e payment of the arrears
of an indemnity. Thereupon, in 1905, the President of the United States
entered into an arrangement with the Dominican Government whereby, in
return for a pledge from the former country to guarantee the territorial
integrity of the republic and an agreement to adjust all of its external
obligations of a pecuniary sort, American officials were to take charge
of the custom house send apportion the receipts from that source in such
a manner as to satisfy domestic needs and pay foreign creditors. *

* See "The Path of Empire", by Carl Russell Fish (in "The
Chronicles of America").

CHAPTER IX. THE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH AMERICA

Even so huge and conservative a country as Brazil could not start out
upon the pathway of republican freedom without some unrest; but the
political experience gained under a regime of limited monarchy had a
steadying effect. Besides, the Revolution of 1889 had been effected by a
combination of army officers and civilian enthusiasts who knew that the
provinces were ready for a radical change in the form of government,
but who were wise enough to make haste slowly. If a motto could mean
anything, the adoption of the positivist device, "Order and Progress,"
displayed on the national flag seemed a happy augury.

The constitution promulgated in 1891 set up a federal union broadly
similar to that of the United States, except that the powers of the
general Government were somewhat more restricted. Qualifications for
the suffrage were directly fixed in the fundamental law itself, but the
educational tests imposed excluded the great bulk of the population
from the right to vote. In the constitution, also, Church and State were
declared absolutely separate, and civil marriage was prescribed.

Well adapted as the constitution was to the particular needs of Brazil,
the Government erected under it had to contend awhile with political
disturbances. Though conflicts occurred between the president and the
Congress, between the federal authority and the States, and between
the civil administration and naval and military officials, none were
so constant, so prolonged, or so disastrous as in the Spanish American
republics. Even when elected by the connivance of government officials,
the chief magistrate governed in accordance with republican forms.
Presidential power, in fact, was restrained both by the huge size of the
country and by the spirit of local autonomy upheld by the St