“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

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international law to guide its decision. 76 In this instance, the court’s verdict was made easier when Francisco Barú suddenly appeared and offered evidence that he had already made full payment to Blanes. With the underlying basis for the litigation repudiated, a panel of merchant vecinos in Concepción found for Vidiella. The court ordered the Concordia embargo lifted. 77 The sharp dispute between Blanes and Vidiella, as well as their mobilization of their respective commercial communities in Concordia and Uruguaiana to support their legal claims, reflected the importance of local alliances in securing legal rights and commercial reputations. These elements sustained the burgeoning river trade route linking Rio Grande do Sul, Entre Ríos and the port-cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo together. They embodied the reciprocal associations each man had developed. These cross-border networks emerged to provide assistance in their litigation to protect not only individual legal rights, but also the broader relationships upon which each merchant’s respective rivertine trading chains depended. In this sense, as both Blanes and Vidiella utilized the courts to lay the foundation for their personal claims, they produced a conflict between two cross-border systems. Their two distinct and locally sourced bodies of evidence manifested this clash. Equally important for understanding how local justice and cross-border trading relationships intertwined is the manner in which Blanes and Vidiella sought to establish their respective legal claims. Specifically, both men depended heavily on their ability to mobilize witnesses to provide testimony in favor of particular legal outcomes. In turn, the evidentiary weight of testimony in a given proceeding hinged on each witness’ personal reputation and political connections. For both Blanes and Vidiella, going to court to litigate their claims                                                          76 Benton, "The Laws of This Country," 507. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay did not enter into a treaty governing international private law rights until 1889. 77 Expediente seguido por D. Gregorio Blanes c. D. Francisco Vidiella, 71bis-72.   102   
meant more than establishing a documentary foundation and legal argument to support their rights. It entailed the public pronouncement of the viability of their own trading networks and the importance of their personal connections in a given forum. It was a statement about their own personal standing in being able to summon witnesses willing to appear on their behalf. In short, the case was about explicitly declaring the often-tacit relationships and practices that made up borderlands legalities and sustained each man’s commercial networks along the river. The legal conflict was as much about defining each merchant’s place within their respective trading networks as it was about obtaining the requested damages. In general, we can only glimpse the operation of these practices through the actions of merchants and traders like Blanes and Vidiella as they moved between local courts to secure their legal rights. Yet one prominent Brazilian trader, Antônio José Gonçalves Chaves, did offer a more theoretical discussion of the connections between local judicial institutions and trading relationships at the heart of borderlands legalities in his Memórias ecônomo-políticas sobre a administração pública do Brasil. 78 Chaves was originally born in Portugal in 1797 and migrated to Rio Grande do Sul in 1805. He was one of the founders of the coastal trading city of Pelotas, which quickly emerged as an export hub for salted beef products from the riograndense countryside. By the 1830s, he had established a commercial operation transporting imported goods by steamship from the deep water port in Rio Grande to Pelotas and then overland to his trading partners in the campanha. Through these operations, he developed close commercial and personal ties to prominent borderlands merchants and ranchers like Domingos José de Almeida. When the Farrapos Revolution erupted in 1835, Chaves, like Guarch, took advantage of relationships in both Rio Grande                                                          78 Antônio José Gonçalves Chaves, Memórias Ecônomo-Políticas Sobre a Administração Pública do Brasil (Porto Alegre: Companhia União de Seguros Gerais, 1978).   103   
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“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDING
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ABSTRACT This dissertation explores
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKN
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like the wandering
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Upon returning to the United States
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INTRODUCTION IN EARLY 1828, A FRENC
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Juan Manuel de Rosas and Facundo Qu
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By moving between stories of law an
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in the continental interior. They d
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the fluid character of borderlands
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and geographic conceptions. Extendi
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local legal norms and practices in
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that has greatly expanded the space
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along rivertine trading corridors.
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strains articulated by men like Art
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Bringing the courts back into the s
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of borderlands leaders to negotiate
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Removing the old colonial order, ho
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the city remained a sparsely popula
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smugglers and other imperial outlaw
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Imperial Collapse and Fragmentation
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ivers, deserts and a few vagrant an
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defend its possessions, peninsular
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They requested that the Junta appoi
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manufactured products for the Andea
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The Paraguayan government proposed
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Montevideo in January of 1811, he i
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Ríos. From there, he continued to
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easoning. 25 They had rejected the
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military headquarters along the ban
Page 61 and 62: sovereignty rooted in borderlands p
Page 63 and 64: Artigas’ defeat did not spell the
Page 65 and 66: economy. By 1822, the powerful merc
Page 67 and 68: universal laws that would further r
Page 69 and 70: Pedro abdicated the throne in 1831,
Page 71 and 72: CHAPTER 2 THE (RE)EMERGENCE OF BORD
Page 73 and 74: operate throughout the borderlands
Page 75 and 76: and staple exports instead of the o
Page 77 and 78: Ríos in particular witnessed a dra
Page 79 and 80: goods as far north as the cities of
Page 81 and 82: simmering struggles. By 1840, local
Page 83 and 84: merchants, traders and landowners.
Page 85 and 86: earning the faction’s colorado ti
Page 87 and 88: Guarch’s deal with Carvalho revea
Page 89 and 90: web of reciprocal relationships tha
Page 91 and 92: the border in Brazil. In this way,
Page 93 and 94: In short, over the course of a deca
Page 95 and 96: that he had employed to first arran
Page 97 and 98: opposite direction from Porto Alegr
Page 99 and 100: Pinto sought to have the property d
Page 101 and 102: dealings with Vázquez and the Carv
Page 103 and 104: Ríos or by ship to Montero’s out
Page 105 and 106: alliances with the blancos to open
Page 107 and 108: connections up and down the river t
Page 109 and 110: With his money now in limbo and his
Page 111: honorable merchant. His associates
Page 115 and 116: Uruguaiana and Salto. 80 Chaves and
Page 117 and 118: complex laws “that they only unde
Page 119 and 120: were considered suspect, particular
Page 121 and 122: status. Public recognition of one
Page 123 and 124: They reasoned that “one has to re
Page 125 and 126: unanimous and respected testimony o
Page 127 and 128: powerful figures like Urquiza, depe
Page 129 and 130: CHAPTER 3 SOVEREIGN CONFLICTS THE R
Page 131 and 132: conflicts between peripheral ranche
Page 133 and 134: further agreed to provide payments
Page 135 and 136: Sosa almost immediately responded.
Page 137 and 138: funds, the imperial government took
Page 139 and 140: Throughout the early 1830s, the Uru
Page 141 and 142: Fernandes Braga, the provincial pre
Page 143 and 144: Frustrated by the lack of progress,
Page 145 and 146: cataloguing illegal property confis
Page 147 and 148: also provided prominent local elite
Page 149 and 150: As the 1850s dawned, the persistent
Page 151 and 152: traffic along the Uruguay. Rosas fi
Page 153 and 154: would order, they intend to be resp
Page 155 and 156: economic and political relationship
Page 157 and 158: fed back into broader political dis
Page 159 and 160: advance their visions for a new nat
Page 161 and 162: Estado Oriental and had fought at C
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Brazilian officials opened secret n
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The 1855 occupation reinvigorated e
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end political violence in the inter
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important) but also dealt with defi
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Ribeiros, Prado Lima possessed land
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move to Alegrete were unclear. Duri
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verification of filings in his foru
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“intimate friend and relative.”
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men. They were capable of protectin
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Nolasco and Vianna responded that t
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in 1834. Joaquim dos Santos Prado L
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Vital de Oliveira, securing his ele
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controlled the appointment of distr
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military control. By engaging in th
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faction’s strength. In particular
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mattered greatly to their own power
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the parties and the public, with ea
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matter, he was an outsider. Tristan
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Tristani then attempted to attack h
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litigation in Alegrete, questions o
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throughout the country that his wor
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his wife. He claimed that she “wa
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and the titles of each litigant in
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judgment declaring their rival’s
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CHAPTER 5 POLITICAL POWER AND PROPE
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property of Joaquim dos Santos Prad
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acknowledged by both court and poss
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Paulo, Sá Brito was one of the few
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Teixeira claimed that Prado Lima ha
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the trial court’s judgment. The c
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lands in question in 1833. The cour
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The appearance of testimony by Prad
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of cattle from the da Silva’s lan
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[Lima] contracted with an untrained
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that department, Colonel Diego Lama
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vizinho” in Alegrete’s courts o
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Brigadier Don David Canavarro . . .
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assistance, Garces won her case aga
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Brazil. Berro ended a decade of fre
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coexistence of these provincial and
Page 243 and 244:
Urquiza’s efforts to placate his
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and elites now supported Urquiza’
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province within the national framew
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porteño cavalry at Cepeda and Pav
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The correntino merchants responded
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assembling witnesses (in this case,
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etween himself and Abendaño, howev
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complete the exchange, however, Bic
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side sought to dictate the distribu
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Bica had used commercial and politi
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The incident also revealed how impe
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positioned the Ribeiro faction to g
Page 267 and 268:
Borderlands inhabitants in the earl
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neatly encapsulated the ongoing con
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for Brazilian ranchers. In the best
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anchers operating throughout the bo
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Brazilian slave laws followed them
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familial connections on the Brazili
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defined their respective places in
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supply his troops. 26 By the time o
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Brazilian masters that resulted in
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pursue further rights. They would p
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in the Estado Oriental. At the hear
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was also a personal enemy of Canaba
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part of a broader narrative of conf
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anything, Orientales.” 56 Gomez
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anchers, like that of local Uruguay
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“complete proof of oriental natio
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Uruguayan notaries. These included
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Republic over issues of rivertine t
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his cattle in 1858. 79 Recall also
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of warfare in the borderlands furth
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In effect, he hoped to exchange loy
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guarantee their commercial relation
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governments in Montevideo and Brazi
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nineteen in the provincial militia
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authority to contain the more radic
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captured the city of Corrientes. To
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Urquiza struggled to reorganize his
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attle in March of 1870. 29 By the e
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The national government sent an “
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the reciprocal trading relationship
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splintered into “traditional” a
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country’s ranching elites. In res
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these absurd and unwarranted charge
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protect “the development of those
Page 335 and 336:
police forces to better protect cat
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conspiracies, the steady stream of
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matter was overblown and that repor
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CHAPTER 8 NEGOTIATING NATIONS ALTHO
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Local Legal Practices and National
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pointed link between the “honor
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personal interests, Guarch’s fact
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Guarch first sought to tip the scal
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following the order designated by t
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history in 1877. 24 Salto’s first
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twenty-five peso fine. 29 Leal prom
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serves?” 36 He continued: “Does
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abuses “no doubt flowed from the
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political allegiances. Within the f
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Operating within this relationship,
Page 365 and 366:
By the dawn of the 1880s, national
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ejected this evidence, however, fin
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with his son-in-law Alexander da Cr
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not only to affirm these local find
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olster the positions of important l
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CONCLUSION IN 1887, THE GREAT URUGU
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elationships and secure local court
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economies to the forces of global c
Page 381 and 382:
ARGENTINA ARCHIVES CONSULTED BIBLIO
Page 383 and 384:
PUBLISHED PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MAT
Page 385 and 386:
Cárcano, Ramón J. Guerra del Para
Page 387 and 388:
Flores, Mariana Flores da Cunha Tho
Page 389 and 390:
Lasso, Marixa. Myths of Harmony: Ra
Page 391 and 392:
Piccolo, Helga I. L. "A Política R
Page 393 and 394:
Schultz, Kirsten. Tropical Versaill
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