Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1881
No. 1.
Mr. Osborn
to Mr. Evarts.
Buenos Ayres, November 29, 1880. (Received January 6, 1881.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of my note of date October 22d ultimo, addressed to the minister of foreign affairs, under instructions contained in your dispatch numbered 131, with a copy of the minister’s reply, marked A and B, respectively.
I also inclose a copy of the comments, in reference to the notes exchanged, of the La Republica, official organ, as translated and published in the Buenos Herald of the 14th instant.
I have, &c.,
Mr. Osborn to Señor Bernardo Iregoyen.
Buenos Ayres, October 22, 1880.
Mr. Minister: The intelligence of the cessation of hostilities between the Government of the Argentine Republic and the Province of Buenos Ayres having been received at the Department of State, United States of America, I am requested by the honorable Secretary of State to express to your excellency the extreme gratification of the Government of the United States at the receipt of that intelligence.
I am also directed to say to your excellency that it had not been doubted by the Government of the United States that the administration and the people of the Argentine Republic and the authorities of the Province of Buenos Ayres would shortly reach the termination of those misunderstandings, which had brought about a situation of affairs in the territories of the republic so much to be deprecated, not only by its own citizens, but by the people of all other countries interested in the prosperity of the Argentine Republic.
I am further instructed to express to your excellency that from the result of the internal dissensions which threatened the stability of a sister republic, His Excellency the President of the United States is glad to conclude that the principle of national life, as opposed to the spirit of disintegration, will continue to animate its people, and to request your excellency to convey the sincere congratulations of his excellency upon the fortunate issue of the contentions to His Excellency the President of the Argentine Republic.
I embrace this opportunity, &c.
His excellency Dr. Don Bernardo
Iregoyen,
Minister of Foreign
affairs
Señor Bernardo Iregoyen to Mr. Osborn.
Buenos Ayres, November 6, 1880.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to receive the note of your excellency, under date of October 22d past, and is my agreeable duty to signify to your excellency the great estimation in which His Excellency the President of the Republic holds and accepts the felicitations which the excellent Government of the United States has taken occasion to transmit on the re-establishment of the peace of the nation.
The sentiments of the government represented by your excellency, condemnatory of all secession spirit, are inspired by feelings of reciprocal sympathy, natural to two friendly governments, and by the harmony of the institutions of both countries, under the auspices of which a peace stable and permanent, will be established here.
It is in this normal and prosperous state, and under the sway of a moderate policy, that the President has the satisfaction of receiving the very estimable felicitations of the government represented by your excellency.
Will you, Mr. Minister, please to transmit to His Excellency the President of the United States the sincere good wishes of the Argentine Government for the prosperity of that great nation, at the same time you will please accept the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
His excellency General Thomas O.
Osborn,
Minister of the United
States.
united states minister Osborn and the argentine press.
General Osborn’s letter congratulating the Argentine Government in the name of that of the United States has called forth some comment from the local press, of which we deem it worth while to translate the most remarkable paragraphs. Our colleague, La Republica, remarks as follows:
“It has been said that distance is equivalent to posterity. To judge an event from a distance, through space, is the same as to judge it after a lapse of time. The expression of an opinion on our affairs that comes from a far country, will be the same as that which will be formed here when time shall have calmed the excitement of momentary passion. The occasion of these lines is an event that is as grave as it is important to our foreign relations.
“The President of the United States, through his minister, has just congratulated the Argentine Government on the re-establishment of peace, that has established the full power of the nation, against the elements of separation and localism. The applause could not come invested with greater authority. It comes from the people whose institutions we have copied, and which we have frankly adopted as our model, on our journey through space and through time. It comes from the great nation that has had to bear similar contests and to go through similar experiences in order to establish forever the principle of its existence, one and indivisible. * * * Hence the note of the United States minister has been read with interest and with gratitude. The approbation of the United States Government that has thus been made public is without any doubt a moral force, because it is the greatest authority that can be invoked in support of the righteousness of a solution and of the patriotism and legitimacy of the motives that sought and arrived at it through so many difficulties. * * * We will say one word more. The United States minister might have fulfilled the friendly and well intentioned charge of his government in a visit to the President or to the minister of foreign affairs, but he has preferred to adopt the form of a ‘note,’ so as to make the fact more patent and that it might the more properly be made public. It is thus that the United States minister follows up the series of good offices that he has never grudged towards this country and our government since he came here to represent his own. The Argentine Government has not gone through one day of trial without having the United States Minister at its side. When the President and Congress removed to Belgrano, Mr. Osborn believed it to be his duty to surround the legitimate government of the nation with acts of deference and sympathy. His conduct in this sense is well known. * * * We have a biographical sketch of General Osborn, which we will translate and publish as a tribute of respect to the diplomatic minister that shows himself so good a friend to this nation and its government.”