AK'iKNTlNE REPUBLIC. 



17 



Saenz Pefla entered office, and a dissolution was 

 narrowly averted in Deceinlirr, IHlKi. Meantime 

 an insurrection against the provincial govern- 

 ment lu-oke out in the province of Corrientes, 

 ami the 1 'resident dispatched Sefior Avellaneda 

 special envoy to restore pr.-irc. Marly in 

 January, 1893, a difference arose in the Cabinet 

 respecting this action and the general policy of 

 lh. (iovernment in intervening without the ex- 

 piv^s authority of Congress in the internal 

 affairs of the provinces. On Jan. 9 it was an- 

 nounced that the insurgents had taken the city 

 of Caseros and made an attack, 5,000 strong, 

 upon the army of the Governor of Cerrientes at 

 Santa Lucia, and the Government on the follow- 

 ing day dispatched 2 gunboats with troops and 

 artillery to be placed at the service of the spe- 

 cial envoy. Thus supported, Sefior Avellaneda 

 stopped the fighting at Santa Lucia, took com- 

 mand of the provincial forces, and succeeded in 

 a short time in effecting disarmament on both 

 sides. This disarmament, however, did not re- 

 store quiet in the province. Personal encoun- 

 ters, robbery, sacking, and other acts of violence 

 were of daily occurrence. At this time Dr. 

 Alera, the chief of the Radical leaders, who had 

 been seized and imprisoned pending the presi- 

 dential election, publicly announced that the 

 sympathy of the Radical party was with the 

 revolution, and a numerously signed pronuncia- 

 miento was issued from Corrientes, urging the 

 citizens of Buenos Ayres to join in the insurrec- 

 tion. On Jan. 22 a mass meeting of 5,000 citi- 

 zens of Buenos Ayres passed resolutions con- 

 demning the intervention of the President and 

 Cabinet in Corrientes. On Feb. 8 Dr. Wenceslao 

 Escalante, President of the National Mortgage 

 Bank, decided to accept the Ministry of the 

 Interior, which had been made vacant several 

 weeks before by the resignation of Dr. Quintana. 

 Dr. Escalante coupled his acceptance with the 

 condition that the Federal forces should be 

 withdrawn from Corrientes, leaving affairs there 

 to be dealt with by the provincial authority. 

 Early in February several thousand colonists of 

 the province of Santa Fe took up arms in pro- 

 test against the imposition of a new wheat tax, 

 and the governor sent troops and artillery to 

 quell the movement. Upon rumors that a revo- 

 lution was about to begin in Buenos Ayres, 

 President Saenz Pefia called out the military 

 and held them in readiness to suppress the 

 threatened outbreak, and on Feb. 3 a decree was 

 signed, mobilizing the National Guard and form- 

 ing fresh lists. On March 23 Dr. de la Torre 

 resigned the Ministry of Justice, and Dr. Aman- 

 cio Alcorta accepted the portfolio. Early in 

 April a revolt in the province of Cataniarca 

 began to assume serious proportions, the insur- 

 gents having captured the railroads. On April 

 30 Dr. Anchorena resigned the Ministry of For- 

 eign Affairs because of the approval by his col- 

 leagues of the alteration of the boundary pro- 

 tocol with Chili. On the opening of Congress, 

 May 13, the President transmitted his annual 

 message to that body. It was fairly cheerful in 

 its allusions to internal affairs, and. represented 

 the financial condition of the country as improv- 

 ing. But ministerial crises began almost imme- 

 diately, and on June 7 the entire Cabinet re- 

 signed, the President having sent communica- 

 VOL. XXXIH. 2 A 



tions to the different ministers intimating that 

 he desired their retirement, as he had decided 

 upon a change of policy. 



New Ministries. On June 8 a new Cabinet 

 was formed as follows: Minister of the Interior, 

 Dr. Wenceslao Escalante; Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, Miguel Cane; Minister of Finance, Dr. 

 Avellaneda; Minister of Justice, Public Instruc- 

 tion, and Worship, Dr. Amancio Alcorta; Min- 

 ister of War, Gen. Viejobueno. Escalante and 

 Alcorta retained the portfolios held by them in 

 the old Cabinet. Dr. Avallaneda had acted as 

 special envoy in Corrientes. It was a fusion 

 Cabinet, by which the President hoped to gain 

 the confidence of all parties. It failed, however, 

 to accomplish this object. Gen. Rpca and Gen. 

 Mitre both publicly expressed their dissatisfac- 

 tion, while the Radicals were not in the least 

 placated. The new ministry enjoyed but a brief 

 existence. Within a week Dr. Escalante re- 

 signed the Ministry of the Interior, owing to 

 the opposition raised by his reply in Congress 

 to an interpellation regarding the insurrection 

 in Catamarca, and his action precipitated a 

 crisis which led to the breaking up of the 

 Cabinet on June 26. A new Cabinet was 

 formed at once, but finding it impossible to 

 carry on the Government of the country, the 

 members offered their resignations to the Presi- 

 dent, July 1. The President summoned Gens. 

 Roca and Mitre and Dr. Pellegrini, his im- 

 mediate predecessor in the presidential office, to 

 advise regarding the situation. No agreement 

 was reached, as the councilors could not agree, 

 and the crisis continued until July 3, when the 

 whole ministry sent in its resignation. Then 

 the President, finding it impossible to form a 

 Cabinet of members belonging to the moderate 

 parties, as a last resort offered the Government 

 to the Radicals. This offer the Radicals prompt- 

 ly declined, and Aristobulo del Valle, one of the 

 Radical leaders in the Union Civica, when it 

 overthrew the Celman Government in 1890, was 

 intrusted with the formation of a new Cabinet. 

 On July 6 the result was announced as follows : 

 Minister of the Interior, Lucio Lopez ; Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, Valantin Virasoro ; Minister 

 of Finance, Marano Demand ; Minister of Jus- 

 tice, Public Instruction, and Worship, Enrique 

 Quintana ; Minister of War, Aristobulo del Valle. 

 It was essentially a Radical Cabinet. The Na- 

 tionalists, however, had a majority in Congress, 

 and most of the provincial governments were 

 controlled by them. The time had come for the 

 long-contemplated Radical revolution to begin 

 in earnest. On July 20 serious fighting occurred 

 in the province of San Luis, the insurgents at- 

 tacking the city of San Luis, and capturing the 

 governor and ministry. On the following morn- 

 ing a similar movement was begun in the prov- 

 ince of Buenos Ayres, where fighting began 

 simultaneously in 20 different towns, and in 

 the province of Santa Fe, where severe fight- 

 ing occurred in the city of Rosario, and rail- 

 road tracks were torn up and telegraph lines 

 cut. On the same day a meeting of Radicals 

 was held in the city of Buenos Ayres, and Dr. 

 Alem issued a manifesto declaring that the time 

 had come to reconquer the rights and liberties 

 of the people. The Federal Government re- 

 quested Congress to declare a state of siege in 



