He was made a senator by the National Party and took part in the second insurrection led by the nationalist Caudillo Aparicio Saravia, in 1897. He was a member of the Council of State in 1898, but moved away politically from Saravia in later years, deciding to support José Batlle y Ordñez. This distanced him from the National Party, which he explained in a Political Letter published in the National. Batlle sent him on diplomatic missions to various countries in Europe and to America, from 1904 to 1914.