The provincial Juntas and the Junta of the capital were abolished, and the triumvirate, under the name of "The Superior Provisional Government of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata," commenced a vigorous policy of centralisation, with a view to putting an end to the disorder which had crept into every branch of the administration. Among other decrees was one establishing liberty of the press.
The only check upon the power of the triumvirate was an assembly of "Notables" chosen by the Cabildo. This assembly had the right of appointing a successor to an outgoing triumvir every six months. On the occasion of the first election their choice fell upon Don Juan Martin Puyrredon, who was at that time absent in the interior. The triumvirate denied their right to appoint a deputy to represent him until his return to the capital, they insisted, the assembly was dissolved, and the whole powers of government were assumed by the triumvirate.
But the Argentine people, in accepting the revolution of the 25th May, had delegated their power to an executive, only until the meeting of a sovereign congress. The triumvirate convened a new assembly elected by the Cabildos of the capital and of the provincial towns, which was far from representing the people, and was in no sense a congress.
At this time there existed in London a secret society, composed entirely of men born in Spanish America, organised by General Don Francisco Miranda of Venezuela, with the object of working out the independence of the Spanish colonies of America. Three members of this society, Josè de San Martin, Carlos Maria de Alvear, and Josè Matias Zapiola, all Argentines by birth, arrived in Buenos Aires on the 13th March, 1812, in the British ship George Canning. They at once proceeded to form a branch of this society under the name of "Los Caballeros Racionales," and found many eager adherents among the more advanced Democrats of the capital.
Taking advantage of the popular discontent with the measures of the triumvirate the "Caballeros Racionales" stirred up a commotion, and a fresh revolution in September placed the executive in the hands of a new triumvirate, consisting of:
Dr Don Juan Jose Passo,
Don Nicolas Rodriguez Peña,
Antonio Alvarez Jonte,
all of whom belonged to the Democratic party.
"The eternal captivity of Ferdinand VII., has destroyed the last rights of Spain."
Such were the words with which the new Government commenced their first address to the Argentine people. They cast aside at once the fiction of loyalty to a foreign king, and claimed to govern only by the will of the people.
In accordance with this programme they devised a new plan of electing the deputies to the assembly. Each town or city was divided into eight electoral districts; in each district the citizens voted "viva voce" for an "elector"; the eight "electors" so chosen by each city named the deputy or deputies who should represent that city. Buenos Aires, as the capital, had the right of sending four deputies to the assembly, the capital of each province two, and all other towns one each.