“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

irth together constituted an “anarchic doctrine” that had to be rejected. 63 Although the
specific case cited by Kittleson occurred after the outbreak of the Triple Alliance War, it
accurately reflected the pre-war position of Brazilian elites in the borderlands on the
question of slave citizenship. Once born into the slave system, they remained subject to its
jurisdiction. Blood trumped borders. 64
It also offered a geographic conception of Brazilian sovereignty that Lamas found
completely unacceptable. In his letters, Lamas argued that riograndense authorities sought to
“denationalize Oriental citizens against their will, violently.” 65 He pointed out that Brazilian
law did not recognize the right of any foreign nation to determine the scope of Brazilian
citizenship. He noted that Uruguay had always respected Brazilian sovereignty towards its
subjects in this regard, even when it was against her own interests in doing so. This flowed
from a basic principle of sovereign government: each nation possessed absolute authority to
determine the processes by which foreigners could become citizens. As a sovereign nation
of equal rank, Uruguay was entitled to respect for its particular path to citizenship. 66
For Lamas, the touchstone of this reciprocal respect between nations was the
recognition of certificates of citizenship issued by Uruguayan officials. Lamas argued that it
was a basic element of national sovereignty for counselor officials to “recognize, declare,
document, and sustain” legitimate claims to Uruguayan citizenship. 67 In exercising this
function, the certificate of citizenship issued by duly constituted officials served as
63 Roger Kittleson, "The Paraguayan War and Political Culture: Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, 1865-1880," in I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864-1870, ed.
Hendrik Kraay and Thomas L. Whigham (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004),
111.
64 This ran directly counter to the 1830 Uruguayan Constitution, which established
natural citizenship through birth in the Republic. Rodriguez, El Digesto Nacional.
65 Lamas, "La Nacionalidad de Los Hijos," 205.
66 Ibid.: 207.
67 Ibid.
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