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314 . . . I shall be as brief as possible and try to find a way through this thorny political matter. It has rightly been said there is unease in our country and, it has been added, revolution is rife. There is indeed great unease in our country and revolution is indeed rife. What remains to be seen is the cause of this unease and who the real revolutionaries are. To my mind, the revolutionaries are those who break the law, who try to subvert our system, who subjugate public freedoms, and who subsequently thrust our country into an abnormal, unconstitutional situation , which must of necessity bring about this state of restlessness and agitation—this unease that we are feeling. Those of us who fight against this still-prevailing system are not really the revolutionaries: we are the conservatives. We can say of our revolution what Macaulay said of the English Revolution when comparing it to the French. The French Revolution shook society to its core, bringing about profound innovation in the political, social, and economic order; the English Revolution did nothing more than defend itself from the usurpation and despotism of the Crown: namely, it sought to reestablish its freedoms and institutions. It sought a return to the normal situation from which Charles II’s blind obstinacy, poor counseling, and all the usurpation in Parliament had torn it away. It is possible that, when there is no free exercise of the right to normal development of individual and collective activities, when the guarantees accorded by the Constitution, when the most sacred right, the 7 lEaNdRo N. alEm Speech at the National Senate (1891) Original title: “Discurso sobre el senado nacional.” Source: Leandro N. Alem, Obra parlamentaria de Leandro N. Alem [Parliamentary works of Leandro N. Alem], vol. 6 (La Plata: Camara de Diputados, 1949). SPeech at the natIonaL Senate (1891) : 315 basis of our republican system, which is the right of suffrage, is ignored and subjugated, is it possible for there to be well-being in our country, or for the peace that is sought to be attained? True peace will not be attained , beneficial and fruitful peace will not be attained, the peace that comes from a normal situation, from the free exercise of law; an enforced quietism may be attained, somber silence may be attained, the silence and peace of graves. And it is because of this, Mr. President, that this unease is being felt, because of this that all those in government, as I have said, in open war against the people, are, like criminals, at every step and every moment and in every way seeing the shadow of the agent of justice. Because of this they dream of conspiracies and great plots; because of this they make up so many fables, and because of this they impart such tall stories to the national executive. I am a revolutionary, I must frankly confess, I am a revolutionary in the highest sense of the word. I do not pay lip service to revolution; I know perfectly well that it is an extreme resource and a supreme right of the people: it is the natural law: Lex non inscripta, lex nata est, as Cicero said. It is the legitimate defense that is made by the people as it is by individuals; and this right is recognized by all constitutionalists, because when a government oversteps its functions, when it shatters the foundations of the political system that governs the people, a system that they have given themselves in order to guarantee their rights and their freedoms, that power has lost its authority, gone beyond the source of the law, and, consequently, placed itself in the position of a genuine aggressor . Therein lies an undeniable fact.The people’s party is the most powerful party, the only organized force that exists in all the Republic. There is, Mr. President, no other political organization before it in such conditions ; there is no such thing as a government party. If so, where is its base? Where are those powerful expressions of opinion? Nowhere do I see them. How much time and how much effort is being spent in reestablishing, or rather, in elaborating, perhaps, if I may use the phrase, in manufacturing a special party ad hoc, for specific political ends! The people’s party is the only one that exists in the whole Republic. And why has the people’s party been able to develop freely until now? Why has the people’s...

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