The South American Republics Volume I Part 20

In the election the Liberals had no chance and largely refrained from voting. The governing cla.s.ses shrank from the probable consequences of abolition; the temper of the country seemed to have cooled; the election reform of 1881 had not proven in practice to be of much value. Though not so absolute as before, the provincial governors resumed their control of the result, and returns were made according to the wishes of the ministry in power. One hundred and three Conservatives received certificates and only twenty-two Liberals, and most of the latter came from the interior where official pressure could least easily be applied.

Not a republican was returned, and the declared abolitionists had almost disappeared, although every one knew that the final blow to slavery could not long be deferred.

The new administration devoted itself to the finances. Since 1871 the deficits had been continuous; one sarcastic statesman said amid applause that "the empire is the deficit." The issue of paper money had been excessive. Better times began in 1886. A loan of six millions sterling was contracted for on favourable terms; from forty per cent. below par the currency rose to par in the succeeding three years; imports and exports increased by leaps and bounds; and the revenue grew seventy-five per cent. in a single year. The production of coffee in So Paulo, and of rubber in Para and Amazonas reached unprecedented figures; foreign immigration was subsidised and a systematic propaganda to secure it undertaken. From thirty thousand it ran up to one hundred thousand a year, and the apprehensions that emanc.i.p.ation would cause a dearth of labour were largely quieted. Government subsidies had kept up the building of railroads during the years when the treasury was most embarra.s.sed, and naturally went on more rapidly when prosperity came.

When the Paraguayan war ended there were only 450 miles of railroad in the country. In the decade that followed 1450 were built, while from 1880 to 1889 five hundred miles a year were constructed.

The Conservative Prime Minister, Baron Cotegipe, struggled hard through 1886 and 1887 to save the remnants of slavery, but intelligent and unprejudiced opinion was nearly unanimous for the entire abolition of the disgraceful and barbarous inst.i.tution. Project after project was presented, each one more radical than the last. The slaves began to flee from the plantations. The army refused to aid the police in capturing them. The poor old Emperor had gone abroad, sick and failing, leaving Isabel as regent. Her advisers, mostly priests and foreigners, told her that the delay was endangering the dynasty. Cotegipe resigned and John Alfredo was made Prime Minister for the especial purpose of pa.s.sing an emanc.i.p.ation act. When Congress met in May, 1888, the speech from the throne announced that the imperial programme was absolute, immediate, and uncompensated emanc.i.p.ation. The prestige of the Crown was sufficient to hush nearly all opposition. Within eight days the law had pa.s.sed both Houses and been signed by the princess. The votes against it were hardly numerous enough to be worth counting. Only Cotegipe and a few devoted monarchists stood in their places and read aloud the handwriting on the wall, prophesying the sure and speedy overthrow of a monarchy which had thus cast off its surest and most natural supporters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMPEROR DOM PEDRO IN 1889.]

CHAPTER XXI

THE REVOLUTION--THE DICTATORs.h.i.+P--THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC

Every intelligent man in Brazil had long recognised the force of the permanently working causes which were undermining the empire. Affonso Celso, in 1902 considered the ablest advocate of restoration, and the son of the last Prime Minister of the empire, said, in 1886, from his place as national deputy, that the empire maintained itself only through the tolerance of its enemies. Neither one of the two great parties of office-holders was really monarchical, although the members of both co-operated with the Emperor for the sake of the patronage. But the Brazilian ma.s.ses were too apathetic to take any violent measures for the overthrow of the worn-out inst.i.tution without some definite stimulus.

This was furnished by the "military question" in 1889.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MILITARY SCHOOL AT RIO JANEIRO.]

The teachings of Benjamin Constant, a professor of the military school at Rio, had thoroughly impregnated the younger officers of the army with republican doctrine. The officers were extremely sensitive about their professional rights, and a spirit of disaffection and insubordination was rife among them. In 1886 there was great indignation in the army because an officer, who had engaged in an undignified newspaper controversy with a deputy, was reprimanded by the secretary of war. A little later another officer insisted on attacking through the press a pension law advocated by the war department, and his cause was taken up by the highest generals with the Marshal Deodoro de Fonseca at their head. This general was transferred from his post to a less desirable one, and a new outburst of indignation among the officers agitated army circles. The ministry thought it best not to push the matter. In 1888 the bad feeling was further exacerbated by the police arresting some officers for disorderly conduct in the streets. Again the army demanded satisfaction, and again it was given. The favourite champion of military dignity, Deodoro, was sent off to Matto Grosso in the spring of 1889, and this was taken as equivalent to a punishment for his activity in maintaining the privileges of his profession. Again the government thought it prudent to yield, and he was allowed to return.

In the meantime, the Emperor's health had grown more feeble and the Princess Isabel was in power. Herself unpopular, her parsimonious husband, the Comte d'Eu, was bitterly disliked by most Brazilians. The rumour gained credence that there was a plan to have the sick Emperor resign in her favour. Though the general feeling was that so long as the old man lived and reigned he ought not to be disturbed, the hot-headed republican officers were in no humour to allow the princess to succeed to the throne. The Conservative Cabinet had been met with a flat refusal from the army when they ordered it to a.s.sist in capturing fugitive slaves. The government's hand was thus forced on the slavery question.

John Alfredo's Cabinet succeeded to Cotegipe's, but was no happier in its dealings with the "military question." The princess determined to call in the Liberals, and their hard-headed leader, Ouro Preto, was made Prime Minister. By many this was believed to be a part of the plot for an abdication--that the princess's friends wanted a strong man at the head of affairs when the _coup d'etat_ came.

Ouro Preto took charge of the government in June, 1889, and shortly dissolved the Chamber after some bitter debates in which, for the first time in Brazil, the cry of "Viva a Republica!" was heard on the floor of Parliament. The new ministry had no trouble in controlling the elections, and the new Chamber that met in August was Liberal. Ouro Preto felt strong enough to undertake to reduce the malcontents to submission. He began by strengthening the police force and the national guard, and removing certain regiments from the capital. But in September Deodoro returned from the remote wilds of Matto Grosso and was received with great demonstrations by his comrades. Secret meetings of officers were held, and they pledged themselves to sustain at all hazards the prestige of the military cla.s.s. Professor Constant, whose influence with the younger officers was predominant, openly threatened the ministry.

Early in November still another battalion was ordered off from the capital to the north of Brazil, and this was the immediate occasion for the formation of a military conspiracy in which Professor Constant and Deodoro were the original chiefs. They determined to make an alliance with the republicans and invited the co-operation of Quintino Bocayuva, the chief of the militant republicans; of Aristides Lobo, a republican editor of Rio; of Glycerio, one of the republican chiefs in So Paulo; of Ruy Barbosa, a great lawyer and editor, whose attacks on the government had been very effective, though he had not yet declared himself a republican; and of Admiral Wandenkolk, who was expected to secure the help of the navy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL BENJAMIN CONSTANT.

[From a woodcut.]]

Deodoro and Constant could absolutely count upon one brigade--the second--and were well a.s.sured of the sympathy of all the regular forces in Rio. Of course the plan could not be kept secret from the government police, though the public seems to have known nothing of the gravity of what was going on. On the 14th of November, the rumour spread that Deodoro and Constant would be arrested. Orders had, in fact, been given for the transfer of the disaffected brigade, and the ministers were warned that it was preparing to resist. That night the members of the Cabinet did not sleep, and the morning found them still in anxious council at the War Department, which faces the great square of Rio.

Constant had ridden out to the quarters of the Second Brigade, and early in the morning led it to the square and drew up in front of the War Department. Deodoro took command of the insurgent troops, sending an officer to demand the surrender of the ministers. Ouro Preto called upon the adjutant-general, Floriano Peixoto, to lead against the revolters the troops which were in the general barracks. Floriano, after a little hesitation, refused, and it is doubtful whether the troops would have followed him had he consented. There was no one to raise a hand for the ministers. They surrendered and sent their resignations by telegraph to the Emperor at Petropolis, twenty-five miles away in the mountains.

Their impression seems to have been that the insurrection was simply a military mutiny and that its object was solely to secure their own downfall. But the fact that Constant, Bocayuva, and others had been let into the inside enabled these republicans to direct the movement so that a permanent change in the form of government was possible.

The troops in the barracks joined the Second Brigade and all together marched through the centre of the city cheering for the army, for Deodoro, and the republic, amid the astonishment of the people, most of whom knew nothing of any trouble until they saw the parade. No resistance was offered, and when the Emperor reached the city at three o'clock in the afternoon the revolution was an accomplished fact. The chiefs of the revolt had met and organised a provisional government, naming themselves ministers. They at once took possession of their different departments and the public buildings. A decree was issued announcing that henceforth Brazil was to be a federal republic. The feeble old Emperor was visited by a few friends, but there was no one to raise a hand or strike a blow for him or the dynasty. He himself would have shrunk from being the occasion for the shedding of the blood of any of his people.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EMPRESS IN 1889.]

When night fell, the provisional government formally announced to the Emperor his deposition, and that he and his family would be compelled to leave the country, though their lives would be guaranteed and ample pecuniary provision be made for them. The palace was guarded and no one allowed to enter, though there were no indications of any counter-revolution. The munic.i.p.al council of the city promptly gave its adherence to the new order of things, and telegrams were coming in hourly from the provinces to the effect that the latter were universally satisfied and that republican sympathisers were taking possession of the local governments without opposition. During the night of the 16th, the Emperor and his family were placed on board s.h.i.+p and sent off to Lisbon.

The new government was, in fact, a centralised military dictators.h.i.+p, but the names of most of its members were guarantees that the promises of the establishment of a republic would be carried out. In all the provinces the new situation was accepted peacefully. The Rio government named new governors by telegraph, and the imperial authorities turned things over to them without resistance. Persons known to have been advocates of republican principles were preferred, and a rapid displacement of the old governing cla.s.ses ensued.

The provisional government continued in power for fourteen months, and in that time promulgated a series of laws touching almost every subject of social or political interest. The provinces were organised into states after the model of the members of the North American Union; universal suffrage was established; Church and State were entirely separated; civil marriage was introduced; a new and humane criminal code was adopted; the judicial system was reorganised after the American fas.h.i.+on; and, in general, monarchical characteristics were removed from the statutes, and the most modern reforms enacted. A project for a const.i.tution was carefully framed, and this was submitted to a congress, which had been summoned to meet early in 1891. This congress was composed of 205 deputies, elected by states and not by districts, and of three senators from each state. Acting as a const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, it adopted with few modifications the const.i.tution proposed. The members of the const.i.tuent congress had been almost universally selected from among those who had been prominent in connection with the new government, or had given it an enthusiastic adhesion. With few exceptions, the new const.i.tution is a copy of that of the United States. The only important difference is that in Brazil the enactment of general civil and criminal law is a federal and not a state attribute. The revenues of the newly created states were made much larger than those of the imperial provinces, princ.i.p.ally by transferring to them the duties on exports.

Though the const.i.tution of February 24, 1891, nominally went into effect at once, as a matter of fact the government continued military. Deodoro was elected president, and Marshal Floriano Peixoto vice-president, and the dictators.h.i.+p was effective, except so far as it was managed and controlled by a few leaders who had power in the army, navy, or financial world. The provisional government had conceded to banks in every important centre of the country the right to issue circulating notes. The markets were flooded with money; credit was easy; an extraordinary speculative boom set in; values rose tremendously. The last years of the empire had been prosperous and exchange had gone to par. Within three years after the empire was overthrown, the amount of paper money in circulation was more than tripled, but though exchange had fallen tremendously, no ill effects were yet apparent. The nation was drunk with suddenly acquired wealth. Companies of all sorts were granted government concessions--railroad companies, mining companies, harbour improvement companies, banks, factories, and even sugar and coffee plantation companies. The price of coffee and rubber was rising in gold, while the cost of production was falling with the depreciation of the currency. The flood of Italian immigration which had been going to the Argentine was largely diverted to Brazil. Rio, Para, and So Paulo were the centres of the prosperity. Business men from the provinces swarmed into these cities, and the fortunate owners of plantations emigrated to Paris to spend their easily acquired wealth.

During 1891 and 1892 Deodoro became involved in disputes with republican leaders. To these political difficulties were added quarrels over the government concessions which were expected to make every one rich.

Deodoro offended the moneyed powers by not granting such concessions as freely as was desired by many influential persons. Finally Deodoro found that he could no longer count on a majority in Congress, so he arbitrarily dissolved it. But revolutions broke out in the different states against the governors who stood by the dictator, and he also found that he could not rely upon the unquestioning support of the army.

The navy was decidedly disaffected. After some hesitation he yielded to the signed demand of a powerful junta and resigned in favour of the vice-president, whom the speculators and promoters thought they could easily control. They were grievously disappointed in Floriano. The radical republicans found him more to their liking than did the wealthier cla.s.ses and the bureaucrats. The navy has always been recruited among the aristocrats and looked down upon the army and soon developed a dislike for the plebeian and illiterate president. An effort was made to pa.s.s and put into effect a law expelling Floriano from office before the expiration of the four-years' term for which Deodoro and he had been elected, but he flatly announced that he would serve out the term to which he believed himself const.i.tutionally ent.i.tled.

In the meantime a rebellion had broken out in Rio Grande do Sul against Julio de Castilhos, the radical republican governor. Gaspar Silveira Martims, the local leader of the old Liberal party, had been banished, but from Montevideo he organised the insurrection. The adherents of the two historical imperial parties and the gauchos of the southern part of the state joined the movement enthusiastically. Presently the pampas were swept from one end to the other by bands of federalists, under dreaded leaders like Gomercindo Saraiva, a ranchman from near the Uruguayan border. The republicans stood firm, and Pinheiro Machado and other gaucho chiefs showed that they, too, possessed the fighting qualities which have always distinguished the hard-riding, meat-eating Rio Grandenses. With the aid of federal troops the republicans had decidedly the upper hand, but the federalists kept the field for three years, while the country was harried and the most frightful destruction of life and property took place.

Meanwhile the intriguers against Floriano at Rio took advantage of this formidable complication. The mercantile cla.s.ses, the Conservatives, the moderate republicans, and those who regretted the empire were opposed to him. The navy was ready to revolt at any time. A number of powerful men had bluffed Deodoro into resigning, and they thought that they could easily do the same with Floriano. A majority in Congress was against him and he seemed to be almost isolated. But he had no thought of yielding or withdrawing. His subsequent actions show that he certainly was not actuated by any vaulting personal ambition. His was rather the instinct of a soldier who stands where he is and fights to the last without reasoning why. The real crisis in the establishment of the Republic had, in fact, arrived. Floriano's overthrow would have meant anarchy and disintegration, government by p.r.o.nunciamento, short-lived administrations established and overthrown by military force.

Early in September, 1893, the entire navy, under the lead of Admiral Mello, revolted. The guns of the fleet commanded the harbour and seemed to make the city untenable. Floriano acted with great energy. The army stood by him and he recruited vigorously. The fleet would not seriously bombard the city, full of sympathisers with the revolt, and Floriano held the fortifications around the bay so that it was difficult for Mello to obtain supplies. Though the European naval forces, which quickly a.s.sembled, sympathised with the insurgents, they could hardly give any efficient help so long as Floriano held the capital. Mello hesitated about attempting to establish a blockade. At first the insurgents disclaimed any intention of re-establis.h.i.+ng the empire, but soon the revolt began to take on a frankly monarchical character. The friends of the old regime, however, nowhere showed the same energy and conviction as the republicans who stood by Floriano.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN LEGATION NEAR RIO.]

In Rio harbour matters came to a stand. Neither side could deal a decisive blow to the other, but in the end Floriano and the land forces were sure to win, because without a base of supplies the fleet could not maintain itself indefinitely. It was necessary for Mello to start a fire in the rear and to open communication with the Rio Grande federalists.

He escaped through the harbour entrance with one of his ironclads, and went to Santa Catharina, where he established the seat of the revolutionary government. Gomercindo Saraiva, the able federalist chief, eluded the superior republican forces in the north of Rio Grande and attempted an invasion of Santa Catharina, Parana, and So Paulo, where it was hoped that the monarchical plantation owners would rise. But he was vigorously pursued and his forces defeated and scattered. The failure of this daring expedition was the death-knell of the revolt.

Mello returned to Rio and there his position fast became untenable. The final crisis came with the refusal of the American admiral to permit him to establish a commercial blockade. This took away his last hope of being able to coerce Floriano to terms. The naval revolt collapsed in March, 1894: some of the ironclads escaped from Rio harbour and fled to Santa Catharina, where they were captured by the republicans. The Rio Grande federalists kept up a partisan warfare for a few months longer, but by 1895 they were completely stamped out.

Floriano was supreme, but instead of establis.h.i.+ng a permanent military dictators.h.i.+p he declined to be a candidate for re-election, and selected Prudente Moraes as his successor for the term beginning in 1894.

Prudente had been one of the two republican deputies elected from So Paulo in 1886, and had acted as president of the Const.i.tutional a.s.sembly which framed the new const.i.tution. Moderate and conservative in his opinions and methods, his selection was a recognition of the advisability of civil government and an abandonment of the system of military dictators.h.i.+p. With his a.s.sumption of office the Republic may be said to have been at last definitely established.

The state governments were now functioning regularly, and their governors soon began to a.s.sume a great importance in the political system. These executives are selected by local cliques instead of by the central government, as in imperial times; their command of the police and state patronage enables them to control elections, name their own successors, and exercise a predominant influence in the choice of deputies and senators to the national Congress. They are the chief instruments through which the president's control of politics is exercised.

The majority in Congress, composed of the leaders of the republican movement, and known as the Federal Republican party, supported Prudente in the early part of his administration, but he was too liberal to suit the Radicals in drawing into partic.i.p.ation in public affairs capable Brazilians of other antecedents. This policy and the jealousies that always arise in a dominant party brought about a rupture between him and the leader of the House majority. In the trial of strength which followed, the Federal Republican party was split, and though the president was victorious by a small margin, his position became very precarious.

The Republic had started out on a scale of unprecedented extravagance.

The old provincial governments had been given only the fragments from the imperial table, but the republican const.i.tution multiplied the revenues of the new states many fold. The issues of paper money, the high prices of coffee and rubber, and the speculative boom gave both state and federal government for a while plenty of money to spend. The Union and the states vied with each other in multiplying employees, in making loans, in spending money on public edifices, and in building and guaranteeing railroads. The larger the deficits grew the more paper money was issued, and exchange fell with sickening rapidity. A larger and larger proportion of the paper revenue had to be devoted to the purchase of gold bills for the payment of the interest on the foreign debt. The deficits increased in geometrical progression. By 1895 signs of the coming trouble were apparent, though the business of the country was still prosperous. In 1896 came an outbreak of religious fanaticism in the interior of Bahia, which grew into an armed revolt--small, it is true, but which cost much money to suppress. The necessity for retrenchment was evident; railroad building was interrupted; schemes to rehabilitate the currency were brought forward and discussed.

The governments of the poorer states looked for help to the impoverished federal treasury, and some of the stronger states showed impatience at being hampered by an unprofitable connection with their weak sisters.

The president was not on sympathetic terms with the victorious Radicals in Rio Grande, and the uncompromising republicans all over the Union felt that they were not sufficiently favoured. In the fall of 1897 an attempt was made in broad daylight to a.s.sa.s.sinate Prudente, and prominent opposition politicians were strongly suspected of complicity in the plot. A state of siege was declared, but the country remained quiet, and no serious opposition was apparent when Prudente announced that his support would be given to Campos Salles as his successor in office and presumably the continuer of his policies.

A great drop in the price of coffee began, and the financial situation of the government grew worse and worse. Brazil grows about two-thirds of the world's coffee and her crop was enormously increasing. Consequently the production of coffee was outrunning the world's consuming capacity.

The enormous profits of preceding years and the abundant supply of good Italian labour had stimulated planting beyond all reason. New and fertile districts were opened up in the interior of So Paulo, with which the older plantations of Rio and the coast regions could not compete. The poorer districts were reduced to poverty, while even the more fertile could not hold their own.

In government finances the lowest point was reached in 1898. The paper money had fallen to seventy-nine per cent. below par and it had become clearly impossible to continue payments on the foreign debt. The last act of Prudente's administration was to make an agreement by which the foreign creditors consented to waive the receipt of their interest for three years and the government pledged itself to reduce the volume of paper currency and to acc.u.mulate a fund for the resumption of interest payments.

No contest was made against Campos Salles's election in the spring of 1898. He took office finding an empty treasury, a government without financial credit, and the country in the midst of a severe commercial crisis. He showed great shrewdness in maintaining an ascendancy over the politicians and controlling a majority in both branches of Congress, and, through his minister of finance, relentlessly followed the policy of contracting the currency and increasing taxes. In 1901 the payment of interest on the foreign debt was resumed, and though that debt had been increased fifty million dollars the currency had doubled in value and become relatively stable. The state governments are more dependent on the Union than in the days of their wealth; there is little present danger of disintegration; no real sentiment for the re-establishment of the empire exists. The same habits of political subordination which have kept Brazil together so long are increasing rather than diminis.h.i.+ng in force.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAMPOS SALLES.

[From a wood-cut.]]

The commercial crisis and the high taxes have created great discontent among merchants. Coffee-planters and rubber-gatherers have still further suffered by the rise of the currency. Immigration has practically ceased, and there is little water left in speculative enterprises. The great Bank of the Republic failed in 1900, dragging down many industrial concerns and ruining thousands of small investors, and the government's connection with the bank caused much scandal. Other banks, which had too much extended their agricultural and industrial credits, have also failed, and there is great want of confidence among investors. However, capital is slowly acc.u.mulating, and a healthful tendency toward industrious habits and the employment of reasonable and moderate methods in exploiting the great untouched natural resources of the country is evident.

Rodrigues Alves, the third civil president of the Republic, was peaceably elected in the spring of 1902, and took his seat on November 15th, the thirteenth anniversary of the Republic. Like both his predecessors he is from So Paulo, and was virtually named by his immediate predecessor. His policy is expected to be the same as Campos Salles's--that is, to keep expenses within revenue and to maintain the political _status quo_.

Leaving out immigration, the Brazilian people have shown a steady natural increase of nearly two per cent. per annum during this century.

The total population has multiplied from less than three to more than eighteen millions. Not a fiftieth part of the territory is cultivated; its resources have never been studied, much less developed; the positive checks hardly exist; the preventive checks are yet indefinitely remote.

Modern altruism makes wars of extermination unthinkable; the colonial experiences of the last century have demonstrated that races possessing a reasonably efficient industrial organisation do not tend to disappear, even though nations whose physical force is greater may reduce them to political subordination. The Brazilians have the additional advantage of inheriting directly a European civilisation. They are too firmly established, too numerous and prolific, and possess a too highly organised and deeply rooted civilisation to be in danger of expulsion or political absorption. Immense immigration into South America is inevitable, as soon as the pressure of population is strongly felt in Western Europe and North America. This may transform Brazil economically, but the new conditions will have to fit themselves into the political and social framework already in existence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA _SHOWING THE PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT AND PRESENT POPULATED AREA_]