78 



BRAZIL. 



citizens of the country of their nativity unless 

 l.y voting or other acts they availed themselves 

 of the privileges of Brazilian citizenship. Be- 

 fore the close of 1889 the Governments of Chili, 

 Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Switz- 

 erland had recognized the new republic. The 

 governments of the United States and of Euro- 

 pean countries instructed their diplomatic rep- 

 :itatives to hold friendly intercourse with 

 the Provisional Government, save the Govern- 

 ment of the Czar, who refused to acknowledge 

 oven the de facto existence of the republic. 

 . Baron de Penedo, the Brazilian minister to Paris, 

 was the only important diplomatic representa- 

 tive abroad who resigned on the establishment 

 of the republic. 



The names of vessels of the navy and of public 

 institutions were altered where they were bor- 

 rowed from the banished dynasty. The servile 

 obsequiousness of the old forms gave way to a 

 simple Vos at the beginning and Salude e fra- 

 ttrnidade at the close of official letters. The 

 crown on the buttons of the soldiers and sailors 

 was replaced by a star. A new flag was adopted, 

 consisting of a blue sphere in a yellow square on 

 a green field, the sphere showing the southern 

 star and twenty-one other stars representing the 

 States (including the prospective State to be 

 formed from the present capital), with the words 

 Ordem e Progresso on a wnite band extending 

 across the flag from left to right. Titles of rank 

 were abolished, yet those possessing them are al- 

 l'>\vrd by courtesy to bear them still. An order 

 of the Legion of Honor was created and the mil- 

 itarv cross was retained. All other orders were 

 abolished. Besides developing an extraordinary 

 activity themselves, the provisional rulers set 

 commissions at working out reforms of superior 

 and public education and other institutions. 

 The decrees that were issued from time to time 

 were all signed by Marshal Manael Deodoro da 

 Fonseca as " executive head of the Provisional 

 Government, established by the army and navy, 

 in the name of the nation." The resolutions 

 adopted at the Pan- American Congress in favor 

 of settling all disputes arising between American 

 republics by arbitration were accepted by the 

 Government in April as governing the future 

 conduct of Brazil. 



Attempted Connter-Reyolntion. While 

 European monarchists were expecting to see 

 the most popular of contemporary sovereigns 

 triumphantly recalled to his throne, the classes 

 engaged in Brazil in commercial and productive 

 activities showed the greatest satisfaction with 

 a Government that preserved better order than 

 existed under the empire. Still there were ele- 

 ments of dangerous disaffection among the offi- 

 cers of the army and the old politicians who were 

 unwilling to be permanently thrust aside by the 

 new men that had grasped power, although no 

 one would strike a blow for the Emperor. The 

 ferment began when the members of the Govern- 

 ment showed a determination to consolidate and 

 perpetuate their position by postponing the call- 

 ing of a constituent assembly to frame a consti- 

 tution. The creation of disturbances by banded 

 rowdies and desperadoes known as capangas and 

 capceiras was a familiar sign that rival politicians 

 were trying to undermine the men in power. 

 The Provisional Government displayed more en- 



ergy in dealing with this rabble than was ever 

 witnessed in the time of the empire, transport- 

 ing 400 to the penal settlement of Fernando de 

 Noronha and locking up 1,500 in Rio. 



The plans of the imperialists, who worked in 

 secret among the lower classes and the soldatesca, 

 were upset by a premature explosion in their 

 mine, a mutiny in the artillery barracks on Dec. 

 18. During the absence of the officers some 

 men of the Second Regiment of mounted artillery 

 engaged in a fight, and in order to escape punish- 

 ment they attempted to precipitate the revolt 

 for which they had been prepared. One half of 

 this regiment, a part of another, and a few cav- 

 alrymen marched to the different barracks, call- 

 ing on the army to rise against the dictators. 

 Then, headed by civilian leaders, thev went to 

 one of the palaces, tore up the republican flag, 

 and hoisted the flag of the empire. It required 

 all the other regiments to subdue the insurgents, 

 and the fighting lasted nearly all night, one 

 hundred imperialists being killed or wounded 

 before they were driven back to their barracks 

 and put under guard, after which twenty-one 

 civilians and soldiers were summarily tried and 

 shot as ringleaders. Not a single commissioned 

 officer was concerned in the mutiny. Within 

 the next few days fifteen prominent citizens, in- 

 cluding the brother of the Minister of Agricult- 

 ure, five ex-ministers, the ex-President of the 

 Senate and two other Senators, several Deputies, 

 and the ex-chief of police, were arrested. Sil- 

 veira Martins, whom the Emperor had summoned 

 to form a new Cabinet when the revolution broke 

 out, was banished, and decrees of banishment 

 were issued against Ouro Preto and other impe- 

 rialist statesmen who were already in Europe. 



On Dec. 20 the general dread of an indefinite 

 prolongation of arbitrary government was in a 

 measure allayed by a proclamation fixing a date, 

 though a distant one, for the constitutional con- 

 vention. The elections, by list tickets in the 

 several States, were announced for Sept. 15, 1890, 

 and the date for convening the constituinte in 

 the capital was placed two months later. The 

 leaders of the revolution had not intended to ex- 

 pose their work to the risk of being undone by a 

 popular assembly, for they had already set to 

 work to embody their own ideas in a constitution 

 elaborated by a" commission under the presidency 

 of Saldanha'Marinho. The overt act of insuV- 

 rection impelled them to establish a military 

 dictatorship in fact. On Dec. 23, on the plea 

 that it was their duty to do everything in their 

 power to preserve peace, order, and security until 

 a regular constitutional form of government 

 could be established, they announced by procla- 

 mation that all persons found conspiring against 

 the republic or its Government, or who byword, 

 writing, or acts incite citizens to revolt or en- 

 courage breaches of discipline in the army, or 

 any who by bribery or other inducements at- 

 tempt to seduce soldiers from their duty toward 

 their superiors and the republic, or spread false 

 and subversive ideas in the army or navy, or with 

 intoxicating drinks excite the soldiers to insub- 

 ordination, will be tried by a military commis- 

 sion, to be appointed by the Ministry of War, and 

 punished according to the military regulations 

 against mutiny. The supervision of correspond- 

 ence and censorship of telegrams became more 



