mitted to the Executive Power, in order to its publication. If he return it with amendments, its ultimate sanction shall require threefourths of the votes of each Chamber.

FINAL CHAPTER.

CXXXV. The Laws, Statutes, and Regulations now in force, shall continue to be observed, so far as they have not been altered by, or are not at variance with, the present Constitution, until the Legislature shall modify or reform them, in the manner which it shall think proper. CXXXVI. This Constitution shall be solemnly sworn to, throughout the Territory of the State.

CXXXVII. No political, civil, military, or ecclesiastical Officer shall continue to hold his Appointment, unless he take the Oath to observe and uphold the Constitution. Those who shall be newly nominated, or promoted, to any Offices, or Military, or Literary Appointments, or who shall obtain any public Employment, or Office, shall take the same Oath.

CXXXVIII. Whoever shall violate, or furnish the means of violating, the present Constitution, shall be considered as an Enemy of the State, and be visited with the most rigorous punishments, not excepting death and banishment, according to the heinousness of his crime.

Given in the Hall of Sessions, signed with our hands, sealed with our Seals, and countersigned by our Secretary, at Buenos Ayres, the 22nd of April, 1819,-the 4th of Independence.

(L. S.)

DR. GREGORIO FUNES, President. (L. S.) DR. JOSE MARIANO SERRANO, Vice-President. [Signatures of 22 Deputies.]

DR. JOSE EUGENIO DE ELIAS, Secretary.

APPENDIX TO THE CONSTITUTION.

Buenos Ayres, 30th April, 1819.

1. Until the Legislature can agree upon the most convenient mode of electing a Deputy for every 25,000 Inhabitants, or a fraction equal to 16,000, the Election required for the Chamber about to meet shortly, shall be effected on the basis and in the manner provided by the Provisional Regulation.

2. When any Province has within its limits fewer than 3 Cabildos, if there be only 2, each of them shall, with a view to the nomination of Senators, chuse 3 Electors, 1 of whom shall be a Person entitled to vote, (Capitular) and the other 2 Residents possessing the property specified in Article XIV of the Constitution. If the Province have within its precincts only 1 Cabildo, the latter shall chuse 6 Electors, one half of them being Persons entitled to vote, and the

other half Residents possessing the property above stated, who shall proceed to hold the election in the manner set forth in the said Article.

3. The Legislature shall determine at what stage of the process, and in what manner, the publicity of the judgments, mentioned in Article XCIX, shall take place.

4. The Congress, in framing the present Constitution, has been guided by principles of incontestable justice, in the exercise of the right belonging to the Country, now that it is free, to consolidate its liberty, to establish order, and to procure for itself the advantages of a Government, which, being constitutionally regulated, must, sooner than any other, tranquillize the whole Territory, and be productive of the enjoyment of a solid Peace in all the Provinces of the Union; but it being, nevertheless, unwilling to act in anywise inconsistent with the liberality of those principles, and its consideration for the rights of the Sister Provinces, which have not yet been able to become Parties to the framing and sanctioning of the Constitution, it has resolved to concede to all the Communities of the Territory of the State, so soon as they shall signify their concurrence thereto, through the medium of their Representatives, the power of proposing and obtaining, in the first Legislature, a revision of any of the Articles of the Constitution, upon the plan pursued in framing them; motions to that effect, therefore, shall be admissible, if seconded by 2 Members, and shall pass if sup ported by 1 vote above two-thirds of each Chamber.

5. Style of Address.-The 3 High Powers, united, shall be addressed by the title of Sovereignty, and Sovereign Sir, both in writing and personally.

6. The National Congress, composed of the 2 Chambers which form the Legislative Body, shall be addressed by the title of Most Serene Highness, and Most Serene Sir.

7. The 2 Chambers of the Legislative, and the Supreme Executive and Judicial, Powers, shall respectively, both in writing and in person, be addressed by the title of Highness alone, and that of Sir, at the beginning of all Communications presented to them.

8. Ceremonial with respect to Seats.-On the opening of the Session of Congress by the Executive, when the one-half of the Chamber of Representatives is renewed, at which opening the High Court of Justice shall be present, the Director of the State, as presiding at the ceremony, shall sit on the right of the President of the Senate, who shall act as Vice-President upon the occasion; both of them occupying the centre of the most conspicuous situation in the Assembly. On their right shall be seated the President of the Chamber of Representatives, and on their left the President of the High Court.

9. The right side of the Hall shall be occupied by the Senators, and the left by the Representatives. Below them shall sit the Members of the High Court.

10. Insignia.-The Senators and Representatives, during the discharge of their duty, shall wear the honorary badge of a Golden Shield, having in the centre of it engraved the motto Law, encircled with 2 branches of olive and laurel.

11. The Senators shall wear the badge suspended from the neck by a golden cord, and the Representatives by a silver one; and they may wear it both in and out of the Hall.

12. The Members of the High Court shall appear in their robes, upon occasions of ceremony; and on ordinary occasions shall wear a Golden Shield, with the motto Justice, engraved in the centre of it, encircled in the same manner as the preceding, and suspended from the neck by a cord of gold and silver mixed.

Hall of Congress, Buenos Ayres, 30th April, 1819.

Dr. GREGORIO FUNES, President.

Dr. JOSEF EUGENIO DE ELIAS, Secretary.

MANIFESTO of the Sovereign General Constituent Congress, on the promulgation of the Constitution of the United Provinces of South America.-Buenos Ayres, 22nd April,

1819.

(Translation.)

WHEN posterity shall hereafter contemplate the picture of our Revolution in the historic page, it will be compelled to allow that we have accomplished that career with the same majestic simplicity with which Nature effects her operations. The storm, the tempest, and the earthquake, are alike unable to disturb the order of her Laws, or to prevent the accomplishment of her works. But the moral, as well as physical, world has likewise its convulsions, arising from the violent collision of interests, and the fierce conflict of the passions,-convulsions under which we have suffered for the space of 9 years, and which have mainly contributed to keep us from our lofty destinies. Unshaken, however, in our purpose, they have been unable to quench that noble ardour which is inspired by a devotion to the cause of liberty and justice.

Recollect, Citizens, the ever memorable 25th of May, which opened to us our noble but difficult career. Degraded during the long period of 300 years, we lived under a Government whose weakness and misfortunes incapacitated it from being the Protector of our weak and precarious existence; that high Office was in abeyance, in the midst of the social edifice, and every thing conspired to accelerate our political dissolution. It was then that, for the defence of public order, and the preservation of the State, we commenced our Revolution, and formed

within ourselves a Government, whose beneficial influence was limited only by its power. So magnanimous a determination struck universal terror among the Subalterns of tyranny, the severity of whose oppression increases with their proximity to their victims. "A long endurance of tyranny," observes a Philosopher, "makes resignation and abjectness a duty; hugging his chains, man then trembles to examine the Laws of his own nature." We grieve to say it, such has been the case with many of our fellow-countrymen, who, abandoning our sacred cause, have swelled the Tyrant's ranks. To oppose an effectual resistance to their attacks, every Citizen became a soldier; courage animated every bosom; the sword was unsheathed, and the flame of patriotism burst forth in every direction.

All were, however, convinced that this great work would be destroyed in its very birth, without the establishment of a General Congress, which should form a centre of union, give a stimulus to the United Provinces, and quicken those germs of primeval justice, which had been smothered through Spanish influence. But alas! what obstacles beset our path, the moment that discord, hastening to the succour of our foes, raised her voice amongst us. From that fatal moment (for the truthi must be told), right became confounded with wrong, duty with passion, and the holiest with the most unrighteous of causes. Like the waves of some agitated sea, one Government tumultuously succeeded another: a General Assembly was no sooner installed, than it was dispersed like smoke. Spain fanned the flame of dissention amongst us; assailed our reputation with the grossest calumnies, and sent forth exterminating armies; while the events of the war were checquered by victory and defeat.

In proportion as our situation became critical, the more desirable became a National Congress, which should destroy the seeds of discord, and adopt measures for securing the safety of the Country. A noble design always rises superior to passing events, and remains impurtable amidst the tumult of the passions. In defiance of all opposition, and of every obstacle and impediment, the same body of National Representatives which now addresses you, Citizens, assembled for the first time in the City of Tucuman, nearly 6 years after our first effort for liberty and independence. In this, we have a second time imitated the simplicity of nature. All was doubtless necessary, in order that your work should present itself with that imposing dignity which length of time, and difficulty of execution, never fail to impart to great undertakings.

The threatening aspect of our political horizon, which gradually became more and more obscure, created the most gloomy presages of approaching ruin. Deplorable indeed was the situation of the Republic, when the National Congress first assembled! Hostile Armies spreading desolation all around; our own Troops dispersed,

and without the means of subsistence; a disgraceful contest carried on between the Supreme Government and several Towns under its jurisdiction; party spirit occupied in attacking one Faction by means of another; a Foreign Power watching us with the keenest vigiJance, in order to take advantage of our dissentions; restless Citizens ever seeking to sow mistrust and to entrap the minds of the unwary ; the Public Treasury exhausted; no agriculture, commerce, or industry, throughout the Country; the European Spaniards conspiring for the re-establishment of tyranny; in a word, the State, by a re petition of errors, and a succession of disasters, hastening with rapid strides to its political dissolution. Such and thus deep, Citizens, were the wounds which, though we could not look upon them without consternation, it became our imperative duty to endeavour to heal.

The first efforts of Congress were to tear down the sacrilegious banners of anarchy and disobedience. Acting upon the most erroneous principles, and using the sacred name of Liberty as a shield for lawless violence, some of the Provinces had separated themselves from the Capital; an example which, too soon, found imitators in several of the Towns. In order to calm these disturbances, and to shew the madness of sacrificing future ages of liberty to a momentary independence, Congress adopted every means which prudence could dictate. Ia some places order was restored by means of the Military. A Deputy of the Legislative Body, in the character of Envoy, traversed the Parana, for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation, the bases of which should be sincerity, reciprocal good-will, and strict friendship. To dissipate illusions by the steady light of calm reflection, and to prove that the disastrous effects of discord far exceeded what even the ima gination itself could have conceived, the Sovereign Congress issued a Manifesto which, truth, reason, and sensibility being enforced in it in the most energetic language, could not fail to convince the obstinate and soften the ferocious. In every line of it, it was easy to recognize the feelings of Citizens, whose hearts were wrung by the misfortunes of their Country.

Virtue, patriotism, and even individual interest, equally required that, renouncing a spirit of ambition which incited to crime and ty rauny, the putting a stop to the present and future evils should flow from that Cause whose claims were founded upon justice: but, if it did not effect this, the Sovereign Congress had at least the satisfaction of manifesting, that its thoughts were solely for the Country; that it was free from that party spirit which blinds while it degrades; that it had not profaned the sanctuary of wisdom by betraying its lofty duties; and that, by urging upon the dissentients their obligations, it had pointed out to them the preference which should be given to a modest and unassuming demeanour, over the boldness of those who purchase fame by a death which is useless to their Country.