FOOTNOTES:
[81] The Congress in question had been convoked principally for the purpose of drawing up a constitution for the republic, and was properly only a constituent one:—after a time, however, it proceeded to appoint a president, and to pass a variety of laws founded on the like scheme of nationalising the republic, which, though acquiesced in, per force, by the people of Buenos Ayres, were resisted vi et armis by most of the provinces at a distance, and led to much ill-will and disunion amongst them, at the moment when all their joint efforts were required against their common enemy. The president, Rivadavia, after a vain struggle to establish his authority, found himself forced to resign amidst a complication of difficulties.
[82] It never exceeded five millions of dollars, viz., one the amount of the capital of the Provincial Bank, incorporated with it; three subscribed by the Government; and about one more by individuals.
APPENDIX.
No. 1.
Declaration of Independence of the United Provinces of South America in 1816.
We, the Representatives of the United Provinces of South America, in General Congress assembled, invoking that Supreme Being who presides over the universe, in the name and by the authority of the people we represent, and protesting before Heaven and all nations and inhabitants of the earth, the justice of this our resolution, do hereby solemnly declare that it is the unanimous and undoubted determination of these provinces to break the bonds which have bound them to the kings of Spain, to recover the rights of which they have been deprived, and to take upon themselves the high character of a free nation independent of king Ferdinand VII. and his successors, and of Spain; with full and ample power in consequence de facto and de jure to establish for themselves such form of government as the pressure of existing circumstances may render imperative.
All and every one of them do publish and declare the same, and pledge themselves, through us, to carry into effect and to maintain this their fixed resolve with their lives, their fortunes, and their fame.