Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa

Infobox_President
name=Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa
nationality=Brazilian


term_start=July 28, 1919
term_end=November 15, 1922
predecessor=Delfim Moreira
successor=Artur da Silva Bernardes
birth_date=birth date|1865|5|23|mf=y
birth_place=Umbuzeiro, Paraíba
death_date=death date and age|1942|2|13|1865|5|23|mf=y
death_place=Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro
spouse=Maria da Conceição Manso Saião
party=None
occupation=Law Professor
order=12th President of Brazil
vicepresident=Delfim Moreira, until July 1, 1920
Bueno de Paiva, from November 11, 1920

Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa (May 23, 1865 - February 13, 1942) was a Brazilian politician and jurist, and president of the republic between 1919 and 1922, when Rodrigues Alves could not take office due to illness after being elected in 1918. His period of government was marked by military revolts that would culminate in the Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas into control of the Federal Government.

In addition to his term as president, Pessoa served as Minister of Justice, a justice in the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Attorney General, a two term Federal Deputy, a three term Senator, Chief of the Brazilian delegation for the Treaty of Versailles and a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice.

Biography

Pessoa was born in Paraíba, his parents died of smallpox when he was only seven years old. He was taken in and educated by his uncle Henrique de Lucena, the then governor of Pernambuco. Pessoa endured a very poor childhood, but with great effort managed to earn a degree in law. He went on to join the Faculty of Law at the University of Pernambuco as a professor. He eventually made his way to Rio de Janeiro.

Young Epitácio managed to make the acquaintance of Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca through the connections of his eldest brother José. With the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic he was invited by governor Venâncio Neiva to serve as secretary-general of the first republican government of Paraíba. He was a deputy to the constituent assembly from 1890 to 1891, during which time he was noted as a standout figure. By the time he was twenty five years old, he was already noted as an accomplished jurist.

During his time in the Constituent Assembly, Pessoa gave an outstanding speech where he articulated on the political responsibilities of the President of the Republic. In 1894, he resolved to abandon politics because of his disagreements with then president Floriano Peixoto. After marrying Maria da Conceição Manso Saião, he left for Europe.

After his return to Brazil he became Minister of Justice in the government of Campos Sales, during which time he invited Clóvis Beviláqua, a colleague from his days as a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Recife, to write a civil code for the country that would eventually be adopted in 1916. After leaving the Ministry of Justice, Pessoa would then successively serve as Minister of Transportation, a Justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, and Attorney General of the Republic. Levi Carneiro, in his "Livro de um Advogado", notes that as a justice Pessoa never voted in favor of any case in which he had been assigned to elaborate the views of the court.

Elected as a senator for his home state of Paraíba in 1911, Pessoa moved to Europe where he would live until 1914. Returning to Brazil, he would soon assume the post of realtor for the Commission for the Verification of Powers.

With the end of the First World War, Pessoa was chosen to lead the Brazilian delegation for the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Ruy Barbosa had originally been chosen to lead the delegation, but he resigned and Pessoa was picked as his substitute. The Brazilian delegation, which supported the aims of the United States, obtained good results in its attempts to resolve issues that Brazil had an interest in: the sale of Brazilian coffee that had been stored in European ports, and the fate of 70 German ships seized by Brazil during the war.

Pessoa disputed the succession of Delfim Moreira, the vice-president of president-elect Rodrigues Alves, who had died before he could take office. He won the presidency of the Republic by defeating the then septuagenarian Ruy Barbosa in a snap election without having even left France; the only such case in the whole history of the Brazilian republic. His candidacy had been supported in Minas Gerais, and was considered fairly symbolic. The election of a president from Paraíba represented a defeat for the old political system of café com leite, with the election of Marshal Hermes da Fonseca from Rio Grande do Sul a decade earlier being the only previous exception. Regardless, Pessoa still represented the interests of the traditional oligarchies of Minas Gerais and São Paulo.

There is another view of this election however: The belief that after the death of Rodrigues Alves the elite of Minas Gerais and São Paulo wanted to choose a new candidate from outside their own ranks. That Artur Bernardes of Minas Gerais was elected president in the next election supports the theory that the oligarches had never lost control in the intervening years.

Presidency

Brazil had greatly improved its financial situation over the course of the First World War. The industrialized countries had been forced to concentrate all of their resources towards the arms industry. Brazil exported raw materials at compensatory prices and enlarged its industrial base, manufacturing products that were previously imported. With the end of the war, Europe began to rehabilitate its industries. At the same time, Brazil was befallen with a number of workers strikes, and the business community along with the coffee-growers tried to reimpose their control. In response to this events Pessoa introduced a program of austere financial planning. Nevertheless, the pressures on the State continued to grow. New loans, totaling nine million pounds financed the retention of green coffee in Brazilian ports. Another loan was secured from the United States for the electrification of the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil.

Pessoa did not escape from the intrigues of state politics, and used the Federal Government to intervene on behalf of state-based interest groups in return for support in Congress. He was embroiled in one of the most troubled periods in the history of the Old Republic, with the outbreak of the 18 of the Copacabana Fort revolt on July, 5, 1922, the crisis of the false letters (see below) and the revolt of the Military Club. The process of finding a successor for Pessoa therefore happened within a highly charged climate where the lieutenants and subalterns (the Tenentes) of the Armed Forces called for profound political reforms.

Crisis of the False Letters

In 1921, the Correio da Manhã published letters supposedly sent by Artur Bernardes and Raul Soares de Moura which contained insults towards the Armed Forces and Marshal Hermes da Fonseca. A commission attested to the veracity of this correspondence. A year later, Bernardes claimed victory in the presidential elections. In response the Military Club and the noted politician Borges de Medeiros called for the creation of a court of honor to review the legitimacy of Bernardes' election. The Federal Congress reviewed the election results and declared them legitimate.

Notable Facts

Pessoa's principal acts as president were:
* The construction of more than 200 dams in Northeast (Considered the largest accomplishment of his government);
* The creation of the University of Rio de Janeiro - considered by official historians at the time to be first one of its kind in Brazil, though the Universidade do Paraná had been created almost a decade before, in 1912;
* The commemoration of the first centenary of independence.
* The opening of the first radio station in Brazil.
* The substitution of the pound for the dollar as the basis of the nation's monetary standard.
* The construction of more than 1000 km of railroads in the south of Brazil.
* The nomination of a civilian - the historian Pandiá Calógeras - for Minister of War.
* The defeat of the 18 of the Fort of Copacabana Revolt.
* Successful inroads into creating public works to lessen the droughts of the Northeast region.

Last Years

After leaving the presidency, Epitácio Pessoa was elected to be a Justice of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague, and stayed on the bench until November of 1930. From 1924 up until the Revolution of 1930, he was a senator for Paraíba. He supported the revolution, which implemented the ideals of earlier Army revolts.The assassination of his nephew João Pessoa was a strong emotional blow to Epitácio, and in its aftermath he retired from public life. In 1937, he began to show signs of declining health. He developed Parkinson's Disease and severe heart problems. Epitácio Pessoa would live until February 13, 1942, when he died in Nova Betânia, part of Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro). In 1965 his remains, along with those of his wife, were transported to João Pessoa, Paraíba for reinternment.

Academia Paraibana de Letras

Pessoa is the patron of chair no. 31 of the Academia Paraibana de Letras, which was founded by Father Francisco Lima. It is currently occupied by Angela Bezerra de Castro.

Composition of the Government

;Vice-presidents:

* Delfim Moreira da Costa Ribeiro
* Francisco Álvaro Bueno de Paiva

;Ministers:

* Agriculture, Industry and Commerce: Ildefonso Simões Lopes, José Pires do Rio - intern
* Finance: Homero Batista
* War: Alfredo Pinto Vieira de Melo - intern, João Pandiá Calógeras, João Pedro da Veiga Miranda - intern
* Justice: Alfredo Pinto Vieira de Melo, Joaquim Ferreira Chaves - intern
* Navy: Raul Soares de Moura, Joaquim Ferreira Chaves, João Pedro da Veiga Miranda
* Foreign Relations: José Manuel de Azevedo Marques
* Transport and Public Works: José Pires do Rio

Bibliography

*__________ "Perfis Parlamentares 07 - Epitácio Pessoa", Editora Câmara dos Deputados, 1978.
*__________"Bacharel Epitácio Pessoa e o Glorioso Levante Militar de 5 de Julho", Editora S / E, 1922.
*__________ "1º Centenário de Nascimento de Epitácio Pessoa", Editora A União, 1965.
*GABAGLIA, Laurita Pessoa Raja, "Epitácio Pessoa 1865-1942", Editora José Olympio, 1951.
*KOIFMAN, Fábio, Organizador - Presidentes do Brasil, Editora Rio, 2001.
*PESSA, Epitácio, "Obras Completas", Editora Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1955.
*PESSOA, Mário, "Legalismo e Coragem em Epitácio Pessoa", Editora Imprensa Universitária, 1965.
*MELO, Fernando, "Epitácio Pessoa uma Biografia", Editora Idéia, 2005.
*SILVA, Hélio," Epitácio Pessoa 11º Presidente do Brasil", Editora Três, 1984.
*VALADÃO, Haroldo, "Epitácio Pessoa Jurista da Codificação Americana do Direito Internacional", Rio de Janeiro, 1977.
*ZENAIDE, Hélio Nóbrega, "Epitácio Pessoa", Editora A União, 2000.

External links

* [http://www.presidencia.gov.br/info_historicas/galeria_pres/galepitacio/galepitacio/integrapresidente_view/ O governo Epitácio Pessoa no sítio oficial da Presidência da República do Brasil]
* [http://brazil.crl.edu/bsd/bsd/u1312/index.html Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional de 1920]
* [http://brazil.crl.edu/bsd/bsd/u1313/index.html Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional de 1921]
* [http://brazil.crl.edu/bsd/bsd/u1314/index.html Mensagem ao Congresso Nacional de 1922]

See also

* List of Presidents of Brazil