Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná (11 January 1801 – 3 September 1856) was a Brazilian politician, diplomat, judge and monarchist. Paraná was born to a noble family in São Carlos do Jacuí, in what was then the captaincy of Minas Gerais. After attending the University of Coimbra in Portugal and having returned to Brazil, Paraná was appointed a judge in 1826 and later elevated to appellate court justice. In 1830, he was elected to represent Minas Gerais in the Chamber of Deputies; he was re-elected in 1834 and 1838, and held the post until 1841.
In the aftermath of emperor Pedro I's abdication in 1831, a regency created to govern Brazil during the minority of the former emperor's son, Pedro II, soon dissolved into chaos. Paraná formed a political party in 1837 that became known as the Reactionary Party, which evolved into the Party of Order in the early 1840s and in the mid-1850s into the Conservative Party. He and his party's stalwart and unconditional defence of constitutional order allowed the country to move beyond a regency plagued by factious disputes and rebellions that might easily have led to a dictatorship. Appointed president of Rio de Janeiro Province in 1841, Paraná helped put down a rebellion headed by the opposition Liberal Party the following year. Also in 1842, he was elected senator for Minas Gerais and appointed by Pedro II to the Council of State. In 1843, he became the de facto first president (prime minister) of the Council of Ministers, but resigned after a quarrel with the emperor.
After years in opposition, in 1849, Paraná was appointed by the national government as president of Pernambuco Province to investigate a Liberal rebellion that had taken place a year earlier, and seek a fair trial for the rebels. Blamed by his party colleagues for the years in opposition and having lost much of his influence within his own party, Paraná accepted the post, believing he could regain his place among his peers. With the nation internally pacified, he was sent to Uruguay in 1851 to forge an alliance with that country, and with the rebel Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Entre Ríos, against the Argentine Confederation. The alliance triumphed, and the emperor elevated Paraná to the ranks of the titled nobility.
In 1853, Paraná was again appointed president of the Council of Ministers, at the head of a highly successful cabinet, and became the most powerful politician in the country. The electoral reform he ushered in was credited with undermining national political processes and causing severe harm to the system of parliamentary government. For his role in pushing through restructuring, Paraná met with fierce opposition from the majority of his colleagues, leading to a virtual split in the Conservative Party over his policies. On 3 September 1856, while still in office and at the height of his political career, he died unexpectedly of an unknown febrile condition. He is widely regarded by historians as one of the most influential statesmen of his time.
Early years
Birth and childhood Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão was born on 11 January 1801, in the freguesia (civil parish) of São Carlos do Jacuí, Minas Gerais, then a captaincy (later province) of the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Named after Saint Honorata, Honório Hermeto was the son of Antônio Neto Carneiro Leão and Joana Severina Augusta de Lemos.See:
. On his father's side, he was descended from Portugal's powerful Carneiro Leão clan, which had settled in Brazil in the 17th century. Antônio Neto, however, was much less prosperous than his relatives. An impoverished military officer in 1801, he held the rank of furriel (third sergeant). Advancement of his career was thwarted by his character flaws. Antônio Neto was hotheaded and had a strong personality which once led to his arrest for insubordination.
Honório Hermeto first lived in Paracatu, then moved to Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto), at that time the capital of Minas Gerais, where he spent his childhood and adolescence. His father was widowed on 10 February 1806; on 11 January 1807 he wed Rita de Cássia Soares do Couto, the daughter of his late wife's sister.See:
. Honório Hermeto regarded Rita de Cássia as his mother and her father, colonel Nicolau Soares Couto, actually raised him. Honório Hermeto had an elder sister, Balbina, and three half-sisters and a half-brother, Nicolau Neto Carneiro Leão (later Baron of Santa Maria), from his father's second marriage.See:
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Education
At age 16, Honório Hermeto was commissioned as a lieutenant and standard-bearer of the 2nd Militia Cavalry Regiment, 1st Company, in Vila Rica. Antônio Neto made great efforts to provide Honório Hermeto with an education of much higher quality than would normally have been expected in a family of their limited financial means. The promotion to captain in 1819 increased Antônio Neto's income, allowing his eldest son to go to Portugal and enroll in the University of Coimbra's law school in 1820, thus ending Honório Hermeto's brief military career. He was an excellent student and struck up acquaintances among his fellow Brazilians in Coimbra, including Paulino Soares de Sousa (who would become one of his greatest allies and later the 1st Viscount of Uruguai) and Aureliano de Sousa Oliveira Coutinho (later Viscount of Sepetiba).
During the Portuguese Liberal Revolution of 1820, he supported the constitutionalists, who advocated a national constitution to limit the powers of the Portuguese monarchy, against the absolutists, who preferred an absolute monarchy. It is unknown whether he actively took part in the uprising, however, and if so, to what degree. Honório Hermeto was a member of a secret society called A Gruta (The Den), founded by Brazilian students at Coimbra with the primary goal of changing Brazil from a monarchy into a republic. His republicanism would fade with time and eventually be replaced by staunch support for monarchism.
Honório Hermeto received a bachelor's degree in Law in 1824, and his masters diploma on 18 June 1825. He was also employed in a law firm for a few months. He returned to Brazil on 8 August 1825 aboard a ship with other Coimbra graduates, among them Aureliano Coutinho and Joaquim Rodrigues Torres (who would later found the Conservative Party with Honório Hermeto and become the Viscount of Itaboraí). During Honório Hermeto's time in Europe his native country had gained independence from Portugal and become the Empire of Brazil.
Entry into politics
Magistrate and politician
On 20 May 1826, Honório Hermeto married his 17-year-old first cousin Maria Henriqueta Neto, the daughter of his father's brother João Neto Carneiro Leme. Unlike his brother, João Neto was a rich and influential man. Honório Hermeto and Maria Henriqueta had five children: Honório, Henrique (later Baron of Paraná), Maria Emília, Maria Henriqueta and Pedro. The advantageous marriage allowed Honório Hermeto to become a slave owner, assume his uncle's business, which included domestic slave trading, and later, in the 1830s, purchase a coffee farm in the province of Rio de Janeiro. Coffee was quickly becoming Brazil's most important export commodity and was a highly lucrative crop.See:
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Honório Hermeto pursued a typical course open to 19th century Brazilians who became affluent through family connections and patronage: a judicial career, with expectations of entering politics. On 14 October 1826, he was named to a three-year term as juiz de fora (external judge) with jurisdiction over the three villages in the province of São Paulo. On 25 August 1828, Honório Hermeto left São Paulo upon being promoted to the post of auditor da marinha (admiralty judge) in Rio de Janeiro, the imperial capital located in the province of same name. His tenure in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro helped expand his connections. Emperor Pedro I appointed him ouvidor (superior judge) in late 1828 and desembargador (regional appeal judge) in 1829, an office Honório Hermeto held until his retirement in 1848.
Well established in the imperial capital, Honório Hermeto campaigned in 1829 to become a general deputy (member of the Chamber of Deputies, the national lower house) as a representative for his native Minas Gerais. He was elected to a seat in the legislature for the term beginning April 1830. He became a member of the Liberal Party, which stood in opposition to Pedro I and his policies. As a general deputy, Honório Hermeto had an unobtrusive role for the first couple of years, having been overshadowed by Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos, the leader of the deputies representing Minas Gerais. Short, slim and with a speech impediment, the dark-haired Honório Hermeto appeared an unimpressive figure at first glance.See:
. Like his father, he was headstrong, opinionated and often scathing. However, he had self-confidence and a powerful charisma, and was energetic, intelligent, perspicacious and a natural born leader.See:
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Political crises
Due to the weakening of his political position and his own concomitant motives, Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and departed for Europe. Without a common cause in the person of the former emperor, the radical wing of the Liberal Party seceded. Honório Hermeto remained in the Liberal Party, which changed its name to Moderate Party to differentiate itself from its estranged radicals. Meanwhile, as the new emperor, Pedro II, was only a child of five, a regency—with little effective authority—was created. This resulted in nine years of chaos, during which the country was plagued by rebellions and coup attempts initiated by unruly political factions.
On 19 July 1831, radicals and insubordinate military officers presented the Chamber of Deputies with a list of 89 Brazilians, including senators, whom they demanded be deported. Honório Hermeto gave a speech in which he said that "neither a senator nor the most humble citizen belonging to the lowest class may be deported without having been prosecuted and convicted... Even when a citizen is an evildoer, his rights must be respected..." All the deputies but one agreed with him, and the incident was settled, with several battalions being disbanded. As an adult, Pedro II would later remember that his "style of speaking was inelegant, and he had a stutter; but it vanished when he was aroused and at all times his arguments were tight knit, and somebody wittily remarked that [Honório Hermeto,] the marquis of Paraná, when he stuttered, stuttered arguments."
A second crisis arose on 30 July 1832. A constitutional amendment effecting greater reforms was voted on and approved in the Chamber of Deputies, but still faced major opposition in the Senate. Diogo Antônio Feijó and Aureliano Coutinho, both Moderates, planned a coup d'état. Feijó would assume dictatorial powers and immediately enact the constitutional amendment, thus bypassing the Senate entirely. Honório Hermeto called on his fellow deputies to uphold the Constitution: "We need not hurt the legal order and [constitutional] principles: we can make fair laws ... and in the respected Constitution we have safe and legal ways of giving the nation what it wants... let us not violate it [the Constitution], as it is our only safeguard." He rallied the deputies to his view, and in defeating the unconstitutional proposal, the coup attempt was crushed.See:
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Path to conservatism
Genesis of the Conservative Party