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154 questions which divided the Republic, showed, on the contrary, all the weakness of Federalism. Dorrego was essentially Buenos Ayrean in his sympathies, and had little regard for the fate of the provinces. He had promised the provincial leaders and communities to do all he could to favor the interests of the former and to insure the rights of the latter; but, having once obtained the government, he said to his immediate friends, "What is it to us if the petty tyrants carry things with a high hand? What are the four thousand dollars' salary to Lopez, or the eighteen thousand to Quiroga, to us who control the seaport, and a custom-house that brings us in a million and a half, which that stupid Rivadavia wished to convert into national revenue?" Let us not forget that the motto of egotism is always "Each for himself." Dorrego and his party did not foresee that the provinces would come some day to punish Buenos Ayres for having refused them its civilizing influence; and that, because of the indifference to their ignorance and barbarism, this very ignorance and barbarism would penetrate into the streets of Buenos Ayres and take up its quarters even in the fort.

But Dorrego might have seen it, if he or his party had had better eyes. Here were the provinces at the gates of the city, only waiting an occasion to invade it. From the time of the fall of the presidency the decrees of the civil authorities could not be enforced beyond the suburbs of the city. Dorrego had employed, as an instrument of opposition, this outside resistance; and, when his party triumphed, he bestowed upon his ally beyond the walls the title of commander-in-chief of the provinces. What logic of the