Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay. Richard Francis Burton
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are few men who have not political creeds prejudged and formulated in advance^ with models, prototypes, and ideal predilections which falsify their judgment. Evidently the Republic of the Dictator was a reproduction, in somewhat a sterner mould, of the Jesuit Reduction system, and it throve because the popular mind was prepared for it. Others, I have said, accuse Francia of having governed by encouraging a profound corruption of morals ; but probably the ecclesiastical system of rule, which allows everything to those who believe, tremble, and confess, left very little of virtue for him to trample upon. And still he could say with Solon, " I have not given you the best possible laws, but those laws that suit you best/ As has been proved by the logic of facts, the people were enthusiastic, both for the system and for its administration. They may be pitiable, but, like the needy knife-grinder, they will not be pitied. They were, doubtless, and they still are, in a state of semi-barbarism, but they have given their lives rather than abandon the customs of their ancestors and betray what must be called their political creed.
On Sept. 20, 1840, Dr. Francia, rushing to sabre his " cu- randero^ or doctor, fell into a fit. The man of blood called in the sergeant of the guard, who refused to enter without orders.
" But he can^t speak.-*^
" No matter V replied pipe-clay ; if he comes to, he will punish me for disobedience.^^
El Supremo died at 9 a.m., aged eighty-three years y^
The date of his birth was uncertain ; hence some make his age eighty,
others eighty-four, and others eighty-five years. Dr. Martin de Moussy dates his death December 25.
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and after a virtual reign of nearly thirty. He had ap- pointed no successor, shrewdly remarking that he was not likely to want heirs. His last order was to direct the death of an enemy ; he made no will, he kept no records, and he left about one million of dollars in the national treasury. Early he had adopted the excellent plan, for a tyrant, of destroying all his '^'^bandos^' or decrees returned to him with ^' executed^^ upon the margin. He was very much addicted to women — the greater the man, the warmer are his passions, doubtless the instinct which would multiply him. He left sundry illegitimate children whom he never adopted, and he prematurely carried out the saying ^' Neque nubent, neque nubentur.^^ Many couples who had families took the advantage of his death and caused themselves to be married. He was buried in the Cathedral of Asuncion, but the exact spot is now forgotten. According to Mr. Mansfield and Lieut. -Colonel Thompson, the rem.ains of " El Defiinto^^ — his new title — were cast out by private enmity from a violated grave. This is hardly probable in a country where for years after his death men uncovered at the mention of his name.
Europeans often wonder how, after such a career. Dic- tator Francia was allow^ed to die in his bed. '^ Spain,^ said Gibbon, " was great as a province, but small as a kingdom -/' and the same may be asserted of all the Spanish provinces and colonies in our time. The peculiar characteristic of the Spaniard — as the lengthened reign of D. Isabel II. proves — and of the Hispano-American, as opposed to the Luso-American, is a marvellous, Oriental, fatalistic patience under despotisms the least endurable. For years Rosas freely tyrannized over Buenos Aires, and he owed his overthrow only to the foreign idea, even as Marshal President Lopez is succumbing to the stranger bayonet. At the present day, D. Justo XJrquiza, the Taboada family.
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and Dr. Garcia Moreno rule with a sceptre which takes the form of sword and dagger^ the Provinces of Entre Rios and Santiago del Estero and the Republic of Ecuador. To recover liberty is every man^s business^ and consequently, as the saying is, no man^s business ; it is therefore left to recover itself: a concentrated individuality takes the place of the noble and generous sentiment of nationality and of patriotism, the unselfish egotism of peoples.
Yet it is evident that Francia was not one of the herd of tyrants upon whom the world looks with a transient interest. He left his mark in history : he created a school ; his ideas of ^' Americanismo^^ long antedate the '^ Know-nothings â– '"' and the " Spread-Eagleism ' of the United States, and they are becoming predominant throughout Southern America.
In Paraguay the system of government depends rather upon persons than upon institutions. Strangers, therefore, generally believe that the repressive measures imposed upon society by the energetic will of " the Supreme,^ and kept up for a whole generation, would, after his death, bring on a reaction more or less violent. The contrary was the case, and with his decease commenced the ordering and organization of the Republic. The country was expected, said Erancia^s enemies, to ^^rise like Lazarus at the voice of the Redeemer.^^ It remained docile as before.
A very brief acephalous interim followed the death of the dark Dictator. His " actuario^-* or secretary, who presently hanged himself in prison, persuaded the commandants of the four corps occupying the capital^ to form a Junta Gubernativa. This ruling body was presided over by the Alcalde, Dr. C. L. Ortiz, and was soon driven from power by a military revolution. The Commandant General-at- Arms, D. Juan Jose Medina, placed himself at the head of affairs, but he was called a usurper because he had no administrative authority.
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After about six months the people of the capital " pro- nounced/^ and consequently, on March 12, 1841, an Extraor- dinary Congress of 500 members, elected by the usual farce of general suffrage,metat Asuncion. This body, which is described as being more than usually ridiculous, restored the consular government, or rather a duumvirate, consisting of D. An- tonio Carlos Lopez, and an old soldier. Colonel D. Mariano Roque Alonzo. It opened, also, Paraguayan ports to general commerce; it concluded a treaty of friendship and trade with the Province of Corrientes, then at war with Buenos Aires ; and it convened an extraordinary session of itself — the deliberative body usually met for five days every five years — in order to consider the desideratum of re-establishing foreign connexions. At the same time most of the 600 political prisoners left in the dungeons of Dr. Francia were amnestied.
In November, 1842, the Complimentary Congress held its session. It ratified Paraguayan independence, deter- mined the flag, and chose blue as the '^ color de la Patria.^-* Approving of all the consular acts and plans, it offered commercial relations to Buenos Aires, but Dictator Kosas, insultingly refusing to acknowledge the Republic, closed to her the Rio de la Plata till such time as the Province of Corrientes should desist from its " rebellion.^ At this time an ecclesiastic long persecuted by Dr. Francia, Padre Marcos Antonio Maiz, the " terrible father " as he was called by the English, the " pretre estimable k tons egards,"" according to M. Demersay, was made Professor of Latin and Philosophy at Asuncion, and took the first step towards becoming Coadju- tor Bishop in part, infid.
A third National Congress, meeting on March 16, 1845, put an end to the consular government, and sanctioned by a Constitution the fundamental law of the Republic which en- trusted executive powers to aPresident. The only obligation of
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this magistrate is to preserve and defend the independence and integrity of the State. He cumulates a variety of impor- tant offices^ he is at once Supreme Judge and Manager of Fi- nances_, he is Commander-in-Chief of the army^ and Admiral of the fleets and he appoints the President of Congress ; while the Vice-President of the Republic being named by him, and serving only to convoke the electoral meetings, is a mere tool that cannot even act for him when he is ab- sent. Thus the President is an autocrat at once legislative, judicial, and executive. Paraguay was ever a repertory of old world ideas, cut off from civilization since the days of the Grand Monarque. But the year 1845 worked in her a true revolution — social^ political, and commercial ; at this time arose the " law establishing the political administration of the Republic of Paraguay.^ It gave ex- traordinary attributes to the President; it reduced the ministers of state to simple heads of bureaus, and it was shortly followed by an edict which placed the Church in com- plete subjection to the Supreme National Government — forbidding the Bishop to use even a robe or a throne. Of this new Constitution pure and simple despotism was the essence, whereas before it had been only a republican accident.