Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/414

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370
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Chili, although the doings of the government have not always been justifiable.

He followed the same course in the Argentine Republic. On the one hand he opposed the mutilated confederation that excluded Buenos Ayres, which was but a disguise for the old method of arbitrary rule by partisan leaders, and on the other he inclined to the incorporation of this estate, although the people were yet unfamiliar with the use of the liberties it had gained.

His influence in the city became in innumerable ways very conspicuous. When he entered upon his duties as Senator, the galleries, which had been accustomed to control the debates by hisses and applauses, designed to produce disturbance, and disorderly conduct, covered the amphitheatre with pasquinades against the new Senator. Three years later, the same area was the scene of the heated debates of the Provincial Convention, assembled to propose reforms in the Federal Constitution,—those remarkable debates already alluded to. The reader will look in vain for an instance of applause, still less of disorder, on the part of the listeners to these speeches, the excitement attending which was confined to the Convention itself. The eager multitude of spectators held their breath to listen to the debate; and the fifty members of the Convention, animated as were their contests with each other, were treated with a religious respect which made them seem true Patres Conscripti. To what was this change due? Simply to the influence of one man, who through the press, by spoken discourses, and by legal measures, had taught the persons who were present at the ses-