“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

institutions, returning control over them to municipalities. To do this, Chaves sought
renewed elections to determine who would control the local administration of justice. He
argued that these elections would produce a local government that would pass clear laws in
consultation with the values and wishes of “the good men [homens bons] of the town.” 84 In
this way, Chaves privileged local knowledge and reputation as important guarantees of good
government. Local needs could be met efficiently, municipal offices would possess renewed
dignity and respect for law and order could be inculcated from the bottom-up. By stressing
the importance of local reputation – the approval of the homens bons – to administration of
justice, Chaves also identified important sources for regulating borderlands trading ties.
Local judicial institutions and the borderlands legalities underpinning commercial affiliations
were intertwined.
With the end of Portuguese rule over the Brazilian territories in 1822, Chaves linked
local autonomy with his vision for a new virtuous, constitutional monarchy. He continued
to point to the importance of local knowledge and reputation in accomplishing the broader
ends of empire. The Brazilian reformer stressed that revitalized local institutions would
promote both social order and commercial prosperity, laying a solid foundation for this new
reign. On the first point, Chaves noted that because of their status in the community, local
officials would enjoy the respect of their constituents. Moreover, keenly aware of local
needs, they would likely enact virtuous laws, particularly because they also had to live under
them. For Chaves, virtuous laws above all meant laws that facilitated commerce. He argued
that clear laws, enacted by laymen attendant to local conditions, would be more likely to
permit commercial enterprises to flourish. In contrast, distant professional jurists passed
84 Ibid., 39.
106