LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC IN THE DAYS OF THE TYRANTS OE, CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM. FBOM THE SPANISH OF DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO, LL. D., MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY PROM THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED STATES. WITH A BIOGKAPHICAL SKETCH OP THE AUTHOK, BY MRS. HORACE MANN. First American from the third Spanish Edition. HAFNER PUBLISHING CO. NEW YORK First published in 1868 Published by HAFNEH PUBLISHING Co., INC. 31 East 10th Street New York 3, N. Y. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-11057 Printed in the U. S. A. Noble Offset Printers, Inc. New York 3, N. Y. S tzm Phd quot PREFACE. tAMSAS GUY QKD3 rUbliU UDKAOT SINCE the translation of this work by Colonel Sar miento was begun, the tide of events has carried its author to the proudest position before his country which any man since San Martin, the hero of its independence and of the independence of some of its sister Republics, has ever occupied. It is true that cir cumstances of even a trivial nature, and still more fre quently of a corrupt nature, often bring a man to the chieftainship of his country, whether the office is elec tive or otherwise but in this instance such circum stances have been singularly wanting. Colonel Sarmi ento, after an absence of seven years from his coun try, without any political party, without any pledges of policy given or required, without any of the machinery that is generally used to set in motion such important measures, has by an almost unanimous movement been made the candidate par excellence for the Presidency of the Argentine Republic, and the returns are already IV PREFACE. known from the province of Buenos Ayres, which contains one third of the population of the whole Republic, andis by far the wealthiest, most cultivated, and most influential part of it. In this province his election has been complete and unanimous, and the voice of many other provinces has long been heard through their daily organs, so that doubtless before these pages see the light, the favorable result will be confirmed. Colonel Sarmiento has resisted all the entreaties of his friends to return to his country to aid the interests of his election. He has chosen to wait until elected by the unbiassed will of his countrymen, and for wise as well as self-respecting reasons, All who have followed the golden thread of his life through the chaotic changes that have harassed the life of the Republic, so determined to be free and progressive, in spite of all the temporary reactions of the barbaric element which has its seat in the peculiar composition of its society, feel with him that it is only by apprecia tion of his motives, sympathy with his aims, and confi dence in his ability to save them from the present threatened anarchy, that he can have any assurance of doing good from the high position now assigned him. He has never flattered his countrymen he has always recognized the barbarian tendencies which have so often overpowered the equally persistent but vitally permanent influences of civilization, and he has been PREFACE V equally assiduous in his endeavors to arouse them from the apathy inherent, as it were, in a Spanish and at the same - time priest-ridden community but even Cordova, the quot city of priests, quot anchored in conserva tism by the very character of its extraordinary univer sity culture, looks to him now as the only salvation for the nation. Although a man of decided militaryability, as has been proved at various times when patriotism has called him into the field, Colonel Sarmiento is eminently a man of peace, and during a long exile of twenty years, as well as in his subsequent brilliant career as Chief of the Department of Schools, Senator, Minister of State, and Governor of his native province, in his diplomatic missions to Chili, Peru, and the United States, has had but one watchword quot The Education of the People…