CHAPTER IV

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

The long struggle against Spain accustoming Chileans to military service and uprooting the system under which the country had been ruled for centuries, necessarily placed the control of government in the hands of the generals. Like all other Spanish-American countries Chile had to pass through a period of irresponsible pretorian rule and the sterilising horrors of wars in which one ambitious chief tried to displace another. But anarchy lasted only a short time; the civil element was powerful even at the beginning; and Chileans never acquired the revolution habit. Her government has been stable longest and her political history the least checkered of any Spanish-American country. To this result, so happy for the internal prosperity and external power of the nation, several causes have co-operated. First of all has been the existence of a powerful landed aristocracy whose interests lay rather in cultivating their estates in the security of peace and order than in trying to make fortunes by taxes wrung from a poverty-stricken, reluctant proletariat. The people are by climate and inheritance industrious, naturally inclined toward industrial progress, agricultural rather than pastoral, prolific and colonising, and though pugnacious, they are not, like the inert Indians of the Andean and Central American countries, to be bullied into following the first revolutionary chief who comes along. Further the country is geographically compact—a narrow strip of plain with easy communication between its provinces, and, unlike the Argentine and Colombia, not divided into widely distant districts, each with its isolated capital, its local chiefs, its ambition for hegemony and autonomy.

In the throes of the first war for independence Carrera was hardly able to maintain himself, and a civil revolution had as much to do with his overthrow as his military misfortunes. O'Higgins, even while supported by San Martin's army of Argentine veterans, held control by a very precarious grip. During 1819 and 1820 there were no serious troubles because attention was absorbed by the war against Peru and over Cochrane's naval victories, but no sooner had San Martin left, than symptoms of discontent again appeared on the surface. Complaints against the arbitrary and corrupt practices of O'Higgins's ministers were loud and unrestrainable; the aristocracy opposed his measures, and the very senate he had appointed to assist in the government openly obstructed him. Theoretically a radical, he called a national congress to establish the new nation on a democratic basis. However, even his own nominees moved slowly, while Coquimbo, the northern, and Concepcion, the southern capital, were hotbeds of opposition. In the latter part of 1822 General Freire, the hero of the campaign which had redeemed southern Chile, took the initiative at Concepcion. The southern provinces declared against O'Higgins; Freire prepared to advance on Santiago. Coquimbo followed—an old Carrera partisan assuming the governorship. The northern revolutionists invaded the centre, while news came that Freire was rapidly coming up from the south. In January, 1823, O'Higgins handed his resignation to a committee of Santiago citizens, who appointed a temporary junta and summoned a congress. A few days later General Freire landed at Valparaiso with sixteen hundred soldiers, and on his advancing to the neighbourhood of the capital, congress very prudently offered him the dictatorship. The aristocracy and the people soon found that they had gained nothing in this exchange of masters. After a short spasm of reform, the public finances fell into horrible disorder, while the ruling clique enriched itself at the expense of the treasury.

Freire permitted congress to promulgate a Constitution which in effect recognised the aristocracy as the dominant political element, but at heart he was a radical and an absolutist, and the document soon proved to be only so much waste paper. He showed his anti-clerical tendencies by refusing to come to any agreement with the Pope's representative, who arrived in 1824 charged with the reorganisation of the Chilean hierarchy. He summarily banished the Bishop of Santiago because of his royalist leanings, and issued decrees confiscating Church property. In 1825 he dissolved congress and for some months ruled frankly as a dictator. When he issued writs for a new national assembly he solemnly promised not to interfere in the elections, but so little confidence was felt that, outside of Santiago, no one participated and from there only a few members were returned. Freire soon quarreled with this rump parliament, and its dissolution was followed by political confusion in which parties became daily more sharply defined and acrimonious. There were "federalists," who advocated provincial assemblies; "pipiolas," who followed the strong liberal chief, General Pinto; "o'higginistas," who favoured the return of the former dictator; and finally the conservatives, nicknamed "pelucones" from the perukes—pelucas in Spanish—which old-fashioned Chilean gentlemen wore. Only the military power and prestige of Freire, coupled with his real abilities and resolution, prevented attempts at forcibly displacing him.

Early in 1826 the Spaniards who until then had held out on the island of Chiloë, surrendered, and this signal service to the country somewhat strengthened the dictator. In July of that year a congress met, composed of men favourable to Freire, and a majority of the members were federalists, who divided Chile into eight autonomous provinces. But it soon became evident that such a system must encounter strong opposition. The provincial assemblies would pass laws at variance with the measures of the central government, and in the next moment adopt resolutions instructing their delegates in the national congress to oppose the permanent establishment of a federated republic, declaring emphatically in favour of national unity. Nevertheless, the liberals persisted in their efforts to impose on the reluctant country a brand new form of government. Doctrinaires and soldiers were still in the saddle, and only close observation of the signs of the times revealed the fact that discussion was becoming broader and the military elements in danger of losing their preponderance. By the beginning of 1827 Freire had sunk to be little more than the doubtful leader of a fraction of a party. His administration was in horrible financial straits, the expenditures were twice the income, and in May he resigned in favour of the vice-president, General Pinto. The latter was an eminent lawyer as well as a brave soldier, who held very radical views. Continuing the policy of his predecessor he summoned a congress which swept away the old Constitution and framed one that was frankly federalistic, and during 1828 and 1829 he and his party struggled to put it into application. But the sullen resistance of the aristocrats and the rivalries among the jealous liberal leaders were too much for him. Party passion became so acute and politicians so irritated and aggressive that it became impossible to carry on any regular government. In November Pinto resigned and Vicuña, president of the senate, tried his hand at holding the liberals together and suppressing the now confident and aggressive conservatives.

Not only political but also social anarchy obtained throughout the country. Disorders were prevalent, robberies occurred daily, life was unsafe, foreigners were fleeing to Valparaiso. General Prieto, commanding the army on the Araucanian frontier, revolted and began a march on the capital. Vicuña hurried to the northern provinces to try to hold them quiet, while General Lastra went against Prieto. Under the leadership of Portales, the ablest statesman Chile has ever produced, the conservatives at Santiago organised a junta and bade open defiance to the liberals. When Lastra and Prieto met there was no fighting. The two generals held a conference and arranged a compromise by which Freire was to be recalled. But affairs at Santiago were in more resolute hands than theirs. Portales absolutely refused to agree, and back of him stood the conservative party, well organised and knowing clearly what it wanted. The conservatives had the land, the wealth, the prestige of social position, the ardent support of the clergy; their influence ramified everywhere; they had been welded together during the long dominance of the liberals; and, best of all, they followed a strong leader. The army could not be united in unquestioning support of any one general. Prieto decided to cast his lot with the conservatives, and occupied Santiago. The congress which was hastily elected naturally proved frankly and aggressively conservative. The liberals flew to arms, calling on Freire to lead them, and two thousand Chileans perished in battle before the final and decisive conservative victory at Lircay (April 17, 1830). Freire fled to Peru, Prieto was elected provisional president, and Portales became vice-president.