Barbosa de Oliveira, Rui (1840–1923)

Rui Barbosa de Oliveira (b. 5 November 1840; d. 1 March 1923), Brazilian statesman, jurist, writer, and diplomat. Barbosa was a leader in many of the great causes that transformed Brazil in the late nineteenth century, leading to the abolition of slavery, the fall of the empire, the creation of the republic, the development of a federal system, and the separation of church and state all within a period of two years. Born in Salvador, Bahia, Barbosa attended law school in Recife and São Paulo, returning to Salvador to practice law. He quickly turned to journalism, becoming a defender of civil rights and a proponent of abolition. Barbosa first served as a representative from Bahia in the imperial parliament, and later as a senator from 1891 to 1923. While he joined the republican cause only shortly before the fall of Dom Pedro II in 1889, he became one of its greatest leaders, helping to consolidate the new government. Barbosa acted as the first minister of finance for the provisional government of the republic (1889–1891), in which capacity he instituted sweeping banking and monetary reforms, established high tariffs, and abandoned the gold standard. Credited by some historians with being the first minister of finance (and the only one up until the 1930s) to break with liberal economics in order to spur industrial development, Barbosa is characterized by others as doing so simply to curry favor with the elite banking community in order to appease criticism of the new regime. Industrial development and the beginnings of import-substitution were fortuitous byproducts.

Barbosa was the principal author of the Constitution of 1891, which he based to an important extent on the United States Constitution, especially in the design of federalism. This naturally gave to U.S.-Brazilian relations "an intimate approximation," in Barbosa's words, though he was not as ready as the great foreign minister, the baron of Rio Branco, to follow the lead of the United States in international matters as part of an "unwritten alliance." This reluctance became especially evident at the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907, which Barbosa attended at the foreign minister's request. Barbosa (and Brazil) gained international renown at the conference for his eloquent arguments in defense of the equality of all nations and, specifically, in favor of the right of small or weak nations to equal representation on an International Court of Justice. This position was at odds with that of the United States and other powers, which sought a smaller court dominated by them. The conference ended without a decision on the court but with Brazilian prestige and Barbosa's popular reputation significantly enhanced.

Barbosa ran for the presidency in 1910 and 1919, touring the provinces and taking issues directly to the voting public for the first time in Brazilian politics. Both bids for higher office were unsuccessful, however, undermined in part by the opposition of influential members of the military, whose involvement in government Barbosa had attacked repeatedly throughout his career. Barbosa was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1908 and served as its president until 1919. His published works on finance, civil liberties, education, and the law number more than 150 volumes.

See alsoBrazil: Constitutions .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raymundo Magalhães, Jr., Rui: O Homem e o mito (1964).

E. Bradford Burns, The Unwritten Alliance: Rio-Branco and Brazilian-American Relations (1966).

Pinto De Aguiar, Rui e a economia brasileira (1973).

José De Arruda Penteado, A consciência didática no pensamento pedagógico de Rui Barbosa (1984).

Steven Topik, The Political Economy of the Brazilian State, 1889–1930 (1987).

Additional Bibliography

Pinto, José Augusto Rodrigues, and José Teixeira Cavalcante Filho. Ruy Barbosa, 150 anos. Salvador, Bahia: Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Federal da Bahia, 2000.

                                    Elizabeth A. Cobbs