“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Amaral’s decision not to pursue his action against Freitas Valle might have hinged on
the fact that Teixeira now was actively challenging his faction in both the Uruguaiana and
Alegrete courts. Before da Silva’s investigation even began, Teixeira had already used his
growing control over the courts in Alegrete to attack the Nolascos and Vianna. Teixeira’s
first salvo again involved allegations of judicial impropriety, this time by Vianna and Analeto
Nolasco, the judge’s official notary. 43 According to Teixeira’s complaint, both Vianna and
Nolasco had used their positions to compel Laurindo Antonio de Souza to accede to an
illegal partition of his father-in-law Jeronimo Ferreira Serpa’s estate. They allegedly did so in
order to confiscate a number of cattle located on his property. Teixeira claimed the two men
arranged for Isabel Romana Bienda to make a claim on the estate’s assets on the grounds
that she was Serpa’s former wife. Teixeira asserted that the men entered a fraudulent judicial
decree. Analeto Nolasco then traveled to de Souza’s land with several National Guard
soldiers to claim several hundred head of cattle. 44 Teixeira argued to the Alegrete court that
if Vianna’s and Nolasco’s conduct was allowed to stand, “the right of property that the Law
guarantees in all of its plentitude will be only an illusion and a phantasm with which to hurl
[its] owners who are laboring under the false impression that such a right is real and the Law
is the norm for all of our actions into the abyss.” He noted that it was “public knowledge”
that Nolasco had received some 78 head of cattle from the estate assets “in compensation
for his good services.” Teixeira concluded that “the facts of the case reveal the deplorable
condition to which the town of Uruguaiana has fallen” and “without a vigorous repression
of corrupt and lawless officials, the inhabitants of the town will have to suffer greatly.” 45
43 Laurindo Antonio de Souza c. Analeto Nolasco Rodriguez Paz, APRGS. Alegrete. Cartório
Civil e Crime. Processos Crimes. Maço 78, No. 2757 (1853).
44 Ibid., 2.
45 Ibid., 2bis.
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