On the next day the Regent prorogued the Assembly until November, and
appointed Vasconcellos, a man of great standing and political power, but
factious, selfish, and immoral, as Minister of the Empire. These
unpopular movements brought about actual revolt in the Assembly, for
Antonio Andrada called on the members of the Assembly to follow him to
the Senate. The two Houses conferred, and appointed a deputation to the
Emperor himself, urging his consent to being immediately proclaimed. The
deputation returned, bearing His Majesty's consent, and an order to the
Regent to revoke his decrees, pronouncing the Chamber to be again in
session. These powerful measures ended the controversy. In 1841 the
coronation ceremony was performed, and Pedro II. assumed actual rule
over Brazil.
He was in almost every sense an efficient ruler. His personality was
viewed with confidence in Europe, and so long as he occupied the throne
the very important question of foreign loans presented few difficulties.
The influence of the Emperor was especially notable at the conclusion of
the Paraguayan War, when the finances of Brazil were in an exhausted
condition. Pedro II. was no autocrat; of a gentle and exceptionally
unselfish character, he governed in a simple and most painstaking
fashion, manifesting his patriotism in every possible direction.
Exterior events were of little importance during the first years of
Pedro's reign. The chief happenings were a certain amount of civil war
in the Rio Grande, and the partaking of the Brazilian forces in the
battles between Uruguay and Rosas, the tyrant of Argentina, varied with
occasional fights with Uruguay itself. In 1842 revolts broke out in the
provinces of Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, but these, together with
similar insurrections in Rio Grande in 1845, and in Pernambuco in 1849,
were suppressed. In 1851 Brazil espoused the cause of Urquiza, the
Governor of Entre Rios, against that of Rosas, and the aid of the
Brazilian troops was largely instrumental in bringing about the fall of
the tyrant.
Dom Pedro's administration, moreover, was conducted with tact and good
judgment. His presence acted as a check upon the experimental tendencies
of the more effervescent of his subjects. He believed in slow and sure
progress, and undoubtedly during his reign Brazil responded to the care
and thought expended on her. Indeed, the policy of the Emperor was
liberal to a degree, and as such very welcome to a populace whose ideas,
if not instincts, had grown more or less democratic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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