[Inclosure in No. 4.—From the Jornal do
Commercio.—Translation.]
Admiral de Mello’s proclamation to his
fellow-citizens.
Fellow-Citizens: The revolutionary movement of
the 23d of November had no other object than the restoration of
constitutional government and the free action of the constituted powers
which the coup d’état of the 3d of November
destroyed, to the general consternation of the nation and especially of
all those who were responsible for the establishment of the republican
government.
The dictatorship of the 3d of November seemed to be utterly irresponsible
in the administration of the finances of the Republic; if, on the one
hand, it aroused unconfessed ambitions and less legitimate
self-interest, on the other it lowered the national character, making it
ridiculous, and gave the impression that the nation, incapable of
creating free institutions and of living in its own shade, would submit,
subdued and without protest, against an autocracy that covered us with
indignity and humiliation.
You are aware of the part that fell to me, determined by the events which
occurred in this memorable period of revolutionary operations against
the arbitrariness of power; I served the cause of the public welfare on
the 23d of November; I filled with honor as a soldier and with a
comprehension of my civic duties as a Brazilian the post which my
country had a right to exact.
And if since that day some particles of public authority descended to my
modest hearth, it was not from suggestion of my own, but from those of
political responsibility which the vicissitudes of the revolution
determined, creating a new state of affairs.
As long as I was in the government I tried to maintain my patriotic
views, sustaining, with irrefutable logic, the supremacy of the
constitution and submission to the laws. Not a single day passed that,
as minister, I was not on the alert for the advancement of public right
and freedom against an invasive and absorbent form of administration,
which, joining in its hands all the political functions of the nation,
all the emblems of popular sovereignty, attempted by arbitrariness and
transgression of power to climb all the steps of political control and
to annul all constitutional privileges.
Against the constitution and against the integrity of the nation itself
the chief of the executive power put the national army into movement at
will and sent it to the unfortunate States of Santa Catherina and Rio
Grande do Sul.
Against whom? Against outside enemies? Against foreigners? No. The
President of the Republic armed Brazilians; against Brazilians he raised
legions of so-called patriots, carrying mourning, desolation, and misery
to all the corners of the Republic, merely in order to satisfy his
personal caprice and to strengthen for the future, by terror, his iron
dictatorship.
Sentinel of the national treasury, as he promised to be, the chief of the
executive power perjured himself and deluded the nation, opening the
coffers of the public treasure with profane hands, and, by a political
system of subornation and corruption, sacrificing the authority which,
in an unlucky honr, the revolution of the 23d of November placed in his
hands.
Bankruptcy already beats at our door with all its train of horrors and
miseries.
Fellow-citizens: In the fatal decline of power that loses itself, the
Republican administration descends to every abuse. Mutilated and wounded
innumerable times, the constitution of the 24th of February has no
longer any form by which it may be recognized as the supreme law of
public liberties and the guaranty of citizens. Self-willed power reigns
everywhere.
I can not remain inactive in this fearful position of my country. The men
by whose actions the political events were determined can not but
concentrate in themselves the tendencies and the aspirations of an
epoch.
The nation is anxious to see itself freed from a government that degrades
it; the time is therefore come for the reconquest of rights that were
suppressed and trampled underfoot.
In the life of nations, as in that of individuals, there are moments for
decisive action.
To struggle not to see our country degraded and thrown down; to fight for
the principles of liberty, which human honor sanctified as the first
attribute of our mind and nature; to hand down spotless to our sons the
name and honor of the ancestors who made free the Government of
Brazil—this is the position in which we find ourselves.
Officer of the navy, Brazilian and citizen of a free country, I once more
find myself on the field of revolutionary action to offer battle to the
annihilators of the constitution and to restore the rule of law, order,
and peace.
No suggestion of power, no wish for government, no aspiration to
obtaining control
[Page 49]
by the
exercise of violent efforts on my own part induce me to enter upon this
revolution.
That the Brazilian nation may assume possession of its sovereignty and
know how to direct it within the limits of the Republic, this is my
desideratum, this my supreme purpose.
Long live the Brazilian nation. Long live the Republic. Long live the
constitution.
Custodio José de Mello.
Capital
Federal, 6th of September,
1893.
