MONTT, Wait. JointE (184(1— ). A President of Chile. son of :Manuel Montt (q.v.). He was a captain in the navy when, in January. 1891, the relations between President Balm:tee& and the Chilean Congress reached the point of ac tive hostilities, and the fleet under his leader ship dmlared for Congress. On January 7th a number of the Senators and Congressmen em barked on the warships and organized a pro visional government or junta. with Montt at its head. The army renniiiwd faithful to Balma ceda, but the majority of the people were hostile. An army of about 10.000 men was raised without much difficulty by the Congressionalists. Toward the end of August the Congressionalist forces ad ministered a severe defeat to their opponents only a few miles from Valparaiso, and fol lowed it up a few days later with a second victory at PiaciIla, which finally destroyed Bal maceda's power. Montt then established a pro visional government in Santiago, and called for the election of a new President and Congress.
This election, probably the first in the history of Chile that was not largely influeneed by the party in power. resulted in the almost unanimous choice of Montt for President. The confidence thus shown in him was amply justified by his ad ministration. De exerted himself to mend the breach made by the civil war, and granted am nesty to all who had supported Balmaeeda. He thoroughly reorganized the army and navy, placed the currency of the country again on a gold basis, and granted a large measure of local autonomy to the municipalities. In foreign af fairs he endeavored to settle the boundary dispute between Chile and Argentina by providing for the submission of the question to Croat Britain: hut in this he was not entirely siecess:fnI. On September 18, 1896, having completed the five years of his term of office, he quietly resigned the Government to Federico Errazuriz, who had been elected his successor.