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 Palácio da Mitra, 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 well-intentioned and pacifist Arriaga had only one option; twelve days following the start of the uprising, he resigned from the Presidency. In his resignation letter, he stated that the deaths during the revolt were needless, that Pimenta de Castro's regime was less a dictatorship then earlier governments and that 1914–15 laws had given future governments unusual war powers.