Chapter V: Independence

When the thirteen English colonies of the Northern Continent gained their independence, they entered upon a political condition for which their qualities of mind and their experience amply fitted them. They were reasonably well educated; indeed there was scarcely any other population which, in this respect, enjoyed advantages so great. They were men of a race which had for centuries been accustomed to exercise authority in the direction of its own public affairs. Since they became colonists they and their fathers had enjoyed in an eminent degree the privilege of self-government. The transition by which they passed into sovereign States demanded no fitness beyond that which they inherited from many generations of ancestors and developed in the ordinary conduct of their municipal and national interests.

With the Spanish settlements on the Southern Continent it was altogether different. The people were entirely without education; the printing-press was not to be found anywhere on the continent excepting in two or three large cities. They were of many and hostile races. There were Spaniards--European and native. There were Indians, classed as civilized, half-civilized, and wild. There were Negroes; there were races formed by the union of the others. The European Spaniards alone had any experience in the art of government, and they were driven from the continent with all possible speed. The others were wholly unpractised in the management of their own national concerns. Spanish officials supplied, according to their own despotic pleasure, the regulation which they deemed needful; and the colonists had not even the opportunity of watching and discussing the measures which were adopted.

No people ever took up the work of self-government under a heavier burden of disadvantage and disqualification. It is not surprising that their success thus far has been so imperfect. Nor is their future to be despaired of because their past is so full of wasted effort, of incessant revolution, of blood lavishly shed in civil strife which seemed to have no rational object and no solid result. Mankind must be satisfied if, beneath these confusions and miseries, there can be traced some evidences of progress towards that better political and industrial condition which self-government has never ultimately failed to gain.

The early legislation of the South American States expressed genuine sympathy with the cause of liberty, and an unselfish desire that its blessings should be enjoyed by all. Slavery was abolished, and for many years the absence of that evil institution from the emancipated Spanish settlements was a standing rebuke to the unscrupulous greed which still maintained it among the more enlightened inhabitants of the Northern Continent. Constitutions were adopted which evinced a just regard to the rights of all, combined, unhappily, with an utter disregard to the fitness of the population for the exercise of these rights.[42] Universal suffrage and equal electoral districts were established, and votes were taken by the ballot. Orders of nobility were abolished, and some unjust laws which still retain their place in the statute-book of England, as the laws of entail and primogeniture. Entire religious liberty was decreed, and it was not long till the interference of the Pope in such ecclesiastical concerns as the appointment of bishops was resented and repelled. The punishment of death for political offences was abolished. In course of time an educational system, free and compulsory, was set up in some of the States. The people of South America had been animated in their pursuit of independence by the example of the United States and of France, and they sought to frame their political institutions according to the models which these countries supplied.

The institutions which were then set up remain in their great outlines unchanged. But the wisdom and moderation which are essential to self-government are not suddenly bestowed by Heaven; they are the slowly accumulated gains of long experience. There did not exist among the South Americans that reverential submission to majorities which self-governing nations gradually acquire. Here, as elsewhere, two opposing parties speedily revealed themselves. One was zealously liberal and reforming--seeking progress and desiring in each country a federation of States as opposed to a strong centralized Government; the other preferred centralization and a maintenance of existing conditions. Among a people so utterly unpractised in political life no method of settling these differences other than the sword suggested itself. During half a century the continent has been devastated by perpetual wars around questions which, among nations of larger experience, would have merely formed the theme of peaceful controversy. And in a large number of instances the original grounds of contest were forgotten--exchanged for an ignoble personal struggle to gain or to hold the advantages of power.

The South American States perceived the desirableness of a popularly chosen Legislature, but their political knowledge carried them no further. They consented to an autocratic Executive. They placed Dictators in supreme authority. Theirs was the idea which Napoleon in modern times originated and which his nephew developed--the idea of a despotism based on universal suffrage. They intrusted their liberties to a selfish oligarchy. When the struggle for independence was victoriously closed, they had still to conquer their freedom, and the contest has been more prolonged and bloody than that which they waged against the tyranny of Spain.

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The three northern States of VENEZUELA, NEW GRANADA, and ECUADOR began their independent career by forming themselves into a great federal Republic. Their possessions extended over an area six times larger than that of France; thinly peopled by men of diverse races; severed by mountains well-nigh impassable, without connection of road or navigated river. The task of government under these circumstances was manifestly desperate. But hopes were high in that early morning of liberty. [Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] With a constitution closely resembling that of the United States, and with Bolivar the liberator of a continent as President, the Republic of Colombia entered proudly upon the fulfilment of its destiny. Five years after, the union which had been found impossible was dissolved. Bolivar, the great and patriotic soldier, proved himself an incapable and despotic statesman. He became Dictator of New Granada, which he ruled according to his arbitrary pleasure. [Sidenote: 1830 A.D.] The outraged people delivered themselves by a bloody but successful revolt from a yoke scarcely more tolerable than that of Spain; and the man to whom the continent owed its independence died broken-hearted, by what seemed to him the ingratitude of his countrymen.

Incessant strife now raged between the party of the priests and soldiers on the one hand and that of the people on the other. During a period of seventeen years the country endured a government of clerical ascendency and brute force. But during these years the numbers and political influence of the artisan class in towns had largely increased; and the far-reaching influences of the revolutions in Europe roused the energies of the people. [Sidenote: 1848 A.D.] They were able to wring from the Government large promises of reform, and a decree for the expulsion of the Jesuits. Some years followed, darkened by incessant revolts and the alternating victory and defeat of the opposing parties. [Sidenote: 1854 A.D.] At length the Liberals took the field with a “regenerating army” of twenty thousand men, and were utterly defeated. The Conservatives were now in the ascendant. But the tenacious Liberals, refusing to accept defeat, maintained for seven years a war in which, after a hundred battles, they were at length decisively victorious. [Sidenote: 1861 A.D.] There have been revolutions since that time, and short-lived Conservative triumphs, but the Liberal ascendency has never been very seriously shaken.

[Sidenote: 1826 to 1847 A.D.] Venezuela spent twenty tranquil years under the military despotism of General Paez--one of Bolivar’s companions-in-arms. But at the end of that period there arose a cry for reform. Even the Indians and the men of mixed race sought eagerly for the correction of the abuses which the ruling party maintained. [Sidenote: 1849 A.D.] General Paez was banished from the country. [Sidenote: 1863 1868 1870 A.D.] For some years he troubled the Republic by armed attempts to regain his lost authority, but the power of Liberalism could not be shaken. Once a sudden Conservative uprising gained a short-lived triumph. But a spirited Liberal--Guzman Blanco--drove the enemy forth and became President of the Republic--an office which he held for eight years. During the period of his rule there was no more than one revolutionary movement of importance. [Sidenote: 1872 A.D.] That revolt was closed by a desperate battle, in which the strength of the Conservative party was utterly broken.[43]

Under the judicious rule of President Blanco, Venezuela has enjoyed what to a South American Republic must seem profound tranquillity. Priestly power has received great discouragement. The convents and monasteries have been suppressed; civil marriage has been established; subjection to Rome has been disavowed.[44] A compulsory system of national education has been established--not too soon, for only one Venezuelan in ten can read or write. Some beginning has been made in developing the vast mineral resources of the country. Numerous roads, canals, and aqueducts have been constructed. Population has increased, and the trade of the republic, although not yet considerable, grows from year to year. The industrious habits of the people draw no reinforcement from necessity; for in that rich soil and genial climate the labour of a single month will maintain a family in comfort for a whole year. Nevertheless, the people are fairly industrious; and they are honest, cheerful, and hospitable. The tendency to redress political wrongs by violence seems to lose its power as these wrongs diminish in number and intensity; and the prospect of a peaceful future, with growing intelligence and increase of industrial well-being, steadily improves.

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[Sidenote: 1822 A.D.] When the MEXICANS gained their independence, they raised to the throne a popular young officer, whom they styled the Emperor Augustine First. They were then a people utterly priest-ridden and fanatical; and the clergy whom they superstitiously revered were a corrupt and debased class. The reformers had avowed the opinion that the Church was the origin of most of the evils which afflicted the country. The Emperor, while he offered equal civil rights to all the inhabitants of Mexico, sought to gain the clergy to his cause by guaranteeing the existence of the Catholic Church. But a monarchy proved to be impossible, and in less than a year a republican uprising, headed by Santa Anna, forced the Emperor to resign. [Sidenote: 1824 A.D.] A Federal Republic was then organized, with a constitution based on that of the great Republic whose territories adjoined those of Mexico.

For the next thirty years Santa Anna is the prominent figure in Mexican politics. He was a tall thin man, with sun-browned face, black curling hair, and dark vehement eye. He possessed no statesmanship, and his generalship never justified the confidence with which it was regarded by his countrymen. But he was full of reckless bravery and dash, and if his leading was faulty, his personal bearing in all his numerous battles was irreproachable. His popularity ebbed and flowed with the exigencies of the time. [Sidenote: 1828-39 A.D.] He repelled an invasion by Spain and an invasion by France, and these triumphs raised him to the highest pinnacle of public favour. Then his power decayed, and he was forced to flee from the country. When new dangers threatened the unstable nation, he was recalled from his banishment, and placed in supreme command. At one period one of his legs, which had been shattered in battle, was interred with solemn funeral service and glowing patriot oratory. A little later the ill-fated limb was disinterred, and kicked about the streets of Mexico with every contumelious accompaniment. His public life was closed by a hasty flight to Havana--the second movement of that description which it was his lot to execute.

Santa Anna sought the favour of the people by the grant of extremely democratic constitutions, but throughout his whole career he remained the willing tool of the clerical party. The Mexican clergy were possessed of vast wealth and vast influence. Fully one-half the land of the country belonged to them, and a large portion of the remainder was mortgaged to them. Their spiritual prerogatives were held to exempt them from taxation, and thus the whole weight of national burden fell upon the smaller division of national property. It was the concern of this powerful interest to maintain its own unjust privileges and to repress the growth of liberal sentiments among the people. So long as they were able to command the service of Santa Anna, they were able to frustrate the general wish, and guide the policy of the country according to their ignorant and tyrannical pleasure.

But they had not been able to shut out from the democracy of the towns, or from the Indians in their country villages, the political ideas to which the French Revolution of 1848 gave so large prevalence in Europe. The influence of the United States, which the ruling party strove to exclude, continued to gain in power. A radical party arose which assailed the privileges of the clergy. In course of years the growing demand for reform overcame the stubborn priestly defence of abuses, and the Mexicans took a large step towards the vindication of their liberties.

The leader in this revolution was Benito Juarez, a Toltec Indian; one of that despised race which the Aztecs subdued centuries before the Spanish invasion. This man had imbibed the liberal and progressive ideas which now prevailed in all civilized countries; and his personal ability and skill in the management of affairs gained for him the opportunity of conferring upon Mexico the fullest measure of political blessing which she had ever received. [Sidenote: 1855 A.D.] The Liberals were now a majority in Congress, and the gigantic work of reformation began. The first step was to declare the subjection of the clergy to civil law. Two years later came the abolition of clerical privileges, liberty of religion, a free press, a reduced tariff, the opening of the country to immigration, the beginning of commercial relations with the United States. The Pope, with hearty good-will, cursed all who favoured such legislation; the Archbishop of Mexico added his excommunication of all who rendered obedience to it. What was still more to the purpose, the clerical party rose in civil war to crush this aggressive liberalism, or, in their own language, to “regenerate” Mexico. Juarez and his Government were driven for a time from the capital, and withdrew to Vera Cruz. But this retreat did not arrest the flow of Liberal measures. [Sidenote: 1859 A.D.] From Vera Cruz, Juarez was able to promulgate his Laws of Reform, suppressing monastic orders, establishing civil marriage, claiming for the nation the monstrously overgrown possessions of the Church,[45] giving fuller scope to many of the reforming laws enacted two years before. Next year the Liberals triumphed over their enemies, and the Government returned to its proper home, in the city of Mexico.

But the resources of the defeated Clericals were not yet exhausted. Their aims concurred with an ambition which at that time animated the restless mind of the Emperor Napoleon III. The Emperor claimed to be the head of the Latin races, whose position on the American Continent seemed to be endangered by their own dissensions, as well as by the rapid expansion of the Anglo-Saxons. The Mexican clergy, supported by the Court of Rome, gave encouragement to his idle dream. An expedition was prepared, in which England and Spain took reluctant and hesitating part, and from which they quickly withdrew.

[Sidenote: 1863 A.D.] A French army entered the capital of Mexico. Juarez and his Government withdrew to maintain a patriot war, in which the mass of the people zealously upheld them. An Austrian prince sat upon the throne of Mexico without support, excepting that which the clerical party of Mexico and the bayonets of France supplied. A few years earlier or later these things dared not have been done; but when the French troops entered Mexican territory, the United States waged, not yet with clear prospect of success, a struggle on the results of which depended their own existence as a nation. They had no thought to give to the concerns of other American States, and they wisely suffered the Empire of Mexico to run its sad and foolish course. [Sidenote: 1865 A.D.] But now the Southern revolt was quelled, and the Government of Washington, having at its call a million of veteran soldiers, intimated to Napoleon that the further stay of his troops on the American Continent had become impossible. The Emperor waited no second summons. [Sidenote: 1866 A.D.] When the French were gone, the patriot armies swept over the country, and this deplorable attempt to set up imperialism came to an ignominious close. [Sidenote: 1867 A.D.] The Emperor Maximilian fell into the hands of his enemies, and was put to death according to the terms of a decree which his own Government had framed.

Juarez was again elected President, and returned with his Congress to the city of Mexico. During his whole term of office he had to maintain the Liberal cause in arms against the tenacious priesthood and its followers. [Sidenote: 1872 A.D.] When he died, a Liberal President was chosen to succeed him. The war has never ceased, and the clerical party has occasionally gained important advantages. It is evident, however, that its power is being gradually exhausted, and that the final triumph of Liberalism is not now remote. For sixty years Mexico has been the opprobrium of Christendom. It is possible now to entertain the hope that ere many years pass, this unhappy country, purged of those clerical and military elements which have been her curse, will begin to take her fitting place among peaceable, industrious, and prosperous States.

The area of Mexico is six times larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland. Her population is between nine and ten million. Two-thirds of these are pure Indians, the descendants of the men on whom the thunderbolt of Spanish invasion fell nearly four hundred years ago. Two and a half million are of mixed origin; five hundred thousand are pure European. At the time of the conquest there were among the Mexicans thirty different races and languages, and these distinctions still survive. The Indians have regained the cheerfulness which was crushed out of their dispositions by Spanish cruelty, and under due superintendence they make excellent artisans and servants. The work of the country is performed by them; and as their ambition has not been awakened and their wants are few, labour is cheap. It is only recently that anything at all has been done for their education, and they are still profoundly ignorant.[46] But they furnish abundant evidence of high capability. The race from which President Juarez sprang may reasonably hope that, after all its miseries, a creditable future is in store.

The whites are the aristocracy of the country; the mixed breeds are its turbulent element. They are ordinarily quiet and indolent, but they are easily inflamed to revolt. To a large extent the constant revolutionary movements which waste the country have been sustained by them.

The reforming laws of Juarez have been well enforced in the great centres of population. No monk or nun, nor any Jesuit is tolerated; no priest is to be seen in the streets in the garb of his office; reformatories and schools are being established; the youth of Mexico are being rescued from the priest, and made over to the schoolmaster. In the remote provinces the execution of the law is extremely imperfect. There the clerical party is still powerful, and forbidden taxes are still levied in defiance of law. The subordinate officers of Government are inordinately corrupt. Import duties are excessive, and the temptations to evasion are irresistible. The officers of the custom-house habitually conspire with merchants to defraud the revenue, and share with them the unlawful gain. The financial condition of the country is lamentable. Only a small portion of the public debt is recognized by the Government, and upon that portion no interest is paid. Expenditure constantly exceeds revenue. Ordinarily the cost of civil war absorbs more than one-half the national income; frequently it absorbs the whole.

The country is surpassingly rich, but its progress is hindered by insufficient means of communication. The most urgent requirement of this inland region was that it should be brought within easy reach of the sea-coast. The pressure of this necessity led, so long ago as in 1852, to the attempted construction of a railway from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz. But the works were stopped by the habitual national convulsions; and when Maximilian ascended the throne, he found nothing accomplished excepting a few miles at either end of the projected line. While he reigned, the works were carried on, and they were stopped when his fall drew near. They were resumed by the Liberal Government, but the progress of any useful work is slow in a country tormented by incessant revolution. It was seven years more till the railway was completed for the whole distance of two hundred and sixty-three miles. Besides this line, there are no more than three or four hundred miles of railway yet opened in Mexico.

The silver-mines of Mexico, which ceased to produce during the war of independence, have resumed their former importance. They now yield silver to the annual value of three million sterling. Besides the export of this commodity, Mexico exports two million annually of cochineal, indigo, hides, and mahogany. Her entire imports do not amount to more than five and a half million. Her foreign commerce, to the extent of two-thirds its value, is transacted with her once hated neighbour the United States.

If Mexico has been the least fortunate of all the Spanish provinces of America, CHILI furnishes the best example of a well-ordered, settled, and prosperous State. Its area is only one-fifth and its population one-fourth that of Mexico, but its foreign commerce is nearly one-half larger.[47] For this commerce its situation is peculiarly favourable. Chili, a long and narrow country, lies on the Pacific, with which it communicates by upwards of fifty sea-ports. It is therefore only in small measure dependent for its progress upon railways and navigable rivers.

For sixteen years after throwing off the Spanish yoke,[48] Chili was governed, despotically, without a constitution. During those years constant disorders prevailed. At length the general wish of the nation was gratified. [Sidenote: 1833 A.D.] A constitution was promulgated, under which the franchise was bestowed on every married man of twenty-one years, and on every unmarried man of twenty-five who was able to read and write. With this constitution the people have been satisfied. The government has been throughout in the hands of a moderate Conservative party, which has directed public affairs with firmness and wisdom, and has manifested zeal in the correction of abuses. Opposing parties have not in Chili, as in the neighbouring States, wasted the country by their fierce contentions for ascendency. In the exercise of a wise but rare moderation, the views of either party have been modified by those of the other. A method of government has thus been reached which men of all shades of opinion have been able to accept, and under which the prosperous development of the country has advanced with surprising rapidity.

During the last thirty years the population of Chili has quadrupled, and her revenue has increased still more largely. Immigration from Europe, especially from Germany, has been successfully promoted. Formerly almost all land was held by large owners. This pernicious system has been in great measure destroyed. Estates have been subdivided, and the system of small proprietorship is now widely prevalent. The public debt of Chili is twelve million sterling; but as she, unlike her sister republics, meets her obligations punctually, her name stands high on the Stock Exchanges of Europe. The education of her people receives a fair measure of attention. Of her revenue of three and a half million, she expends a quarter million upon schools--a proportion not equalled in Europe. But this liberal expenditure is recent, and has not yet had time to produce its proper results. Only one in twenty-four of the population attends school; only one in seven can read. Even in the cities the proportion is no greater than one in four.

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The neighbouring State of PERU has an area four times that of Chili, but her population is scarcely larger. And while Chili has a very inconsiderable proportion of Indians, it is estimated that fifty-seven per cent. of the Peruvian population are of the aboriginal races, and twenty-three per cent. are of mixed origin. The remainder are native Spaniards, Negroes, Chinese, with a very few Germans and Italians. From a nation so composed, a wise management of public affairs can scarcely be hoped for. The government of Peru has been, since the era of independence, a reproach to humanity. Elsewhere on the continent there has been the hopeful spectacle of a people imperfectly enlightened, but animated by a sincere love of liberty, and struggling against tremendous obstacles towards a happier political situation. The incessant strifes which have devastated Peru have no such justification. They have no political significance at all; they do not originate in any regard to national interests. Turbulent military chiefs have, in constant succession and with shameless selfishness, contended for power and plunder. A debased and slothful people, wholly devoid of political intelligence, have become the senseless weapons with which these ignoble strifes have been waged. The vast wealth with which Nature has endowed the land has lain undeveloped; the labour, with which the country is so inadequately supplied, has been absorbed by the wars of a vulgar and profligate ambition: Peru remains almost worthless to the human family.

Spain took courage, from the disorders of Peru, to meditate the restoration of her lost colonial empire. She attacked Peru; but her fleet was utterly defeated, after a severe engagement. [Sidenote: 1866 A.D.] This victory roused the spirit of the Peruvian people, and for a short space it seemed as if impulses had been communicated which would open an era of progress. For some years real industrial advance was made. But the fair prospect was quickly marred. Two Presidents, who manifested a patriotic desire to begin the work of reform, were murdered. An insane war against Chili was begun. Chili had imposed certain duties on products imported from Bolivia; and Peru, disapproving of these duties, went to war to avenge or annul the proceeding. The fortune of that war has been decisively against the aggressor. Chili has proved not merely equal to the task of holding her own; she has defeated her enemy in many battles; she has seized portions of her territory; she has captured her most powerful iron-clad ship of war. The progress of Peru has utterly ceased. [Sidenote: 1880 A.D.] Her finances are in the wildest disorder. Her paper currency is worth no more than one-tenth its nominal value. Her ports are blockaded; her commerce is well-nigh abolished. But her misguided rulers will listen to no suggestion of peace, and seem resolved to maintain this discreditable contest to the extremity of prostration and misery.

Peru is believed to extract silver from her mines to the annual value of a million sterling; an amount somewhat smaller than these mines yielded down to the war of independence. Peru exports chiefly articles which can be obtained without labour or thought. The guano, heaped in millions of tons on the islands which stud her coasts, was sold to European speculators, and carried away by European ships. But these vast stores seem to approach exhaustion. Fortunately for this spendthrift Government, discovery was made some years ago of large deposits of nitrate of soda, from the sale of which an important revenue is gained.

For Peru, lying chiefly between lofty mountain ranges remote from the sea, railway communication is of prime importance. In the time of one of her best Presidents there was devised a scheme of singular boldness; and by the help of borrowed money, on which no interest is paid, it has been partially executed. A railway line, setting out from Lima, on the Pacific, crosses the barren plain which adjoins the coast, climbs the western range of the Andes to a height of nearly sixteen thousand feet, and traverses the table-land which lies between the great lines of mountain. When completed, it will reach some of the tributaries of the Amazon, at points where these become navigable--thus connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic where the continent is at the broadest. There are, in all, about fourteen hundred miles of railway open for traffic in Peru, three-fourths of which are Government works.

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[Sidenote: 1811 A.D.] PARAGUAY, a State with an area nearly twice that of England, and a population of a million and a half, had the good fortune to assume her independence without any resistance from the mother country, and therefore without requiring to undergo the sacrifices of war. For nearly thirty years she was ruled by a despotism not less absolute than that of Spain. Dr. Francia became Dictator for life. He had been educated as a theologian, and was a silent, stern, relentless man, who inspired his people with such fear that even after his death they scarcely ventured to pronounce his name. Francia did something to develop the resources of the State. But progress was slow, for the Dictator permitted no intercourse with other nations. Paraguay was to supply all her own wants--depending for nothing on the outside world. Whosoever came within her borders must remain; he who obtained permission to go out might not return. [Sidenote: 1840 A.D.] When this strange ruler died his power fell to Carlos Lopez, who maintained for twenty-two years a despotism not less absolute, but guided by a policy greatly more enlightened. He encouraged intercourse with foreigners; he constructed roads and railways; he cared for education; he created defences and a revenue. [Sidenote: 1862 A.D.] Before he died he bequeathed his authority to his son.

This new ruler had been sent, when a young man, to Europe to acquire the ideas which animated the enlightened Powers of the Old World. He arrived at the time of the Crimean War, to find a love of glory and of empire occupying the public mind of England and of France. He was not able to withstand the malign influence. He went home resolved to emulate the career of the Emperor Napoleon. He, too, would become a conqueror; he, too, would found an empire. He occupied himself in forming a large army, in accumulating military stores. [Sidenote: 1865 A.D.] When the death of his father raised him to absolute authority, he lost no time in attacking Brazil, which he had marked as his first victim. The Argentine Republic and Uruguay made common cause with Brazil against a disturber of the peace, in whose ambition they recognized a common danger.

The war continued for five years. It brought upon Paraguay calamities more appalling than have fallen in modern times on any State. Her territory was occupied by a victorious foe, and one-half of it was taken away from her for ever. Her debt had swelled to an amount which utterly precluded hope of payment.[49] Her population had sunk from a million and a half to two hundred and twenty thousand. Of these it was estimated that four-fifths were females. War and its attendant miseries had almost annihilated the adult male population.[50] Paraguay yielded herself as the base instrument of an insane ambition, and she was destroyed.

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BUENOS AYRES, a city founded during the early years of the conquest, was the seat of one of the vice-royalties by which the Spaniards conducted the government of the continent. It stands on the right bank of the river Plate, not far from the ocean. The Plate and its tributary rivers flow through vast treeless plains, where myriads of horses and cattle roam at will among grass which attains a height equal to their own. When the dominion of Spain ceased, Buenos Ayres naturally assumed a preponderating influence in the new Government. The provinces which had composed the old vice-royalty formed themselves into a Confederation, with a constitution modelled on that of the United States. Buenos Ayres was the only port of shipment for the inland provinces. Her commercial importance as well as her metropolitan dignity soon aroused jealousies which could not be allayed. Within a few years the Confederation was repudiated by nearly all its members, and for some time each of the provinces governed itself independently of the others.

[Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] The next experiment was a representative Republic under President-General Rivadavia, with Buenos Ayres as the seat of Government. Rivadavia was a man of enlightened views. He encouraged immigration, established liberty of religion, took some steps to educate the people, entered into commercial treaties with foreign powers. [Sidenote: 1827 A.D.] But his liberal policy was regarded unfavourably by a people not sufficiently wise to comprehend it; and he resigned his office after having held it for six years.

The influence of Buenos Ayres now waned, and the provinces of the interior gained what the capital lost. These provinces were occupied by a half-savage race of mixed origin, who lived by the capture and slaughter of wild cattle. These fierce hunters were trained to the saddle almost from infancy, and lived on horseback. Excellence in horsemanship was a sufficient passport to their favour. [Sidenote: 1829 A.D.] The government of the country now fell into the hands of General Rosas, a Gaucho chief, whose feats in the saddle have probably never been equalled by the most accomplished of circus-riders.[51] For twenty-three years this man--cruel, treacherous, but full of rugged vigour--maintained over the fourteen provinces a despotism which soon lapsed into an absolute reign of terror. One of the methods of this wretched man’s government was the systematic employment of a gang of assassins, who murdered according to his orders, and under whose knives many thousands of innocent persons perished. His troops overran the neighbouring province of Uruguay; but Monte Video, the capital of that State, was successfully held against him, chiefly by the skill and courage of Garibaldi. France and England declared war against the tyrant, and for several years vainly blockaded the city of Buenos Ayres. At length (1848) a determined rebellion broke out and raged for four years. [Sidenote: 1852 A.D.] A great battle was fought; the army of Rosas was scattered; the capital, wild with joy, received the thrilling news that the tyrant had fled[52] and that the country was free.

The twenty-three years of despotism had done nothing to solve the political problems which still demanded solution at the hands of the Argentine people. The tedious and painful work had now to be resumed. The province of Buenos Ayres declared itself out of the Confederation, and entered upon a separate career. The single State was wisely governed, and made rapid progress in all the elements of prosperity. In especial it copied the New England common-school system. The thirteen States from which it had severed itself strove to repress or to rival its increasing greatness. But their utmost efforts could scarcely avert decay. [Sidenote: 1859 A.D.] They declared war, in the barbarous hope of crushing their too prosperous neighbour. Buenos Ayres was strong enough to inflict defeat upon her assailants. [Sidenote: 1861 A.D.] She now, on her own terms, reëntered the Confederation, of which her chief city became once more the capital.

[Sidenote: 1865 A.D.] The career of the reconstructed Confederation has not been, thus far, a wholly peaceful one. There has been a lengthened war with Paraguay. There was a Gaucho revolt, which it was not hard to suppress. [Sidenote: 1870-72 A.D.] The important province of Entre Rios rose in arms, and was brought back to her duty after two years of war. Still later (1874) a rebellion broke out on the election of a new President. But the energy which formerly inspired revolutionary movements seems to decay, and this latest disorder was trampled out in a campaign of no greater duration than seventy-six days. A milder temper now prevails, especially in the cities of the Confederation. There are still divisions of opinion. One party is eager to promote a consolidated and effectively national life; another would maintain and enhance provincial separations; a third--the party of disorder, whose strength is being sapped by the growing prosperity of the country--seeks to foment revolutionary movements in the hope of advantage, or in sheer restlessness of spirit. But these antagonisms have in large measure lost the envenomed character which they once bore. The only habitual disturbers of the national tranquillity are the Indians, who are suffered to hold possession of almost one-half the Argentine territory, and against whom murderous frontier wars are incessantly waged.

It is, however, obvious that the union of the fourteen provinces rests upon no satisfactory or permanent basis, and that the final adjustment can scarcely be effected otherwise than by the customary method of force. The province of Buenos Ayres, although it contains only one-fourth of the population, contains three-fourths of the wealth,[53] and bears fully nine-tenths of the taxation of the confederate provinces. The other thirteen provinces have absolute control over the government; and the expenditure has largely increased, as it needs must when the persons who enjoy the privilege of expending funds are exempt from the burden of providing them. This arrangement is highly and not unreasonably displeasing to the rich province of Buenos Ayres; and it seems probable that the people of this province will sooner or later force their way out of a Confederation whose burdens and whose advantages are so unequally distributed.

The fourteen provinces of the Argentine Confederation cover an area of 515,700 square miles, and are thus almost equal to six countries as large as Great Britain. The population which occupies this huge territory numbers only two million. Every variety of temperature prevails within their borders. In South Patagonia the cold is nearly as intense as that of Labrador. Southern Buenos Ayres has the climate of England; farther north the delicious climate of the south of France and the north of Italy is enjoyed. Yet farther north comes the fierce heat of the tropics. Westward, on the slopes of the Andes, little rain falls; eastward, toward the sea, the rainfall is excessive.

The Argentine States have promoted immigration so successfully that they have received in some years accessions to their numbers of from sixty to ninety thousand persons--British, Italian, French, German, and Swiss. They have thus the presence of a large European element, which gives energy to every liberal and progressive impulse. The great city of Buenos Ayres is, to the extent of half its population (of 220,000), a city of Europeans. In most of the other cities this European element is present and influential. Far in the interior are many little colonies composed of Europeans, settled on lands bestowed by Government, engaged in sheep or cattle farming, growing rich by the rapid increase of their herds on that fertile soil. Full religious liberty is enjoyed, and all the various shades of Protestantism are represented in the chapels of Buenos Ayres or in the rural colonies of the interior. Two thousand five hundred miles of railway are in operation; direct telegraphic communication with England is enjoyed; the provinces are being drawn more closely together by the construction of roads and bridges; the vast river systems of the Confederation are traversed by multitudes of steamers. The people have entered, seemingly, with earnestness on the task of developing the illimitable resources of the great territory which Providence has committed to their care.

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Our survey of South American history since the era of Independence discloses much that is lamentable. It discloses nothing, however, that is fitted to surprise, and little that is fitted to discourage. We see priest-directed and therefore utterly ignorant people throwing aside the yoke of an abhorred tyranny. We see them assume the function of self-government without a single qualification for the task. We see them become the prey of lawless and turbulent chiefs, of a selfish military and priestly oligarchy. We watch their struggles as they grope in blind fury, but still under the guidance of a healthy instinct, after the freedom of which they have been defrauded. At length we are permitted to mark, with rejoicing, that they begin to emerge from the unprecedented difficulties by which they have been beset. The path by which they must gain the position of orderly and prosperous States is yet long and toilsome. It is now, however, at least possible to believe that they have entered upon it.

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[The disturbed condition of the Western States continues without abatement, and without prospect of settlement. Both Peru and Bolivia are practically at the mercy of Chili. The war is over, but peace is made impossible by the anarchy that prevails in the vanquished States. The President of Peru is a fugitive. The President of Bolivia has absconded. There is no settled government in either country with which the Chilians can safely make terms. What seems most certain is, that the provinces which yield most abundantly that nitrate of soda about the export of which the war originated will be permanently annexed to Chili. Indeed, these districts are now administered by Chilian functionaries.

The Conservative counter-revolution in Mexico, under Diaz, lasted till 1880, when General Gonzalez was elected President. An insurrection in the capital had to be suppressed before his installation could take place.

In Buenos Ayres, nationalism has had a further struggle with provincialism, and another triumph over it. In August 1880 the national troops forcibly entered the Provincial Assembly, and ejected the deputies at the point of the sword. A few days afterwards, General Roca, the new President, entered the capital.--ED.]