farewell address of president sarmiento., October 8, 1874

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.

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 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.