Metamorphoses of Republicanism in the Portuguese Monarchy

Antnio Martins Gomes

(Faculdade de Cincias Sociais e Humanas - Centro de Histria da Cultura)

The republican ideology, spread along the last six decades of the Portuguese Monarchy, can be separated into three main periods: the romantic generation, that is germinal and patriarchal; the doctrinarian generation, characterized by its mild propaganda and electoralist predisposition; and the active generation, that puts into practice a violent strategy. The germinal phase goes from the mid-18th century to the late 1860s, and is born under the influence of the II French Republic, throughout the entitled Generation of Patriarchs. As an emblematic founder of the Portuguese republicanism, Henriques Nogueira is worth of a closer consideration; as a matter of fact, in his Studies on the Reform in Portugal [Estudos sobre a Reforma em Portugal, 1851], this indoctrinator recommends a social development through the republican system, in order to correct all the reprehensible mistakes made by the monarchic government in the last decades: I wish that in a country like ours, emancipated by cruel efforts of the humiliating, self-centred and sanguinary guardianship of the absolute monarchy, needing to re-establish the lost strengths in unfruitful combats and to heal wounds still open, willing, at last, to take pleasure in the sweetness of freedom that for so long has been suffering the State government was made by the people, for the people, under the noble, philosophical and prestigious form of REPUBLIC. (Nogueira 1976: 22) When we search the first references to the republican ideology in the Portuguese poetry, we must pay attention to Antero de Quental; in 1865, this poet publishes Modern Odes [Odes modernas], considered by scar Lopes the starting point for an anti-clerical, anti-monarchic and anti-plutocratic school of poetry. In the final annotations of this edition, and guided by great French theorists such as Proudhon or Michelet, Antero assigns a remarkable social mission onto the poetic wording, an engaged art that will contribute to proscribe monarchic governments and religious confessions, due to their ineffectiveness: Reconstruction of the human world under the eternal bases of Justice, Reason and Truth, with exclusion of Kings and tiranic Governments, Gods and useless or illusory Religions this is the largest desire, the most holly aspiration of this tumultuous society that an

irresistible force is carrying over [] in the quest of his future. (Quental 1865: 159-160) In 1868, following up of the republic revolution in Spain, that deposed Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, Antero de Quental writes Portugal before the Revolution of Spain [Portugal perante a Revoluo de Espanha], a pamphlet that glorifies the republican establishment is as well: The one who says democracy says naturally republic. If democracy is an idea, republic is its word; if it is a will, republic is its action; if it is a feeling, republic is its poem. (Quental 1926: 59). Nonetheless, in the early 1870s, the poet will revise all his thoughts upon the republican system and its leaders. Giving testimony of this ideological transformation, heres a quotation from a letter written to his friend Oliveira Martins in 1873: The worst that can happen to us is having a republic tomorrow. It would be a 48, but without the talent, the enthusiasm, the idealism of the other one: a boring 48. At the present, Portugal is not republican, and wont be the spokesmen and the scoundrels that represent roughly the whole of the republican group who will convert that old suspicious man called Portuguese people. (Quental 1989: 196) The republican ideology appears timorously in Portugal in the first decades of the nineteenth century, but it becomes widely discussed from the 1870s onwards. The second phase includes roughly two decades (1870s - 1880s), and begins under the auspices of the III French Republic, the Casino Democratic Conferences, held in Lisbon, and the election of the first republican deputy to the Parliament. In this electoralist and doctrinaire period, increases the production of literary works with both encomiastic and depreciative references to the republicanism. An example of the last sort can be found in Ea de Queiroz; it is accurate to say that this realist author, with his supreme irony, does not demonstrate any kind of esteem towards the Regeneration political movement, as seen in novels such as The Count of Abranhos [O Conde de Abranhos], The Maias [Os Maias], or The Honorable House of Ramires [A Ilustre Casa de Ramires]; nevertheless, his matchless lampoon, devoid of clemency, is mostly focused on the republicans, constantly related to an ideological worthlessness and a bourgeois opportunism. Published twenty-five years after Eas death (1900), The Capital [A Capital] is a novel where the republican ideology has a further discussion and where the authors resentment towards his political adversaries is permanent: the republican members portrayed or, in other words, caricaturized in the Democratic Club of Prince Street are disgusting and dishonest, for they act guided by their own interests and benefits, never hesitating in putting the blame on the monarchic establishment for their own failures.

In 1878, the positivist author Teixeira Bastos publishes the poetic work Volcanic Rumors [Rumores Vulcnicos], a title that has a concealed exaltation of the republican ideology. This compilation of pamphletary poems makes use of a ruthless language in a straight and clear confrontation with the monarchic authority, as we can see by the following sonnet: The time has already come, when the Messiah Of the brilliant century, in which we go by, Must descend to Earth, where we live, And inaugurate here the new days! The time has already come! And the harmonies Of the divine choirs, that we love so much, - Those choirs of laws, that we seek In the sky, land and sea, in the cliffs, The hearts fill us up with fortune, Announcing the Messiah, - the pure light Of the immortal Science, Good and Truth! That one is a new God, that the public square One day celebrated, it is the Republic, - The serene vision of Mankind! (Bastos 1878: 181-182) In an apocalyptic approach, the good news is stated publicly: soon will come the final judgment day, that long-awaited moment when Christ will come back to Earth to broaden his authority and to establish his harmonious sovereignty among all mankind, where the good and the righteous will be rewarded. The religious and messianic phraseology of this sonnet discloses the sanctified nature of a new divinity called Republic. The 1880s are characterized by the foundation of the Portuguese Republican Party, the growing of its parliamentary group and the commemorations of the three hundred years of the poet Luis de Camoes death, from which working group stands out Tefilo Braga, an outstanding ideologist that will be also one of the first presidents of the Portuguese Republic. As a matter of fact, the fulsome celebrations of the epic poet in the year of 1880 are advantageously used by the republicans, through many literary editions, diversified cultural events and the organization of civic processions to his monument. One of these artistic manifestations is the well known Bordalo Pinheiros humoristic cartoon, by transmitting the accurate instant where Camoes is baptized in the spirit of the republican ideology through the Frisian hat placed on his head. In this black and white illustration, published in the weekly magazine O Antonio Maria on the 17th June 1880, the poet is converted to the republican faith, having the following title and message: Chronicle of the Centenary - Camoes thanks the State

high authorities for having not attended his procession and for making him a republican, with which the idea succeeded so much [Crnica do Centenrio - Cames agradece aos altos poderes do Estado no terem ido sua procisso e terem-no feito republicano, com o qual muito ganhou a ideia]. In 1884, the republican ideologist Jos Falco publishes Peoples Alphabet Book [Cartilha do Povo], a dialoged story casting the republican Joo Portugal and Jos Povinho, a popular name inspired in Rafael Bordalo Pinheiros well succeed cartoon character, created in 1875 to

symbolize the Portuguese people and his submissive spirit. Some of the most significant characteristics that we can find in this political booklet are the simplicity and straightforwardness of its pamphletary message in an imaginary dialogue established only between two characters, as shown in the subsequent quotation, where some details of the considerable amount of money spent with the royal family are exposed: Jos Povinho Im glad to find you before I leave. Joo Portugal So you want some more explanations? Jos Povinho Yes! Tell me: is our king good or bad? If there was a good king, the people wouldnt be so miserable. Joo Portugal How mistaken you are! The king is a man like many others. All the kings are bad for the people, because they are kings. Do you have an idea of how much the people pay to have a king? Jos Povinho That was one of the points that I want well explained from you. Joo Portugal Then pay attention: The king earns one million $ per day. The queen earns one hundred and sixty-three thousand nine hundred thirtyfive $ per day. The kings brother earns forty three thousand fifteen $ per day. The kings father earns two hundred and seventy-three thousand twenty five $ per day. The kings eldest son earns fifty four thousand six-hundred forty-five $ per day. Each of the kings sisters received ninety $ as dowry. The kings father got ninety $ as dowry. The queen got sixty $ as dowry. The kings eldest son is going to get married, and his wife will have a dowry too, and each one of their children will receive the same of their uncles at the moment. As you can see, only the royal family costs five thousand and seventy two thousand forty $ per day! Dowries not included. (Falco 1906: 20-221)

The third republican phase is to be found between 1890 and 1910, and it is generated from the massive wave of protests against the depressing consequences of the British Ultimatum. The Portuguese (A Portuguesa), the official national anthem, with lyrics by Henrique Lopes de Mendona, is one of the most motivating artistic conceptions made out of that state of revolt. Apparently, the verses of this military march do not put into words an objective and straight identification with the republican ideology; nevertheless, its positivist essence, based upon the standards of transcendence, associates this musical composition to the republicanism by far; on its turn, the refrain (To arms, to arms!) provides the motto that appeals unmistakably to the insurrection through military means: a call for the people to take weapons and fight against their enemies, wherever they may be. Among the sweeping activities taken in charge by the active generation, adherent to a more aggressive action, we can point out the uprising of 1891, the founding of the Portuguese Carbonari in 1896, and the appalling regicide of Charles the 1st in 1908. The republican revolution of 1891 signals the very first confrontation between military forces of opposite political tendencies, the starting point of the most confrontational period of the Portuguese Republican Party, when his radical elements take on a straight action. In 1890, an incognito Ea de Queiroz publishes, in his monthly magazine Portugal Magazine [Revista de Portugal], an article called New Factors of the Portuguese Politics [Novos Factores da Poltica Portuguesa], where he makes a wide-ranging analysis of the public situation. Right in the beginning, the author describes the formation of the Portuguese Republican Party in the 60s, in a club localized in Prince Street [Rua do Prncipe], how the republican sentiment increased in the 80s, and how this ideology is now a serious menace to the regime in the early 90s, due mainly to the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic in 1889 and to the discontentment (fundamentally among the bourgeoisie and the intellectual sector) towards the turnover parliamentary system, experienced all over four decades. In the end of the 19th century, Ea de Queiroz proposes subsequently two solutions for the political crisis: or a revolution from below, that is, a republican mutiny that would bring the country to a turmoil or civil wars; or a revolution from above, lead by a brilliant mind, strong enough to stand firm the pressure from political and economical groups. The third number of his monthly chronicles The Cats [Os Gatos] is published shortly after the Ultimatum, and begins with the following considerations from the writer and journalist Fialho de Almeida: Tired of sustaining a monarchy that does not go with them in their aspirations, that marches diameterly opposed to their interests, that

does not share their bliss, and that has already made fun out of their sorrows, people have lost their interest in it, exiled it from the national crusade, began to consider this institution a suspect stranger that kept on living in their houses, being a delegate and a spy from that masonry of kings that brings oppression to the enslaved Europe, drying out and drinking the sap of nations. (Almeida 1889-1890) Fialho de Almeida describes the anti-monarchic response from many people, due to the emergent lack of sympathy towards the regal family, and points out the English Ultimatum a significant issue in the peoples ideological transformation: The last anti-English demonstrations sent out from the monarchic pavilion the last followers, and it has been for twenty days that the country only shouts hooray to the republic! (Almeida 1889-1890) In a letter dated 15th November 1890 to Santos Cardoso, editorial officer of the newspaper Portuguese Justice [Justia Portuguesa], Tefilo Braga foreshadows an insurrection in next to no time, justifying the tendency for the northern city of Oporto and regretting the lack of republican recruitment among the inactive Lisboner: If we keep on waiting for the uprising of Lisbon, it will never come, because this people here are undecided and full of good manners, they are afraid of the police, of the municipal guard, etc. Furthermore, the leaders are aged elements that obstruct everything. Only the revolution in Oporto can wake up these people; then, they will be forced to adhere. And should the revolution burst in there, there I will be, ready for the work. (apud Martins 1927: 221) On the monarchic area, the ideologist Oliveira Martins, in a letter addressed to his friend Ea de Queiroz, who was asking him to write something about the rebellion of 1891 for the Portugal Magazine [Revista de Portugal], mentions as well the uncountable number of times he prefigured the collapse of the monarchic regime: I got tired of writing while it was time, but nobody listened to me. I got into politics, and while each one thought that I should have acted in a way expressed by his own fantasy, everybody would shrink back, no one would help me. [...] Now it is too late. The general anarchy has already bursted out, bloody. (Martins 1926: 140-141) In fact, the first republican mutiny, held in January 1891, is a tragic circumstance that comes to be the inflection point in the political method of the Portuguese Republican Party: from an educational and moderate approach, goes into an insurrectional and aggressive activity. On this date, reacting against the high rates of unemployment and financial inflation, this intrepid bunch of lower-ranking military personnel from Oporto represents a large amount of modest citizens who consider that only by the enforcing of this righteous religion will Portugal bring back his outstanding condition, wiped out from our History books during the two centuries and a half of Braganas dynasty.

The poem Prayer for the defeated [Orao pelos vencidos], written in 1892 by Joo de Menezes, narrates the misfortune of the victims relatives of this rebellion, and recommends vengeance as a major handing over for the new-fangled generation. The attitude of clemency expressed in the first verses is forgotten in the very last stanza, when it is asked that the misery of these families may be changed into a strong will to redeem their homeland, by the avenger hands of these young men: But if at the end of the day, By your side, the little children, That begin by now to talk, Raising their hands as well To the Holy Virgin, that from the altar Looks at them filled with sourness, Than let there be an heresy You teach them, and not a holy Prayer of sorrow like yours, May the blood shine and not the tears, May the Hatred be the Lords Prayer May the Vengeance be the Hail Mary! (Menezes 1892: 15) Written by Oscar Latourrette in 1898, the poem Vision [Viso] describes the painful consequences of that blood-spattered crack of dawn in 1891, and its action takes place in a garden of stone in Oporto, where the bodies of the insurrected militaries were really buried. Let us read the second half of this poem: I walked unhurriedly Reading the epitaphs philosophically, But suddenly I see in a sculpted inscription A renowned date and Glory to the defeated. I stopped. And like a priest facing the cross, That instinctively knees at Christs feet, I kneeled too. While I prayed in attrition I saw, astonished, the granite stone moving And a colossal body coming out of the tomb, With a mortal soreness in his chest. []. (Latourrette 1898) As soon as the lyrical subject reads the renowned date and the epitaph emblazoned in that mausoleum, erected in the Prairie of Rest Cemetery [Cemitrio do Prado do Repouso] in an homage to the deceased revolutionaries of 1891, he kneels in front of this republican sanctuary. All of a sudden, the flagstone of the sepulcher moves to the side and, subsequently, rises up a spectrum invocating his venerated homeland, for which he fought and gave his life. Let us focus on his enthusiastic speech: Here I am, for seven years long, in the eternity To where the vindictive fatality threw me, And Im here today, oh! Homeland, claiming revenge In the name of the heroic dust that rests in here

And from which the impatience is taken over, For seeing how long is the awaiting! Yes! The dead ask, very astounded, Why havent you avenged the poor defeated yet That, despising life and facing the danger, Wanted to set you free from your enemy And take out his power, crush his scepter. And with a thundering voice the specter said lastly: - Look at the enemy! Look at the Braganza! Dont forget! Goodbye! Revenge! Revenge! As we can see from the final verses, this neo-gothic ghost claims for revenge, in the name of all those dead and defeated heroes, and singles out King Charles the 1 st as their most important opponent in the battle against Monarchy. The novel Os Teles de Albergaria (1901), written by the monarchist author Carlos Malheiro Dias, is intimately connected with the republican set of guidelines, insofar as the last chapter where the main character, just before he dies, witnesses, with repugnance and bitterness, the republican insurrection of 1891 deals with the end of the soft propaganda and the beginning of a new generation, formed by those republican members who find imperative to adopt a ruthless and martial strategy for the final battering on the old royal castle. In this political novel, the military action of the 31st January 1891 can be surprisingly overviewed by two different understandings: on one hand, the main character sees a gigantic hydra that will bring only a social turmoil; on the other hand, form the point of view of an authoritarian narrative, those rebels seem rather a Deus ex-machina coming out of a Grecian tragedy, as detected in the following excerpt: A colossal clamor [] goes up in the hazy atmosphere, resembling the acclamation from a people of believers to a prestigious divinity: [...]. (Dias 1999: 208) Consequently, the astonishing means to solve the economic and social crisis is to be found in the unexpected and positive intervention of a redemptive divinity called Republic, the political option brought to stage in the very last scene, in order to correct the misleading and neglections of the monarchic regime. Os Teles de Albergaria, Carlos Malheiro Dias literary masterwork, appears to be a didactic novel with a monarchic thesis, when we see the main character rejecting, unsuccessfully, all the political violence, and wishing instead an appeasing revolution, guided by a strong and consensual leadership. Yet, this novel ends with an ambiguous and concealed message: the death of this character, in the 31st January 1891 accurately, symbolizes, on the one hand, the unavoidable agony of the aged monarchic structure, and, on the other hand, the accomplishment of the brand new republican thoughts in Portugal.

Published in 1910 by the republican author Abel Botelho, the novel Prspero Fortuna makes a wide-ranging description of the crisis deployed in Portugal from King Luis sovereignty to a humiliating political and economical situation caused by some events: the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic, the English Ultimatum, the financial bankruptcy, the republican insurgence in 1891, and the return of the turnover parliamentary system, flagged by the new Regenerator administration. This naturalist roman thse is in accordance with the republican action program: at first, the narrative denounces an insolvent Portugal under the dependence of Braganas dynasty; after some exemplary episodes, the Republic is confirmed to be the finest political government that will disentangle all the troubles caused by the monarchy. Thanks to this de-monarchization procedure, Prspero Fortuna is categorically the most genuine representative of the republican authoritarian fiction using Susan Rubin Suleimans specific definition and helps us understand the republic as a truthful and redemptive entity, along with an increasing disappointment of the bourgeoisie towards the royal family. The republicans have always tried to fight back the religious fanaticism and the clerical manipulation. Denouncing the promiscuous bond between Throne and Altar, the republican ideology is conveyed as a holly cause to which every citizen must adhere; for this reason, the newcomer religion will be endowed also with its saints, apostles and evangelists, and some altars will be erected inclusively to worship and invocate the Holly Republic, patron saint of those who have a persistent faith in this political regime. Moreover, the republican ideologists are like missionaries of a new gospel, spread by a new church: they offer a laicist and immanent cult that reassures a fair society to live in, as a replacement for the Catholic Church, a transcendent religion that promises Paradise only after-death. In 1893, the republican theorist Heliodoro Salgado publishes the sonnet The agony of a monarchophobiac [A agonia dum monarcfobo]: My friends, my body is cooling And my soul is about to leave me Why do I see you sad, crying over me, To a false god saying a useless prayer?... It is not the lethal terror that drives me mad, For Im not afraid of being devoured by hell I dont even know what can torture me more Than the vision thats still haunting me. My eyes are flooded with tears Not because my sins weight my soul Or that costs me, at last, leaving life

The truth is that I still see triumphant The Holy Church, the gleaming bacchant, Helping the throne, that murderer one. (Salgado 1893: 3) In the beginning of this poem, the lyrical subject asks his friends not to cry for his death or to commend his soul to a misleading deity. In the following stanzas, the distress is maintained, and only in the last verses we understand the reason for that state of mind: he would really die in peace if the monarchic state had already broken its coalition with the Church. In 1899, Guerra Junqueiro writes a manifesto for the municipal elections. This pamphletary text seeks to convince the Oporto citizens to vote in the republican list, and, strategically, tries to convey the idea that Jesus Christ, when back to Earth, would decline the Catholic Church, symbolized by the deceptiveness of Judas, and embrace the republican ideology, recognized as the supreme religion: Do you want my opinion on the electoral battle? Its simple: In the government list would vote Judas. In the Protestants list would vote Pilate. In the republican list would vote Jesus. The first one means crime; the second one, hypocrisy; the third one, the truth. Vote for the truth. (Junqueiro 1924: 25) Fialho de Almeida is one of the authors that most contribute to pour scorn on the noble and majestic image of Charles the 1st; for instance, in the beginning of the sovereignty of this monarch, the chronist prophesizes by which achievements will he be admired and remembered in the future, such as being all the time surrounded by gourmets and bullfighters, and calling piolheira [sordid place] to the country he ruled. 1908 is the year of the regicide: two men, armed with rifles, murder King Charles the 1 st and the heir prince Luis Filipe, in Lisbon downtown. This violent act had been already prefigured in 1890, in the poem The Hunter Simo [O caador Simo] by Guerra Junqueiro, whose author the philosopher Manuel Laranjeira regards as the most important inspirer for that moment: In Portugal there was, as a reaction against all our disgraces, hatred, deep as the roots of a cancer, towards the royal family and mostly King Charles. That hatred, coming out of the most intimate of the collective soul, had a mouth to shout it out, Guerra Junqueiro , and an arm to convert it into action Manuel Bua. (Apud Martocq 1972, 456) In 1909, the anarchist author Antonio de Albuquerque publishes The Execution of King Charles [A execuo do Rei Carlos], a novel that follows the preceding steps of Manuel Bua before the regicide: he charges the main Braganzas representative for the national dissolution and takes the hard-hitting decision to murder the Portuguese sovereign. Bua is described as an intelligent and consistent brave

10

man, who sacrifices his life and the reputation of his relatives, in the name of justice and freedom. After his death, he is distinguished as a great idol to be worshipped, emphasizing his mystified and hallowed appearance: Buas face was astonishing! He looked like one of those enlightened who die with a smile for the ideal they stride into; the look stared at some invisible, mysterious and vague point, caused shivers. And, still, his pale and partly open lips smiled and all his kind physiognomy of apostle was faithfully reproduced by death that gave it a halo of triumphal serenity. (Albuquerque 1909: 35) If the two first metamorphoses of Republicanism in Portugal have an exogenous influence, mainly in the course of the French Revolutions, its final development derives from internal factors. Facing the difficulties imposed by the monarchic governments to prevent the increasing of a republican representation in Parliament, through some deliberate amendments to the electoral law, the Portuguese Republican Party declines its educational feature and assumes a revolutionary behavior which culminates in the 5 th of October of 1910 successfully, with the implantation of the Portuguese Republic.

11

Bibliography ALBUQUERQUE, Antonio de. 1909. A execuo do Rei Carlos monarchicos e republicanos. Bruxelas, Ed. Antnio Albuquerque. ALMEIDA, Fialho de.1889-1890. Os gatos. 3, Novembro de 1889 a Fevereiro de 1890. BASTOS, Teixeira. 1878. Rumores Vulcanicos. Lisboa, Typ. da Bibliotheca Universal de Lucas & Filho. DIAS, Carlos Malheiro. 1999. Os Teles de Albergaria. Campo das Letras, Porto. FALCO, Jos. 1906. Cartilha do Povo. Gouveia, Commisso Municipal Republicana de Gouveia. JUNQUEIRO, Guerra. 1924. Horas de combate. Porto, Livraria Chardron. LATOURRETTE, Oscar. 1898. Viso, in AA. VV., Monarchia Commemoraao dos mortos 31-1-91. Porto, Centro Republicano do Porto, 31 de Janeiro. MARTINS, F. A. Oliveira. 1926. Correspondncia de J. P. de Oliveira Martins. Lisboa, Parceria Antnio Maria Pereira. MARTINS, Rocha. 1927. D. Carlos Historia do seu reinado. Estoril, Edio do autor. MARTOCQ, Bernard. 1972. Le pessimisme au Portugal (1830-1910), in AA. VV., Arquivos do Centro Cultural Portugus, V. Paris, Fundao Calouste Gulbenkian, 420-458. MENEZES, Joo de. 1892. Orao pelos vencidos, in AA. VV., Um ano depois (aos vencidos). Porto, Empreza Litteraria e Typographica, 15. NOGUEIRA, Jos Flix Henriques. 1976. Estudos sobre a Reforma em Portugal, in Obra Completa, I. Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 19-180. QUENTAL, Antero de. 1989. Cartas I [1852] 1881. Lisboa, Editorial Comunicao. QUENTAL, Antero de. 1926. Portugal perante a revoluo de Hespanha, in Prosas, II. Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade, 47-82. QUENTAL, Antero de. 1865. Odes modernas. Coimbra, Imprensa da Universidade. SALGADO, Heliodoro. 1893. A agonia dum monarchophobo, in AA. VV., Ptria e exlio. Porto, Typographia da Empreza Litteraria e Typographica, 3.

12