Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1880

No. 11.
Mr. Osborn to Mr. Evarts.

Legation of the United States,
Buenos Ayres, February 16, 1880. (Received March 20.)

No. 267.]

Sir: The situation has become extremely critical. The city is under arms; the governors of some of the other provinces are sending all the provincial troops they can spare to this city, at the call of the President; business is almost entirely suspended, and civil war unless the counsel of the peace men prevails, is at hand.

On the 13th instant the President issued a proclamation and decree ordering the governors of the provinces to disarm the volunteers, “Tiradores Nacionales,” corps, copies of which I have the honor to inclose herewith (marked A).

To this proclamation Governor Tejedor has made no formal reply, but it is understood that he will refuse to disarm the volunteers of this province. On the evening of the 14th instant Governor Tejedor addressed a letter to some of his political friends, declining to be considered any longer a presidential candidate, on the grounds of patriotism, and the desire to give all his time to the defense of the rights of his province, and at the same time orders the “Tiradores Nacionales” to parade the next day—Sunday—in the streets of the city.

The “Tiradores Nacionales” did parade the streets and took possession of important points in the city, one of which commands the capitol building. At the same time some six regiments arrived from the other provinces, in response to the call of the President.

Intense excitement prevails thoughout the city. The President and his ministers spent last night in the office of the minister of war, and before morning all the troops and guns from the encampment were brought into the city.

It was expected that the President would to-day issue a proclamation placing this province under martial law, and I understand that he would have done so had not the peace committee, composed of some of the leading men of the city, waited on him and begged him to use moderation and give them time to procure the withdrawal of Roca as a candidate and thereby procure the peaceable settlement of the questions which disturb the public mind.

General Roca, now in the province of Córdoba, has been telegraphed to for his resignation, but as yet no answer has been received. Many declare that the resignation of Roca will not be enough, but demand that the President himself must resign; while on the other hand the partisan press of Roca demands that the President shall at once place the province of Buenos Ayres under martial law and maintain the dignity of the nation, or that he should retire from his exalted post as President of the Republic.

Unless some understanding or compromise is arrived at within the next forty-eight hours, through the medium of the peace committee, I see no other course left to the President but to put the province under martial law, in which event Ex-President Sarmiento (now a brigadier-general in the army) will be placed in command of this city.

* * * * * * *

I have, &c.,

THOS O. OSBORN.

[Inclosure A in No. 267.]

manifesto.

Fellow Citizens: I much regret that I am compelled on this occasion to address you; but I feel bound to make an appeal to your sense of that duty which enjoins obedience to the laws, to that honor which forbids personal interests compromising the public weal, and to that patriotism which calls you to guard well the inheritance of the past and check any movement that, under insiduous titles, would take us back to the blackest periods of our history.

On all sides I hear the threats of civil war; but what, task, are those fatal or irrevocable questions which admit of no solution save the battle-field? No opposing principles are at issue; no antagonistic geographical interests divide the country, and the-miserable cry of those who seek to create disorder should never find echo or response in the hearts of true Argentines.

The only question at issue is the electoral one—a mere question of candidates, which is periodically supported and decided without bloodshed in every republican and constitutional country. Has it come to this, that we can have no change of government without a revolution, and that we proclaim to the world our incapacity for those very institutions which we ourselves have framed?

In all constitutional countries an election is a well-settled question; the law surrounds it with proper limits and establishes in Congress its proper arbitrator. Why, therefore, not await its decision? It is the same Congress that all Argentines obey, and whose laws are the supreme laws of the land and of the nation. Or is it to be supposed that Congress, which was legitimate yesterday, is to-day illegal?

Thoughtlessly, no doubt, many have exclaimed, Let us await the decision of Congress, but with arms in our hand.” But I answer “No”! and as long as there is a spark of liberty and honor left, no other arms should surround Congress save those which Congress can itself increase, diminish, or suppress by its vote.

The meeting of Congress is at present far off, nevertheless political clubs are arming, not privately, as on former occasions, but publicly, and in battalions that march through the streets with shouldered muskets and carrying the national flag. Who has placed this flag in their hands? It belongs at the moment to the three millions of men and four generations of Argentines have passed to their graves beneath its shadow! A national flag is, more than the very soil itself, the property of a nation, and nations only in trust that flag to the governments that represent them.

Let us reflect on what is passing.

Every nation maintains an army to guarantee order; but an army would be the greatest of dangers had not the foresight of all anticipated it. Whoever bears arms publicly, under an organization that makes him s; ill more powerful, is indeed in possession of a terrible might; and societies were only enabled to live by preventing the abuse of this power. No other than the soldier may bear arms under a public organization, and the life of the soldier is the barracks, his will gives way to obedience, the rule of his conduct; his tribunal is a court-martial with summary verdicts, and his code is the terrible law that claims his death for an error, an omission.

Even the national guard is mobilized—it carries arms publicly, not otherwise than the soldier, and obeys the same law.

This is the universal system followed by nations, lest they should fall victims to this power. Who will explain the presence of armed battalions in our cities, that display themselves in military reviews, the formation of which no public? authority superintends? There live with us thousands of men who come from all countries in the world, and we may ask them if there is one place on earth where an organized community exists allowing the massing of armed forces without law, without discipline, without obedience, and without commanders, with a public trust, responsible and recognized?

We must abandon this course. It is not true that we have adopted the institutions, of the most civilized countries to counteract them subsequently with practices which are incompatible with modern principles and place us as an isolated example in the world.

The error has been general; we have all committed it; some have remained silent through mistaken prudence whilst others carried the same into effect; but if this error should continue to exist, a country could hardly introduce a better element of destruction.

Let the liberty of arming individuals collectively, of forming battalions and raising an army be decreed, and a government of violence will be proclaimed. Every electoral struggle will be in future a bloody strife, and civil war will be harbored amongst the common rights. Why should a meeting to-morrow, protesting against a government measure affecting many and great interests, he pacific when the right exists to arm and enforce the claims demanded? It is not an arbitrary or distant hypothesis; it is a direct application of the doctrines proclaimed.

Meantime the evil is spreading in all directions, and strife will far more easily arise from these violent and irregular proceedings than from the rivalry of the candidates disputing in the electoral arena. No foreign enemy threatens us, no internal commotion disturbs our peace, yet the clash of arms is heard all over the republic; every Argentine city is preparing and massing new legions, which are, in reality, national guards under surreptitious names defrauding the law. I hope that in future the law will be obeyed to to the letter, and then at least we will enter a situation which will excite no alarms.

Citizens, I ask for the sake of patriotism, and I command in the name of the law, that your arms be laid aside. Let them be thrown aside that the voice of reason may be heard and calm the excited feelings; let public opinion rise and inclose the electoral struggle within its lawful limits. Ten thousand Argentines in one of our cities, peacefully addressing their countrymen in the name of common interest, can deeply move public opinion and create a new situation. Ten thousand shoulders, armed with ten thousand Remingtons, will produce a contrary effect. Valor is an Argentine virtue; if Santa Fe and Buenos Ayres boast of it, Jujuy also lays claims to it.

Citizens, I have made solemn declarations, and I uphold them before all systematic and false imputations. The jurisdiction of the government departments is purely administrative, and the constant attendance and care for all national interests eloquently prove it.

The elections throughout the republic have just been effected, and the intrusion in the electoral committees of a single agent, with irregular means of influence on the part of the national government, has not been alleged.

Two provinces are under intervention; in one no election took place, in the other both parties claim the victory loudly. These are facts, and behind these bulwarks I can quietly await more impartial verdicts.

The government will take no part in this election question. I will be the first to look for the name of my successor in the law that proclaims him, and deliver up the reins of power in peace.

This is my programme, and I affirm that I rely upon the will, the intelligence, and; physical support of the great majority of the Argentine people to carry it out.

Our country is struggling between two contrary currents of opinion—one trying at every moment to escape the grasp of law and supplant it by violence and a capricious constitution, and the other seeking a remedy for these evils by patient and secure means.

I am not with the violent party. I belong to the peaceful. It is this magnanimous patience which supports disasters bravely, and with time and Truman reason has laid the basis of free institutions, great nations, and permanent governments.

Citizens, I ask you to obey the laws, maintain order, and respect the rights of all, that we may have free elections and suppress weapons at the electoral urns.

N. AVELLANEDA.

Buenos Ayres, February 13, 1880.

decree.

Buenos Ayres, February 13, 1880.

By the fundamental laws of the republic, all its inhabitants enjoy the light to meet in public and petition, but they can neither meet nor petition the authorities with arms in their hands, the right referred to having its source and validity in a peaceable and rational manifestation of opinion. Article 14 of the National Constitution lays down that every inhabitant of the republic enjoys the right of petitioning the authorities and of joining in a meeting for useful purposes. The constitution of the province of Buenos Ayres establishes “the right of the inhabitants to meet in a peaceable way that does not violate public order” (article 12), the constitutions of all the other provinces having each an identical article.

The fundamental laws of both the nation and the provinces thus assign a limit to the right of meeting and petitioning, and that limit is that they be of a peaceful nature. Article 25, chap. 5, of the Law of National Justice, says: “A meeting of citizens, no matter what their number, shall not be considered seditions, if they are unarmed and preserve order.” The constitutions of those nations from which ours is copied lay down that the peaceable exercise of both rights (petition and public meeting) is a “sine qua non” for their enjoyment. The first article of the addenda to the Constitution of the United States says: “Congress can pass no act restricting the right of the people to meet peaceably and demand justice from the government.”

Therefore, no public assemblage of armed men can claim the right of meeting and petition which our laws accord.

The Argentine Constitution has not, in any of its articles, granted the right to bear arms or even keep them in the house, and although the latter is tolerated here as in other free countries, such a right is purely individual in its very nature. To bear arms in public, to drill, organize, and form an army of those so armed is exclusively an attribute of the government in all countries where an organized society exists.

Thus the national constitution only allows one army, the strength of which is annually determined by Congress, and which the President of the republic commands as commander-in-chief, on sea and land, of all the forces of the nation.

Article 108 of the constitution says that the provinces cannot establish customhouses, coin money, arm ships of war, or raise armies; and private individuals might as well be allowed to open custom-houses or coin money as to raise armies.

In only one case does the Argentine Constitution refer to “the armed citizen” and give him the right to bear arms:—“Every citizen is bound to arm for the defense of the country, in conformity with whatever laws Congress may pass and the decrees of the national Executive.”

In order to preserve liberty of suffrage, prevent coercion either by the governments or the political parties, suppress violence and have the election decided solely by reason and the ballot, the last act of the Argentine Congress at the close of the session was to pass the bill which prohibits the meeting of all armed forces, except the national army, until the new President assumes office; this law was promulgated last October. In its first article it prohibits not only the meeting but the calling out of the national guards, even for drill, and this law has been violated by those who meet publicly as armed volunteers, as, being Argentine citizens, they are national guards, and as such prohibited from arming themselves and meeting.

For the foregoing reasons, in fulfillment of the constitution and the laws referred to, to preserve the peace of the country, to prevent coercion and violence at the presidential election, and that this may be decided solely in a peaceable, patriotic, and common sense way—

The president of the republic, in full cabinet council, decrees:

• Art. 1. Throughout the entire extent of the republic, meetings of armed citizens, no matter what name they assume, are hereby prohibited, as laid down in the act of Congress of 13th October, 1879.
• Art. 2. The governors of provinces are hereby charged with the execution of this decree as the natural agents of the national government in enforcing the constitution and the laws of the nation. (Article 110, National Constitution.)
• Art. 3. Let this be published, &c.

• AVELLANEDA.
• Benjamin Zorrilla.
• Lucas Gonzales.
• V. de la Plaza.
• Miguel Goyena.
• Carlos Pellegrini.