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Julio Roca and Carlos Pellegrini: An Expedient Partnership*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
During the second half of the nineteenth century Argentina was transformed from a sparsely populated, backward, and disunited community of provinces into a nation along European lines. The demands for economic development, a larger and better educated population, and the centralization of the state on a constitutional and legal basis were the greatest problems its leaders would have to face. Chief among constitutional hurdles was the hostility between the forces demanding autonomy for the province of Buenos Aires led by Adolfo Alsina (Partido Autonomista) and those representing national unity (Partido Nacionalista) following Bartolomé Mitre, the first president of a united Argentina (1862-68).
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1976
Footnotes
*
The author wishes to acknowledge the indispensable aid of David P. Jensen, Librarian of Greensboro College.
References
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24 Decree printed in Pellegrini Obras, V, pp. 339–340. Details in La Prensa, April 3, 1892.
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36 The first debate, along with all pertinent documents and background, can be found in Senadores, 1895; July 6. See also ibid., December 3 and 5; Senadores, 1896; June 23 and November 12, 14,17 and 26.
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38 Printed in Pellegrini Obras, III, pp. 277–310.
39 Law No. 3871. As a result of the success of the measure Roca was given a medal by the financial community engraved with a bust of the General. He received it on January 4, 1900 and sent it the same day to Pellegrini with the following note. “Mi querido Pellegrini: Esos signos corresponden a los que ganan las batallas en el campo real de la acción. Guarde, pues, esa medalla con mi busto como testimonio de su brillante triunfo parlamentario con motivo de la ley sobre la moneda y como recuerdo de su amigo y compañero.” Printed in Pellegrini Obras, II, p. 545.
40 For an evaluation of Pellegrini’s prestige at about this time penned by a British diplomat see Whitaker, Arthur P., The United States and Argentina (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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43 Senadores, 1901; June 18. Disputados, 1901; July 8.