THE ARGENTINE NATION

On May 25, 1810, the first revolutionary junta was organized in the city of Buenos Aires. The Spanish viceroy, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, was deprived of power and the revolutionary forces soon gained complete control of the country; independence of Spain was formally declared on July 9, 1816, but Spanish control had practically ceased in 1810 and war with the Spanish forces terminated in 1814.

From the date when the Argentine territory separated from Spain until 1860, the struggle between federalists and unitarians was the principal feature of Argentine political life. In 1815 a provisional statute or constitution was issued in which strong federalist tendencies predominated; this was superseded in 1817 by another provisional constitution which was more favorable to a unitary government; in 1819 still another constitution was issued, which pleased neither party. From 1820 to 1825 there was no central government; each province conducted its affairs independently, but only in Buenos Aires was there a stable government. In 1825 a constitutional convention agreed upon the principle that the provinces should remain united but should be governed by their own laws until a new constitution should be adopted. This convention in 1826 adopted a constitution which was rejected by the provinces, and their union was declared to be at an end.

From 1829 to 1851 the country was practically under the dictatorship of Rosas, the leader of the federalists; the federal form of government was preserved upon the principle announced in 1825, but the rights of the provinces were not always respected.

Numerous insurrections against Rosas were suppressed, but finally the unitary forces succeeded in winning over Rosas' leading general; Rosas was defeated and forced to leave Argentine territory in 1852. Urquiza, who had defeated Rosas and who for a while succeeded to his power, was in reality a federalist, and the province of Buenos Aires, the center of unitary strength, soon rebelled from his authority. Attempts to subdue this

province failed. On May 1, 1853, the other provinces, thirteen in number, adopted a federal constitution. The effort to bring Buenos Aires into this federal union was not given up. In 1859 war broke out between Buenos Aires and the Confederation; Buenos Aires was defeated and by treaty of November 11, 1859, became a federal province. In 1860 a constitutional convention met at Santa Fé, and an amended constitution of the Argentine Nation was adopted on September 25, 1860. This constitution, which has received two slight amendments, is still in force.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

CARRANZA, ARTURO B. Digesto constitucional Argentino. (3d ed. Buenos Aires, 1905.) An excellent collection of the federal and provincial constitutions now in force.

VEDIA, AUGUSTÍN DE. Constitución Argentina. (Buenos Aires, 1907.) The latest and perhaps now the best treatise; important for its use of decisions of the United States Supreme Court.

González, JOAQUÍN V. Manual de la constitución Argentina. (Buenos Aires, 1897.) One of the most important books.

ALBERDI, JUAN BAUTISTA. Organizacion de la Confederación Argentina. (Nueva ed. Besanzon, 1858. 2 vols.)

SARMIENTO, D. F. Comentarios de la constitución de la confederación Arjentina. (Santiago de Chile, 1853.) A commentary written by one of the framers of the constitution. Sarmiento bases his work largely upon Story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. Alberdi, however, denies the applicability of precedents drawn from the United States, and asserts that the Argentine constitution was not copied from that of the United States.

SALDIAS, ADOLFO. Ensayo sobre la historia de la constitución Argentina. (Buenos Aires, 1878.) An excellent sketch of Argentine constitutional history.

CONSTITUTION OF THE ARGENTINE NATION 1 (September 25, 1860)

We, the representatives of the people of the Argentine Nation, assembled in general constitutional convention by the 1 1In the preparation of this translation assistance was received from the translation issued by Miss Elizabeth Wallace (Chicago, 1894), and from that published in Rodriguez, American Constitutions, Vol. I (Washington, 1906).

will and election of the provinces of which it is composed, in pursuance of previous agreements, for the purpose of constituting the National Union, of establishing justice, of insuring domestic peace, of providing for the common defense, of promoting the general welfare, and of securing the benefits of liberty to ourselves, our posterity, and to all persons who may desire to inhabit the Argentine soil, invoking the protection of God, the source of all reason and justice, do hereby ordain, decree, and establish this constitution for the Argentine Nation.

PART FIRST

CHAPTER I. DECLARATIONS, RIGHTS, AND GUARANTIES

ARTICLE I. The Argentine Nation adopts for its government the federal republican representative form, as established by this constitution.

ART. 2. The federal government supports the Roman Catholic apostolic religion.

ART. 3. The authorities exercising the functions of the federal government shall reside in the city which shall be declared by special act of Congress to be the capital of the republic, a previous cession of the territory which shall become federal being made by one or more of the provincial legislatures.2

ART. 4. The federal government shall defray the expenses of the nation with the funds of the national treasury, consisting of receipts from import and export duties; proceeds of the sale or lease of national lands; revenues of the postal service; taxes levied by the general Congress equitably and in proportion to the population; and moneys obtained

A law promulgated September 21, 1880, established the national capital in the city of Buenos Aires, ceded by the legislature of the state of the

same name.

3 This article and clause 1 of Art. 67 as originally worded forbade the levying of export taxes after 1866. This limitation was striken out by amendments of September 12, 1866.

through loans and financial operations decreed by said Congress for national urgencies, or for works of national utility.

ART. 5. Each province shall adopt its own constitution which shall provide for the administration of justice in its own territory, its municipal system, and primary instruction, such constitution to be framed upon the republican representative plan, in harmony with the principles, declarations, and guaranties of the national constitution. Upon these conditions, the federal government shall guarantee to each province the enjoyment and exercise of its institutions.

ART. 6. The federal government shall have the right to intervene in the territory of the provinces in order to guarantee the republican form of government or to repel foreign invasion; and when requested by the constituted authorities, to maintain them in power, or to re-establish them if they shall have been deposed by sedition or by invasion from another province.

ART. 7. Full credit shall be given in each province to the public acts and judicial proceedings of all other provinces; and Congress shall have the power to provide by general laws how such acts and proceedings shall be proved, and what legal effect they shall have.

ART. 8. The citizens of each province shall enjoy in all the others the rights, privileges, and immunities belonging to the citizens of such other provinces. The extradition of criminals is reciprocally obligatory on all the provinces.

ART. 9. All custom-houses in the territory of the nation shall be national, and governed by the tariff laws enacted by Congress.

ART. IO. The circulation within the territory of the republic of articles of domestic production or manufacture and of all classes of goods and merchandise cleared at the customhouses shall be free from taxation.

ART. II. Articles of national or foreign production or manufacture, and cattle of all kinds, when passing from the