less attributable in a great measure to the character of the Brazil-
ian people, involves a truth that is worthy of mention. The
Brazilian Army, with the exception of the few occasions when the
danger of national disintregration forced it to take part against
the people, has always been found on the side of popular liberty.
On April 7, 1831, it fraternized with the people; in 1888 it re-
fused to act as slave-hunter in the forests where the slaves, who
had abandoned the plantations of São Paulo, Minas, and Rio de
Janeiro had taken refuge, thus helping forward the cause whose
triumph was assured by the decree of May 13, 1888; and, lastly,
on the morning of November 15, 1889, it refused to serve the
monarchy as the last prop which could stay its downfall.
It is quite fashionable in Brazil, even in the democratic ranks,
to cry out against militarism. The late emperor, who gloried in
governing a nation of bachelors and doctors of law, had a natural
aversion to military men, and the two parties under his govern-
ment, Liberal and Conservative alike, did not fail to slight the two
branches of the service which in recent years saw themselves ex-
cluded, not only from all share in the government, which would
have been no great evil if done for the maintenance of discipline,
but deprived even of their constitutional rights by the civil
power, an abuse against which they ineffectually protested. While
the Duke of Caxias and the Marquis of Herval were living, the
army had still in them two defenders in the government ; but
after their death both political parties, when in parliamentary
opposition to the government, never failed to make use of the
discontent of the military classes, until these discovered that they
were merely serving as puppets, and in a single night they went
over to the democratic ranks, and there they remain to this day,
side by side with the people, supporting the constitution of the
republic, not in obedience to the orders of any dictator, but in-
spired by their patriotic convictions.
One year after the proclamation of the republic the Constitu-
tional Convention assembled, and, on the twenty-fourth of Febru-
ary, 1891, gave to Brazil its first republican constitution, modelled
upon that of the United States of America ; and its members
having, by virtue of their election, resolved themselves into the
first constitutional congress, put an end to the provisional govern-
ment created by the revolution. The constitutional régime
however, had not arrived soon enough to prevent the evil results
