Government of Brazil

“ The United States of Brazil is a republic very much like the United States of America in form. Its constitution is modelled after that of the United States, a Portuguese translation of which was made for them. It differs, however, in some respects. A president, for instance, is ineligible to succeed himself; and even a vice-president, who has succeeded to the presidency, can not be a candidate for that office without a term intervening. The power of the national government is less than that of our own, and the state has greater importance. ”

“ The claims of our citizens against the Government of Brazil are not in the aggregate of very large amount; but some of these rest upon plain principles of justice and their settlement ought not to be longer delayed. A renewed and earnest, and I trust a successful, effort will be made by our minister to procure their final adjustment. ”

“ If the Brazilian government will render the same aid to our emigrants who are without means that has been extended to her own colonists, it would find at the end of six 24months that all further outlay or responsibility was unnecessary; and these people would co-operate with those having resources, to build up and make useful all the industrial enterprises of the settlement.
To furnish lands at the lowest practicable rate, and construct public highways, without any duty upon importations, are at present proposed by the government of Brazil, as encouragement to emigration. ”

“ In Brazil the establishment of the republic about twenty-five years ago, was accompanied by little trouble and the subsequent life of the republic has been a peaceful one. In all three countries considerable progress has been made in the establishment of constitutional government, in Argentine and Chile as one of the results of the struggles of the early part of the nineteenth century, in Brazil, partly at any rate, during the empire which preceded the present republic, and which encouraged the participation of the people in the government of the country. ”

“ Altogether the constitution of government in Brazil seems to combine happily the principles of local self-government and centralisation, and only requires a proper degree of virtue and intelligence in the people to lead the nation to great prosperity. ”

“ By that Government I have been hitherto treated with the utmost confidence and candour, and the orders they have given me are in everything the reverse of those narrow and restricted instructions with which I was hampered by the Senate, the Ministers of Chili, and San Martin, under whose orders they had placed me. The Government of Brazil, having in view the termination of the war, gave orders to that effect, without any of those miserable restrictions which are calculated to retard, if not finally to defeat, their object. ”

“ By no means all Brazilians are pleased with the change from a monarchy to a republic. There is still a large and influential monarchical party, composed partly of the wealthier class and those who have always remained monarchists, partly of citizens who have become disgusted with the squabbling and graft of mulatto democracy, or who, on economic and political grounds, have grown dissatisfied with the republican régime and are convinced that the salvation of Brazil lies in the restoration of the old form of government. ”

“ The government of Brazil has a difficult part to act; it rules a numerous body of slave-owners, who are scattered over a very extensive country, in which the authority of the sovereign will only of necessity be loosely recognized; the possibility of resisting his commands does exist, and though his mandates are issued in the style of despotism, still he must be careful not to go too far ”

“ It affords me the highest satisfaction that your Excellencies have adopted a course by which all hostilities may be avoided, and the tranquillity and prosperity of this province peaceably established upon a secure and permanent basis. The declaration of the independence of Brazil under His Imperial Majesty will at once tranquillise the public mind, and give opportunity to the worthy and patriotic inhabitants to proceed afterwards with a due formality and deliberation to take the oaths, and elect their provisional government. ”

“ Brazil has weathered many a storm commercially and industrially because the world needs her raw material; she has every reason for confidence in the future.
The Territory of Acre was legally acquired from Bolivia by the Government of Brazil in 1903 but had been populated and the rubber reserves worked by Brazilian seringueiros for at least ten years previously. Their entry into Bolivian lands was the cause of much friction until the final settlement by the payment by Brazil of £2,000,000 for this rich area. ”

“ I feel also that I am in the presence of the body from which must come, not only in the present but in the great future of Brazil, that conservative force which is so essential to regulate the action of a democracy. By your constitution, by the necessities of your existence, it will be your function to prevent rash and ill-considered action, to see that all the expedients of government, all the theories that are suggested, are submitted to the test of practical experience and sound reason. ”

“ The recent revolution in Brazil in favor of the establishment of a republican form of government is an event of great interest to the United States. Our minister at Rio de Janeiro was at once instructed to maintain friendly diplomatic relations with the Provisional Government, and the Brazilian representatives at this capital were instructed by the Provisional Government to continue their functions. Our friendly intercourse with Brazil has therefore suffered no interruption. ”

“ Government.—According to the new Constitution of 1890, the empire was abolished and the Brazilian nation is constituted a Federal Republic under the title of the United States of Brazil, each of the twenty provinces forming a separate state with local self-government. At the head of the federation is a president with executive authority, elected by the people for six years. ”

“ In the northern and interior provinces, considerable encouragement to their insubordination has been offered, by the general feeling that animates a large proportion of the free class, who are mostly of mixed blood, and who desire to throw off the yoke of monarchy and replace it by a republican form of government, a feeling which I know to be general, not only among the lower orders, but among the magistrates, priests, officers in the army, and owners of landed property, and hence I believe the time is not far distant, when Brazil will share the fate of the other South American states. ”

“ Of the Empire of Brazil, its Territory, Government, Dynasty and Religion Article 1. The Empire of Brazil is the political association of all Brazilian citizens. They form a free and independent nation, which does not admit with any other (nation) , any bond of union or federation that conflicts with its independence. ”

“ Brazil is destined to assume in the future a far greater importance in the comity of nations than it can boast at present. Its people have no mean record behind them; they have shown{262} a passion for independence and an increasing capacity for government, which argues well for the building up of that great edifice which is certain sooner or later to arise in South America. ”

“ Brazil has obtained a government of its own, under most peculiar circumstances, and these have probably saved that country from the misery of revolution. If the rulers of that extensive kingdom perform their duty, if they act with common prudence, their own downfall may be prevented, and the unhappiness of a whole people for the space of one generation, may be rendered unnecessary. ”

“ By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil underwent more than half a century of populist and military government until 1985, when the military regime peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly unequal income distribution and crime remain pressing problems. ”

“ The Government is opening up new roads, clearing away impediments in rivers, and is arranging the internal improvement of the empire on a large and comprehensive system. A great and a happier future is opening on Brazil—one calculated to advance and extend moral improvement and political freedom, as well as to promote material comfort. ”

“ Unfortunately Brazil cannot boast of such a condition among her population. The educated, cultured portion of the community is quite limited, consequently the country is hardly fit for self-government. Ignorant masses are only amenable to the strong arm, and cannot, while untaught, be controlled through the influence of reason and argument. Past experience shows us that while a republic in the United States, France, or Switzerland means freedom and order, in these half barbaric southern states it signifies an alternation of revolution and of military despotism. ”

“ In so far as any real one exists, the division between the two main political parties in Brazil is the line separating those who wish a more centralized government from those who wish the present semi-freedom of the states to continue, if not to be increased. ”

“ This weakness in politics is, in my opinion, one of the evils of Brazil. It becomes a business and a passion with the men, even in a more intense degree than in our own land. The young man must first secure the title of doctor, and every professional man, physician, lawyer, civil engineer, teacher, etc., receives this title. [1] Then he must obtain some government appointment. Finally, when his [207] own prestige becomes great enough, he seeks election to some office. To politics can be blamed the lack of advancement in many lines. ”

“ He is affable, and hears the complaint of a peasant or a rich merchant with the same patience; he is just, seldom exercising the power which he possesses of punishing without appeal to the civil magistrate; and when he does enforce it, the crime must be very glaring indeed. He acts upon a system, and from principle; and if it is the fate of Brazil to be in the hands of a despotic government, happy, compared to its present state, would it in general be, if all its rulers resembled him. ”

“ Consequently the habits of their descendants lead them to quiet acquiescence in the mandates of those who govern them; to follow rather than to direct, to be guided rather than to be obliged all at once without any previous instruction, to think for themselves. Still, although a government which is established on principles of democracy is not suited to Brazil, that country would bear many degrees of advancement towards a state of freedom,—in religion, in personal security, and in legislative authority ”

“ The plan was so ably conducted by the talented officer to whom it was entrusted, that although his force consisted of less than a hundred men, the inhabitants of Parà, without a dissentient voice—save that of the Portuguese commandant—pronounced their adhesion to the Government of His Imperial Majesty, and thus a province, greater in extent than France and England combined, was added to the empire, and the independence of Brazil effected to its Northern extremity. ”

“ She takes no part against Urquiza; she is neither his partisan nor that of Buenos Ayres in Argentine disputes; she has, indeed, tried to throw oil on their troubled waters; but, as that was not to be done, like England and France, Brazil now waits for [179] their natural solution. She is the only South American state with a stable government, with a large and increasing commerce, with a growing surplus, with an augmenting population. ”

“ I have heard extremists declare roundly that Brazil ought not to manufacture anything at all, because each mill-hand is one more person taken away from the fields to which all Brazilian attention should be given.
“Brazil is an agricultural country,” a cotton planter said to the writer. “She cannot legitimately compete with the manufactured products of great industrial countries because the price of living is too high here. To obtain large revenues from the import taxes which are the Federal Government’s source of support we have heavy duties against large classes of goods entering the country ”

“ Popular opinion here runs strongly in favor of free trade the world over.
The Brazilians do not like the interference of European 112powers in the affairs of this continent, but they dislike anarchy and despotism still more. They are the advocates of free constitutional government, and have embodied its most essential principles in their political institutions. The Emperor of Brazil has but little more power than the President of the United States. Law take its shape from the national legislature, and from that branch of it which expresses the popular will. ”

“ On a far larger scale this frontier is to be found in Brazil—a country as big as Europe or the United States—and decades will pass before it vanishes. The first settlers came to Brazil a century before the first settlers came to the United States and Canada. For three hundred years progress was very slow—Portuguese colonial government at that time was almost as bad as Spanish. For the last half-century and over there has been a steady increase in the rapidity of the rate of development; and this increase bids fair to be constantly more rapid in the future. ”

“ Art. 119. No foreigner can succeed to the Crown of the Empire of Brazil.
Art. 120. The marriage of the Princess presumptive heir to the Crown, will be made at the pleasure of the Emperor; if there is no Emperor at the time this marriage is proposed it cannot be effected without the approval of the General Assembly. Her husband will have no part in the Government, and will only be called Emperor after he has by the Empress, a son or daughter.
Chapter V: Of the Regency During the Minority or Impediment of the Emperor Article 121. The Emperor is a minor until he is eighteen years of age. ”