Our military force, at every point which it occupies, seems to be animated with the same spirit: its tactics are uniform, and have undergone a rapid improvement from the science and experience which it has borrowed from warlike nations. Our arsenals have been replenished with arms, and a sufficient store of cannon and munitions of war have been provided to maintain the contest for many years; and this, after having supplied articles of every description to those districts which have not as yet come into the union, but whose connexion with us has been only intercepted by reason of our past misfortunes! Our legions daily receive considerable augmentations from new levies; all our preparations have been made, as though we were about to enter upon the contest anew. Until now the vastness of our resources were unknown to us, and our enemies may contemplate, with deep mortification and despair the present flourishing state of these Provinces after so many devastations. The office of major general has been re-established, for the purpose of giving a uniform direction to our armies, in order to foster the militia in all its details, and to regulate the system of military economy. The general officers, and those of a lower rank, occupied in those duties, will lighten the labors of the government, at the same time rendering more practical the progress and improvement of which the military force is susceptible; thus forming by degrees a body of expert soldiery, who will, at once be an honor to their country, and serve as its firmest pillar in times of danger. Whilst thus occupied in providing for our safety within, and preparing for assaults from without, other objects of solid interest have not been neglected, and which hitherto were thought to oppose insurmountable obstacles. Our system of finances had hitherto been on a footing entirely inadequate to the unfailing supply of our wants, and still more to the liquidation of the immense debt which had been contracted in former years. An unremitted application to this object has enabled me to create the means of satisfying the creditors of the state, who had already abandoned their debt as lost, as well as to devise a fixed mode by which the taxes may be made to fall equally and indirectly, on the whole mass of our population; it is not the least merit of this operation, that it has been effected in de spite of the censures with which it was assailed, and which are but little creditable to the intelligence and good intentions of their authors. The result has been, that there now circulates in the hands of the capitalists a sum, equivalent in its value to one million of dollars, which was deficient before the adoption of the measures by which it was produced. To the same measures are we indebted for the receipt of two hundred and sixty-eight, thousand dollars, in the treasury of the custom house, in the short time which has elapsed since my decree of the 29th of March. At no other period have the public exigencies been so punctually supplied, nor have more important works been undertaken. The people, moreover, have been relieved from many burdens, which being partial, or confined to particular classes, had occasioned vexation and disgust. Other vexations, scarcely less grevous, will, by degrees, be also suppressed, avoiding as far as possible a recurrence to loans, which have drawn after them the most fatal consequences to states. Should we, however, be compelled to resort to such expedients, the lenders will not see themselves in danger of losing their advances. To shew these practical results is to make the best reply to censure; if it be the intention to do justice to the zeal and intelligence of public officers, the inconveniences and difficulties must be weighed with the good that has been effected. It is an idle vanity to seek perfection in the labors of man. One of the mischiefs attendant on the administration of the national treasury, was the existence of many superfluous offices; with respect to this, the proper reformations have been made, especially in relation to the armories and public works. The attention of the government is continually alive in this branch of its duties, and it is not without hopes of being able to see abundance restored, even in the midst of the unceasing attention required by war, and of the many undertakings that have been set on foot for the advancement of the general prosperity. Such has been the extension of our southern frontier, over plains and deserts well adapted to the formation of wealthy settlements; a project whose accomplishment was not in the reach of former governments, in spite of repeated attempts to subdue obstacles which the present administration has had the good fortune to surmount. The unfortunate inhabitants of our plains have not only been gratuituously supplied with suitable lands, on which to fix their habitations, but have been furnished with the means of cultivating them to advantage. Such has been the re-establishment of the college heretofore named San Carlos, but hereafter to be called THE UNION OF THE SOUTH, as a point designated for the dissemination of learning to the youth of every part of the state, on the most extensive scale; for the attainment of which object the government is at the present moment engaged in putting in practice every possible deligence. It will not be long before these nurseries will flourish; in which the liberal and exact sciences will be cultivated, in which the hearts of young men will be formed, who are destined at some future day to add new splendor to our country. Such has been the establishment of a military depot on our frontier, with its capacious magazine, a necessary measure to guard us from future dangers, a work which does more honor to the prudent foresight of our country, as it was undertaken in the moment of its prosperous fortunes; a measure which must give more occasion for reflection to our enemies, than they can impose upon us by their boastings. This exposition is not made with a view to enhance the value of these services which our country has a right to demand as a debt, but to offer an irrefragable proof to the people, that prudence and circumspection are the virtues which are required to secure the fruits of their heroic efforts. For the rest, reflecting minds, calculating the labors of the government, by the immense disparity between the present state of our affairs, and what it was fifteen months ago, will do justice to the zeal which has effected changes so important. They will no less give credit for many other acts, of a nature to manifest themselves less fully to the public I have already mentioned the difficulties which embarrassed me, in respect to our exterior relations, and, if I had opposed less firmness in resisting the violence of party, a breach with a neighboring nation would have been the inevitable consequence. The course pursued by me, in this particular, leaves unimpaired our right to the invaded territory, convinced that pacific measures, so long as the honor of the country requires no other, will be productive of more salutary effects, than a resort to violence, without necessity. A period there has been, you will remember, fellow-citizens, in which the provinces were threatened with the sight of the nascent order and tranquillity subverted, under pretexts of the most injurious suspicious against the constituted authorities. It was that period which occasioned more trouble to my mind, than any other during my administration. I will cheerfully renounce my claims to the public gratitude, for the sleepless nights spent in watching over its safety, if it will appreciate the sacrifice I have made, the pain it has given to my heart, to have been compelled to adopt the rude and violent measures, which at that crisis saved the state from ruin. But the necessity and justice of my proceedings, and • the happy consequences which have attended them, leave me no room to repent. Under the same circumstances my conduct shall be the same. I will extinguish all the natural feelings of my heart, sooner than consent to the repetition of scenes, which weaken our power, and sink our national glory to the lowest degradation. Fellow-citizens, we owe our unhappy reverses and calamities to the depraving system of our ancient metropolis, which, in condemning us to the obscurity and opprobium of the most degraded destiny, has sown with thorns the path that conducts us to liberty. Tell that metropolis that even she may glory in your works! Already have you cleared all the rocks, escaped every danger, and conducted these provinces to the flourishing condition in which we now behold them. Let the enemies of your name contemplate with despair the energies of your virtues, and let the nations acknowledge that you already appertain to their illustrious rank. Let us felicitate ourselves on the blessing we have already obtained, and let us show to the world that we have learned to profit by the experience of our past misfortunes. JUAN MARTIN DU PUEYRREDON |