The Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Brazil CHAPTER I THE COURT OF RIO DE JANEIRO Our first diplomatic relations with Brazil were not, as in the case of the other Latin American countries, with a revolutionary junta or national government, but the Portuguese Court, which resided at Rio de Janeiro from 1808 to 1821 (1). This transfer of the seat of government from Lisbon to the colony was purely an emergency measure carried out under the pressure of the Napo 1. The standard work on this period is Manoel de Oliveira Lima's Dom João VI no Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 1902, 2 vols A good short study is, Le Gouvernement Portugais à Rio de Janeiro (1808-1821), by Renaut, J. P., in the Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, vol. xxxiii (1918), p. 371 et s. leonie invasion of the Peninsula (1); but it was to exercize a profound influence upon the political destiny of South America. Fully comprehending the importance which had suddenly come to the hitherto isolated colony, President Jefferson availed himself of the departure for Brazil of a merchant, Henry Hill, to appoint him consul (though at his future residence in Bahia, some three hundred miles north of the capital), and to entrust him with a personal letter to the Prince Regent, Dom Joâo, welcoming him to the New World. This document, which brings a smile to the lips of those familiar with his republican tirades, is dated May 5, 1808, and reads as follows: Having learned the safe arrival of your Royal Highness at the city of Rio de Janeiro, I perform with pleasure the duty of offering you my sincere congratulations by Mr. Hill, a respected citizen of the United States who is specially charged with the 1. It will be recalled that Napoleon déposed the Bragança dynasty because of the Prince Regent's reluctance to participate in the Continental System. Junot was sent to Lisbon with a small army to capture the royal family, but arrived a few hours after its flight to Brazil. delivery of this letter. I trust that this event will be propitious tor the prosperity of your faithful subjets as to the happiness of your Royal Highness in which the United States have ever taken a lively interest. Inhabitants now of the same land of that great continent which the genius of Columbus has given to the world, the United States feel sensibly that they stand in new and closer relations with your Royal Highness, and that the motives which have heretofore nourished the friendly relations which have so happily prevailed have acquired increased strength on the transfer of your residence to their shores. They see in prospect a system of peace and happiness of mankind may be the essential principes (sic). To this principle your long tried adherence, for the benefit of those you governed in the midst of the warring Powers, is a pledge to the New World that its peace, its free and friendly intercourse will be your chief concern. On the part of the United States I assure you that these which have hitherto been their ruling objects, will be most particularly cultivators with your Royal Highness and your subjects of Brazil, and they hope that that country so favored by the gifts of nature, now advanced to a station under your immediate auspices will find in the interchange of mutual wants and supplies the true element of an exchanging friendship with the United States of America. "I pray to God, Great and Good Prince in your abode you may enjoy health, happiness and the affec |