Júlio Prates de Castilhos was born and raised in a gaucho resort and studied Law in São Paulo, where he had contact with the positivist ideas of Auguste Comte.
After graduating, he returned to his homeland and began to write in the newspaper The Federation (Brazilian Portuguese: A Federação), attacking the monarchical government, slavery and his political opponent Gaspar da Silveira Martins.
He was a constituent congressman in 1890-1891, and believed in a dictatorial phase to consolidate the Republic and defended a strong centralization of power in the republished dictator.
Defeated in the national constituent, he implanted this idea in the state constitution, months later, in a text he wrote almost alone, ignoring suggestions from the commission of jurists highlighted for the task, and approved it in July 1891 at a controlled state assembly By the Riograndense Republican Party, led by him and of positivist orientation.
The state constitution foresaw that the laws would not be drafted by parliament, but by the chief executive, who could be re-elected for new mandates.
As the vote was not secret, the elections would be easily manipulated by the followers of Castilho, which would guarantee him to remain in power indefinitely.

In the same month that he approved his constitution, he was elected governor.
In November, for having supported the coup of President Deodoro da Fonseca and the closing of the Congress, was deposed and replaced by a junta of government, that lasted little and soon passed the government to general Barreto Leite.
Castilhos resumed a parallel government and was reelected in a contest without competitors, taking possession in January 1893.
At that moment, the state was the "nerve point of the Republic" and the answer of the opponents was imminent.
Júlio Prates de Castilhos was born and raised in a gaucho resort and studied Law in São Paulo, where he had contact with the positivist ideas of Auguste Comte. After graduating, he returned to his homeland and began to write in the newspaper The Federation (Brazilian Portuguese: A Federação), attacking the monarchical government, slavery and his political opponent Gaspar da Silveira Martins. He was a constituent congressman in 1890-1891, and believed in a dictatorial phase to consolidate the Republic and defended a strong centralization of power in the republished dictator. Defeated in the national constituent, he implanted this idea in the state constitution, months later, in a text he wrote almost alone, ignoring suggestions from the commission of jurists highlighted for the task, and approved it in July 1891 at a controlled state assembly By the Riograndense Republican Party, led by him and of positivist orientation. The state constitution foresaw that the laws would not be drafted by parliament, but by the chief executive, who could be re-elected for new mandates. As the vote was not secret, the elections would be easily manipulated by the followers of Castilho, which would guarantee him to remain in power indefinitely.
In the same month that he approved his constitution, he was elected governor. In November, for having supported the coup of President Deodoro da Fonseca and the closing of the Congress, was deposed and replaced by a junta of government, that lasted little and soon passed the government to general Barreto Leite. Castilhos resumed a parallel government and was reelected in a contest without competitors, taking possession in January 1893. At that moment, the state was the "nerve point of the Republic" and the answer of the opponents was imminent.
Federalist Riograndense Revolution