José Manuel Balmaceda, proclaimed a candidate to…

José Manuel Balmaceda, proclaimed a candidate to the Chilean presidency in the Odeon Theater of Valparaíso on January 17, 1886, with the support of the Nacional, Liberal and part of the Radical Parties, is elected President as sole candidate on June 25th.

His election is bitterly opposed by the Conservatives and dissident Liberals, but is finally successfully carried by the official influence exercised by outgoing President Domingo Santa María.

On assuming office in September, President Balmaceda endeavors to bring about a reconciliation of all sections of the Liberal party in congress and so form a solid majority to support the administration, and to this end he nominates as ministers representatives of the different political groups

Balmaceda was born in Bucalemu, the eldest of the twelve children of Manuel José Balmaceda Ballesteros and Encarnación Fernández Salas.

His parents were wealthy, and in his early days he had been chiefly concerned in industrial and agricultural enterprises.

In 1849, he had attended the School of the French Friars, and had considered joining the clergy, studying several years of theology at the Santiago Seminary.

In 1864, he had become secretary to Manuel Montt, one of the representatives of the Chilean government at the general South American congress at Lima, and after his return had obtained great distinction as an orator in the national assembly.

In 1868, he had joined forces with Justo and Domingo Arteaga Alemparte to found and publish the newspaper "La Libertad" (Freedom).

He had also been a constant contributor to the "Revista de Santiago", and had published two monographs: "The political solution in electoral freedom" and "Church and State".

In 1869, he had joined the Club de la Reforma, which had become the political basis of the Liberal Party.

The essential tenets of its political program are freedom of religion, increased personal and political freedom, elimination of governmental intervention in the electoral process, reform of the 1833 constitution and restriction of the powers of the President.

On the basis of this radical program, Balmaceda had been elected Deputy for Carelmapu several times: 1864-1867; 1870-1873; 1873-1876; 1876-1879; 1879-1882.

Under President Aníbal Pinto, he had discharged some diplomatic missions abroad, and is credited with persuading Argentina not to join the War of the Pacific in 1878.

In 1882, he had been reelected both for Carelmapu and Santiago, but had decided to accept neither and had become instead successively Minister of Foreign Affairs and Colonization and of the Interior under the presidency of Domingo Santa María.

In the latter capacity, he had carried compulsory civil marriage and several other laws highly obnoxious to the conservatives and the clergy.

Balmaceda had also been elected a Senator for Coquimbo (1882-1888).