# Civilization and Barbarism/Chapter 9

CHAPTER IX.
CIVIL WAR. TABLADA, A CITY.
"There is a fourth element coming; they are the barbarians, new hordes who come to throw themselves upon the old society with complete freshness of manners, soul and spirit, and who have as yet done nothing, but are ready to receive everything with the aptitude of the most suave and naive ignorance."—Cherminier.
The presidency had fallen amid the hissings and rejoicings of its enemies. Dorrego, the able leader of the opposition in Buenos Ayres, was the friend of the governors of the interior, who were his abettors and supporters in the Provincial Congress in which he was triumphant. Victory was no longer with the Republic in its foreign wars; and, though its arms had met with no disasters in Brazil, the necessity for peace was everywhere felt. The opposition of the provincial leaders had weakened the army by destroying regiments, or refusing to furnish recruits. An apparent tranquillity reigned in the interior, but the earth trembled; strange rumors were afloat. The newspapers of Buenos Ayres were filled with gloomy prophecies. Threats came alike from the government and the opposition. The administration of Dorrego began to show a want of strength, because the party of the city, called Federal, which had established it, had not the power to sustain itself with honor after the fall of the residency. The new administration, far from resolving any of the ​questions which divided the Republic, showed, on the contrary, all the weakness of Federalism. Dorrego was essentially Buenos Ayrean in his sympathies, and had little regard for the fate of the provinces. He had promised the provincial leaders and communities to do all he could to favor the interests of the former and to insure the rights of the latter; but, having once obtained the government, he said to his immediate friends, "What is it to us if the petty tyrants carry things with a high hand? What are the four thousand dollars' salary to Lopez, or the eighteen thousand to Quiroga, to us who control the seaport, and a custom-house that brings us in a million and a half, which that stupid Rivadavia wished to convert into national revenue?" Let us not forget that the motto of egotism is always "Each for himself." Dorrego and his party did not foresee that the provinces would come some day to punish Buenos Ayres for having refused them its civilizing influence; and that, because of the indifference to their ignorance and barbarism, this very ignorance and barbarism would penetrate into the streets of Buenos Ayres and take up its quarters even in the fort.
But Dorrego might have seen it, if he or his party had had better eyes. Here were the provinces at the gates of the city, only waiting an occasion to invade it. From the time of the fall of the presidency the decrees of the civil authorities could not be enforced beyond the suburbs of the city. Dorrego had employed, as an instrument of opposition, this outside resistance; and, when his party triumphed, he bestowed upon his ally beyond the walls the title of commander-in-chief of the provinces. What logic of the ​sword is it that makes the rank of commander-in-chief of the provinces a necessary step in the elevation of a military leader? Where this rank does not exist, as was then the case in Buenos Ayres, it is created expressly; as if, before letting the wolf into the fold, it was necessary to expose him to general observation.
Dorrego afterward found that the provincial commander, who had caused the presidency to totter, and had contributed so powerfully to overthrow it, was a lever perpetually applied to the government; and that when Rivadavia had fallen, and Dorrego was in his place, the lever still continued its action. Dorrego and Rosas were face to face, each watching and threatening the other. Dorrego's friends recall his favorite phrase,—"The gaucho-rogue! Let him be as troublesome as he pleases; and when he is least expecting it, I will shoot him." This was just what the Ocampos said when they first felt Quiroga's heavy arm upon them. Indifferent to the people of the interior, not in high favor with the Federal party of the city, and already in antagonism with the provincial power which he had called to his aid, Dorrego, who had obtained the government through parliamentary opposition, now tried to win the Unitarios, whom he had conquered; but parties have neither charity nor foresight. "The Unitarios laughed in their sleeves, and said among themselves, "He totters, let him fall." The Unitarios did not understand that with Dorrego would fall those who might have interposed between them and the provinces; or that the monster whom they feared was not seeking Dorrego, but the city, the civil institutions, of which they themselves were the exponents. ​Things were in this condition when peace was concluded with Brazil, and the first division of the army, commanded by Lavalle, was disbanded. Dorrego knew well the spirit of these veterans of the War of Independence, who, covered with wounds, and grown gray in the service, had obtained only the rank of colonels, majors, or captains; two or three, perhaps, becoming generals; while in the interior of the Republic, without ever having passed the frontiers, were dozens of leaders, who, in four years, had been raised from the rank of gaucho-outlaws to that of commanders; from commanders to generals, and from generals to absolute masters of provinces. Need we look for any other motive for the implacable hatred of the veterans for these men? What had they to anticipate, now that the new order of things had taken from them the hope of entering the capital of Brazil as conquerors?
"I have the honor of informing the deputy-governor that Colonel Manuel Dorrego has just been shot by my order, in front of the regiments which compose this division. History will judge impartially whether Señor Dorrego should have lived or died; or whether in sacrificing him for the peace of a city, brought to grief by him, I could have had any other motive than that of the public good. Let the people of Buenos Ayres be persuaded that the death of Colonel Dorrego is the greatest sacrifice that I could make for them.
"I salute, Señor, the minister with all due consideration.
"JUAN LAVALLE."
Was Lavalle wrong? It is needless to add another affirmative in support of those who, after seeing the consequences, assumed the easy task of criticizing his motives. If an evil exists, it is in things not in persons. When Cæsar was assassinated, he re-lived more terrible than ever in Octavius. Lavalle did not then know hat in killing the body he could not kill the spirit; and that political personages take their character and existence from the ideas, interests, and ends of the party they represent. If Lavalle had shot Rosas instead of Dorrego, perhaps he would have saved the world from a great scandal, humanity from a great opprobrium, and the Republic from much blood and many tears; but, even if Rosas had been shot, the provinces would still have had representatives; and there would have been only the change of one historical picture for another. But what people pretend to ignore to-day, is, that—notwithstanding the purely personal responsibility of the deed, as far as Lavalle is concerned—the death of Dorrego was a necessary consequence of the prevailing ideas of the time; and that by this act the soldier who was brave enough to defy history, only accomplished ​the avowed wish of the citizens. What had interfered with the proclamation of the Constitution of 1826 but the hostility of Ibarra, Lopez, Bustos, Quiroga, Ortiz, and the Aldaos, each of whom ruled a province, and some of whom influenced the others? Now, what would appear so reasonable at that time, and to those men who reasoned a priori, as to get rid of what they considered the only obstacle to the desired organization the Republic?
These political errors which belonged to the time rather than to the men, are yet worthy of consideration, for upon them depend the explanation of many social phenomena. Lavalle in shooting Dorrego, just as he would have shot Bustos, Lopez, Facundo, and others of that class, only fulfilled the requirements of his time and party. Even in 1834 there were still men in France who believed that if they could get rid of Louis Philippe, the French Republic would revive in all the greatness and glory of the past! Perhaps also the death of Dorrego was one of those fated events which form the nucleus of history, without which it would be incomplete and unmeaning. Civil war had been long threatening the Republic. Rivadavia had foreseen it with all its horrors; Facundo had unconsciously kept his hordes on the slopes of the Andes in waiting for this event; and Rosas' private life had been a ten years' preparation towards the same end. Dorrego was in the way of all parties: of the Unitarios, for they despised him; of the provincial leaders, for he had proved useless to them; and in that of Rosas, because he was impatient of keeping under the shadow of the city parties, and eager to obtain the government, ​or in other words, to become what he was not, and could never be, that is, a Federal, in the strict sense of the term. He represented the third social element, which from Artigas to Facundo had been eager to show itself without disguise, and to measure its strength with that of European civilization. If Dorrego had not died, it does not follow that the craving thirst of Facundo would have been quieted, or that Rosas would have failed to represent the provinces in the struggle which had begun long before 1820. No, Lavalle only lighted the match which was to fire the mine long ago prepared by both Unitarios and Federals.
From this moment there was nothing for the timid but to stop their ears and shut their eyes. All others everywhere rushed to arms; the tread of horsemen was heard over the pampas, and the cannon's black mouth was seen at the gates of the cities.
We must now leave Buenos Ayres to see what is passing in the other provinces. It must be mentioned, by the way, that Lopez, having been beaten in several encounters, sued in vain for reasonable terms of peace; and that Rosas had serious thoughts of going over to the side of Brazil. Lavalle refused to share in any of the transactions, and was soon put down; here was the true Unitario disdain of the gaucho, and faith in the final triumph of the "city." If Lavalle had adopted another line of conduct and kept the seaport in the hands of the citizens, might not the cruel Pampas Government have been prevented?
Facundo was in his element. A campaign was about to begin; expresses rushed to and fro; the feudal system of independence was to become a confederation of war. ​Everything was put in requisition for the coming campaign, and it was found unnecessary to go to the banks of the La Plata for a good battle-field. General Paz, with eight hundred veterans, had gone to Cordova, fought and conquered Bustos, and taken possession of the city, which was but a step from the Llanos, and within reach of the cries from the "montoneras" of the Sierra Cordova.
Facundo hastened his preparations; he longed for a personal encounter with a one-armed general who could not manage a lance or flourish a sword. What could Paz hope for in an encounter with the conqueror of Colonel Madrid? Facundo was to be joined by Don Felix Aldao, a friar general from Mendoza, with a regiment of trained auxiliaries equipped entirely in red; and without waiting for a force of seven hundred regulars from San Juan, he set out for Cordova with four thousand men, eager to measure arms with the cuirassiers of the second division and their officers.
The battle of Tablada is so well known that details are unnecessary. It has been brilliantly described in the "Revue des deux Mondes;" but there is one fact worth remembering. Facundo attacked the city with all his army, and was repulsed for a day and night by one hundred young clerks, thirty mechanics, and seven sick soldiers, from behind slight breastworks defended by only four pieces of artillery. And it was only when he announced his intention of burning the beautiful city, that they consented to surrender the place. Knowing that Paz was approaching, he left his infantry as useless, and went out to meet him with a cavalry force at least three times as large as the army of his ​opponent; then came hard fighting, and the cavalry charged again and again, but in vain. That mass of horsemen, though surrounding the eight hundred veterans, were driven back every moment, and compelled to return to the charge. The lance of Quiroga forcing back his own retreating men, caused as much terror in the rear of his army as the guns and swords of the enemy in front. But all was in vain; it was like the raging billows of the sea beating against a rough, motionless rock; sometimes, indeed, it is engulfed by the angry waves, but its black summit presently reappears firm and unshaken. Of the eight hundred auxiliaries only sixty survived, and of the six hundred red cavalry, not a third were living; the numerous other companies lost all discipline, and fled in every direction. Facundo retreated to the city, and the next day lay with his guns and infantry like a tiger in ambush: but all was soon over, and fifteen hundred dead bodies proved how obstinate the contest had been on both sides.
The battles of Tablada and Cordova were trials of strength between the provincial and city forces under their great leaders, Facundo and Paz, worthy representatives of the two powers which were struggling for dominion in the Republic. Facundo, ignorant, barbarous, for the greater part of his life an outlaw, and famous only for his acts of desperation; brave to rashness, endowed with herculean strength, always upon his horse, which he managed skillfully through terror and violence, knowing no other power than that of brute force, had no faith but in his horse, and dependent for success upon bravery, the lance, and the terrible charges of his cavalry. In all the Argentine Republic ​there was not a more perfect specimen of the "gaucho malo."
Paz, on the contrary, was a true son of the city, and representative of the power of civilization. Lavalle, Madrid, and others like them, were native Argentines; cavalry officers, as brilliant as Murat, perhaps, but the cuirass and epaulets could not hide the gaucho nature. But Paz was a European soldier, and only believed in bravery as subordinate to tactics, strategy, and discipline. He hardly knew how to ride, and having only one hand, could not use a lance. A very large army was unwieldy and troublesome to him; what he liked, was a small number of soldiers thoroughly disciplined. A regiment of his training was sure to be perfect of its kind, and could he have selected his own battle-fields, the fate of the Republic would have been secure. He was in spirit a European soldier, even to the arms he used; he was an artillery officer, and therefore mathematical and scientific. A battle was a problem which he could solve by equations, and foretell the unknown quantity that is, the victory. General Paz was not a genius, but an able officer, who employed science where others made use of brute force; in a word, he was the representative of European civilization, which was in a fair way to die out in our country.
Unfortunate General Paz! Honor be to thee in thy repeated disasters! With thee are the household gods of the Republic! Destiny has not yet decided between thee and Rosas, between the cities and the pampas, between the blue stripe and the red ribbon! Thou hast the only quality of mind that in the end conquers brute force,—the quality in which lay the power of the old ​martyrs! Thou hast faith. Faith has saved thee, and in thee is the only hope of the Republic.
There is certainly a destiny about this man. He alone, in the ill-advised revolution of the first of December, was able to justify it by victory. Taken at last from the head of his army by the irresistible power of the gaucho, he was kept ten years in prison, Rosas, even, not daring to kill him, as if a guardian angel watched over his life. He escaped almost miraculously one stormy night, and through the rough waters of the La Plata, reached the eastern bank. Repulsed at one place, and disappointed at another, he at last obtained command of the few remaining forces of a province which had seen three armies successively destroyed. From such remnants he again gathered with much care and patience means of resistance, and when the armies of Rosas had triumphed everywhere, and carried terror throughout the Republic, the one-armed general called aloud from the marshes of Caguazú, "The Republic still lives!" Afterwards, despoiled of his laurels by those he had served, and ignominiously taken from the head of his army, he sought refuge among his enemies in Entre Rios, where the very elements seemed to protect him, and even the gauchos of the forest Montiel did not have it in their hearts to kill the one-armed man who harmed no one. At last he reached Montevideo, and learned that Ribera had been defeated, probably because he was not there to take the enemy in his own snares. The whole city was in consternation, and hurried to the poor lodging of the fugitive to beg for advice and comfort. "If I can only have twenty days, they will not take ​the city," was the only answer, given, not with enthusiasm, but with mathematical certainty. Oribe gave Paz all he asked for, and three years have passed since that day of terror at Montevideo. When he had secured the place well, and accustomed the garrison to fight daily as a matter of course, he went to Brazil and remained longer than was agreeable to his friends, and when Rosas was hoping to hear of him in the hands of the imperial police, he learned that he was at Corrientes training six thousand men; that he had formed an alliance with Paraguay, and also that Brazil had invited France and England to take part in the contest; so that the question between the provinces and the cities had now become a struggle between the one-armed, scientific Paz and the gaucho barbarian Rosas; between the Pampas on one side and Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, England, and France on the other.
It was especially to the honor of General Paz that even the enemies he had fought with neither hated nor feared him personally. The "Gaceta" of Rosas, so prodigal of its calumniations, never succeeded in abusing him thoroughly, a proof that he inspired his very detractors with respect. Many of the followers of Rosas in their hearts admired Paz, and the old Federals never forgot that he had always protected them from the fury of the old Unitarios. Who knows if Providence, which holds in its hand the fate of nations, has not preserved this man through many dangers to aid in the reconstruction of the Republic under laws which permit liberty without license, and do not need to be enforced by violence. Paz is a provincial by birth, a guarantee ​that he would never sacrifice the provinces to Buenos Ayres and the port, as Rosas has done to obtain millions while he impoverishes the people of the interior; just what the Federals had accused the Congress of 1826 of wishing to do.
The conquest of Tablada was the beginning of a new era for the city of Cordova, which, until then, according to the message of General Paz to the provincial representatives, "had occupied the lowest place among the Argentine cities, constantly opposing effort towards the construction of a constitution for the nation, or for its own province, either under the rule of Federals or Unitarios."
However, Cordova, like all the Argentine cities, contained its liberal element, but kept under until then by an absolute and conservative government like that of Bustos. From the moment that Paz entered the city, this element appeared openly, and showed how much it had strengthened during nine years of that Spanish government.
I have before described Cordova as antagonistic in spirit to Buenos Ayres; there is one circumstance in favor of its future development. The inhabitants have the greatest possible respect for learning, an effect produced by the university of two centuries standing. The love of learning presupposes a certain degree of civilization, so that notwithstanding the conservative nature and direction of the studies, there must be in Cordova a large number in favor of progressive culture and intelligence. This respect for learning, extends even to the lower classes of society, and this explains why the masses embraced the revolution with ​an ardor which ten years have not abated, and which has furnished many victims for the vengeance of the Mazorqueros.
Paz brought with him an interpreter who should explain his ideas and objects to the common people—Barcala, the negro colonel, who had so gloriously distinguished himself in Brazil, and was on an equality with the chief officers of the army: Barcala the freed-man, who had devoted himself to the task of interesting the working classes in a revolution which regarded neither color nor class in rewarding true merit. This Barcala was, as far as possible, to make the change of ideas and aims popular among the citizens; and he succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. The middle classes of Cordova were from that time in favor of civil order and progressive civilization.
The young men of Cordova were distinguished in the war for their disinterested devotion to the cause; many fell on the field of battle, or under the knife of the assassin, and still more were condemned to the pains of exile. In the battles of San Juan, the bodies of Cordovian "doctors" lay piled in the streets, obstructing the artillery that they were carrying against the enemy.
On the other hand, the clergy, who had encouraged the opposition to Congress and the constitution, had had time to measure the abyss to which civilization would be brought by such defenders of the faith as Facundo, Lopez, etc., and did not hesitate to declare in favor of General Paz.
Thus the "doctors" and young men, the clergy as well as the masses, were now of one opinion, and ready ​to uphold the principles implied in the new order of things; and Paz could at once begin to reorganize the province and to establish friendly relations with others. A treaty was confirmed with Lopez of Santa Fé, who was induced, by Don Domingo de Oro to join Paz. Salta and Tucuman had already submitted, and only the western provinces remained hostile.
* ↑ Domingo de Oro was a noble patriot, who opposed Rosas at the cost of everything that makes life dear.
* ↑ General Paz, late Vice-President of the Argentine Republic, died of cholera within this year.