172 The National Geographic Magazine 



it will be seen that when private animos- 

 ities or personal ambitions were awak- 

 ened, constitutional provisions were of 

 little avail. After Chilian independence 

 was secured, General O'Higgins was 

 called to the head of the government 

 and became dictator, but he was finally 

 driven from power by a revolution and 

 Freire was chosen president in 1 8 2 3 . He 

 remained in office three years, but was 

 troubled with frequent insurrections, 

 and the four years following his retire- 

 ment saw six dictators. In 1828 a new 

 constitution was promulgated, and in 

 1 83 1 Prieto was chosen president, and 

 from that date for many years a consti- 

 tutional form of government was en- 

 joyed, although defeated candidates for 

 the presidency more than once organized 

 unsuccessful revolutions on the ground 

 that they had been defrauded in the elec- 

 tions. In 1890, near the close of Balma- 

 ceda's term, he was suspected of select- 

 ing the chief of his cabinet to be his 

 successor. This choice was contrary to 

 the wishes of the majority of the con- 

 gress, which body refused to vote the 

 budget appropriations, and Balmaceda 

 retaliated by dissolving congress. The 

 leaders of the latter went on board the 

 government fleet, which pronounced in 

 favor of the Congressional party, and 

 thus a revolution was inaugurated which 

 resulted in the overthrow of Balmaceda. 

 One of its evil effects was to bring about 

 complications with the United States 

 nearly ending in war, and which have 

 embittered the Chilians strongly against 

 our Government. 



The record of all the I,atin-American 

 republics has not been as bad as that of 

 Venezuela, though some of them equal 

 it in their history of anarchy and mis- 

 rule, and few, if any, of them have even 

 as clear a record as that of Chile; but 

 they all teach the same lesson of inability 

 to respect the constitutional provision 

 as to the executive power, when a fierce 

 electoral campaign is carried on. Such a 

 test as came to the Congress of the United 



States following the Jefferson-Adams 

 campaign of 1800, the Jackson- Adams- 

 Crawford-Clay campaign of 1824, or the 

 Hayes-Tilden campaign of 1876, would 

 almost inevitably bring about a revolu- 

 tion or a disregard of the constitution in 

 any of the Latin-American States. 



The experience of the past year dem- 

 onstrates the lesson of their histor}-. 

 We have been reading the almost daily 

 reports of the revolutionary movements 

 in Venezuela and Colombia. The dis- 

 orders in Venezuela had their origin in 

 the election about three years ago, when 

 Andrade was declared to be chosen presi- 

 dent over his competitor, Hernandez. 

 The latter contended that he was the 

 real choice, and his partisan. General 

 Castro, took up arms to place his candi- 

 date in the executive chair. Castro de- 

 feated the government forces and drove 

 Andrade from the country, but in place 

 of installing Hernandez in power Castro 

 imprisoned him, and declared himself 

 president. Hernandez succeeded in es- 

 caping, and both he and Andrade are 

 now reported to be seeking to drive the 

 usurper from power ; but even if Castro 

 is displaced the two claimants will still 

 have their own contest to settle. A late 

 telegram states that a constitutional con- 

 vention has been convoked by Castro, 

 and that this body will frame a new con- 

 stitution, with an article extending the 

 president's term of office from two to 

 seven years. 



President McKinley, in his last an- 

 nual message, stated that "the execu- 

 tive power of Colombia changed hands 

 in August last by the act of Vice-Presi- 

 dent Marroquin in assuming the reins 

 of government during the absence of 

 President San Clemente from the capi- 

 tal. " This gave rise to armed resist- 

 ance, and we have had for months the' 

 periodical announcement that the revo- 

 lution had been put down, only to break 

 out again with fresh vigor. The diplo- 

 matic representative of the revolutionists 

 recently announced from New York;that 



