Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-30
BOTH SIDES OF IT,
The Causes Which Led Up to the
Chilean War Stated by Rep
reSentatiye PartisanS.
MR.. LINCOLN AND THE SOUTH
Cited by Counsel for the Presidential Gov
ernment to Elucidate the Pres
ent Situation.
THE CONGRESS AND THE CABINETS.
Mr.. LINCOLN AND THE SOUTH
THE CONGRESS AND THE CABINETS.
Insurgent Statement as to Balmacedas Ambition and
His Plans to Crafty It

NEW YORK, Aug. 29.-William NJ Twins,
counsel for the Chilean Legation, has been
authorized to make statement to the mer-
chants doing business with South America
''FrOm the outset" said Mr.. Twins, ''the
Chilean insurgents have been very much
such people as Mr.. Lincoln described the
Southerners to be in his famous Cooper In
stitute speech. He said that they were
holding pistols to our heads and claimed
that if we did not throw up our hands we
would be guilty of murder. This has been
about the positions of the Chilean insurgents
from the time that the controversy between
themselves and the President first arose.
President Balmaceda was elected five
years ago by the Liberal party, which con-
sisted of a number of factions which found
a great deal of difficulty in getting together
and agreeing upon a candidate.
HEADING A DISUNITED PARTY.
"Their differences were finally compro-
missed, President Balmaceda was put in
nomination and elected Since his election
he has had eight or nine distinct Cabinets.
His first effort was to please the entire Lib
eral party and to insure harmony among the
factions. With this end in view he sp-
pointed Cabinet after Cabinet, but found it
impractical to satisfy all the different wings
of the party. There were in it number of
men who were determined either to rule or
ruin, and who regarded the President as
their creature, much as some of our Ameri-
can bosses are in the habit of regarding
oficeholders whom they have assisted as
their men.
President Balmaceda is an even-tem-
pered, broad-minded man of great forbear-
ance and urbanity which is so unusual as to
have made him remarkable even among his
own urbane people. He acquiesced in the
demands Of several of the Liberal leaders
as long as it was possible for him to do SO
conformably with the provisions of the Con- |
stitution.
POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT.
''Now the Chilean Constitution, while it
is very largely patterned after our own, is
nevertheless distinctly unlike it in several
features, and it is equally unlike the En-
glish Constitution. The President is elected
for a term of five years, and has absolute +
command of the army and navy, as well as
the power to nominate his ministers without
any reference to Congress. Hemay appoint
and remove his ministers, as the Constitu-
tion says, at will
Notwithstanding the absoluteness of the
power accorded to the President by the let
ter of the Constitution, it is true that it has
been customary for Chilean Presidents al
most from the organization of the Republic
70 voluntarily remove the Ministry upon a |
vote Of censure or want of confidence. 1t is
equally true, however, that Congress had
never captiously and from improper motives
determined 10 avail itself Of this extra con-
stitutional custom for the purpose of CON-
- Il.
tation-
WHERE THE TROUBLE BEGAN.
''It was at all times within the power of
Congress, had any proper reason existed, to
have impeached ministers They did not
see fit to pursue this course, but insisted
that the President appoint only such minis
ters as were satisfactory to them, and should
Immediately on a vote of censure being
passed, no matter for what cause, remove
any existing ministry. President Balma-
ceda was acquiescent to their demands up to
the point where it became evident that to fur
ther submit to the Congressional despotism
would be virtually to abdicate his Office. 1t
was at this point that serious difficulties be-
gan.
Congress refused to pass appropriation
bills for the army, navy and the civil serv
ice, and charged that the President had an
official candidate for President whom he was
trying TO force upon the country. Presi-
dent Balmaceda, TO settle this difficulty, ap-
pointed the gentleman in question to a cab
jnent office, thus removing him from the list
OF candidates.
4 TRYING TO UNsEAT BALMACEDA.
''Their next important step was to remove
the president. 1t SO happens that under
the Chilean Constitution the President is not
subject TO Impeachment, as in this country, |
during his term of Office. He may be i'm
peached, however, after the expiration of
his term of Office and punished if found
guilty. Notwithstanding Congress had no
power of impeachment, the majority passed
a resolution declaring the Presidents office
vacant because of his failure to submit to
dictation.
"Then on January came the open rebel
lion. The opposition majority in Congress
declared itself to be the Government, went
on board man-of-war with mutinous navy
officers and began securing the coast for
place 10 land. During this entire contro-
versy a subsidized press had descended to /,
the depths of scurrility with attacks upon
the President such as had never before been
known.
''Once the navy mutinied 1t became i'm
peratively necessary to maintain internal I
order at any price. The result was ulti-
maJely much the same as the result in this
country during our war-the declaration of
martial law and the suspension of ordinary :
judicial writs in certain classes of cases.
The majority in Congress having disrupted
the Government, the President was left
without one of the constitutional branches
Of Government Because these members of
Congress had themselves violated the Con- {
debauched the navy and aban-
1Oned their posts, it did not follow that the
President should abandon his, but the
in him was the greater to remain
and protect the internal order and external
safety OF the State"
THE INSURGENT SIDE.