CHAPTEfc XII. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, IN 185J. 



PRELIMINARY MEASURES OF GOVERNMENT. THE CANDIDATES. DISORDER IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES. QUALIFICA- 

 TION OF VOTERS. JUDGES OF THE ELECTION. POLITICAL MEETINGS PROHIBITED. ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE 

 PURCHASE OF VOTES. THE BALLOTTING. PRICES PAID FOR VOTES. INCIDENTS AT THE POLL. THE OPPOSITION 

 PARTY DISSATISFIED. REGARDED THE MOST IMPARTIAL ELECTION WITHIN TWENTY YEARS. FRAUDULENT QUALI- 

 FICATIONS. NUMBER OF VOTES POLLED THROUGHOUT THE REPUBLIC. THE RESULT. FAILURE OF THE OPPOSITION 

 DEPUTIES TO DEFEAT THE LAW. CEREMONIES ON DECLARING AND INAUGURATING THE NEW PRESIDENT. 



Prior to the day appointed for the meeting of Congress (June 1), rapid work was made with 

 all those members against whom the least charge could be brought ; and, under the powers 

 exercised during the existence of martial law, four or five deputies, four prominent civilians 

 belonging to the opposition party, and a part of the editors and contributors to the liberal 

 papers, both at Valparaiso and Santiago, were banished. Meantime, as soon as the government 

 could take decided measures, an order was sent to the south for all the regular troops to be put 

 in motion towards Santiago. Gen. Cruz, the liberal candidate for the presidency, was, at 

 the time, Intendente of Concepcion, and had quite a large portion of the standing army under 

 his control, ready to back a popularity increasing rather too rapidly for the pleasure of the 

 administration. Moreover, as it was possible he would not be willing to part with those whose 

 muskets might be needed to sustain his own pretensions, in order to cripple him to the utmost 

 in such case, it was currently believed that independent orders had been sent to each subordinate, 

 directing him individually to repair to Santiago. If true and there is little reason to doubt 

 it this was a breach of military courtesy and etiquette, to which no commander would quietly, 

 submit. Certain it is, within a few days many of the officers appeared at the capital ; and the 

 General, landing from a steamer at Valparaiso, also presented himself at head-quarters. 

 But he was too old a soldier not to keep counsel, and the circles of gossips were for the time at 

 fault. 



On the 20th of May, just a month after the revolt, some sixty or seventy of the matrons of San- 

 tiago waited on Gen. Cruz in a body. They were arrayed in mourning. Their avowed object 

 was to welcome a chief who they hoped would deliver their country from the despotism they 

 considered prevailing, and free them from terrors consequent on the expatriation of fathers and 

 husbands during the terms of martial law, to which they had, of late, been so subject. These 

 visitors were among the very first families of Chile. Besides this evidence of respect, whenever 

 he appeared in public he was greeted by the mass with cheers ; whilst the name of Senor Montt, 

 the ministerial candidate, if heard at all, was only "damned with faint praise." 



Congress met on the 1st of June, and as the substitutes of the banished members were gen- 

 erally in favor of the existing government, the ministerial candidates were elected as presiding 

 officers at the first ballot. On the same day a paper was presented from one of the ablest of 

 the expatriated deputies, asking that the decision by the conservative commission, which 

 deprived him of his seat, might be revised by the Chamber to which he belonged. A discussion 

 at once arose between the president and deputy presenting it, in which more than ordinary 

 feeling was shown on both sides. The former affected to treat it as a common petition, to be 

 referred under the rule to a standing committee, whose composition would, of course, con- 

 form to the wishes of government ; and the latter claimed its consideration as a privileged 

 question. In a little time affairs assumed a tone of such rancor that the audience, almost to 

 a man espousing the side of the opposition, actually hissed and hooted down the ministers or 



