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CHAPTER VI THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT SANTA MARIA The war with Peru, having been decided and practi- cally settled in favor of the Chileans by the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores, it is time to turn our atten- tion to political changes at Santiago, where party feel- ing at this time was running high. On the i8th of September, 1881, Don Domingo Santa Maria succeeded Don Anibal Pinto as president of Chile. Santa Maria was a pronounced liberal and had long been a conspic- uous figure in Chilean politics, having been twice ban- ished for taking an active part in revolutions. In 1852, he had retired to Lima and in 1858, to Europe, a po- litical exile from his own country. He had been min- ister of finance in 1863, under President Perez, who had formed a ministry of moderate liberals and con- servatives, had signed the defensive treaty with Peru against Spain in 1866, and, as minister of foreign affairs during the last year of Pinto's administration, had con- ducted the negotiations with Lavalle pending the out- break of the war. The reaction toward the liberal party had set in dur- ing the administration of President Errazuriz in 1871. He had formed a conservative ministry,but the attempts to bring about reforms, particularly the abolition of ecclesiastical tribunals, had estranged the president 31a