Nilo Peçanha

Born to Sebastião de Sousa Peçanha, a baker popularly called "Sebastião da Padaria" (Bakery Sebastian) and Joaquina Anália de Sá Freire, the descendent of an rich and noble northern Rio de Janeiro (state) family. Peçanha was one of seven siblings (five boys and two girls). The family lived in poverty in the remote and poor neighborhood of Morro do Coco, Campos dos Goytacazes and moved to downtown when Peçanha started elementary education.

Peçanha was described as being a mulatto^[2]^[4]^[5]^[9] and often ridiculed in charges and jokes in the press for his African ancestry^[1]^[8]^[7]. During his youth, the local Campos dos Goytacazes social elite alluded to him as the "mestiço of Morro do Coco" (the half-breed from Morro do Coco district)^[6]. In 1921, when he run to the Presidency of Republic, letters falsely attributed to other candidate Artur Bernardes were published by the press and caused an political crisis because insulted the former president Marshal Hermes da Fonseca and also Peçanha, another former president, claiming he was a mulatto. Gilberto Freyre mentioned his "mulatismo" in politics as the same that prevailed in soccer^[11]. According to some scholars, his presidential photographs were touched up to whiten his dark skin^[7]^[12]^[13]. Alberto da Costa e Silva, a distinguished Brazilian scholar, claims that Nilo Peçanha was just one of four Brazilian presidents who concealed their African ancestors such as Campos Sales, Rodrigues Alves and Washington Luís^[14]. Some scholars assert that, despite his tez escura (dark skin color), Nilo Peçanha always hid his black origin and that his descendants and family have denied that he was a mulatto^[15]. The official biography written by a relative, Celso Peçanha^[10] do not mention his racial origins, but another later biograph ^[2] do so, thus some scholars can express doubts^[3]. In any case, his origins were very humble: he used to claim that he had been raised on day-old bread and paçoca (cassava flour grounded with jerked beef)^[6].

After finishing his primary studies in his home city, Peçanha went on to study at the Law Schools of São Paulo and Recife, where he earned his degree. As a student, he supported both the campaign to abolish slavery and the establishment of the Republic.

Peçanha was married to Ana de Castro Belisário Soares de Sousa, also known as "Anita", the descendant of an aristocratic and wealthy family from his birth city. She was a daughter of lawyer João Belisário Soares de Souza and of Ana Rachel Ribeiro de Castro, who was herself a daughter of the viscount of Santa Rita, one of the richest men in Brazil. The marriage was a social scandal since the bride escaped her house to marry her poor and "mulatto" groom, despite his status as a promising young politician^[6].

He worked as a lawyer and an university teacher in the Faculdade Livre de Direito do Rio de Janeiro.

Peçanha started his formal political career as an elected member of the first Republican Constituent Assembly of 1890. His political career advanced fastly as a protegé of Campos Sales who became President in 1898^[2]. In 1903 he was successively elected Senator and then President (Governor) of the state of Rio de Janeiro, remaining in the latter position until 1906 when he was elected vice-president under Afonso Pena.

Afonso Pena died in 1909 while still in office and Peçanha assumed the presidency promising a government of Paz e Amor (Peace and Love). He was 41 years old, the youngest Brazilian president up then^[16].

His presidential government had many political troubles and Nilo Peçanha proved himself a man of wit and guts. The balance of power of the Brazilian República Velha (Old Republic) was acquired between a compromise of the governing elites of the main states, specially Minas Gerais and São Paulo. The dead president, Afonso Pena, was elected with the support of these political alliance, but Peçanha was just a vice-president who assumed presidency by chance. Thus atrittions between the state oligarchies intensified, particularly with those of Minas Gerais and São Paulo states. His government was also marked by friction with José Gomes Pinheiro Machado, the most powerful political leader of the Conservative Republican Party. Ruy Barbosa started to run to presidency promoting the "Campanha Civilista" (civilist campaign) against other candidacy, the Marshall Hermes da Fonseca, and attracted the opposition and discontent of the military. Federal intervention was required in the government of the Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas states^[16].

He was a man of deep political wit which carved a practical and non-doctrinaire way between the positivism and the idealistic adherents of a pure Republican system that fought each other during the first decades of Brazilian Republic^[2]. He was renowned for anticipating all the movements of his adversaries and to achieve good political agreements even when the odds were not favorable^[16].

During his presidency, Peçanha created the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, as well as the Indian Protection Service (SPI) and inaugurated the first system of technical schools in Brazil. He also began a basic sanitation program in the Baixada Fluminense region. He fought the excess of workers in the public service and the high government expenditures that caused the elevation of taxes^[16].

At the end of his mandate, he returned to the Senate and two years later was again elected President (Governor) for the state of Rio de Janeiro. He gave up this post in 1917 to take up the position of Minister of Foreign Relations and during his rule Brazil declared war against the Central Powers in World War I. In 1918, he was again elected to the Senate.

In 1921 he was a leader of the Republican Reaction Movement which had the goal of championing the politics of liberalism against those of the state oligarchies. His run for the presidency was supported by the state governments of Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco, and also by a large part of military. The campaign was fierce with mutual attacks and the famous case of letters falsely attributed to candidate Artur Bernardes which insulted the military and the former president Marshal Hermes da Fonseca. Despite the strong support, Brazil was divided and Peçanha was defeated by Artur Bernardes, the pro-government candidate in the presidential election of 1922.