III.

This conflict of powers arises not only from the exorbitant political pretensions of the majority in Congress, but from a profound error of conception and of criterion. "The Government of Chile is popular representative. The sovereignty resides essentially in the nation which delegates its exercise in the authorities prescribed by this constitution."

Notwithstanding the clear and incontrovertible meaning of this precept of the political constitution, the coalition maintains that the Government of Chile is parliamentary, that Congress is the only sovereign, the only one to whom it corresponds to fix annually the strength of the land and sea forces and the amount of the estimates of public expenditure.

It is not a fact that to Congress alone corresponds the duty of fixing the strength of the forces and the amount of the expenditure, as has been peremptorily laid down by the Comision Conservadora. The estimates and the forces bill do not belong exclusively to Congress. On the contrary, they are laws in the formation of which the Executive takes a part. The joint action of the Executive and Congress is required; and as the duties which the constitution imposes on both powers are equal, Congress can not in the name of a parliamentary regimen not authorized by the constitution frustrate the passage of fundamental laws for the preservation of the State and public peace.

As I have said already, reasonable and patriotic parliamentary criticism, or the impeachment of the President and ministers in the form authorized by the constitution, is the only manner in which Congress can exercise its power of supervision. The refusal to pass the laws from which the State derives its existence is simply the dietatorship of Congress over the Executive, or revolution.

The parliamentary regimen advocated by the coalition is incompatible with republican government. Parliamentary regimen is monarchical government with republican ideas. The republic and parliamentary government are ideas which find no place within the science and experience of modern public law.

Parliamentary government supposes an irresponsible, lifelong, hereditary monarch. The chief of the executive power in a parliamentary government is practically and effectively the minister who has a parliamentary majority and who governs in its name. And when the monarch is not in accord with the parliament he has the right to dissolve it and appeal to the electors, and then to govern with the majority of the people that represents the sovereignty.

The Government of the Republic is carried on by a chief and responsible ministers with a temporary mandate, the President, as well as the Congress, being elected by the people. The chief of the executive, practically and by the constitution, is the President of the Republic.

It can not be supposed that in the Government of the Republic, nor could the legislators of 1833 have supposed it, in addition to the right of criticism and impeachment of the President and the ministers, there is the right of frustrating the passage of laws which constitute the public life, as a right which is derived from a constitution whose capital object was to extirpate revolutions and to put bounds to license.

If it were the case that the idea of the legislature of 1833 was to give Congress the faculty to dictate or not, according to its political criterion, the laws that assure the very existence of the Republic, they would have said so.

They did not say so because that was not their intention. For the same reason that they adopted the representative regimen, with independent and responsible powers, they did not endow Congress with the faculty of frustrating the passage of constitutional laws, nor did they endow the President of the Republic with the faculty of dissolving Congress and of appealing to the country if disagreements which they did not foresee should arise, nor authorized in their labor of the reorganization and strengthening of the principle of authority in Chile.

It is true that the spirit of imitation of the European monarchical parliamentary regimen has induced many to believe, during some time, that in practice a parliamentary regimen was advisable. On this account I have endeavored during upward of three years to procure harmony with Congress, the unification of the Liberal party, and concert between the public powers.

The effort has been sterile. The importance given to the pretended parliamentary regimen has at length broken harmony with Congress, and Congress, believing itself to be the only sovereign and the first of all the powers, has forgotten the respect ne to the chief of state and has attempted to subjugate him; and it has believed, following the extreme rules of the monarchical parliamentary governments, that it possesses the right not to pass the most essential laws, thus violating the representative regimen prescribed in the constitution now in force and ignoring the privileges and prerogatives of the chief of the nation.

If Congress should succeed in dominating the executive power and should make laws and execute them, we shall have entered resolutely upon the road to tyranny and a dictatorship. As the President does not possess the power, in case of disagreement with Congress, or of omission on the part of the chambers in the fulfillment of their duties, to dissolve them and appeal to the country, we should sanction, in accepting parliamentary predominance, the unconditional and absolute sovereignty of Congress, and during the duration of its mandate, for the reason that it could not be dissolved, of Congress over the people.

IV.

In sixty days more the Chilean people will have elected their representatives and will have pronounced their just and final verdict.

Circumstances have permitted that the actual Congress can not meet of its own will and that very shortly the people give their decision on the actual conflict. This is what happens in countries with parliamentary government.

It is advisable to leave on record here that the conflict which has been raised against me is not due to any of the intense and profound causes which compromise the prestige of foreign relations, or that affect questions of a character truly national or popular.

The numerous and heavy international claims arising out of the late war having been settled under highly satisfactory conditions, the nitrate certificates in our possession having been canceled, the claims of the Peruvian creditors holding bonds for upwards of £32,000,000 having been terminated, and the integrity of our honor and right having been defended under all circumstances with moderation and energy, there is nothing in our foreign relations which is not calculated to strengthen and augment the prestige of Chile.

The credit abroad of the Republic has reached the level of that of the first nations. All of the public works have been executed out of the ordinary revenue, because the surplus in the treasury is even larger than the amount derived from the loan for the construction of railways. Several taxes have been repealed and others have been reduced. The amortizable home debt has been nearly canceled. Hygienic, educational, and reproductive works have been constructed in all the Republic and in every branch of the public service. The armament of the army and navy has been largely increased.

I have not persecuted any of my citizens.

My lips have been sealed, and I have not opened them against my adversaries. I have been the object of invectives and violent language of every degree, and I ain called a tyrant and dictator by a press which has overpassed all bounds and has arrived in its license to lengths never before reached in any country of the world. I promulgated without any objection the electoral laws passed by the parliamentary coalition, and which were prepared and intended to destroy the influence of the executive power and to favor the interest of their framers.

I have accepted all reasonable solutions which might conduct us to patriotic harmony and to the resolution by the country of the grave problems which divided us. My acts bear testimony to these facts, and the numerous ministers of state who now form in the coalition and who shared with me the honorable task of governing the Republic can also bear similar testimony.

All kinds of industry are prosperous, there is general welfare, and the working classes, in whom I have found my most useful coöperators in the important and numerous works in progress, have constant and well-remunerated work.

It is on this account that the people have not associated, nor will they associate, themselves with a work which is not their work, but which is merely in the interest of a circle and of the predominance of Congress over the executive power. Hence it is that the provinces and departments are tranquil, and that the absorbing and subduing spirit of the parliamentary circles whose seat is in the capital has penetrated into few localities.

Therefore, a national conflict is not treated of, nor a struggle between the executive power and the people, but of Congress, or, in other words, the parliamentary coalition of the capital against the executive power.

V.

These antecedents carry ns to this inevitable conclusion:

We are governed by the popular representative regimen prescribed in article 1 of the constitution; I appoint or remove cabinet ministers at my pleasure by virtue of the express authority conferred on me by section 6 of article 73 of the constitution, and I preserve the liberty and independence which corresponds to me in the consti

tutional structure as the responsible head of the executive power and with equally responsible ministers, in the form prescribed in article 74 and from the eightythird to the ninety-second article of the same constitution.

Or we are governed by a parliamentary regimen which is not authorized or sanctioned by the constitution, and is incompatible with the Republic and the independence of the public powers, and I submit myself to the will of Congress as to a superior and sovereign power, and I only appoint ministers in the confidence of Congress, and I admit that Congress may paralyze the march of government and frustrate the passage of constitutional measures, and, together with ministers, I decline the responsibility that proceeds from the liberty of exercising our functions in Congress which the executive power claims, and I subordinate my acts and my views to their purposes.

The ambition of the coalition has been developed under the ideas belonging to parliamentary government; and, in the fulfillment of my duty and in the exercise of my constitutional prerogatives, Í shall oppose it with unfaltering resistance. Representative government or parliamentary government.

This is the dilemma.

I elect for the representative government ordained by the constitution. For my part I shall practice it and shall cause it to be practiced, in obedience to article 72, which commands me to compel everybody to obey the constitution.

The causes which compelled me to close Congress on the 15th of October last have been stated. These causes were aggravated afterwards by the precipitate conduct of the Comision Conservadora and by the explicit declarations made to the effect that they would not pass the budget and the land and sea forces bill if there were not a change of ministry, if in practice parliamentary regimen were not recognized, and if the right of Congress to impose its policy on the chief of state through the right it attributes to itself of frustrating constitutional laws and of paralyzing or reducing society and public administration to anarchy were not accepted.

No change having occurred in the situation and the fact of its having subsequently become more serious and difficult, the convocation of Congress would have been useless, because so soon as Congress should have attempted to execute any act in conformity with its ideas of parliamentary government I should have had to close it anew, and who knows under what conditions and with what consequences!

When the members of Congress and of the Comision Conservadora proclaim disobedience to the authorities and revolution, it does not belong to a chief of state, whose duty it is to foresee and prevent certain occurrences, to carry away by his own act theater and performers, and thus carelessly compromise social and political respect and the seriousness and moderation which constitute our most honorable traditions.

The land and sea forces bill was passed by the Senate and was kept back by the Chamber of Deputies. Neither during the ordinary session, nor during the September prorogation, nor during the recess, nor during the extra session in October, nor after the closure of Congress, has the report of the joint committee on the estimates been dispatched. This was terminated—a circumstance which has never occurred before-four days ago.

The attitude corresponds to the deliberate determination not to pass the constitutional laws until the coalition shall have triumphed over the executive power. It is necessary to say it in the face of the entire Republic: it shall not triumph with my assistance.

I do not recognize the pretensions of Congress, and therefore I do not dissolve the army and navy, because such a step would be to conclude with public order in the interior and with the exterior security of the Republic; nor will I leave the servants of Chile without remuneration, because that would be to conclude with the administration and the government of the State.

I am not unknown to Chileans, yet, nevertheless, they call me a dictator.

In order to call me dictator with justice, it would be necessary for me to have usurped power by unlawful means; that I should have arrived at supreme power by means of rioting or revolution; that I should have continued in the Presidency for a longer period than my constitutional term; that I should have trampled under foot the law and established order for my own benefit or for that of my adherents; that I should have unlawfully imprisoned citizens; or that I should have inspired terror. But the ruler can not be a dictator who defends the attributions and the power the people have confided to him; who observes and causes to be observed the constitution; who responds for his actions to his constitutional judges and in the ample form provided by the constitution; who serenely and without vacillation awaits the verdict that the nation will pronounce in March next; and who, if he resists the invasions of Congress and incitement to revolution, does nothing more than comply with the obligations that emanate from the constitution and the inseparable honor of those elected by Chile to direct and preserve it in the hours of storin and trial. The army and navy have been incited to disobey and revolt.

Vain attempt!

The army and the navy have imperishable glories gained in war and peace. They know that I am their constitutional chief, that by article 148 of the constitution they are essentially obedient forces, that they can not deliberate, and that they have been and will continue to be, for the honor of Chile and the repose of our society, the corner stone upon which the public peace reposes.

In a few months hence I shall cease to be the head of the Republic. There is not at the close of public life, nor in the last hour of government of a right-minded man, either the ambition or the incitement to conduce to a dictatorship. A dictatorship may be undertaken in order to arrive at power, but it is not in the logic of politics nor in the nature of things that a man who has lived a quarter of a century in the customary conflicts of public life should aim at a dictatorship in leaving power.

I have no honors to hope for nor ambitions to satisfy. But I have sacred obligations to fulfill toward my country and toward the Liberal party which raised me to power and which governs in conformity with the Liberal doctrine, without alliances or abdications, without affectation, and without dejection.

It is a solemn hour.

In it we shall fulfill our duty.

J. M. BALMACEDA.

No. 129.]

Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Santiago, February 13, 1891. (Received April 4.) SIR: Since writing my No. 123, of January 19 ultimo, there has been no regular mail from here. There is yet but slight change in the situa tion. The position which the revolutionists had seized at Coquimbo, and which gave them a good source from which to draw provisions, etc., for the fleet, was recaptured by the Government on January 25, and, so far as I can learn from reliable sources, all attempts made from the fleet since to effect a landing have been repulsed.

When the revolution commenced on January 7 the entire number of troops which the Government had under arms in the entire country was 3,500 men. It has now a well-equipped army of 26,000 men, while the fleet can not have increased its numbers to any appreciable extent. With the exception of eight or ten slight encounters, on the occasion of attempted landings, in all of which the casualties do not exceed 200 killed and 300 to 400 men wounded, the country up to the latest authentic accounts has continued entirely tranquil, and the most complete order prevails everywhere throughout the interior.

There was a threat on the part of the fleet to bombard Iquique on the 5th instant, which was not carried into effect, owing, I believe, to an energetic protest made by all of the foreign consuls; but there are rumors of the bombardment and burning of the small town of Pisagua, near Iquique, which rumors yet lack confirmation.

I am glad to be able to say that in every case during the present troubles, where the interests of a United States citizen were endangered, the Government has taken the most prompt and energetic steps to see that their persons and properties were protected. The United States consul at Valparaiso has just written me:

Whatever the outcome of the present troubles may be I shall always remember that the authorities here have treated me with uniform kindness and courtesy, and that so far they have refused no favors I have asked.

From reference to the archives I perceive that the present good feeling on the part of the Government toward United States citizens and United States interests presents a very agreeable contrast to that shown during the revolutionary movements of the years 1851 and 1859.

I have, etc.,

PATRICK EGAN.

No. 135.]

Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Santiago, February 23, 1891. (Received April 25.)

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that on yesterday I received from Rear-Admiral McCann a telegram requesting that I would notify the Department of the Navy of his arrival at Talcahuano. I accordingly cabled as follows:

TO BLAINE, Washington:

Pensacola arrived Talcahuano 20th. Admiral McCann desires inform Secretary Navy. Some fighting Iquique. Remainder country tranquil. EGAN.

I have, etc.,

PATRICK EGAN.

No. 136.]

Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.

LEGATION OF THE United States,

Santiago, March 4, 1891. (Received April 25.) SIR: To-day I am in receipt of letters from Mr. Joseph W. Merriam, United States consul at Iquique, dated February 21 and 23, informing me of the abandonment of Iquique on February 16 by the Government forces and its occupation on same day by a force of marines from the revolutionary fleet; also, of the subsequent attempt on February 19 of a small force of Government troops to retake it, which led to the burning of a part of the town by the Government troops and the serious damage of other parts by bombardment from the fleet. During this fight the United States consulate was completely destroyed, with all its property and archives, of which the Department will be fully informed by Mr. Merriam.

From other sources I learn that the Government forces are intrenched upon the heights back of Iquique awaiting reënforcements, and that their purpose is to blockade the town from the land side in order to prevent the shipment of nitrates.

I have, etc.,

PATRICK EGAN.

Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.

[Telegram.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Santiago, March 8, 1891.

Mr. Egan states that the minister for foreign affairs urgently requests that the Government of the United States will permit one of its ships to carry from Valparaiso to Montevideo a sum of about $4,000,000, bar silver, which is required for the payment of the interest on the national debt abroad; that the Chilean Government fears its capture by revolted fleet if the sum is sent in the regular course of business; and that outside of Iquique, which has been captured by fleet, the country is perfectly tranquil.