No one has yet attempted a complete whitewashing of Rozas; though, in
every political crisis in which the Government has shown any apparent
weakness, old men have sighed for his reincarnation. Artígas, on the
other hand, whose memory not so long ago rivalled those of the most
traditionally cruel old-world potentates, is now become the Saviour and
National hero of Uruguay. The apostle of the democratic principle.
Truth about his personality probably lies somewhere between these two
views, but there is no doubt but that he and Rozas were men needed for
and suited to their times. Fearless and far-sighted, they made order
out of chaos, and individually cruel as may have been many of their
acts, it was their iron rule which laid the foundations of the admirable
constitutions of what are now the separate Republics of Argentina and
Uruguay. Rozas really founded the Argentine Republic as much as Artígas
did the “Banda Oriental,” part of which is now Uruguay. But the period
of strife which succeeded the Declaration of the Independence of the
whole of the River Plate Territories had lasted just over half a century
when General Mitre was chosen as the first President of a United Federal
Argentina.
He was succeeded by Sarmiento, who did much to develop agriculture and
was the great pioneer of education. Sarmiento had been a political
exile in Europe, where he learned much; and, being a man of exceptional
intellect, stored up his acquired knowledge and enlightenment for his
country’s subsequent great good.
Since the first Presidency of General Mitre there has only been one
political revolution which affected the whole of Argentina, the one which
in 1890 ousted President Juarez Celman and was immediately succeeded by
the financial crisis with which the name of Baring is chiefly associated
in the European mind.
Both that revolution and the crisis were the natural outcome of a disease
which would have completely ruined any country less rich in natural
resources than Argentina. That disease was complete political and
financial corruption; which then came to a head and necessitated drastic
operation. Since then the Argentine nation has advanced in political and
financial health with extraordinary and unparalleled rapidity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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