The administration party, led by Balmaceda, with the encouragement of President Santa Maria, was marshaling its forces for some radical departures from former governmental policies. The president issued a message in which it was declared the intention of the administration to enact a law providing for the civil registry of births, deaths and marriages. In the National Congress, September 26, 1885, Balmaceda, representing the administration, declared the following to be the government program:
“Reciprocate and counterpoise every arm of public power; sacredly maintain the independence of constitutional and judicial powers; protect from abuse the electoral power and liberty of suffrage; formally reorganize municipalities for honest, harmonious legislation; separate the church from the state and protect the liberty of thought; foment progressive public instruction, examine proofs of character and competency in the exercise of public functions; realize national administration in the most correct, upright and economical manner.”
Little attention was given to these patriotic sentiments at the time, but later when Balmaceda became minister of the interior, he declared in congress that “the Catholic religion marches contrary to the current of the century, restrains the liberty of State, refuses modern progress, denies freedom of thought and destroys liberal ideas; the church condemns culture and fosters ignorance. With the creed of Catholicism it is difficult to unite the politics of modern State, as the Catholic religion is an exclusive compulsory factor and beneficiary in Chilean administrations.”
After a bitter congressional campaign, in which the measure was opposed by the church element, the civil registry act became a law. History credits President Santa Maria with giving his country this beneficent law, but it was the aggressive Balmaceda who led the fight against all the fortified conservative forces, religious and traditional prejudices of Chile, inculcating into the minds of the people new and advanced ideas, and making the passage of the law possible. Inspired by patriotic motives, and with excessive confidence in others, including his enemies, Balmaceda committed the common mistake of politicians in believing the cause he advocated would prevail because it was right. The war with Peru and Bolivia had left multiform internal and external questions for settlement. While these international problems were pressing for solution, requiring the attention of the administration, the opposition party made a fierce fight in the elections of 1886, securing a majority in the Congress. Then followed the greatest political struggle in the history of Chile. The elements opposing the civil registry law, and other political measures advanced by the administration, employed every means within their power to arrest the liberal advance, which had made such rapid progress in the few years immediately preceding, to embarrass the administration of Santa Maria and destroy the influence of Balmaceda, who had become a political power in the Republic.
ELECTION OF BALMACEDA.
The contending forces and warring political elements of that critical period in Chile’s history reached a climax in the struggle for supremacy in the campaign of 1886, which resulted in the election of Balmaceda as president. During the years intervening between the war with Peru and Bolivia, and the inauguration of Balmaceda, Chile had prospered wonderfully. The rich nitrate properties, acquired as the fruits of war, were being developed and worked with foreign capital, and were producing an enormous annual revenue. The Republic was then in the period of its greatest prosperity, having accumulated a large surplus in the national treasury, notwithstanding the fact that public works, including highways, school houses, bridges, harbor improvements, etc., were being constructed. Order and system prevailed in the management of government affairs, and the country was in the bloom of industrial progress and national prosperity.
Under these favorable conditions, Don Jose Manuel Balmaceda became president. To the creation of these conditions he had contributed much in the way of honest industry, but the full fruition of his hopes to make of Chile an independent Republic, where every citizen, irrespective of condition, creed or religion, might exercise his rights without prejudice to his individual interests was never to be realized. Not only was he destined to disappointment and ultimate defeat, but this strong, brilliant man, the greatest in many respects that Chile has produced, proved the rock upon which the Ship of State foundered. His administration ended in a revolution, the tragic end of which was the death of the president by suicide in the Argentine Legation, in Santiago, where he sought asylum after the final success of the revolutionists and the overthrow of the government.
It was on a constitutional question that Balmaceda clashed with Congress, which resulted in his downfall. Under the constitution the president must convoke Congress in regular session from June 1 to September 1, each year; he has power to prorogue it at any time for a term of fifty days, and he can summon it in special session whenever he chooses. He appoints his cabinet ministers, governors of provinces, diplomatic representatives, and five out of eleven members of the Council of State, “Consejo de Estado.” He also appoints the judges of the several courts, upon recommendation of the Council of State. He approves, promulgates and takes part in the making of laws, issues decrees, regulations, etc., which he may consider desirable for the execution of laws. The authority thus vested in the president gives him a power which, if abused, might become a menace to the Republic. It was perhaps for this reason that the framers of the constitution of Chile, apparently desiring to avoid the possibility of the concentration of political power in the Republic, made the ministry responsible to the legislative branch of the government instead of the executive. Following the plan of the French Republic, legislation affecting the general policy of the government originates with the ministry. When Congress convenes the president outlines the administration policy in a message calling attention to such measures as he thinks should receive attention and consideration from the legislative bodies. Bills are prepared by the cabinet ministers and presented to Congress. A failure to approve by their votes any measure coming from the executive branch is taken as a vote of lack of confidence in the administration, and the only course left for the president is to dissolve his ministry. The power bestowed upon Congress to overthrow ministries, and defy the president by refusing to coöperate with the executive branch of government, was never indulged in to any considerable extent until Balmaceda’s time. Then the political elements opposed to the administration policy allied their interests and exercised their power to defeat the progressive measures presented, thereby repeatedly rejecting the ministry. Since that time the custom of obstruction has grown into such a gigantic abuse that it is now almost impossible for the president of Chile to maintain a ministry for a sufficient length of time to carry out any general plan or policy of government. In fact it has become one of the crying evils of the country which the press denounces vigorously and persistently. During the administration of President German Riesco, 1901-6, ministerial changes became so frequent that a cabinet crisis was not regarded as a matter of any interest or consequence by the public.
During the first years of Balmaceda’s administration, Chile enjoyed an era of golden prosperity and national progress. Numerous reforms were proposed, which had for their purpose the improvement of the government service. One project was to prohibit senators and deputies from having an interest in any public contract; another that neither the president nor any cabinet minister should appoint a near relative to office unless the person possessed the necessary qualifications for the position. Believing himself secure in the performance of his duties and the administration of government affairs, President Balmaceda prepared to utilize a portion of the large income from the nitrate fields in the construction of public works. He contracted for the building of new lines of railway in the central and southern provinces at a cost of $30,000,000; built schools and colleges in every city in the Republic, amounting to $10,000,000 in value; ordered the construction of three modern warships and two torpedo boats in Europe. He also continued and completed the work of constructing a government dry dock at Talcahuano; armed and equipped the army with modern rifles and munitions of war, and improved the coast defenses, to which were added new modern batteries at Talcahuano and Iquique.