No. 2.
Mr. Osborn
to Mr. Fish.
Buenos Ayres, August 12, 1874. (Received September 21.)
Sir: Dr. Don Nicolas Avellaneda was declared president, and Don Mariano Acosta, vice-president, of the Argentine Republic, by the national congress, on the 6th instant, and, in accordance with the constitution, will be inaugurated October 12.
The question raised by the nationalists, (friends of General Mitre,) and mentioned in my dispatch No. 16, was settled by congress rejecting the deputies claimed to have been elected by the nationalists, and giving the seats of this province, (Buenos Ayres) in the national congress; to the deputies claimed to have been elected by the Alsina party, who voted with the Avellaneda deputies, thereby giving congress a constitutional quorum to make the proclamation.
The rejection by congress of the deputies returned from this and other provinces, on the national interest, at the election in February last, has produced feelings bitter and intense.
The public mind has tor weeks been kept in a state of painful tension. The nightly occurrence of homicides of the most desperate kind for a time produced that general alarm which has been called a. “reign of terror.”
On the 20th of July, at 6 p.m., the life of Señor Anarasis Lanus, one of the most wealthy men of Buenos Ayres, was attempted at his mansion, in the center of the city, by a party of seven men, masked; fortunately, Señor Lanus and his family escaped, but his cook was killed.
The Alsina party is openly charged with having plotted against the life of Senor Lanus, because he is one of the leaders of the nationalists (Mitre) party. The government organs repel the charge, and attribute the attack simply to an intention to plunder.
President Sarmiento, in a letter, considers the attack on Señor Lanus to be referable to plunder, and not to politics, and accuses the press as fomenters of these disorders.
I am, &c.,