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Feijó, Diogo Antônio

Diogo Antônio Feijó

b. 3 Aug 1784, São Paulo
d. 10 Nov 1843, São Paulo

Title: Regente (Regent)
Term: 12 Oct 1835 - 19 Sep 1837
Chronology: 7 Apr 1835, elected by the electors [1]; counting of votes was finalized by the General Assembly (the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies meeting jointly), held at the seat of the Senate, Rio de Janeiro, 9 Oct 1835
  12 Oct 1835, oath of office taken before the General Assembly, held at the seat of the Senate, Rio de Janeiro
  19 Sep 1837, signed resignation addressed to the Minister of the Interior
Biography:

Diogo Antônio Feijó was ordained Roman Catholic priest on 25 Feb 1809. He was elected (1821) to the Portuguese Côrtes to represent Brazil. Along with other Brazilian deputies Feijó refused to sign the Portuguese Constitution and later criticized the authoritarian nature of the first Brazilian Constitution (1824). As a deputy in the General Assembly (1826-1829, 1830-1833), Feijó attacked the regime of Emperor Pedro I. After the emperor's abdication (7 Apr 1831) and the election of the Permanent Regency (17 Jun 1831), Feijó assumed the office of justice minister, but failed to bring social reconciliation and resigned (3 Aug 1832). In July 1833 he was elected senator and served on the Statistics Committee (1834). Political instability in Brazil of early 1830s brought about the adoption of the Additional Act (Ato Adicional, 1834) changing the structure of government. Feijó was elected to the post of sole regent of the Empire (7 Apr 1835). His government attempted to stop the process of disintegration, but had to deal with two major revolts in the provinces of Para (revolt known as Cabanagem) and Rio Grande do Sul (Farroupilha). With his health declining and facing severe criticism, Feijó resigned the office of regent on 19 Sep 1837 and was succeeded by Pedro de Araújo Lima. He returned to the Senate as its president (1839), but suffered a hemorrhage, which left him partially paralyzed. In 1842 Feijó sided with the liberals, who rose in arms protesting against the outcome of parliamentary elections. He was arrested during the suppression of the revolution by the Duke of Caxias and exiled to Vitória, Espírito Santo. A few months later he was freed and returned to São Paulo. [2][3]

Elections:

Candidate Electoral vote (7 Apr 1835) [4]
Diogo Antonio Feijó 2,828
Antonio Francisco de Paula Holanda Cavalcânti de Albuquerque 2,251
José da Costa Carvalho 847
Pedro de Araújo Lima 760
Francisco de Lima e Silva 629
Manuel de Carvalho Pais de Andrade 605
Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos 605
Cipriano José Barata de Almeida 266
66 candidates between 10 and 100 votes
17 candidates between 2 and 9 votes
98 candidates one vote each

[1] Under the Constitution of 1824 and the Additional Act, citizens in each province voted for electors who then elected provincial legislators and members of the Chamber of Deputies. In the elections of Regent, the same electors voted for two candidates each, not both from the elector's province.
[2] "Diogo Antônio Feijó", by Octávio Tarquínio de Sousa (in "História dos fundadores do Império do Brasil") (Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte, 1988).
[3] "A Political History of the Brazilian Regency 1831-1840", by Helen Katherine Reinhart (Thesis, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1960).
[4] Dicionário do voto (2000)