No. 1.
Mr. Hanna to
Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Buenos
Ayres, October 14, 1886. (Received
November 26.)
No. 52.]Sir: On the 12th instant, the executive term of
Julio A. Boca closed, and Michael Juarez Celman, his successor, was duly
installed President of the Argentine Republic for the ensuing six years.
The ceremonies were imposing and full of interest. The great personal
popularity of General Roca who has given this Republic its first six years
of unbroken peace, his wise and efficient plans for the development of his
country, encouragement of immigration, construction of railroads,
establishment of a vast system of public schools, modeled after our own,
under the direction of a number of thoroughly-trained normal school
teachers, brought at large expense from the United States, and his new
system for the dislodgment of Indian tribes from the territories by the
encouragement of strong colonies to take their place, and the absorption of
the Indians themselves in the industries of the country and its military
service, were made the occasion for a succession of civic and military
processions, festive entertainments, and laudatory speeches, participated in
by representative citizens gathered from all parts of the country.
General Roca has unquestionably set this Government forward far in advance of
its ordinary progress under the old regime. The popular opinion seems to be
the administration of President Juarez will, in a large degree, be a
continuation of the enlightened views and methods of his predecessor.
The inaugural address of President Juarez, and that of General Roca at the
surrender of the presidential office, are given herewith in inclosures 1 and
2. The new cabinet is as follows: Interior, Dr. Wilde; foreign affairs, Dr.
Quirno Costa; finance, Dr. Pacheco; education, Dr. Passe; war and navy,
General Racedo. Popular sentiment very generally sustains the President in
the wisdom of his selection of the distinguished gentlemen so soon to be his
constitutional advisers.
I have, etc.,
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[Inclosure 1 in No.
52—Translation.]
Inaugural address of President Juarez.
Gentlemen, Senators, and Deputies: You are the
witnesses of the oath which with tranquil and sincere conscience I have
just taken. To act with loyalty and patriotism, to obey and exact
obedience in matters of constitutional duty, are obligations of no
slight significance. Happily loyalty, patriotism, and sentiments
favorable to the observance of law are not the exclusive virtues of
those in high places. Pardon me if I venture to express the hope the
time may come when, before you as witnesses of my conduct and the whole
country as judges of my acts, I shall be able to say, truthfully, I have
been faithful to my obligations, I have guarded honestly the exalted
trust committed to my charge, I have religiously respected the laws
myself and caused them to be respected by others, and have secured to
every citizen the free exercise of all his rights and liberties. Such
results are at least my most earnest hope. The party which invited me to
become its candidate for the high office, whose duties I am now about to
enter upon, well knows I did not seek the honor, but rather avoided it,
being conscious of the responsibilities incident to the station, and
that I am doubtful of my ability to perform its duties. But having been
elected legally and in honor, the ardor of the struggle having been
softened and local antagonisms replaced by the elevated sentiment of
nationality, I may now, relying upon the good will of my
fellow-citizens, make the promises contained in this document, with the
sincerity of one firm in his intentions to maintain himself within the
law, with no other ambition than to secure the happiness of his country.
The Argentine nation already occupies a high level in self-government
through the nature of its institutions, and feels daily the result of
the common effort, which one man alone can neither compel nor restrain.
The Argentine people, like its great models, acts for itself, and does
not tolerate mentors, self-consecrated to the task of marking out its
political course. Modern societies, which base their political system
upon the free and conscientious vote of the people, have little need of
extraordinary qualities in their magistrates, it being sufficient for
their moral and material development that the laws should be respected
equally by those who govern and those who are governed. The solidity of
our institutions has ceased to be a problem among us; it is an
indestructible fact, guarantied by the great benefits and fertile
progress attained, and it may be added with strict truth that there is
no authority within the nation which can make itself paramount to the
law, nor is there a single citizen or inhabitant excluded from its
protection. I make, then, mine the programme, which my illustrious
predecessor compressed into the formula of “peace and
administration” because it expresses the supreme aspirations of
all true Argentines, and explains the prodigious transformation already
accomplished in the economic life of our country. Consequent upon this
declaration, I shall devote special attention to the financial situation
of the nation, and seek to solve its difficult problem. The Republic is
undergoing rapid transformation in the matter of labor and production.
It has eased to be exclusively pastoral, and is becoming agricultural,
producing, on a large scale, sugar-cane, the vine, and the cereals.
These industries have been protected under our constitution, imitating
the example of civilized nations, and it would be just to extend similar
protection to other new industries, avoiding exaggeration and the system
of prohibitory duties. The country requires prompt and efficacious means
for developing its internal commerce, which my government will seek to
provide by constructing roads and railways, by removing obstacles to
navigation, by improving our river communication, by forming ports and
quays, and by adopting measures tending to put into Argentine hands the
coasting trade, now almost entirely foreign, I shall continue to follow
the tradition of preceding governments by fulfilling honorably the
obligations of the treasury at home and abroad, which can be done
without effort or sacrifice by dealing economically with our resources.
With this view I intend to restrain the use of foreign credit for
constructing new railways, as the national guaranties ought to be
sufficient, when it is indispensable (sic), and the internal credit
ought to suffice for public works of other kinds. The unification of the
internal and foreign debt is an absolute necessity for the credit of the
state. Such unification will also effect a saving and facilitate the
service of the debt. I shall devote myself, relying upon your
assistance, to the suppression of the evils arising from a forced
currency, I consider that the state banks of the province of Buenos
Ayres can not exist in the capital of the Republic without injury to the
nation, by preventing it from controlling its finances and directing the
money market, and I suggest that a solution of the question should be
sought, which, without injuring any legitimate interests, will
conciliate the great duties of the nation.
The promotion of education is an unavoidable necessity in a democratic
government. The Argentine Republic has made great progress in this
respect, and I shall endeavor to preserve the conquests obtained and to
extend the benefit of education to the inhabitants generally, and thus
to dissipate the clouds in which are formed or germinated
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the seeds of anarchy and
retrogression, and to lead the people to their high destinies and to
make them know and love the institutions of their country. It will be my
constant care to prevent politics or other hindering motive from
disturbing our educational establishments in their fruitful mission.
I regard it as a duty of government to find means for increasing
immigration into this country, and for this purpose we must offer to the
foreigners who tread our soil the guaranties of a liberal education and
a good administration of justice. We must have fundamental codes and an
organization of federal justice which will give to the future
inhabitants of our soil absolute security of belief, property, and
life.
Our international relations shall be maintained and cultivated with the
elevated views and the spirit of fraternity and justice observed by my
predecessors. The citizen who to-day descends from power inaugurated his
prosperous period of government under the auspices of one of the most
transcendental legislative acts in the development of our constitutional
life, the federalization of the capital, the basis arid guaranty of the
national unity demanded by the whole Republic. The new period to-day
initiated will also have its historical point of departure in the
catalogue of our greatest conquests. For the first time in our history,
so full of painful experiences, the command is transferred incomplete
peace at home and abroad; for the first time the parties to the strife
have remembered that free peoples admit discussion and the vote as the
only legal source of preponderance; for the first time the chosen of the
majority can eliminate with pleasure and profound satisfaction from his
inaugural address that compulsory chapter in which my illustrious
predecessors deplored the horrors of anarchy and rebellion, and can
replace the just complaint with the assurances that peace is a fact in
the Republic and that political struggles, energetic and violent as they
may be, in the ordinary evolution of our constitutional life, will
always be maintained as now within the limits of legality.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
52.—Translation.]
Farewell address of ex-President Roca.
Mr. President: I deliver to you the supreme
command of the Republic in a prosperous and flourishing condition,
without uncertainties or doubts, without internal fears or foreign
suspicions, and without having had once in my six years of government to
trust the fate of the country to, the hazzard of battle. This period of
peace has enabled us to strengthen the principle of authority, to
arrange favorably our boundary questions with Chili, Brazil, and
Bolivia, to rescue the country from financial chaos and endow it with
powerful institutions of credit, to mark out and organize new federal
territories in the vast region dominated by native tribes, to multiply
telegraphs, extend railways, and undertake all kinds of public works for
improving the provinces, to double immigration and international
commerce, and to raise the general revenue from twenty-one to fifty
millions; to give a powerful impulse to public education, to keep the
army and navy faithful to their flag, and above all to maintain intact,
in all conflicts and difficulties, the imperium,
the sovereignty of the nation.
In a word, sir, I transmit the power to you, with the Republic richer,
stronger, more vast, with more credit and with more love for stability
and with more serene and promising prospects than when I received it
from my illustrious predecessor, having to pass with grief, in order to
arrive at the elevated seat which you are about to occupy under better
auspices, over a field of death yet warm with the blood of hundreds of
Argentines.
If I have committed faults, injustice, or errors, I trust they will be
judged with benignity by my fellow citizens, because I have had in all
my actions no other motive than the good of the country and the glory
and luster of its name. The functions of the executive’s national power
in a new country with complicated institutions and having to contend
against the want of habits of liberty and republican education, are
difficult and troublesome. I pray, therefore, that the Divine Providence
may give you energy to overcome them and may enlighten all your
decisions.
Citizen Miguel Juarez Celman, Constitutional President of the Republic,
receive the symbolical sash and staff which impose so many
responsibilities, and with them the expression of my most profound
respect and obedience to the authority with which you are thus
invested.
