Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/71



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 41

of arms — categorically refused, except as a member of the Confederation, to unite herself with the Commonwealth about to be founded upon the ruins of the Spanish vice- royalty. He declared in the broadest terms that Paraguay, having reconquered her liberty, would not shift allegiance from Spain to a colony of Spain ; and, it must be observed, that whilst the former had declared herself a free and sovereign state in 1811, Buenos Aires acted till 1816 in the King's name. The latter, then at war with the Spaniards of the Banda Oriental and High Peru (Bolivia), commis- sioned General Belgrano to sign in person a provisional treaty of amity. The instrument, dated October 12, 1811, was drawn up at Asuncion, upon the conditions imposed by Dr. Francia — namely, the independence of Paraguay, who was at liberty to become, or to refuse to become, a member of the ConfederatioflL whenever the latter might be organized. On January 31, 1813, Buenos Aires installed a Constituent Assembly, and by the mouth of an Envoy Extraordinary invited Paraguay to contribute to it her deputies. But by this time Dr. Francia had pitilessly crushed all resistance. He feared nothing from the old capital of the vice-royalty, he probably foresaw the troubles and the anarchy which would spring from that Pandora's box, " Centralization," and he determined upon the foreign policy to which he adhered till the end. By his influence, on October 1, 1813, a second General Congress of all the representatives of the people, about a thousand in number, assembled at Asuncion. The deputies, who were the chiefs of the several districts, ap- peared more like criminals than legislators, and voted all that was required of them in order the sooner to return home — hence it was called a mere feint, and was compared with a horde of "Indians" choosing their cacique. This Congress not only refused point blank to send deputies to Buenos Aires, it also, in confirming the independence of the

42 INTR01>UCT0RY