Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-09
CAsTELAR's PHILOSOPHY OF THE BRA
LILLIAN REVOLUTION.


In recent letter Emilio CASTELAR, said
that some years ago at dinner where
Victor Hugo presided he prophesied the
decay of Brazilian Imperial rule. He
was taken to task for the forecast, and
politely told that he underestimate the
wonderful influence of Dom Pedro over
the Brazilians. He replied in this vigor-
Gus manner:
Every man judges social relations after his
own fashion, ana though contact with kings is
doubtless productive OF much honor, have re-
nounced this honor from my earliest youth,
Just as I have refused all decorations even
when bestowed by republican governments: as
have renounced all titles of nobihty-of small
value, it is true-and all things that do not ac-
cord and harmonic with the principles to
which, from childhood, have consecrated my
life. And l am grieyed and angered at the ex-
ception made in favor of Dom Pedro, who is at
the head of government unfolding castles and
privileges in a continent like that of America
which proclaims justice and liberty. car
dinal article of faith in my credo is the certain
belief that Dom Pedro de Alcantara will not
occupy his throne much longer. hoisted to a
hight where there is no breathable air.
Shortly after that the eminent Spanish
statesman, at the table of Caldazo, the
Spanish Deputy in Paris, again expressed
the opinion that the empire in Brazil
could not exist. He was again rebuked,
but he held to the view because it seemed
to him the unconquerable logic of facts.
He believed then, and so stated, that
either nature and society had nothing to
| do with the maintenance Of the empire in
Brazil Or else they they favored the estab-
lishment of the empire, and he did not see
that Dom Pedro had much to do with
the matter. He believed the vivifying
principle of Repub;canism to be as nat.
ural to the American continents as is
oxygen to the atmosphere. An Emperor
meant King on horseback; an empire is
tantamount to war and domination through
war; an Emperor signifies to-day just
| what he signifed in Rome. When slavery
fell away the spirit of conquest declined
under the influence of the power acquired
by the American republics. Every link
broken in the chain that bound the slave
of Brazil destroyed step of the throne
and every progressive step made by the
La Plata republics robbed the crown Of
Brazil of precious stone.
How true prophet the eminent Span.
lard has proved to be we know now We
may, therefore, accord more of Importance
to his prediction now made that the re-
public of Brazil has not sprung up root
less, sapless and spontaneously. All dur
able social institutions, he declares, are OF
slow growth, and this will be true in Bra,
I'll. But she has behind her republic the
heritage of the democratic traditions OF
Spain. For the mouarchical principle
went into South America greatly weak
ened from the first, and its decay has,
therefore, been rapid. If the North Amer
leans were trained for liberty by regime
of local self-government and the sovereign
Parliaments of the mother land, SO, too, a
high sentiment of human right animated
the royal representatives who were sent
out to South America, and this was backed
by sense of justice and spirit of equal
ity that have been the seeds of republican,
ism in the southern continent. And Cas-
telar adds with fervid eloquence:
The act by which the Spanish Americans pre-
eminently manifested their profound sentiment
of equality was their prompt and willing aboli-
ton of slavery the moment they established
their democratic republics.
Slavery was done away with by virtue and lib
eral principles, the army dwindled and de.
clined by the loss of all hopes of conquest and
thus, by the accomplishment of logical laws, q
WORKOUT and discredited regime was supplanted
by the fitting organism of contemporary de-
mocracies, by the republican form of govern
ment. Such is the philosophy of the Brazilian
revolution.