The opportune time for the republic had no doubt arrived, for the country at large accepted this radical change with the greatest indifference. Those who were not satisfied at least kept still and decided to await developments. Outspoken monarchists were nowhere to be found. A military dictatorship followed with many of its evils. Most of the governors of the various provinces announced their submission to the new régime, but the old officers of the monarchy were rapidly supplanted by republican sympathizers or officers of the army. This provincial government lasted for fourteen months, and effectually succeeded in making itself very unpopular. In that time a series of laws were promulgated covering almost every phase of government. The provinces were organized into states after the model of the United States of America, church and state were formally separated, civil marriage was established. Suffrage was made universal with an educational qualification only, and many judicial reforms were inaugurated. The green and yellow flag of the empire was retained although a considerable change in the design was made, and the imperial crown was eliminated from everything governmental. The republic was recognized by the United States in a little over two months, and by the other principal nations shortly afterward.
The first serious dissatisfaction arose out of delay in calling an election for a new Senate and House of Deputies. This was finally held, and the Congress met in Rio on the 15th of November, 1890. A constitution which is patterned very closely after that of the United States was adopted with few changes. One of the provisions was that the first president and vice-president should be elected by the Congress, and not by popular suffrage. Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca was chosen President, receiving eleven more than a majority, and Marshal Floriano Peixoto was selected for vice-president. The President, being a military man both by education and training, the government continued military in fact, for the constitution did not bother the new executive very much. During the provisional government the banks had been conceded the right to issue circulating notes, and the country was soon flooded with these promissory obligations. Credit was easy and a speculative boom followed. The amount of money in circulation had almost doubled in a few months, and exchange began to fall. Congress viewed this condition with alarm and passed measures restricting the issue of paper money. The President vetoed this and other bills. A law was passed nullifying the veto, and then the President forcibly dissolved the Congress. Rio was declared in a state of siege, constitutional guarantees were suspended and martial law evulgated. These measures proclaimed the President as a dictator. In Pará armed resistance arose; the State of Rio Grande do Sul openly revolted against President Deodoro, and he was unable to put it down. The revolutionists announced that they were ready to “march to Rio and depose the dictator.” The navy and most of the army declared against the President and he finally resigned in favour of the vice-president, in November, 1891. The first president was an able man in many ways. He had distinguished himself in the Paraguayan war, and had held a number of responsible positions, which he filled with credit. He was too unyielding, however, and his ideas of strong and inflexible rule did not harmonize with those of others almost equally powerful.
President Floriano had his troubles from the very beginning. Those opposed to a military man for executor endeavoured to force the election of a new president, but Floriano announced his determination to serve the term for which he had been elected. He abrogated the decree of his predecessor dissolving congress, and that body at once reassembled. The relations between the executive and legislative branches of the government were smooth at first. The year 1903, however, opened with ominous murmurings, with rumours of revolutions and conspiracies. The only effect this had upon President Floriano was to make him still more severe and arbitrary. Rebellions broke out in Rio Grande do Sul again, and also in Matto Grosso. The former insurrection lasted for three years, but the latter was more quickly subdued.
In September, 1893, the entire navy under Admiral Mello, who had been Minister of Marine, revolted. The Admiral issued a pronunciamento, of which the following is a part, and is a fair sample of the whole: “The President of the Republic has armed Brazilians against Brazilians; and he has raised legions of so-called patriots, spreading mourning, want and desolation in every nook and corner of the Republic, for the sole purpose of gratifying his personal caprices and strengthening and perpetuating the supremacy of his tyrannical dictatorship. Promising to be the sentinel of the Treasury, the President has perjured himself and deceived the nation, opening with sacrilegious hand the public exchequer to a policy of bribery and corruption, thus abusing the authority which, in an evil hour, the revolution placed in his hands.” The admiral, who had been joined by some members of Congress and other prominent civilians, threatened to bombard the city, but President Floriano acted quickly and manned, as well as strengthened, all the fortifications in the harbour. The admiral demanded the President’s resignation within six hours, and that official flatly refused and defied the naval squadron.
A BRAZILIAN CRUISER.
Congress stood by the President in this crisis and voted him funds. Rio and Nictheroy were declared in a state of siege. Mello fired a few shots at the city, which did considerable damage, but did not venture to carry out his threat to bombard it. He finally escaped with the Aquidaban and an armed transport, the Esperanca, and sailed for Rio Grande do Sul to join the insurrectionists in that quarter of the republic, where a provisional government had been set up. Admiral Saldanha da Gama was left in charge of the insurgent fleet. A few months later Mello returned northward with the Aquidaban to Rio, but did not join the other vessels in the harbour there. Admiral da Gama attempted to establish a blockade, but the American Admiral Benham would not permit this, claiming it was an unjustifiable interruption of commerce. An attempt was made to capture the land forts and a sanguinary engagement ensued in which over eight hundred men were killed and wounded. Soon afterwards the insurgents lost several vessels which were sunk by government shells. The naval revolt finally collapsed in March, 1894, but the commander, Admiral da Gama, escaped on board a Portuguese man-of-war and joined the other admiral in the south. This guerilla war in the south lasted until 1895; and it was not until several thousand lives had been sacrificed and much property destroyed that the beef eaters of the turbulent southernmost state yielded, and a peace was once more restored which has lasted to this day. President Floriano was very severe with the rebels who were captured, and scores of them were shot. In fact, for a while, wholesale slaughter of fellow Brazilians followed. Persons who were simply suspected of being implicated in the rebellion were arrested and shot down.
The people were weary of military rule and, at the election in March, 1894, it was generally understood that a civil president should be chosen. President Floriano himself advocated this and practically selected his successor, Dr. Prudente José de Moraes Barros. A few months after his term of office expired the ex-president passed away, as had his successor, just a little while after his enforced resignation.
Republican ideas and principles made a great advance when Dr. Moraes was inaugurated as president, on the 15th of November, 1894. He was a lawyer by profession, and a native of the progressive state of São Paulo; was a little past fifty years of age, and from the earliest days of his career had been an ardent advocate of republican principles. Furthermore, the new President was opposed to the use of force in enforcing public administration. He had been a member of the provisional government of his state, and was the first governor of that state under the republic, as well as the first president of the national senate. He lived a simple life, free from all ostentation, and his straightforwardness and integrity brought to him the respect of all classes of Brazilians. Thus it was with a thorough equipment that this new civilian President met the responsible duties of his high office. The revolutionists insisted that the election was invalid, on the ground that no voting had taken place in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina and Paraná, although they had no objection to the new President personally. After peace was restored the President granted amnesty to all who had borne arms against the republic.
The natural consequence of the early days of extravagance began to be felt. The national and state government seemed to have vied with each other in multiplying the number of official employees, and in spending money on public buildings and other works. To meet the deficits paper money had been issued, and now the effects of this, together with the fall in the price of coffee, were being experienced by the nation at large, and retrenchment became necessary. Enemies both in official and private circles grew up. The ruling party became split over retrenchment policies, and an attempt was made to assassinate the President in broad daylight, which, it was strongly believed, was the result of a political plot. He would have been killed, had not a brave general thrown himself in front of the President and received the fatal wound himself. The effect of this conspiracy was to increase the admiration of the people for the President, and to condemn the methods of his enemies. An insurrection arose in the state of Bahia which required federal assistance; and this was believed by many to be backed by monarchical sympathizers, for it required an army of several thousand to quell it. A coup d’etat which had been planned early in 1897 by the vice-president, who was in power during the temporary absence of the President to recuperate his health, and who was backed by the discontented military, was nipped in the bud by his sudden and unexpected return to the capital. The boundary line with Argentina was settled during his administration, by the arbitration of President Cleveland who determined the contention in favour of Brazil.