Pinheiro Machado, José Gomes (1851–1915)

José Gomes Pinheiro Machado (b. 1851; d. 8 September 1915), the most powerful figure in the Brazilian Senate from 1905 to 1915 and head of the congressional delegation from Rio Grande do Sul. Pinheiro Machado built a national political machine through which he controlled Brazil's weak northern states, played a key role in presidential successions, and brought his home state to the forefront of national politics. Scion of a ranching family, he graduated from São Paulo Law School, fought in the Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance), joined the Riograndense republican conspiracy against the empire in 1889, rose to the rank of general in the Federalist Revolt (1893), and served continuously in the Constituent Assembly and federal Senate, which elected him vice president (1902–1905, 1912–1915). He wielded his extensive personal power through control of the credentials committee and his national Partido Republicano Conservador, constructed of state political machines in 1910. Armed with his hold over weak President Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca, he outmaneuvered salvationist army officers who challenged his power in 1911–1912, and he initiated interventions in the smaller states in 1913–1914. Reaction against his corruption, strong-arm tactics, and efforts to control the presidential succession in 1914 led to the breakdown of his political machine and his assassination by an unemployed baker in Rio de Janeiro.

See alsoBrazil, Revolutions: Federalist Revolt of 1893 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

João Da Costa Pôrto, Pinheiro Machado e seu tempo: Tentativa de interpretação (1951).

Joseph L. Love, Rio Grande do Sul and Brazilian Regionalism, 1882–1930 (1971), pp. 136-177.

Additional Bibliography

Borges, Vera Lúcia Bogéa. Morte na república: Os últimos anos de Pinheiro Machado e a política oligárquica (1909–1915). Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, 2004.

Newton, Alvim. Pinheiro Machado. Porto Alegre: IEL, 1996.

                                          Joan Bak