In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

440 One of the facts that has characterized the current administration has been a marked tendency to favor the old reactionary party, summoning many of its men, to whom it has entrusted positions of greater or lesser rank, and even placing them in the legislative bodies and in the tribunals and courts of justice. What is the thinking that has determined that policy? What is the objective the government has put forward in setting out that plan of management? What is the intention of the individuals who enter into the service of an administration that, although in name only, declares ideas diametrically opposed to those that form its politico-religious creed? The question is serious and worth the trouble of being examined, although it might be in the briefest possible way. We must, of course, show that we are not among those who believe that, in order to be liberal, a necessary condition is not to have religious ideas, and we are so far from thinking that true Christianity is opposed to democratic opinions that, on the contrary, we find in the first the fundamental foundations of the second. In this sense we recall that when it was a matter of constitutional affirmation, we maintained that it did not conflict with the religious beliefs of any person, and we considered as a partisan weapon the great hullabaloo that was raised then by conservative periodicals. Time has proved us completely right, given that today the ecclesiastical authority has permitted the affirmation to the Constitution and Laws of Reform to be accepted, dispelling in this way the scruples that so distressed the timid souls. We must also show that, considering the conservative group simply as a political party inasmuch as between it and the liberal party we find only disagreements of this nature and not that conflict of religious ideas 7 Bulletin of El Monitor, September 27, 1878 Original title: “Boletín del Monitor,” 27 de septiembre de 1878. Source: El Monitor Republicano, September 27, 1878. bulletin of El Monitor, September 27, 1878 : 441 that some attempt to set out, we have not considered it impossible that the conservative group, yielding to the demands of the times, might modify its exaggerated tendencies and accept the constitutional order sanctioning the Reform, the conservative group might renounce the abstention to which it has confined itself since the downfall of the empire and might begin to fight openly on legal ground. Although this has not been completely realized, it does not appear to us that the day is far off when we might see it, given that now a considerable number of old conservatives appear in political posts of greater or lesser importance, which equates to accepting an order based, as it is said, in the Constitution . We must show, finally, that the liberal party does not belong to the number of those intolerant exclusivists who systematically keep men who profess certain political or religious ideas out of all participation in public matters. Here, nonetheless, we have to make a necessary distinction . In the matter of posts, we find a great difference between those that are tied directly to the development of political ideas that form the program of the government and those that are purely administrative. It is clear that we, professing the principles of the liberal party, will not support for the former posts any but men who have a perfectly clear and defined democratic character, and we will never concede our trust to an enemy of the institutions, even if he is flexible enough to consent to play the role of liberal. We consider this point so sensitive that, even dealing with the diverse factions of the republican party, we find it neither strange nor reprehensible that governments surround themselves on the first line with men of their circle who inspire in them more confidence because of their intelligence , their honor, and their personal loyalty. To attack a government as exclusivist because the ministries, for example, include individuals identified with the leader of the executive branch in political principles and on the course he proposes to carry out is the worst kind of weapon, which simple common sense condemns. The same does not happen with respect to other branches of the administration where the political ideas of the persons have no influence. Individual opinions, party commitments, should not in any case be preferred to honesty, ability, industriousness, and education. Good public service, the demands of order and morality, impose on governments the...

Share