The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-22
sEATTLE. TUFsDAF, ser. 2e


The dying wall of disappointed ambition
may be pathetic, but it is never heroic and
seldom arouses much sympathy. Had
BaImaceda died without word, the silent
mystery attending his last moments might
have softened the asperity with which his
later life has been condemned. The letter
he left in exculpation of his policy is very
weak and must be great disappointment
10 those who acknowledged him as leader.
lie gave promise of being statesman, but
his career has proved that sagacious deeds
don't always follow lofty speech. So long
ms he criticised the government, SO long as
he led the people 10 liberty with eloquent
apostrophes he seemed to be great man !;
but when upon him fell the responsibility
of government and the task of organiza-
ton he deplorably failed.
The letter, written evidently very short
ly before his suicide, shows that the Bal
maceda who had spoken SO bravely was a
moral coward. He says: 81 had nobody
in the army l could trust; my
generals lied to me. My generals
assured me of victory, but they all
lied" He admits his own incapacity,
but says nothing of the fidelity with
which so many remained by him. Had
the generals obeyed my orders think the
last great battle would have resulted in the
defeat of the enemy" Allowance being
made for an imperfect translation and that
the word "enemy" may not have been
justified by the original, it is still evident
that Balmaceda entirely misconceived the
relations existing between himself and
the people. and vastly underestimated the
intensity of popular disaifection to his adj
ministration. He was, therefore, failure
both as an executive and as statesman.
But even these fatal admissions of in.
capacity are surpassed by the puerile con-
fession that he had not the discernment of
an ordinarily bright man. He whines
that he knows now that "my generals
only prentended to be my friends because
of the money they could get from me-"
What terrible awakening it must have
been when he discovered that they had
not risked their lives, jeopardized their
property and endured the privations and
discomforts Of military life for the sake
only Of him who sat in the palace and die
tated to gorgeously uniformed generals,
laughing In their sleeve, orders to an army
OF whose strength he knew nothing to
crush out an enemy which was the people
Of whose liberty he proclaimed himself the
savior-to humiliate, to kill, MAIN, tor
ture, impoverish the citizens Of the state
with which my heart" as he says, has
been, throughout the whole trouble"
His death by his own hand was a sad
termination to life begun SO auspiciously,
but it was a still more miserable end to the
pretentious attempt TO set up once more
an imperial flower cloaked beneath sem.
bance of democratic government. 1t is
we'll for Chile that it ended SO; it will be q
warning both to the people to fasten theil
faith TO the true principles Of self-rule, OF
which they find the best example in the
northern half OF their hemisphere, and Il
will be awarning also TO those turbulent
spirits which have been drawn to tn,
shores of that and other South American
nations for the hope of loot readily aroused
revolutions afforded.
Brazil disposed of the last emperor
Chile has disposed of the last dictator.