Ruy Barbosa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira | |
 Rui Barbosa
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| Born | November 5, 1849 Salvador, Bahia, Brazil |
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| Died | March 1, 1923 (aged 73) Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Occupation | Writer, jurist, politician, diplomat |
Ruy Barbosa de Oliveira, current spelling Rui, (November 5, 1849 — March 1, 1923) was an important Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.
Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, minister of finances and taxation, and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), "peace conference" of the Hague (1907), he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague". He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Brazil in 1910 and again in 1919.
Ruy Barbosa gave his first public speech for the abolition of slavery when he was 19. For the rest of his life he remained an uncompromising defender of civil liberties. Slavery in Brazil was finally abolished by the Lei Áurea ("Golden Law") in 1888. Part of Barbosa's legacy to history is that he authorised, as minister of finance in 1890, the destruction of most government records relating to slavery.[1].
Barbosa's liberal ideas were influential in drafting the first republican constitution (1891). He was forced into exile in 1893 by Pesident Floriano Peixoto for two years before returning and being elected as a Senator. He headed the Brazilian delegation to the Second Hague Conference and was brilliant in its deliberations. As candidate of the Civilista Party in the presidential elections of 1910, Barbosa waged one of the most memorable campaigns in Brazilian politics. He was not successful and lost to Marshal Hermes da Fonseca.
He was a supporter of fiat money, as opposed to a gold standard, in Brazil. During his term as minister of finances, he implemented far-reaching reforms of Brazil's financial regime, instituting a vigorously expansionist monetary policy. The result was chaos and instability: the so-called fiat experiment was a dismal failure. An orthodox backlash followed under the Murtinho program later in the decade.
He received International recognition for his abilities in 1921 as a judge of the World Court at the Hague which he held until his death two years later.
Barbosa died in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro in 1923.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Population, Citizenship and Human Rights in Brazil: Elements for a System of Indicators, paper at International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) conference 2005 accessed at March 2007
[edit] Further reading
- Turner, C. W. (1945). Ruy Barbosa: Brazilian crusader for the essential freedoms. New York, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press. - reissue (2005) Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1419104241
[edit] External links
- The Hague: Rui Barbosa and the Brazilian Delegation to the Second Peace Conference - article by Professor Raul Mendes Silva on a Brazilian government website (Portuguese)
- Ruy Barbosa museum (Casa de Ruy Barbosa) - (Portuguese)
