Thomas O. Osborn to Dr. Don Bernardo Iregoyen, November 29, 1880

No. 1. Mr. Osborn to Mr. Evarts.

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.,

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.”