“Supporters and historicals”:

the discursive dispute in the legitimating process of the several republican projects

Abstract

The new government system launched on November 15th 1889, although proclaimed as imminent by the republican government, took by surprise the political players of the end of the XIX century that saw themselves before a new regime temporarily established which model should be forged and legitimized. This article is meant to illustrate the large use of the terms “supporters” and “historical” in the pages of the journals and in the parliamentary statements as part of the political competitions around distinct republican projects, intending to relate Antônio da Silva Jardim’s performance in the discursive disputes that extended mainly during the first decade of the Republic