[By way of introduction, one of our members in
Brazil, Alberto Mansur, Sovereign Grand Commander of Honor (Past
Sovereign Grand Commander) of the Scottish Rite of Brazil and
Grand Master and founder of DeMolay and Job's Daughters in
Brazil, sent two articles on Tiradentes, the Hero-Martyr of the
Brazilian Independence, one from their Supreme Council, quoted
here, and one by Guilherme Victor M. De Lima Camara. Tiradentes,
Joaquim Josê da Silva Xavier, was "commonly and officially
trusted to be a Freemason although no documents are available in
confirmation." We did find eight lodges in Brazil named
Tiradentes, located in Sao Paulo (2), Rio Grande Do Sul, Rio De
Janeiro, Mato Grasso Do Sul, Maranhao, Brasilia and Amazonas.]
The Brazilian Conspiracy of Vila Rica, which
occurred in 1789 in the mountains of central Brazil, in today's
state of Minas Gerais, embodied an ideological connotation and
shared in the universal political scene of the era.
It all began with the English Revolution in the
17th century, rooted in the democratic principles set forth by John
Locke, the political philosopher. The enlightenment first
cast its awakening rays, followed in the 18th century by the
Encyclopedist leaders d'Alembert and Diderot. The
concept of the absolute monarchy and the Divine Right of Kings
began to give ground to their efforts and the onslaught of
Voltaire and other political scientists of the era. Montesquieu
wrote his monumental book "The Spirit of the Law,"
preaching the need to separate the three powers -- Legislative,
Executive and Judicial -- and to take the exercise of all the
powers away from the King. And Rousseau's "Social
Contract" defended liberty and equality among all men.
Fanned by those ideas the American Revolution
broke out on July 1776. Masons played an important and decisive
role in the movement, in the person of George Washington, the
Father of the Nation, who courageously led the shabby but
victorious rebel army.
Modern democracy was then formulated, based on
political representation and balance between the rights of the
individual and the power of the state. By coincidence, the
independence movement in Brazil and the French Revolution broke
out the same date in 1789. The colony's wish for autonomy was
symptomatic of its nonconformity with the exploitative character
of the Motherland, that wished to continue exercising monopoly
over the colony's riches and resources.
The Brazilian Conspirators were intellectuals
attuned to the new political ideas of the Era then emerging in
men's minds. The patriotic group included Clâudio Manuel da
Costa, Tomâs Antônio Gonzaga, Inâcio Josê Alvarenga
Peixoto, all whom comprised the Minas of School then
prominent in Brazil's literary currents.
Tiradentes was also born into a
"good family" and was endowed with certain intellectual
gifts nurtured by his auto-didactic efforts. Many clergymen also
partook of the independence fervor, like the priests Rolim
and Luis Vieira. The latter, a highly cultured person
steeped in philosophy, was responsible for disseminating among
his cohorts the ideas that spawned the American Revolution.
Joaquim Josê da Silva Xavier --
popularly called Tiradentes, the "Toothpuller,"
because of his professional sideline -- rose to the rank of
second lieutenant in the local militia. Many of his then modern
free-thinking ideas resulted from his friendship with Dr.
Josê Alvares Maciel, schooled in philosophy at the
University of Coimbra, Portugal. Maciel was a Mason. The bands of
malcontents, fed up with the Portuguese government's heavy taxes
and fiscal oppression, comprised educated men, priests,
landowners, businessmen, military men. The incompetent local
government, which represented the interests of the far-off
Portuguese monarchy, was riddled with acts of injustice, debt,
bad administration, graft and other negative factors that pushed
the native born Brazilians toward insurrection.
At their secret meetings they produced a draft
of a plan for the new government and designed a flag symbolic of
their ideals. It would be white, with a verse in Latin taken from
the poet Virgil, "Libertas quae aera tamen,"
which meant "Liberty even though tardy." The
verse was proposed by the poet Alvarenga Paixoto, and the
banner also bore an equal sided triangle probably suggested by Alvares
Maciel.
The rebels intended to set up a Republic whose
capital would be in Sâo-Joâo-del-Rei, another city in Minas
Gerais. They set to outlining an administrative structure, but
also -- it should be emphasized -- planned to create a
university. They hoped to spread the revolutionary movement
quickly to other provinces, first to Rio de Janeiro and Sâo
Paulo. Tiradentes' participation in that endeavor would be of
utmost importance and risk, as his tendency toward leadership
grew among the insurgents.
They hastened to finalize the details of the
uprising to coincide with the arrival of the new royal governor
Luis Antônio Furtado de Mendonca. He was also titled the
Viscount of Barbacena, and had been appointed by the Queen of
Portugal, Maria, to collect the overdue taxes in gold. The
rebellion was set to occur immediately after the start of the
hated tax collection campaign, just when the taxpayers would feel
most upset and aggravated. The exact date and day would be
signalled in the code phrase "the baptism will take place on
____."
But a traitor betrayed them and their plans
went awry. Through his treachery, Joaquim Silvêrio dos
Reis had his back taxes waived and changed the course of
Brazilian history.
Spies watched as Tiradentes rode into
Rio de Janeiro, where he was arrested on May 10, 1789, in a house
on what is now Goncalvas Dias Street in the downtown area. His
fellow conspirators were likewise apprehended in Minas Gerais. A
trial was called in Rio de Janeiro. Clâudio da Costa
committed suicide but Tiradentes assumed full
responsibility for the uprising with these words: "I confess
having plotted everything; no one influenced or induced me in any
way."
The court's first verdict on April 18, 1792,
condemned all the insurgent leaders to death. Two days later,
based on a Royal Letter from Queen Maria, the court
commuted the death sentences for all the conspirators except Tiradentes.
But they were condemned to perpetual exile in Africa.
Four of the exiled rebels wre subsequently
pardoned and allowed back into Brazil: Resende Costa Filho
and the three priests, Rolim, Luis Vieira da Silva and Manuel
Rodrigues da Costa. The first and last later rose to the
positions of provincial representatives to the constitutional
Assembly.
Tiradentes received the harshest
condemnation. He was to be hanged in public, decapitated and
quartered. The four parts of his body were to be nailed to posts
on the roads he used to traverse as a soldier. His head was to be
placed in a locked cage and left to rot high on a post in Vila
Rica, the insurgents' town since renamed Ouro Preto.
The sentence was carried out in Rio de Janeiro
on the public square then called Campo da Lampadosa, now called
Tiradentes Square. That sad event occurred 200 years ago on
April 21, 1792.
Father Vieira da Silva, the co-prisoner
whose death sentence was commutted, had only words of praise for
the martyr of our Independence: "He was a courageous man,
and if Brazil had more like him, it would be a flourishing
Republic."
Friar Raimundo de Pennaforte, Tiradente's
confessor at his last moments, is reputed to have said, in a
moved voice: "He was one of those individuals who stun
Nature itself..."
As a prize for betraying the uprising, the
traitor also received the robe of the Order of Christ, a title of
nobility in the Royal House, and a significant annual pension.
But the people of Brazil awarded him with eternal scorn and the
title of Judas to his fellow compatriots.
Tiradentes' merit was not immediately
acknowledged after Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in
1822, as would have been just. Not until 1867 was the monument in
his honor erected in the city of Ouro Preto by the initiative of Joaquim
Saldanha Marinho, a Mason and fervent Republican. Later,
after the Republic of Brazil was declared in 1889, the date of
April 21st was decreed a national holiday. Finally, Federal Law
4897, signed into effect on December 9, 1965, officially
designated Joaquim Joše da Silva Xavier, the
Toothpuller Tiradentes, as the "civic Patron of
the Brazilian Nation."
In public places, in schools, streets and
avenues throughout our vast nation, his name has been glorified
by the gratitude of his fellow Brazilians as one who died for
their independence.
But the soul is immortal. Over the two hundred
years of time spanning from 1792 to this Bicentenary Year,
Tiradentes' soul has been strengthened by his co-patriots votive
thoughts. Theirs is the warmth fed by the expectation of seeing
him, he who was decimated by the enemies of freedom, come to life
again, splendrous in a hymn to his greatness. Alive again in
eloquent moments like this one, like the spring buds that flower
across this vast Brazil he so loved, germinating in the hearts of
Bicentennial Men who harken to his voice, and, hand in hand, trod
that fraternal path he so selflessly preached. Theirs is the
conviction that their fabulous leader, unfettered of his noose
and prisoner's shroud, free of his executioners, stands in the
realms of the True Light. His figure inspires all Brazilians to
move forward in the Nation's progress, as we look toward days of
hope, toward a grandiose future, toward the sacred dream of our
honored Rebel Brothers.
In celebration of this historical date, the
Supreme Council - Supremo Conselho do Grau 33 do Rito Escocês e
Aceito da Maçonaria para a República Federative do Brasil - has
issued Act. no. 0620-88/93, which institutes the commemorative Tiradentes
Medal. Let April 21st encourage in all Brazilian Masons the
patriotic sentiment of selfless to their Homeland, with
unmeasured sacrifice and dedication. (This medal was awarded to
our lodge.)