[Caricature of Marshal Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca]

Caricature of Marshal Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca (São Gabriel, May 12, 1855 - Petrópolis, September 9, 1923), alluding to the reorganization of the Army, carried out when President of the Republic, Brazilian military and politician, president of Brazil between 1910 and 1914. He was the first gaucho to be elected president of the Republic. He was the only president to marry during the presidential term. His first wife, Orsina Francioni da Fonseca, died on November 30, 1912. His second wife was the caricaturist Nair de Tefé von Hoonholtz, daughter of Baron de Teffé. The civil and religious ceremonies took place on December 8, 1913, at the Rio Negro Palace, in Petrópolis. During his entire term he was in uniform, including during ministerial meetings. When he left the presidency in November 1914, he ran for the Senate in Rio Grande do Sul, but refused to take the chair, due to the murder of José Gomes Pinheiro Machado, on the day he was to be graduated, in September 1915. He traveled to Europe, moving away from politics, and only returned to Brazil after six years of life in Switzerland (1920), when a new presidential campaign began. During the presidential election of 1922, false letters against Hermes da Fonseca, where he was called "Sergeant without composure", were attributed to the authorship of Artur Bernardes, which caused immense turmoil in those elections. His arrest was then decreed by President Epitácio Pessoa on July 2, 1922. The next day he was released by order of the same President Epitácio. Arrested again on July 5, accused of conspiracy in the revolt that began on that date in Rio de Janeiro, he spent six months in prison, released by habeas corpus in January 1923. Sick, he retired to Petrópolis, staying with his in-laws, the barons of Tefé. There he died on September 9, 1923.