So I am a coward because, in the hour of Chile's greatest crisis, I thought only of the preservation of the Republic instead of the advancement of my personal ambitions? I am a coward because my first concern was how to save the rightful government from the revolution, and not exploit it for my own ends? I am a coward because, faced with overwhelming adversity, I stood by the besieged Republic and did not subvert her from the inside? It seems that the opinions of the Continental Administration vaccilate between honourable and cowardly, conservador and comunista. Never before has a man been called a traitor for upholding the constitutional order instead of supporting a spontaneous insurrection.
Senor Crazzio is an honourable man, and I believe his overtures for peace were genuine. But Senor Fernandez desires no peace. He does not wish to see reconciliation between the Free State and the mainland. He stands opposed to the reunification of the Fatherland. He would irreparably divide our nation and our people and perpetuate a civil war between two factions who merely hope for peaceful coexistence. Why? Because he feels that his power will be threatened; because he usurped his position by force in the midst of a crisis, exploiting my absence, and now clings on to it only by inertia. As I understood it, the National Revolution was supposed to mark the end of personal politics and the beginning of an era where the needs of the nation prevailed over self-interested politicians. I cannot negotiate with Senor Fernandez - a man whose success and position is entirely dependent on my appointments as President, but who assaults my character all the same.
I am agitating for the election of a man more capable of putting the national interest before personal politics.
- President Charles Maximilien de Conti
