Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre Martínez ( 26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906 ) was an Argentine statesman , military figure , and author . He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 . Life and times . Mitre was born in Buenos Aires to a Greek Argentine family originally named Mitropoulos . As a liberal , he was an opponent of Juan Manuel de Rosas , and he was forced into exile . He worked as a soldier and journalist in Uruguay as a supporter of General Fructuoso Rivera , who named Mitre Lieutenant Coronel of the Uruguayan Army in 1846 . Mitre later lived in Bolivia , Peru , and Chile , and in the latter country , he collaborated with legal scholar and fellow Argentine exile Juan Bautista Alberdi in the latter ' s periodical , " El Comercio " of Valparaíso . Mitre returned to Argentina after the defeat of Rosas . at the 1852 Battle of Caseros . He was a leader of the revolt of Buenos Aires against Justo José de Urquiza ' s federal system , and was appointed to important posts in the provincial government after Buenos Aires seceded from the Confederation . The civil war of 1859 resulted in Mitre ' s defeat by Urquiza at the Battle of Cepeda , in 1860 . Issues of customs revenue sharing were settled , and Buenos Aires reentered the Argentine Confederation . Victorious at the 1861 Battle of Pavón , however , Mitre obtained important concessions from the national army , notably the amendment of the Constitution to provide for indirect elections through an electoral college . In October 1862 , Mitre was elected president of the republic , and national political unity was finally achieved ; a period of internal progress and reform then commenced . During the Paraguayan War , Mitre was initially named the head of the allied forces . Mitre was also the founder of " La Nación " , one of South America ' s leading newspapers , in 1870 . His opposition to Autonomist Party nominee Adolfo Alsina , whom he viewed as a veiled Buenos Aires separatist , led Mitre to run for the presidency again , though the seasoned Alsina outmaneuvered him by fielding Nicolás Avellaneda , a moderate lawyer from remote Catamarca Province . The electoral college met on 12 April 1874 , and awarded Mitre only three provinces , including Buenos Aires . Mitre took up arms again . Hoping to prevent Avellaneda ' s 12 October inaugural , he mutineered a gunboat ; he was defeated , however , and only President Avellaneda ' s commutation spared his life . Following the 1890 Revolution of the Park , he broke with the conservative National Autonomist Party PAN ) and co - founded the Civic Union with reformist Leandro Alem . Mitre ' s desire to maintain an understanding with the ruling PAN led to the Civic Union ' s schism in 1891 , upon which Mitre founded the National Civic Union , and Alem , the Radical Civic Union ( the oldest existing party in Argentina ) . He dedicated much of his time in later years to writing . According to some of his critics , as a historian Mitre took several questionable actions , often ignoring key documents and events on purpose in his writings . This caused his student Adolfo Saldías to distance himself from him , and for future revisionist historians such as José María Rosa to question the validity of his work altogether . He also wrote poetry and fiction ( Soledad : novela original ) , and translated Dante ' s " La divina commedia " ( " The Divine Comedy " ) into Spanish . He was also an active freemason . On his passing in 1906 , he was interred in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires . 19 January 2006 marked the centenary of Mitre ' s death . Bibliography . Mitre ranks as an important South - American historiographer . He wrote the best accounts of South America ' s wars of independence and published many works , amongst which are : There is an abridged translation of the " Historia de San Martín " , entitled " The Emancipation of South America " ( London , 1893 ) by W . Pilling . Mitre ' s speeches were collected as " Arengas " ( third edition , three volumes , 1902 ) .