Prudente de Morais

Prudente José de Morais Barros (4 October 1841 – 3 December 1902) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the third president of Brazil from 1894 to 1898. Morais was elected in 1894, being the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, and the first to serve his term in its entirety. Before his presidency he served as president (governor) of the state of São Paulo and president of the Senate from 1891 to 1894. He was also president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted and enacted the 1891 Constitution.

Morais was born in Itu, São Paulo, in 1841. His father, José Marcelino de Barros, was murdered by a slave when Prudente was three years old. Raised in Piracicaba after his mother's remarriage to major Caetano José Gomes Carneiro, Morais graduated from the Faculty of Law of São Paulo in 1863. Returning to Piracicaba, he established a law firm and soon joined the Liberal Party, serving as a municipal councilor and later as provincial deputy. In the 1870s he joined the Republican cause, taking part in the foundation of the Republican Party of São Paulo and becoming one of the most prominent leaders of the republican propaganda in São Paulo. In 1866, he married Adelaide Benvinda da Silva Gordo, with whom he had seven children, including Prudente de Morais Filho, who later became a politician. After the fall of the monarchy, Morais was part of the governing junta of São Paulo and was then appointed governor of the state. In 1890 he became senator, and the following year presided over the Constituent Assembly that promulgated Brazil's first republican Constitution, which instituted a federal system.

Elected president of Brazil in 1894, Morais took office in a climate of severe political instability following the country's first military presidencies, marked by the 1894 Naval Revolt in the capital and the Federalist Revolution in southern Brazil, which ended in the first year of his term. His government also faced the War of Canudos, a peasant revolt in Bahia's hinterland crushed by the Brazilian Army in 1897, and an assassination attempt that same year. On the international front, his administration restored diplomatic relations with Portugal after mediation by Queen Victoria, settled disputes with Italy and France in Amapá, signed a treaty with Japan to encourage immigration, and resolved a border dispute with Argentina through arbitration by U.S. president Grover Cleveland, which was favorable to Brazil. He also dealt with the financial aftermath of the Encilhamento by negotiating the first funding loan with British bankers. After completing his term, Morais returned to Piracicaba, where he remained active in politics until his death in 1902.