“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

faction’s strength. In particular, as the Ribeiros and their progressista allies drifted closer to
the conservative provincial presidents to maintain their hold of local judiciaries and the
patronage they could provide, their opponents in the borderlands increasingly pressed for
more autonomy from the central government. Canabarro and the Liberals made peripheral
autonomy a central feature of their identity. The party’s ideology, articulated by Felix da
Cunha in 1863, explicitly demanded “administrative decentralization and municipal reforms”
to grant localities greater rights. This position proved particularly attractive in the Brazilian
borderlands. The region quickly became the new party’s bulwark, attracting support from
prominent liberals previously in both Liga and Contra-Liga coalitions such as Manuel Luiz
Osório. 73
The 1860 elections marked an inflection point in which local legal conflicts over the
role of the central authorities and the borderlands military elite intersected with provincial
and national level developments. Canabarro’s dismissal from his National Guard post did
not diminish his success as a political agent. Vital’s election to municipal judge in 1860 was
only the first of a series electoral victories over the progressistas throughout the 1860s. With
powerful figures like Canabarro forming the electoral bedrock for the revived Liberal Party
in the province, the fissures between central and regional identities that had been percolating
around borderlands courthouses exploded onto the broader political stage. Canabarro’s
faction slowly altered the balance of power in the Brazilian borderlands. Local legal politics,
however, remained at the center of the story. Canabarro’s embrace of an explicit ideology of
local autonomy reflected the conflicts over borderlands courthouses occurring throughout
the region. Canabarro’s continued effort to install his allies in local judgeships highlights the
importance these offices for securing political power. For Canabarro, Vitals’ appointment as
73 Piccolo, ed. A Revolução Farroupilha: História e Interpretação 142.
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