“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

country’s ranching elites. In response to the violence during the Revolución de las lanzas, a
number of prominent ranchers established the Uruguayan Rural Association to lobby the
government to protect their properties. In an 1872 letter, for instance, the association
requested the government “once and for all bring about the end of the corrupt practice of
violently supplying troops [through cattle seizures], with the result that, under the guise of
authority, these deplorable acts will no longer be committed.” 46 Between 1872 and 1875, a
steady stream of petitions flowed across the desks of Uruguayan officials in Montevideo
demanding assistance from the government to protect property rights and secure the peace.
Petitions like the ones from the Uruguayan Rural Association did not just reflect
concerns over property. Throughout the borderlands, the Paraguayan War and the
subsequent uprisings in the early 1870s equally threatened the existing social order. These
tensions often played out along racial lines. For example, in the immediate aftermath of the
Revolución de las lanzas, judicial officials in Salto confronted a case in which a black Uruguayan
laborer directly challenged his master’s authority over him. According to witnesses, the
incident began when José María Marcelino de Souza became involved in a heated argument
with Juan da Silva, a laborer on his ranch. 47 According to witnesses, Marcelino threatened to
“cut da Silva’s ears off” for defying him. In reply, da Silva declared that “there were no
slaves in the Oriental Republic” and that he “was not a Portuguese subject.” Following the
exchange, Marcelino left, but then apparently later returned with a gun to kill da Silva
outright. He further threw da Silva off his property, refusing to pay wages owed to his
former peon. 48
46 Ibid., 234.
47 D. Francisco J. Fernandez en representación de D. Juan da Silva querellandose
criminalmente c. D. José María Marcelino de Souza, AGN-SJ. Salto. Penales, n. 29 (1872).
48 Ibid.
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