Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/35

 to the latter, and proposed a federal constitution and the alliance of the Unitarios, who had collected for mutual defense at Montevideo. This plan was accepted. Colonel Sarmiento, the present President Mitre, and General Paunero, now candidate for the Vice-Presidency, left Chili and went to Buenos Ayres, round Cape Horn, to join Urquiza. They conquered Rosas at Caseros. Thus the Unitarian party itself agreed to give the country a federal constitution. Colonel Sarmiento began the movement alone, but was finally joined by his friends. But General Urquiza proved incapable, through his ignorance and his gaucho habits, of comprehending the significance of the thing he had done himself, and endeavored to continue the old arbitrary rule. The biographical sketch in this volume recounts the self-banishment of Colonel Sarmiento at this time, and his subsequent return and labors in the Province of Buenos Ayres in a private capacity. Buenos Ayres succeeded in resisting Urquiza at this time, and constituted itself again a separate State while Urquiza governed the provinces. When Colonel Sarmiento was elected Deputy to the legislature of Buenos Ayres, before his release from Chili in 1855, he refused the office, and addressed a letter to the electors, reproaching them for having separated from the Republic. He was then appointed Deputy from Tucuman, and refused that also, because