The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The influence of militarism, which had been so powerful during the first days of the republic, gradually declined, as republican principles became better established and a younger generation grew up more zealous for the moral and material development of the country than for glorious records of the battlefield. General Pezet was the last of the heroes of Ayacucho who occupied the presidency. Colonel Balta was only eight years old when the victory of Ayacucho was won, and thus, born a child of the republic, he grew to manhood under conditions which enabled him to appreciate the needs as well as the accomplishments of the nation. He saw that, in order to realize the progress for which the people were so earnestly struggling, greater facilities of communication were indispensable, and he devoted his attention especially to the construction of important railways, their cost being defrayed with the product of the national loans of the years 1869, 1870, and 1872. These loans increased the foreign debt of Peru to thirty-two million nine hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds sterling, and the sales of guano were pledged as security for its payment. During this administration, the region of the Amazon, which had been opened up to traffic by General Castilla, was put in closer communication with the capital, explorations being made on the tributaries—Pachitea, Perené, and others. The city of Lima was beautified, a new iron bridge was built across the Rimac River, and a great industrial fair was inaugurated, the handsome Exposition Palace being built for the purpose. When his presidential term expired, in 1872, Don Manuel Pardo, who had founded the civil party in opposition to militarism, was elected his successor. A few days before President Balta was to retire from office, his Minister of War, Colonel Tomás Gutierrez, in conspiracy with officers of the army, effected a coup d’ètat, overpowering the president, who was carried off and imprisoned, and, later, assassinated. Gutierrez caused himself to be proclaimed by his officers Supreme Ruler of Peru; he had already given secret orders for the capture of Don Manuel Pardo,—whom he was determined to get out of the way in order to establish his authority more securely,—but the president-elect was informed of the imminent danger which threatened him and he succeeded in making his escape on board a man-of-war which lay in the harbor. But the coup d’état found no sympathy with any political party, and had no significance beyond the ineffectual attempt of a few soldiers of inflamed ambition and little patriotism to impose their will on a law-abiding people; the citizens of Lima and Callao rose en masse against the treacherous soldiers and overthrew them, putting to death Tomás Gutierrez and two of his three brothers implicated in the deed. The surviving brother deeply repented his share in the revolt, and spent the remainder of his life in an honest and brave attempt to expiate his crime.

DON MANUEL CANDAMO—ELECTED PRESIDENT OF PERU 1903, DIED 1904.

President Manuel Pardo was inaugurated on the 2d of August, 1872. Born in Lima in 1834, of a family distinguished for generations as statesmen and men of letters, he had early imbibed the sentiments of patriotism. His education began in the college of San Carlos, Lima, and was completed in Barcelona and Paris, where he developed an especial interest in the study of political science and finance. When still in his early twenties he began his public career as one of the founders of La Revista de Lima, a periodical of importance; and, in 1858, he received the appointment of Oficial Mayor in the Ministry of Finance. In 1864, the first bank in Lima was founded by him, and, during the administration of the Dictator Prado, he was promoted to the post of Minister of Finance. As mayor of Lima and as director of its benevolent societies, his official services were of such importance that the citizens presented him with a gold medal in token of their gratitude. This occurred during a period when the capital was visited by an epidemic.

Possessing unusual gifts and wide experience, President Pardo was well equipped to fulfil the highest duties of the state. He devoted himself with particular energy and purpose to the intellectual development of his country, and introduced radical reforms in various branches of the public service. In no period of the republic was more rapid progress shown in the culture of the people than during this administration, when the encouragement of education stimulated a love of knowledge among all classes. A Faculty of Political and Administrative Science was created, also a School of Engineers and a School of Science and Arts; the military and naval schools were reorganized, and the School for Midshipmen of the Navy as well as the School for Corporals and Sergeants of the Army was established. The present system of modern instruction conforms to the code promulgated by President Pardo. His administrative ability was seen in every department of the government. He organized the national guard and the police service; established departmental, provincial, and district councils, to overcome municipal centralization; coöperated with the judiciary in maintaining the authority of their decisions; ensured the stability of the financial system and reformed the mining code.

Unfortunately, the administration of President Manuel Pardo succeeded a period of material expansion so costly that the responsibilities resulting therefrom were of extraordinary weight and difficulty, and could be met only by heroic sacrifices. The public debt called for an immense sum to pay the interest, and caused a financial and economic crisis, which made it impossible to redeem the bank notes, and necessitated the issuance of government notes. In order to improve the economic situation, President Pardo, realizing that Peru contained the world’s chief nitrate and guano deposits, conceived the plan of establishing a nitrate monopoly. He hoped by controlling the nitrate output to destroy the competition which nitrate had waged against guano, the country’s principal source of revenue, and the chief means of paying its public debt. By this and other patriotic measures, a reform in existing conditions was to be effected which would relieve the financial strain and restore the prosperity of the country. But the intensity of the commercial crisis and the unsettled state of politics that always accompanies panic conditions, made it impossible for the great statesman to realize his hopes, and his administration was a continued struggle through one of the most trying financial periods of the republic. President Manuel Pardo, the founder of the Civil party, was the first executive to dominate the tendency which had hitherto prevailed in Peruvian politics of keeping the public offices in the hands of a privileged class. He was impartial in his recognition of superior worth wherever he found it.

The dictator, Don Mariano Prado, was elected constitutional president to succeed President Pardo in 1876, the latter being called to the Senate, of which he became president the following year. On the 16th of November, 1878, while passing through the ante-room to the Senate Chamber, the illustrious statesman met his death at the hand of an assassin. An ignorant sergeant committed the deed which robbed Peru of one of her noblest and devoted patriots, and plunged the whole nation into grief. By what strange fatality the defender of the masses and their most sincere protector should have been murdered by one of their number is no more to be explained than that Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley should have been similarly sacrificed while laboring in behalf of the sacred principles of human liberty.

In the year 1879 the war of the Pacific was inaugurated by Chile, whose government claimed that its interests were threatened in consequence of a treaty of alliance made six years earlier between Peru and Bolivia, which Chile denominated a secret compact. The treaty was known to the Chilean Minister in Bolivia in 1874, however, and was officially announced to Argentina in 1876. According to some authorities, Chile sought a pretext for war, hoping to gain possession of the nitrate beds of Tarapacá. In any case, its government was well prepared for war, having just reorganized its navy and purchased the new ironclads Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada, which were superior to the Peruvian ironclads Huascar and Independencia, purchased ten years earlier. The first attack was made on Bolivia, but that country was in no condition to resist a powerful enemy, and the war soon became a trial of strength between Chile and Peru. The first naval engagement occurred off the coast of Iquique, Rear-Admiral Miguel Grau commanding the Huascar, and Captain Moore the Independencia, against the Chilean corvette Esmeralda, commanded by Captain Arthur Prat, and the gunboat Covadonga, commanded by Captain Condell. The Esmeralda was sunk by the guns of the Huascar and Captain Prat lost his life in the engagement, though fighting with great heroism. A letter from Admiral (then Captain) Grau of the Huascar to the widow of the Chilean hero, reveals the noble character and gentle heart of the victorious commander, who was soon to meet his own death fighting against greater odds. “Captain Prat died,” he wrote, “a victim to his excessive intrepidity in the defence and for the glory of the flag of his country. I sincerely deplore this mournful event, and in expressing my sympathy, I take the opportunity of forwarding the precious relics that he carried on his person when he fell, believing that they may afford some slight consolation in the midst of your great sorrow.” Such thoughtful tenderness inspires the greatest admiration for this brave man. Meantime the Independencia in pursuit of the Covadonga, and drawing much more water than the adversary, suddenly ran on the rocks and became a total wreck, this fatal accident proving a deathblow to Peru, as the strength of the Chilean fleet was now overwhelming. The brilliant exploits of Admiral Grau kept the enemy at bay for four months, during which he protected the Peruvian coast by a series of rapid and skilful manœuvres. The discontent in Chile over the inactivity of the fleet became so great that a new War Minister was appointed, whose first act was to order the two ironclads back to Valparaiso to be overhauled, as they were no match in speed for the Huascar. The Chilean navy was practically reorganized, merchant ships were engaged to transport troops, and a few were purchased to be used as men-of-war. The naval fight was really a single-handed encounter between the Huascar and the two Chilean ironclads. Admiral Grau’s heroism was sublime. The English historian, Clements R. Markham, who has written a detailed description of this war, says that “the Chilean squadron consisting of two ironclads and several other vessels, all carefully and thoroughly refitted, was despatched from Valparaiso for the purpose of forcing the Huascar to fight single-handed against hopeless odds.” Meantime gallant Grau was along the coast, doing his utmost to hinder the preparations of the Chileans for a military invasion of Peru. On the morning of the 8th of October, 1879, as the Huascar, followed by the gunboat Union, was slowly steaming northward from Antofagasta, the three Chilean warships, the Blanco Encalada, Covadonga, and Matias Cousiño appeared in sight to the northeast near Point Angamos; the Huascar turned to the northwest and put on all speed to escape the enemy, when suddenly the Almirante Cochrane, O’Higgins, and Loa came into view, heading from the very direction in which the Huascar was steering. Undismayed by the critical situation, Admiral Grau ordered Captain Garcia y Garcia, the commander of the Union to put on full speed and get out of danger, as in case of the loss of the Huascar the Union would be the only serviceable vessel left to Peru. In the fight which followed, a shell from the Cochrane struck the pilot tower of the Huascar, in which were Admiral Grau and one of his lieutenants, destroying the tower and killing its occupants, who were blown to pieces. The brave hero and his ship met their doom by the same blow, as, up to that moment, the Huascar had held its own. A few minutes later, the Blanco Encalada fired on the doomed Huascar, its shell killing Captain Elias Aguirre, who had taken the admiral’s place. No sooner had he fallen than his successor, Captain Manuel Carbajal, met the same fate, to be followed by Lieutenant Rodriguez, whose place was immediately taken by Lieutenant Enrique Palacios, until a fragment of shell struck him down and the command devolved on Lieutenant Garezon. When the terrible combat ended, it was found that one-third of the one hundred and ninety-three officers and men on the Huascar had been killed or wounded.

GENERAL ANDRÉS CÁCERES, PRESIDENT OF PERU, 1886–1890 AND 1894–1895.