“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Uruguaiana and Salto. 80 Chaves and his family constituted yet another of the critical links in
Guarch’s commercial chains.
Reflecting his merchant identity, Chaves’ writings were intensely focused on the
relationship between law and commerce. Chaves penned his initial discourses in the early
1820s. As a result, he was uniquely concerned with the Portuguese empire’s “abuse” of its
Brazilian colonies. Writing anonymously, Chaves railed against the despotic rule of
Portuguese governors in Brazil. He argued that the basis of this despotism was the arbitrary
authority of the colonial governors who ensured that laws “only possessed valor when they
did not offend [them].” This “impunity” rendered Brazil equal to nations such as Turkey or
Persia “in the most opaque circles of despotism.” 81 Chaves argued that instead of the rule of
men, “it is the law that has to govern us.” He continued that the law “will exercise a divine
and healthy reign over us because it will be made by magistrates of our own choosing who
will remain to enjoy with us that good that results from them.” For Chaves, the rule of law
promised to reinvigorate the empire, unleashing its commercial energies and leading to the
prosperity of its subjects. 82
Having established his belief in the rule of law as the touchstone of imperial
prosperity, Chaves turned in his second discourse to more concrete means to bring about
this new legal empire. Chaves argued that the Portuguese governors had practiced their
despotic rule by oppressing local governments. This had rendered municipal corporations
“null and forgotten” and had led honorable men to “flee from positions in these câmaras.” 83
To reinvigorate the empire, Chaves called upon the government to restore local legal
80 Don Vicente Seralegui por Don Antonio Jacinto de Oliveira c. Don José Luis da Costa Farias
sibre desalojo de campo, AGN-SJ. Salto. Letrados Civiles, No. 36 (1852).
81 Chaves, Memórias Ecônomo-Políticas, 26.
82 Ibid., 29.
83 Ibid., 35.
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