Prudente José de Morais Barros (4 October 1841 – 3 December 1902) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the third president of Brazil from 1894 to 1898. Morais was elected in 1894, being the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, and the first to serve a full term. Before his presidency he served as president (governor) of the state of São Paulo and president of the Senate from 1891 to 1894. He was also president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted and enacted the 1891 Constitution.
Morais was born in Itu, São Paulo, in 1841. His father, José Marcelino de Barros, was murdered by a slave when Prudente was three years old. Raised in Piracicaba after his mother's remarriage to major Caetano José Gomes Carneiro, Morais graduated from the Faculty of Law of São Paulo in 1863. Returning to Piracicaba, he established a law firm and soon joined the Liberal Party, serving as a municipal councilor and later as provincial deputy. In the 1870s he joined the Republican cause, taking part in the foundation of the Republican Party of São Paulo and becoming one of the most prominent leaders of the republican propaganda in São Paulo. In 1866, he married Adelaide Benvinda da Silva Gordo, with whom he had seven children, including Prudente de Morais Filho, who later became a politician. After the fall of the monarchy, Morais was part of the governing junta of São Paulo and was then appointed governor of the state. In 1890 he became senator, and the following year presided over the Constituent Assembly that promulgated Brazil's first republican Constitution, which instituted a federal system.
Elected president of Brazil in 1894, Morais took office in a climate of severe political instability following the country's first military presidencies, marked by the 1894 Naval Revolt in the capital and the Federalist Revolution in southern Brazil, which ended in the first year of his term. His government also faced the War of Canudos, a peasant revolt in Bahia's hinterland crushed by the Brazilian Army in 1897, and an assassination attempt that same year. On the international front, his administration restored diplomatic relations with Portugal after mediation by Queen Victoria, settled disputes with Italy and France in Amapá, signed a treaty with Japan to encourage immigration, and resolved a border dispute with Argentina through arbitration by U.S. president Grover Cleveland, which was favorable to Brazil. He also dealt with the financial aftermath of the Encilhamento by negotiating the first funding loan with British bankers. After completing his term, Morais returned to Piracicaba, where he remained active in politics until his death in 1902.
Born on 4 October 1841 in Itu, São Paulo Province, Prudente José de Morais Barros was the son of José Marcelino de Barros and Catarina Maria de Morais. At the age of three he lost his father, who was murdered by a slave at the family's estate known as Moinho. The perpetrator was later sentenced to death by a jury, in what became the last execution carried out in that district. His mother then married major Caetano José Gomes Carneiro, described as a man of "routine and backward spirit", and the family moved to Piracicaba.
After receiving his first schooling from his mother, Morais enrolled in 1855 at the Delgado School at the age of 14, newly founded in Itu by the educator Manoel Estanislau Delgado, but the institution closed the following year. Morais aspired to move to São Paulo, where he could take preparatory courses for the Faculty of Law, but his stepfather was against his decision, despite the expenses being covered by the inheritance left by his father. With the help of his mother, Morais was able to move to the provincial capital in April 1857, where he enrolled at João Carlos da Fonseca's school. There he studied under notable professors José Vieira Couto de Magalhães and João Baptista Cortines Laxe. In November 1858 he took his last preparatory exams and in 1859 he enrolled in the Faculty of Law.
During his studies at the Faculty of Law, Morais was a colleague of Campos Sales, Bernardino de Campos, Rangel Pestana, and Francisco Quirino dos Santos. Like many other leaders of Brazil's early republican period, in the faculty Morais joined the Bucha, a secret student society of a liberal, abolitionist, and republican nature founded by professor Julius Frank and inspired by the German Burschenschaft associations. Morais graduated with a Legal and Social Sciences degree in 1863 and returned to Piracicaba the following year, where he opened a law firm and began to work as an attorney.
Prudente de Morais married Adelaide Benvinda da Silva Gordo on 18 May 1866 in Santos. Adelaide was the daughter of Antônio José da Silva Gordo. Morais' older brother, Manuel de Morais Barros, was already married to Adelaide's sister, Maria Inês. Adelaide's younger brother, Adolfo Afonso da Silva Gordo, was also active in politics and married first Ana, the granddaughter of senator Nicolau Vergueiro, and later Albertina Vieira de Carvalho, daughter of jurist Joaquim José Vieira de Carvalho and sister of Arnaldo Vieira de Carvalho, founder of the Faculty of Medicine of São Paulo.
Together Prudente and Adelaide had seven children, including Gustavo de Morais e Barros and Prudente José de Morais e Barros Filho, both of whom enlisted as volunteers during the Federalist Revolt, marching to Itararé to defend it against the rebels. Several members of the extended Morais family later held political office, such as his son Prudente Filho, his relative Paulo de Morais Barros, and his son-in-law João Sampaio.
Municipal councillor and provincial deputy (1865–1868)
Prudente de Morais joined the Liberal Party and was elected president of the Municipal Chamber of Piracicaba on 7 September 1864 for the 1865–1868 period. In this office he enacted the municipality's first Manners Code. In October 1867 Morais was elected provincial deputy in the 3rd district to the 1868–1869 legislature in São Paulo, being appointed a member of the Provincial Assembly's Justice and Legislation Commission. On the national political scene, the liberal prime minister Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos fell on 16 July 1868, being succeeded by the conservative Joaquim José Rodriges Torres, who dissolved the Chamber of Deputies.
The new elections for councilors and deputies that followed, scheduled for September 1868 and January 1869, respectively, were marked by political violence in São Paulo and other provinces. Liberals all over the country decided not to take part in the January elections, and in São Paulo the legislature met to discuss the wave of violence and persecution carried out by the provincial president, the Baron of Itaúna, directly appointed by the imperial government. In a session held on 31 May 1869 to discuss the bill establishing the police force, Prudente de Morais delivered a lengthy speech denouncing political persecution. According to Manoel Antonio Alvares de Azevedo, the speech already revealed Morais' disbelief in Brazil's monarchical institutions and his republican leanings.
The Convention of Itu and foundation of the Republican Party
The country was then experiencing the beginning of republican unrest and on 3 December 1870, the Manifesto Republicano was launched in Rio de Janeiro. Published in the first issue of the newspaper A República and signed by 56 people, including the São Paulo natives Rangel Pestana and Miranda de Azevedo, the document had repercussions in São Paulo, proposing a "peaceful evolution" in Brazil to make the country a republic by non violent means.
In 1873, he joined the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and declared himself a republican as a representative in the Provincial Assembly.
He was a provincial deputy in the city of São Paulo and deputy to the General Assembly of the Empire as a supporter of the republican form of government, abolition of slavery and federalism. As provincial deputy, he worked with the complex issue of the borders of São Paulo with Minas Gerais, a subject on which he was an expert.