“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

mattered greatly to their own power. Through these conflicts, they also sharpened factional
allegiances. Ultimately, law and violence in the Brazilian borderlands proved too deeply
entangled to permit the formation of elite coalitions to end political struggles. State leaders
would have to solve the problem of order in the borderlands by working within these
factional conflicts over law, not by trying to suppress them.
The Factional Theater of Salto, Uruguay
Leaders like Berro and Lamas had hoped to resolve the persistent problems of order
in the borderlands through the creation of national identities and the extension of respect for
the law. In doing so, they equally aimed to extend the authority of coastal elites over the
borderlands and tame the factional divisions that threatened the Uruguayan Republic’s
sovereignty. However, as we saw in Alegrete, struggles over borderlands courts meant that
instead of fostering national identities, legal politics engendered ever-sharpening factional
divisions. Fusionist efforts to suppress political rivalries in the borderlands faltered as they
encountered alternative legalities premised on local control of the courthouse. The
persistent clashes to control borderlands legalities reflected the deeply entangled nature of
law and violence in local fora and the difficulties states would face to control both.
In Salto, these fault lines proved particularly pronounced over questions of personal
reputations. Much like Alegrete, Salto was extremely prosperous in the 1850s. The port city
took advantage of its strategic location at a portage point around the Uruguay River’s twin
falls (thus, the town’s name “salto” or falls) to control much of the region’s rivertine trade at
mid-century. In addition, Salto’s jurisdiction extended across the entire northern portion of
the Estado Oriental, encompassing the rich pastures that formed the heart of the
borderland’s ranching economy. The booming trade on both sides of the Uruguayan and
Brazilian border produced numerous economic and political alliances whose lifeblood was
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