Speech in Which Arturo Alessandri Explains Why He Will Not Call for Meetings of the National Congress in 1925

http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Discurso_en_que_Arturo_Alessandri_explica_por_qu%C3%A9_no _convocar%C3%A1_a_sesiones_del_congreso_nacional_en_1925 Speech in which Arturo Alessandri explains why he will not call for meetings of the national congress in 1925 The recent expression of some opinions about the wisdom of allowing the functioning of the Congress chosen in March of 1924 imposes on me the duty to share my point of view and resolve in the matter. The Revolutionary Junta, which overthrew the Government of the Republic on September 11, 1924, declared the dissolution of the National Congress by decree on that same date. In its final considerations and in its resolution, this law said “that under current circumstances consultation with the popular will is an imperious necessity.” On the other hand, it is a matter of public notoriety that the voter registrations of this past November and the elections of March occurred in a way that cannot be considered a true reflection of popular will, to which the resolutions of the Electoral Review Commission give sufficient evidence. It is the Government’s decided purpose to realize this consultation of the nation’s popular will as soon as possible to guarantee the correct exercise of the right to elect: In view of these grave considerations and in order to achieve the enunciated purposes, there is no other alternative to the dissolution of the National Congress. For these reasons we have agreed and we decree that: 1. The National Congress is declared dissolved. 2. The Minister of Interior will proceed to the study of the measures necessary to convene new elections for the people. Once declared dissolved, the Congress did not protest or denounce that resolution. Public opinion was also silent and the measure was imposed in the whole country in an environment favorable to it, because it was considered that the regime was destined to be a failure, that it would impede the Nation’s progress and seriously damage her vital energies. Public opinion did not view it as a necessary attack to end definitively a repudiated regime. The silence of public opinion and the acts and positive declarations, arisen from diverse political fields, justify this appraisal. On September 19, that is, scarcely six days after the event, the “Executive Committee” that, by resolution of the General Junta, assumed the leadership of the Radical Party, said: “As for the Parliament, despite the violation of public law implied by its dissolution, it is necessary to confess that this measure was a source of national salvation; its destruction, in our judgment, has changed a ruinous regime and has cleared the field to implement in its place a better order of things.” The president of the Conservative Party, Mr. Arthur Lyon, at the same time, interpreting the sentiments of his colleagues and the parties in his political coalition, in the Conservative Party’s http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Discurso_en_que_Arturo_Alessandri_explica_por_qu%C3%A9_no _convocar%C3%A1_a_sesiones_del_congreso_nacional_en_1925 Executive session on November 18, 1924, said: “The military movement occurred outside our sphere of action, but the purposes that instigated it perfectly coincide with the objectives of our program, with its desire for administrative regeneration, political reform, moral improvement, and material progress. In effect, who can deny that the revolutionary movement has legitimated the campaign that the Conservative Party has advanced for more than three years in Congress and in the press; that it has brought prestige to the most eminent Conservatives; and that it has proven the excellence of its program’s fundamental principles?” Furthermore, he adds: “It should be known that we have declared our solidarity with the military movement. We lament that this movement was necessary, but we recognize its necessity and we see it as a work of national salvation. The country should know that we are the most enthusiastic collaborators with this new era of moral regeneration and material progress, maintaining ourselves, as always, separate from all political chicanery. .” Thus came the January 23 uprising that overthrew the first Governing Junta and, the Manifesto sent to the country by its authors said: “We have just recaptured the initial sentiment of the act undertaken by those responsible for the movement of September 5. The malicious deviation from our program exhibited in the manifesto of September 11 required the overthrow of leaders who betrayed the confidence deposited in them.” And it added: “We find ourselves once again at the beginning of a patriotic duty. This time we do not want to dictate standards ourselves, but we want to call for the country’s free majority, protected by our swords and led by its Constitutional President, to reorganize Chile, achieving the promises of our September 1th manifesto.” Therefore, the movement of January 23 aimed to recapture the original objectives of the September 5, that is, to give the country a constitution that corresponds to national aspirations. “Once the new Constitution is created,” the September 11 manifesto says, “the election of public authorities should proceed on the basis of voter registrations undertaken through a free and broad enrollment. Once these authorities have been constituted, our mission will be completed. The January 23 movement called the Constitutional President of Chile precisely for this purpose, “to give the country a Constitution that corresponds to national aspirations” and, once the Constitution was established, to proceed according to its provisions to elect public officials on the basis of voter registrations undertaken through a free and open enrollment. Military leaders declare that their mission will be complete once such objectives have been reached. As a result of the September 5 revolution, the resignation of the Constitutional President of Chile was accepted and the Congress was dissolved. The revolution of January 23 reconsidered the first act [i.e., the President’s resignation] and sustained the second in its entirety. It called upon the Constitutional President to complete his term of office and trusted him to achieve the revolutionary goal that, I repeat, is the establishment of a new Constitution, which corresponds to national aspirations, and proceeds immediately to the election of public officials on the basis of voter registrations that reflect a free and open enrollment. http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Discurso_en_que_Arturo_Alessandri_explica_por_qu%C3%A9_no _convocar%C3%A1_a_sesiones_del_congreso_nacional_en_1925 Therefore, the Costitutional President of Chile is called upon to return the country to institutional normalcy, indicating to him precisely the only path to achieve this objective. The revolution of January 23 did not intend to restore constitutional normalcy by opening the dissolved Congress, but called upon the President to achieve this goal through the route earlier outlined and no other. On January 24, I received in Venice a telegram from the new provisionally constituted Governing Junta, which called me to the country for the objectives and purposes earlier described. My first impulse, reflecting my firm personal resolve, was to decline their offer to return to assume the Government’s leadership, from which I considered myself definitely separated. A series of considerations of national interest, which they posed via cable, including a telegram signed by the presidents of all parties in the Liberal Alliance, caused me to change my mind in the sense of demanding the greatest sacrifice that can be required of a man, which was to reassume command in order to achieve the goals of the same revolution that had placed him in the position of abandoning power and the country. The telegram from the presidents of the parties that constitute the Liberal Alliance, received on January 26, was conceived in the following terms: “New military movement organized on basis of your return to complete your constitutional term and implement September 11 manifesto, whose conditions are accepted by military institutions, political parties, and popular opinion. In name of parties that supported your Government, we beseech you to declare your acceptance and announce your immediate return. Situation entirely favorable. (Signed) ELIODORO YAÑEZ. Liberal President.-ENRIQUE OYARZUN, Radical President.- CLAUDIO VICUÑA, President of the Balmacedista Party.- NOLASCO CARDENAS, President of the Democratic Party.” On the same day of January 26, I also received the following telegram from trade union organizations: “National Workers’ Committee, formed by the Chilean Workers’ Federation, Railway Federation, Chilean Employees Federation, Communist Party, Metalurgical Union, and fourteen autonomous organizations have openly endorsed new Government and request esteemed President Alessandri to return immediately to resume office, only means to maintain public peace and save the country. This is a uniquely transcendental moment in Chile’s history. You cannot abandon us. VICUÑA FUENTES.- HIDALGO.- CARLOS ALBERTO MARTINEZ.- MOYANO.- LOYOLA.” With these and other antecedents, I dispatched from Rome the January 27 telegram in which I accepted the request to return to the country to complete my constitutional term and obtain the passage of the new Constitution demanded by the triumphant revolution on the condition that the armed forces should return thereafter to their ordinary exercise of their professional responsibilities. My acceptance was favorably received and from the

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