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Positivism and Revolution in Brazil's First Republic: The 1904 Revolt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert G. Nachman
Robert G. Nachman*
Affiliation:
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
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Extract

On November 14, 1904, the eve of the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the Brazilian Republic, General Silvestre Travassos, leading a corps of several hundred cadets from Rio de Janeiro's military school, fell fatally wounded before the forces loyal to the constitutional government he had pledged to overthrow. His loss came only hours after the uprising had begun, but in those early moments the revolt had already foundered. This brief armed movement climaxed nearly a year of unrest, a month of agitation and almost a week of running clashes between working-class groups and local government forces. Although the revolt continued sporadically for two days more, the death of its leader in the early hours of fighting signalled its failure.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , July 1977 , pp. 20 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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References

1 The 1904 revolt has not received thorough scholarly examination. Carneiro, Glauco, História das revoluções brasileiras (Rio de Janeiro: O Cruzeiro, 1965), Vol. 1, pp. 136–150 Google Scholar devotes one chapter to it, but his analysis does not depart from the traditional viewpoint. It is also dealt with at some length in Lobato Filho, João Bernardo, A última noite da Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha (Rio de Janeiro: Irmàos Pongetti, 1945),Google Scholar and Barreto, Emidio Dantas, Conspirações (2nd ed.; Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Francisco Alves, 1917).Google Scholar Chapters can also be found treating the question in Costa, João Cruz, O positivismo na república (São Paulo: Cia. Editora Nacional, 1956), pp. 37–44,Google Scholar De Oliveira Torres, João Camilo, O positivismo no Brasil (Petrópolis: Ed. Vozes Ltda., 1934), pp. 282–6,Google Scholar Carene, Edgard, A república velha (Evolução política) (Sãn Paulo: Difusão Européia do Livro, 1971), pp. 196–221.Google Scholar

2 The standard interpretation can be found in Bello, José Maria, A History of Modern Brazil, 1889–1964, translated by Taylor, James L. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966), p. 182.Google Scholar Recent revisionist interpretations include Carone, A república, pp. 196–221, and Carneiro, História, pp. 136–150.

3 Barreto, Dantas, Conspirações, pp. 3–15.Google Scholar

4 Carneiro, , Revoluções, Vol. 1, pp. 136–50.Google Scholar

5 For a critique of the “política dos governadores” see de Assis Barbosa, Francisco, “A Presidência Campos Sales,” Luso Brazilian Review, Vol. 1 (Summer, 1968), pp. 3–26 Google Scholar and Love, Joseph, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971), pp. 95–6.Google Scholar

6 The salvações (salvations) were so named because those who sought to overthrow the powerful oligarchies, which controlled the political life of their states, believed that they were saving the states from backwardness and the nation from unconstitutional and extralegal control. See Costa Porto, João da, Pinheiro Machado e seu tempo: tentativa de interpretação (Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio Ed., 1951).Google Scholar

7 Mendes, Raimundo Teixeira, A liberdade espiritual e a vaccinação obligatória (2nd ed.; Rio de Janeiro: Templo da Humanidade, 1902).Google Scholar

8 Bello, p. 181. For a recent study in depth, see Stepan, Erica Nancy, “Scientific Institution-Building in a Developing Country: The Oswaldo Cruz Institute of Brazil” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, U.C.L.A., 1971).Google Scholar

9 Gerson, Brasil, História das mas do Rio (4th ed., revised and amplified; Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Brasiliana Ed., 1965), pp. 312–13.Google Scholar

10 Jornal do Comércio, September 18, 1904.

11 Mendes, Raimundo Teixeira, Contra a vaccinação obrigatória (Rio de Janeiro: Igreja Positivista, 1904), p. 3.Google Scholar

12 Jornal do Comércio, August 5, 1904.

13 For a complete discussion of this see Lagarrigue’s, Jorge A dictadura republicana segundo Augusto Comte, translated by Mariano de Oliveira, J. (Rio de Janeiro: Igreja Positivista, 1897).Google Scholar Mendes, Teixeira, Uma rectificação: A dictadura republicana e o positivismo (Rio de Janeiro: Igreja Positivista, 1904),Google Scholar was written three weeks after the unsuccessful revolt. The interpretation is the same as that found in Lagarrigue, but its publication at that time makes it the more interesting and important document.

14 Coelho, Djalma Polli, Reminiscência do meu tempo na Escola Militar (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Militar, 1942), p. 8.Google Scholar

15 In 1874 he contributed articles to A Idéia, a newspaper edited by the founder of the Positivist Church of Brazil, Miguel Lemos.

16 This school was the training ground for the sons of the elite in the Capital.

17 Brasil Operário (Rio de Janeiro), July 2, 1903.

18 Found in an unmarked scrapbook of newspaper clippings collected by a functionary of the National Archives in Rio de Janeiro, on the third floor of that building. The article had neither date nor the name of the newspaper notated.

19 Ministério da Justiça, Relatório, 1905, p. 15, and Jornal do Comércio, November 6, 1904.

20 Correio da Manhã, January through November, 1904 gave virtually no coverage to the meetings held by the Positivists.

21 de Souza, Vicente, Defesa (Rio de Janeiro: N.P., 1905), p. 17.Google Scholar

22 da Justiça, Ministério, Relatório, 1905, p. 16.Google Scholar

23 Lyra, Heitor, História da queda do império (Sãn Paulo: Cia. Ed. Nacional, 1964), Vol. 2, pp. 410–12.Google Scholar

24 The “vintem” riots occurred in the latter part of the Empire as a result of the rise in the cost of public transportation in Rio de Janeiro by one “vintem” (the smallest unit of currency at the time). The “caso das pedras” occurred when Campos Sales was leaving the presidency in 1902. The financial policies that he had administered had created financial stability at the expense of the urban population. The working class, happy to see Campos Sales leaving, and hoping for improved circumstances under his successor, demonstrated their disaffection with violence in the final days of Campos Sales’ term.

25 Correio da Manhã, December 15, 1904.

26 Archives of the Positivist Church, letter from J. L. F. Santos, 1904.

27 Varella, Alfredo, As oligarchias no Brazil: ataque à do Paraná (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1903), p. 275.Google Scholar

28 Diário Oficial, December 23, 1904.

29 Comércio do Brasil, May 1, 1904.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid., May 19, 1904.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., May 27, 1904.

39 Ibid., see July 9 to August 8.

40 Jornal do Comércio, November 7, 1904.

41 Comercio do Brasii, November 7, 1904.

42 Ibid., November 8, 1904.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., November 7, 1904.

45 Lobato Filho, A última noite, p. 12 has a list of twenty-one military figures whom the cadets respected during that time. Two-thirds of the twenty-one named were Positivists.

46 Comércio do Brasil, May 12, 1904.

47 Ibid.

48 Lobato Filho, A última noite, p. 68.

49 Ibid.

50 Archive of the Positivist Church of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. The one student who considered himself a Positivist was Canroberto Costa, later a general, who exchanged correspondence with Mendes during this period. He was not yet a member of the Church.

51 Much of the above information was supplied to me by Walter Brem, whose work on the Pernambuco oligarchy during the first twenty years of the First Republic delved deeply into these questions.

52 When Borges de Medeiros insisted that Barbosa Lima bend his will to party discipline on an issue over which they disagreed, the Pernambucano resigned his seat and returned to Congress as a Deputy for Amazonas. Sobrinho, Barbosa Lima, Centenário de nascimento de Alexandre José Barbosa Lima (Brasilia: Departamento de Imprensa Nacional, 1962), p. 8.Google Scholar

53 Barbosa Lima, Alexandre José, Mensagem, 1893, ed. by De Lima Cavalcanti, Carlos (N.P., 1931), p. 182.Google Scholar

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid., p. 226. Comte had rejected modern microbe theory and the Positivist Church followed him in this. As Lins, Ivan, História do positivismo no Brasil (2nd ed. revised and augmented; São Paulo: Cia. Ed. Nacional, 1967), p. 440,Google Scholar has noted, however, by 1904 many Positivists accepted Jenner’s ideas, but the world scientific community was concerned about how frequently vaccine cultures became contaminated.

58 Lima, Barbosa, Mensagem, p. 240.Google Scholar

59 Sodré, Benjamin, Lauro Sodré: Vida, caráter e sentimento a serviço de um povo (Belém, Pará: Imprensa Oficial, 1955), p. 17.Google Scholar

60 Sodré, Lauro, Discurso no Clube Militar na sessão solene, aos 14 de julho de 1910 (Rio de Janeiro: Leuzinger, 1910), p. 17.Google Scholar

61 Ibid., p. 18.

62 Correio do Povo (Porto Alegre), November 18, 1904.

63 Sodré, Benjamin, Lauro Sodré, p. 17.Google Scholar

64 Sodré, Emmanuel, Lauro Sodré na história da república (Rio de Janeiro: Gráfica Olímpica Ed. Ltda., 1970), p. 83.Google Scholar

65 Lauro Sodré, Discurso, p. 17.

66 Corrêa, Innocêncio Serzedello, A revisão constitucional (Rio de Janeiro: Typ. da Cia. Litho-Typographia, 1904), p. 3.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., p. 4.

68 Ibid., p. 3.

69 Ibid., p. 16.

70 Ibid., p. 19.

71 Ibid., p. 4.

72 Comércio do Brasil, May 19, 1904.

73 Guerra, Ministério da, Relatório, 1905, p. 8.Google Scholar

74 Filho, Lobato, A última noite, p. 126.Google Scholar

75 Sodré, Benjamin, Lauro Sodré, p. 17.Google Scholar

76 Love, , Rio Grande, p. 156.Google Scholar

77 Ibid., p. 159.

78 Ibid., p. 153.

79 Essentially this is the same program outlined by Alfredo Varella and Serzedello Corréa and other Positivists prior to the 1904 revolt.

80 Bastos, Tocary Assis, O positivismo e a realidade brasileira (Belo Horizonte: Revista Brasileira de Estudos Políticos, 1965), p. 115.Google Scholar

81 For example, Vargas’ interventor in Pernambuco, the ex-tenente Carlos de Lima Cavalcanti, in 1931 collected and published Barbosa Lima’s gubernatorial messages to the state legislature.