No. 118.
Mr. Logan
to Mr. Fish.
Santiago de Chile, November 2, 1874. (Received Dec. 16.)
Sir: My dispatch No. 87 informs you of the passage of an amendment to the penal-code bill by the Chilian senate virtually nullifying [Page 180] those provisions of the bill most obnoxious to the church party. In due course of procedure the bill with the amendment came up in the house a short time since for action. According to the rules, a two-third majority was required to disagree with the senate amendment. The church party were in a state of the wildest excitement, fearing the requisite majority would be obtained. Every means of persuasion and intimidation were resorted to by the clericals to bend the radical majority in the house to their own purposes $ and, as a weapon of irresistible power, the Archbishop of Santiago, in connection with the bishops of Concepcion and Serena, issued a pastoral a few days in advance of the expected vote, forbidding the clergy to extend the rites of the church to any person who, by his voice or vote, should do any act which might contribute to the injury of the holy church. . This decree of excommunication applied itself at once to the President and his cabinet who proposed the bill, and was intended to operate in the future against such members of Congress as might vote for it.
The measure produced the most intense fear and anxiety among the wives, daughters, and female relatives of the excommunicated and those who were in danger of incurring it, and accordingly this element of strength was added to the efforts of the clergy in defeating the bill. The excommunicated, however, only laughed at the matter, and did not appear affected by it.
After protracted discussion a vote was reached, and 59 out of 88 members, exactly two-thirds, voted against the senate amendment. Upon the announcement of the result to the crowd surrounding the building, an excited demonstration took place 5 loud cheers for the liberals and groans in derision of the church party filling the air. Some personal conflicts also ensued, though none of a general nature. The yelling crowd in their excitement threw some stones at the Independiente (the church paper) in the neighborhood, and in the open plaza two copies of the pastoral of excommunication were burned, amid shouts of derision.
This action of the house threw the bill back to the senate for a two-third vote in order to sustain the amendment. The day arrived for the vote and a large crowd gathered about the building, awaiting the result with the most breathless anxiety: among these was the Archbishop himself, clad in full clerical robes. Much to the chagrin of the liberals, a two-third vote was gained by the church party, under the spur and lash of the clericals, and, as it is freely asserted, by the liberal use of money. The senate is composed of only twenty members, which is not a large body to handle if they take kindly to handling.
The bill has thus passed with the senate amendment to Art. 118; and though the liberals have not gained all they hoped for, yet a long step seems taken toward the final separation of church and state. The President and his cabinet are now openly in favor of the church reform, and popular meetings are being held all over the country indorsing the action of the President and the liberal members of Congress. So pronounced are these indorsements that it is certain the new Congress whose members are to be elected next year will have a large majority of liberals in each House, and the defeat of the church party assured in consequence.
An important result of the recent contest has been to show the liberals that they are in a large majority in the republic, and hence their future action will be open and undisguised.
I have, &c.,