REPUBLICANISM AND EMANCIPATION
From 1808 to 1837 the tendency had been in the direction of democracy
and decentralisation. Then the tide turned and from 1837 to the
Paraguayan war the central government grew stronger and federalism
weaker. The power of the Emperor reached its apogee in 1870. The
senators had been personally selected by him and he could count on their
gratitude and friendship. Deputies were elected indirectly by electors
chosen by a suffrage nominally universal, but the elections--primary and
secondary--were mere farces, absolutely controlled by the ministry which
happened to be in power. The local governors and magistrates, the
officers of the national guard, and the police, all dependent on the
central government for their positions, formed a machine against which
opposition was useless. If intimidation was not sufficient, the baldest
frauds were shamelessly resorted to--false polling lists, manufactured
returns, and the seating of contestants by the majority in the Chamber
or the returning boards. Of this system the Emperor was the real
beneficiary, for the Cabinets held at his pleasure, and if the majority
of a Chamber did not sustain a ministry which he desired to keep in
power, all he had to do was to order a dissolution. But this hybrid
system contained in itself the elements of sure decay. The Emperor was
no arbitrary despot and neither wished nor would he have been able to
govern in complete defiance of public opinion. On the other hand, the
system afforded no sure method of ascertaining public opinion nor of
throwing a proper responsibility upon well-organised political parties.
With the close of the Paraguayan war a series of movements began which
ended twenty years later with the overthrow of the empire. Brazil's
history during those twenty years is an account of the republican
propaganda, the abolition movement, the attempt to reform the elections,
the religious agitation, the growth of positivist doctrines, the demand
for economic independence by the great provinces, and finally the
infiltration of liberalism and insubordination into the army. This
evolution, however, affected principally the educated classes. The
masses of the people were and still remain largely indifferent to the
march of public events.
Commerce and industry continued to expand throughout the Paraguayan war.
From 1865 to 1872 the annual revenues doubled, and though in 1868 the
emissions of paper money had reduced its value one-half, it steadily
rose thereafter until in 1873 it again reached par. Just after the war
the budget balanced, and the production of coffee rose one-half. But
with relief from financial pressure the Conservative ministers became
extravagant, and when the great world panic of 1873 came both government
and country were badly caught. A foreign loan of five millions sterling
made in 1875 was not enough to meet the mounting deficits. In 1878 new
issues of paper money were resorted to, and exchange dropped, remaining
below par for ten years in spite of a subsequent doubling of coffee
production and a great increase in the value of exports. Population,
however, which had increased from five to ten millions from 1840 to
1870, in the next twenty years mounted to fifteen millions.
[Illustration: BRIDGE AT MENDANHA.]
The suppression of the slave trade by the Aberdeen Act and the Queiroz
law made it probable that the institution itself would ultimately
disappear. Brazilian character and customs had always stimulated
voluntary emancipation, and in Brazil the negro does not reproduce as
rapidly as the white. In 1856 the slaves numbered two millions and a
half, being nearly forty per cent. of the population, but in 1873 their
number had fallen to 1,584,000, or only sixteen per cent. The
institution was, however, socially and politically very strong. Slaves
furnished nearly all the labour employed in the production of staple
exports, and it was believed that emancipation would be followed by
agricultural collapse. But the Emperor was too enlightened a Christian
and too susceptible to the good opinion of the civilised world not be at
heart an abolitionist. However, it was only at the height of his
influence that he deemed it wise to force the consideration of abolition
on the reluctant nation. Agitation had begun modestly in 1864; in 1866
gradual emancipation was seriously proposed, but the breaking out of the
war caused the matter to be adjourned. In 1869 Joaquim Nabuco, father of
the present Brazilian minister to Great Britain, succeeded in virtually
committing the Liberal party to emancipation. With the return of peace
the question was taken up vigorously. The reactionary Conservative
Cabinet resigned rather than be an instrument of the Emperor's wishes as
to emancipation, and Pimenta Bueno was appointed Prime Minister for the
especial purpose of getting a law through Congress declaring all
children born thereafter free. This statesman failed, but Rio Branco,
father of the present Minister for Foreign Affairs, was more successful.
After a bitter and prolonged parliamentary struggle, in which Rio Branco
used every weapon that his position gave him in gaining and holding
doubtful Congressional votes, the law was passed in 1871. Thereafter all
children born of slave mothers were free, though they remained bound to
service until twenty-one. The proprietors were also required to register
all their slaves. Under the influence of these measures the number of
slaves decreased with astonishing rapidity--falling from 1,584,000 in
1873 to 743,000 in 1887.
Rio Branco's victory disrupted the Conservative party, and after
achieving it he was unable to hold his majority together. The Chamber
was dissolved, and though the new one supported him half-heartedly the
old line Conservatives had become deeply dissatisfied with the radical
tendencies of the government and the Emperor. Public men of all parties
awoke to realisation of the inconsistency between the constitution and
the Emperor's personal power. Not much was said in the Chamber, but
outside the republican propaganda assumed an active form, and the
conviction fast crystallised that the empire could not last for many
years. A republican press came into existence and a republican party was
organised under the leadership of Saldanha Marinho, an able lawyer of
Rio. Republican societies were formed in all the centres of population,
but there was no thought of armed revolution. There is, indeed, no
evidence that the Emperor ever opposed the republican propaganda,
though occasionally he detached some of its able members by promotions
to office.
[Illustration: CITY OF OURO PRETO.]
In 1873, 1874, and 1875 the question which most absorbed public
attention was the imprisonment of the bishops of Para and Pernambuco by
the civil authorities. The lower ranks of the priesthood were
uneducated, and real interest in religion had largely been confined to
women and the lower classes. With the growth of liberal ideas among the
laity the Church awoke to the necessity of a reformation. These two
bishops were leaders in this counter-movement, and they selected the
Masonic Lodges as a point of attack. In spite of the nominal prohibition
of the Church, Free-Masonry had been permitted in Brazil since 1821, and
the lodges had become mere social clubs and philanthropic societies.
Free-Masons were members of those semi-religious brotherhoods which take
charge of local church feasts and constitute the most important link
between the lay and spiritual worlds in Brazilian communities. The two
militant bishops ordered that the brotherhoods should expel their
Masonic members or suffer the penalty of losing their right to use the
church edifices. Where these orders were not obeyed interdicts were
laid. The progressive element and the magistracy took the side of the
Masons, but the bishops were not without their supporters. The
government insisted that the obnoxious interdicts be withdrawn: the
bishops refused to yield, and were prosecuted in the civil courts and
sent to prison. The Princess Isabel was believed to be on the priests'
side, and while the excitement gradually died out and things went on as
before, a wider breach than ever had been created between the
progressive and conservative classes. Like the slave-owners devout
Catholics now felt that they could no longer depend on the imperial
system to protect them against the rising tide of radicalism.
The financial difficulties growing out of the great panic drove Rio
Branco from power in 1875, and a succession of Conservative Cabinets
struggled along until 1878. The question of electoral reform came to the
front, for every one was sick of the absurd system in vogue, and the
leaders of both the historical parties hoped for great things from a
radical change. The Emperor was opposed to giving up the indirect method
of voting, but was anxious to try some lesser reforms. On his return
from the United States and Europe in 1877 he virtually instructed the
Cabinet to put through a bill drawn after his suggestions, but the Prime
Minister resigned because the Emperor insisted that the change could not
be made by an ordinary statute, but must go through the tedious process
of an amendment to the constitution. The Emperor called in a Liberal
Cabinet and a new Chamber was elected.
The Liberal ministry continued in power until 1880, and then fell,
partly because it had lost its hold with the Liberal majority, and
partly because of the riots in Rio over the street-car tax. A law had
been passed compelling each passenger to pay a cent in addition to the
regular fare. The people refused, burned the cars, cut the harness in
pieces, threw the conductors off, and fought the police until the
business of the city was brought to a standstill. The Emperor called
upon a cool and experienced politician, Jose Antonio Saraiva. But the
latter refused to take office unless he should be allowed to push
through the election bill in the form of an ordinary law. Right here the
Emperor suffered a great defeat. He thought himself obliged to yield,
and the vigorous minister at once secured the passage of a radical law
which completely transformed the electoral system. Suffrage was confined
to the educated and property-holding classes, but the electors voted
directly for deputies, and the country was divided into districts each
of which chose a single deputy. The electoral body was now permanent,
and each deputy was responsible to a definite constituency. Saraiva
resigned the moment his bill was enacted into law, and every precaution
was taken to ensure that the election of 1881 should be free from any
suspicion of official pressure. The result was a revelation to the
small-bore politicians of the old regime. One hundred and fifty thousand
voters registered out of an adult male population of about three
millions, and ninety-six thousand voted. The new members were divided
nearly equally between the two historical parties--the Liberals getting
sixty-eight and the Conservatives fifty-four. Two ministers were
defeated for re-election and many of the contests were decided by small
majorities. In subsequent elections the Saraiva law proved not to be so
effective, and since it is not in the Latin nature to be satisfied with
gradual improvement, the liberal movement, of which the electoral law
was a symptom, swept on with increasing violence until the beneficent
law was uprooted along with the mistaken system on which it had been
painfully grafted.
As soon as electoral reform was out of the way abolition became once
more the dominant question in Brazilian politics. Though the majority of
Liberals were abolitionists and the doctrine was one of the official
principles of the party, the various Liberal Cabinets which succeeded
each other from 1881 to 1884 managed to dodge the dangerous issue.
Finally the Dantas ministry faced it squarely. A bill was introduced
prohibiting the sale of slaves, establishing an emancipation fund, and
freeing slaves as fast as they reached the age of sixty. A terrific
parliamentary battle followed and the project was defeated by only seven
votes--forty-eight Liberals and four Conservatives voting for it, and
seventeen Liberals and forty-two Conservatives against. The Emperor
dissolved the Chamber and the excitement over abolition became national.
The abolitionists subsidised newspapers, held public meetings, and
marched through the streets in procession carrying pictures representing
the torturing of slaves. No means were spared which might aid to rouse
the national conscience. The negroes were advised to revolt, and
assistance was openly promised to them. The elections of 1884 were
violently contested, instead of being free from fraud and protest like
those of 1881. Nor did the government so conscientiously abstain from
interference. Nevertheless the Chamber elected did not differ materially
in its composition from that which had preceded it. Sixty-five of the
one hundred and twenty members of the new House were Liberals, but of
these fifteen were opposed to abolition. For the first time avowed
republican members were elected--three being returned, and two of them
came from Sao Paulo--Prudente Moraes and Campos Salles, the first two
Brazilians to hold office avowedly as republicans and who reaped their
reward by becoming two decades later the first two civil presidents of
the republic. No election was ever held in Brazil which was so earnestly
contested and which constituted so genuine an expression of the wishes
of the people. Nevertheless, on the main question--that of
abolition--the result was apparently a drawn battle.
With the meeting of the Chamber in 1885 the agitation broke out afresh.
The crowds on the Rio streets hissed anti-emancipation deputies, and
there was a bitter fight for the control of the organisation of the
Chamber. It was soon evident that the Dantas ministry could not force
abolition through, and it resigned. Saraiva was called in and he
skilfully arranged a compromise. With the aid of Conservative votes he
passed a bill for gradual and compensated emancipation. This done, he
resigned. The Liberal party was disorganised and dissatisfied with him,
and he did not deem it worth his while to try and hold it together. The
quarrelling Liberal majority was aghast when it was announced that a
Conservative Cabinet would take the reins of government. The Emperor had
begun to show decided symptoms of a failure of his mental powers and
was ceasing to be a controlling factor in parliamentary affairs.
Saraiva's resignation further exacerbated the Liberal leaders against
the imperial system, and at the same time continued to lose ground with
the slaveholders.
In the election the Liberals had no chance and largely refrained from
voting. The governing classes 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 Sao 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 emancipation 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
embarrassed, 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 institution. 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 passing an
emancipation act. When Congress met in May, 1888, the speech from the
throne announced that the imperial programme was absolute, immediate,
and uncompensated emancipation. The prestige of the Crown was sufficient
to hush nearly all opposition. Within eight days the law had passed 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.
[Illustration: EMPEROR DOM PEDRO IN 1889.]