Portuguese politician. He was the first President of the Portuguese Republic between August 24, 1911 and May 29, 1915. Born Manuel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira e Peyrelongue into an aristocratic family, he had his primary education in the city of Horta. Around the age of 21, he moved to Coimbra to study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (from 1861 to 1866), where he distinguished himself for his mind and oratory. During this time he adhered to philosophical positivism and republican democracy, where he frequently joined groups in discussions on philosophy and politics, showing a capacity for argument and imagination. His republican idealism, considered subversive, caused a rift between him and his conservative monarchist-leaning father. After finishing his studies in 1866, Manuel worked as a lawyer in Lisbon, also working as an English teacher. Later, he established a legal practice, and quickly developed a republican clientele. A member of the Portuguese Republican Party, he was an active parliamentarian during the constitutional monarchy of King Luís I. He was involved in the debates on the reform of education, the penal code and prisons, in addition to electoral reform. By this time, doctrinaire republicans had been replaced by others in the party affiliated with freemasonry or the growing Carbonari associations. He was also elected deputy for Funchal (1883–84) in the minority Republican government and later for Lisbon (1890–92). A pragmatist, he actively promoted the Republican cause, while maintaining good relations with the Roman Catholic Church, unlike some of his contemporaries. But, at the same time, he was combative and critical of what he saw as the "lethargy of monarchical governments, the wastes and luxuries of the royal family". Yet, he ardently denounced irregularities in his own government, especially when some Ministers transferred funds from the government coffers into private hands. Following the establishment of the Republic on October 5, 1910, Dr. António José de Almeida invited Arriaga to be rector of the University of Coimbra. During the period of the Provisional Government, he became the Attorney-General of the Republic, premiering in that way a paladin of Republican propaganda. As one of the older figures of the Republican regime (71), he was elected President on August 24, 1911. He did not campaign for the position, and noted that it was a heavy burden, which he believed he was personally incapable of fulfilling its duties, but accepted it "for the good of the Republic". The Presidency was itself not an enviable or prestigious position at the time. Personal divisions between different factions had splintered the Republican cause: Almeida would form the Evolutionist Party, Brito Camacho the Republican Union, while Afonso Costa would continue to front the main Republican Party (renamed the Democratic Party). Arriaga, for his part, would select João Chagas to head his first government. It was a historically difficult period, due to the exasperation of the "religious question", constant social agitation and political party instability (associated with "Machiavellian strategies" of some politicians) that fermented during the infancy of the First Republic. Frequently, Arriaga was unable to contain these tensions. During his mandate, several governments fell, there were eight changes in the Prime Minister's office, disorder in the streets, violent reactions against the church, as well as counter-revolutionary monarchist movements. Arriaga deplored the circumstances, going so far as to announcing his intent to resign unless a coalition or non-party government could be installed that resolved the outstanding issues of amnesty and separation of church and state. Continuing political intrigues inevitably forced the first Republic down the path towards dictatorship. At the onset of the First World War, there was also pressure from the Portuguese colonies in Africa, mainly Angola and Mozambique and the National Assembly had decided, while remaining initially neutral in the conflict, to send troops to those colonies which fronted German possessions. The new Republic was now increasingly unmanageable, and further, there were divergences developing between the government and the army. What had started as an attempt to eliminate an inevitable conflict between the armed forces and the political class, eventually resulted in a bloody conflict. The parliamentarians, meeting secretly on May 4, 1915 in the Mitra Palace, declared Arriaga and Pimenta de Castro outside the law, their acts undemocratic and essentially void. Then, on May 14, in a revolt instigated by members of the Democratic Party, elements of civil reactionary groups and supported by elements of the Navy began what was essentially a civil war. There were many deaths and injuries on both sides. The pacifist Arriaga had only one option: twelve days following the start of the uprising, he resigned from the Presidency. In his resignation letter of May 29, 1915, he stated that the deaths during the revolt were needless, that Pimenta de Castro's regime was less a dictatorship than earlier governments and that 1914–15 laws had given future governments unusual war powers. Arriaga was replaced as President by Teófilo Braga, who had led the provisional government following the abdication and exile of King Manuel II. He published his memoirs in 1916. Arriaga died of a stroke in Lisbon, two years after his resignation, on March 5, 1917. He had a state funeral and was originally interred in his family's mausoleum in Prazeres Cemetery and later moved to the National Pantheon on September 16, 2004 by decision of the Assembly of the Republic. Arriaga's image was rehabilitated by the Portuguese media for his "intelligence, patriotism, benevolence and his honor for the manner in which he exercised his functions".