelings of patriotism, the most suitable means to restore tranquillity and order to our populations, so long agitated by the electoral struggle and the occurrences of the present hour.
“Messrs. Senators and Deputies, may the Almighty endow you with the wisdom that becomes your office, and give me the firmness and prudence to enforce the constitution and the laws. May the All-wise Providence send our country assistance under tribulations like the present, with which He sometimes visits nations, to draw from passing afflictions a positive and lasting good.”
manifesto of general mitre.
Fellow-Citizens: As a public man of known antecedents, and candidate for president at the last election, and also as a citizen who accepts his moral responsibility before the people, I owe you a word of explanation as regards the attitude I have deliberately assumed in presence of the grave circumstances in which the republic now finds itself.
Permit me, in the first place, to remind you that, when I was the favorite of fortune and liberty, or when honored by the unanimous and unfettered vote of the provinces, I never made use of either victory or power but for the public welfare; that when my time was up I handed over the reins of power to the elect of the nation, leaving the republic, for the first time, united as one people, in the enjoyment of peace and liberty, triumphant abroad and prosperous at home. I retired into private life, free from animosity or ambition, and only came forward when the people and the government summoned me, either for advice or assistance, thinking that I had always corresponded to their confidence on similar occasions. Nor do I believe that the sincerity of my word was ever called in question even by my enemies.
With such antecedents, I neither thought nor wished to be a candidate for the presidency, as I publicly declared when I heard that my name was put forward during my absence from Buenos Ayres. Nevertheless I accepted the honor in the name of freedom of election, which I saw was at stake, my only desire being that the people’s choice should prevail. Nor did I take any part, direct or indirect, in the electoral struggle, as I had made up my mind to bow to the will of the majority.
Notwithstanding the iniquitous tactics adopted and the coercion exercised by the governors of provinces, as well as the notorious frauds connived at by the public authorities, and the violent action of the troops on the day of voting, I discouraged and disarmed those who had voted for me, and wished to appeal to arms by declaring publicly, for the sake of patriotism, “that the worst of legal elections was better than the best of revolutions.”
This conciliatory declaration, as accepting the ostensible result of the presidential election, even with all its faults, was intended to insure present and future tranquillity, and to leave the solution of all questions to the pacific action of public opinion in a constitutional manner; but it was not accepted.
Those who declared themselves victors aspired not merely to the immediate triumph, but also to a perpetuation in power by the same fraudulent means they had used during the election.
In effect, the public authorities, being parties’ to the plot, winked at the fraud, shutting [Page 16] out the real representatives of the people, and accepting in their room the representatives of a daring forgery, which nobody denied and everybody openly confessed. The false returns which deprived the majority of the citizens of the right of suffrage were confirmed.
From that moment was, de facto, suppressed the right of suffrage, which is the source of all law and authority in democratic communities. The renewal of the public authorities no longer depended on the tranquil action of the vote of the majority, but on forged electoral returns, fraud, repression, and connivance of the government, all leagued in a regular system.
This was the annihilation of the first of our public liberties, from which flow all the rest. It was shutting out a great part of the, people from all share, direct or indirect, in public affairs. It was the erection of an official oligarchy without even a majority, consisting of unscrupulous partisans who regarded power as their prerogative, and declared ail means legal to this end, in spite of the “vox populi!”
This was trampling on the free-born rights of man, upsetting our republican system, violating the constitution in its fundamental art, shutting out, by a wicked usurpation, all legal means for a peaceful solution of questions affecting the commonwealth, and preventing even the hope of an appeal through an imperfect legal election.
The questions that should have been settled by public opinion and voting were thus placed in the ground of action, since there was no other means of recovering the usurped rights or the civil liberties that had been suppressed.
From that moment the revolution, hitherto checked by patriotism, became a necessity, and filled the hearts of all, without anybody having to become a conspirator.
Called, as I was, not only by my own supporters, but even by those who had opposed my candidature, to put myself at the head of the revolutionary movement, I refused point-blank; but I said that the revolution was a right, a duty, a necessity, and that, whether it was supported by few or many, we were bound to protest with arms in our hands, unless we submitted to the infamy of being unworthy or unable to guard or to deserve the liberties we had lost. I further declared that if a revolution were made I would put myself at the head of it throughout the republic, to give it national force and cohesion.
One only condition I laid down, namely, that my candidature should not be revived, and that as soon as the liberties of the Argentine people were once vindicated, I should be allowed to retire forever from public life.
From that moment, the elements of revolution condensed spontaneously. It was already in the minds of all, irresistible and irrevocable. Everybody knew it, except the government authorities, leagued with their partisans; a proof of their isolation and of the popular feeling in favor of the revolution.
The event has come, and true to my engagements and the voice of my conscience, as well as to the fulfillment of the sacred duties I imposed on myself, I now accept and assume the responsibility of the revolution, declaring, as I have hitherto done, that, under existing circumstances, it was a right, a duty, and a necessity, while I deplore that things were driven to such a pass that de facto authorities had to be met by de facto proceedings.
So it has also been understood by the people, who have responded to the anonymous invitation of the first who took up arms, valorously to defend the constitution and the rights that had been trampled under foot.
Even the majority of the army, which the Government counted on to oppress the people, have put their arms at the service of the revolution. Although it has not yet declared itself among the national guard throughout the republic, it germinates in every heart, even in the prison-cells, where men are now confined for being suspected of loving the integrity of our institutions, the liberty of suffrage, and of aspiring to overturn governments that manipulate elections, de facto authorities which owe their origin to fraud in the ballot-boxes.
In presence of this great and manly movement of public opinion, I feel bound also to declare that if, instead of being triumphant and overwhelming as it is, it had been only a weak and isolated movement, I would have embraced it in the same manner, with all its consequences, if only as a protest in defense of our dignity as a free people, since I am resolved to accompany to the end the last man that carries a banner in this cause.
If, as I feel assured, the Argentine people now vindicate their usurped rights, I trust that my fellow-citizens will allow me to declare that my career as a public man has come to a close, which will be fulfilling the sole condition that I demanded when lending my name to the revolution, and accepting its responsibility before friends and strangers.
Your countryman,