“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
Da Silva subsequently retained Francisco J. Fernandez to represent him in the matter. The record does not indicate why Fernandez took the case, but the proceedings involving Fermin Ferreira a decade earlier permit us to speculate that elite rivalries once again created spaces for Uruguayans of color to utilize the courts to seek greater legal rights. Whatever his personal reasons, however, Fernandez articulated what must have appeared to local officials as a radical definition of citizenship and equality before the law in his attack on Marcelino. He wrote that “after four years of service and abuse” Marcelino had “flagrantly violated the Constitution of this Republic, cruelly punishing and then throwing [da Silva] from his land without paying him for the sweat from his brow.” Fernandez then drew explicit distinctions between Uruguay and neighboring Brazil. He contended that Marcelino’s conduct might be “excused in breast of barbarous pueblos or where a man is considered to be property.” He continued: “But, in this Republic, whose wise laws apply to all its inhabitants and with the same degree of equality, such conduct is intolerable, an insult to democratic institutions and a crime.” 49 In response to Fernandez’s assertions of legal equality, Marcelino, speaking for himself, turned to the familiar language of personal status and reputation. Marcelino offered to the court evidence that he “was a man that enjoyed a good reputation” and was “beloved by vecinos and his family.” He then provided statements from several witnesses attesting to his character and personal standing in the community. Tomas Benitez’s testimony was typical. Benitez commented that “over the years that he had known Mr. Marcelino he was a good vecino, hard-working and honorable, esteemed by everyone and his family.” Marcelino declared to the court that Fernandez and da Silva had “offended my honor” and that “when 49 Ibid. 320
these absurd and unwarranted charges are shown to be false, the accuser will be condemned to the full extent of the law.” 50 Fernandez then wrote to the court requesting that Marcelino be arrested. They argued that if Marcelino left town, he could “instruct and intimidate witnesses” before the eventual trial. Fernandez then broadened his argument, claiming that the matter “should be resolved here in the presence of the accused and his accuser with all the independence that the truth, the base or all justice, requires.” Fernandez concluded that this face-to-face encounter between equals was necessary to preserve “the honor and rights of my client” along with “the rectitude and dignity of the Your Mercy’s office and public justice.” Fernandez’s demands also represented a kind of social leveling. Specifically, he called upon a self-described “honorable vecino” and property-owner to stand face-to-face in a formal proceeding and answer charges from his black peon. 51 The court both refused to arrest Marcelino or hold him accountable for his actions. The file ended without any additional proceedings against the landowner. Still, da Silva’s implicit rejection of Marcelino’s status had to trouble officials. The willingness of Fernandez to then link such an assertion to ideas of equality before the law and national citizenship also had to be alarming. This was particularly so in light of the disruptions caused by Aparicio’s two-year campaign against the national government and the continuing low level disturbances occurring throughout the Uruguayan countryside in the mid-1870s. In response, local elites in Salto, along with hacendados in the Uruguayan Rural Association, began explicitly to reframe their relationship with the national government by equating patriotism with adherence not only to national laws, but also to local social hierarchies. This 50 Ibid. 51 Ibid. 321
- Page 279 and 280: defined their respective places in
- Page 281 and 282: supply his troops. 26 By the time o
- Page 283 and 284: Brazilian masters that resulted in
- Page 285 and 286: pursue further rights. They would p
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- Page 289 and 290: was also a personal enemy of Canaba
- Page 291 and 292: part of a broader narrative of conf
- Page 293 and 294: anything, Orientales.” 56 Gomez
- Page 295 and 296: anchers, like that of local Uruguay
- Page 297 and 298: “complete proof of oriental natio
- Page 299 and 300: Uruguayan notaries. These included
- Page 301 and 302: Republic over issues of rivertine t
- Page 303 and 304: his cattle in 1858. 79 Recall also
- Page 305 and 306: of warfare in the borderlands furth
- Page 307 and 308: In effect, he hoped to exchange loy
- Page 309 and 310: guarantee their commercial relation
- Page 311 and 312: governments in Montevideo and Brazi
- Page 313 and 314: nineteen in the provincial militia
- Page 315 and 316: authority to contain the more radic
- Page 317 and 318: captured the city of Corrientes. To
- Page 319 and 320: Urquiza struggled to reorganize his
- Page 321 and 322: attle in March of 1870. 29 By the e
- Page 323 and 324: The national government sent an “
- Page 325 and 326: the reciprocal trading relationship
- Page 327 and 328: splintered into “traditional” a
- Page 329: country’s ranching elites. In res
- Page 333 and 334: protect “the development of those
- Page 335 and 336: police forces to better protect cat
- Page 337 and 338: conspiracies, the steady stream of
- Page 339 and 340: matter was overblown and that repor
- Page 341 and 342: CHAPTER 8 NEGOTIATING NATIONS ALTHO
- Page 343 and 344: Local Legal Practices and National
- Page 345 and 346: pointed link between the “honor
- Page 347 and 348: personal interests, Guarch’s fact
- Page 349 and 350: Guarch first sought to tip the scal
- Page 351 and 352: following the order designated by t
- Page 353 and 354: history in 1877. 24 Salto’s first
- Page 355 and 356: twenty-five peso fine. 29 Leal prom
- Page 357 and 358: serves?” 36 He continued: “Does
- Page 359 and 360: abuses “no doubt flowed from the
- Page 361 and 362: political allegiances. Within the f
- Page 363 and 364: Operating within this relationship,
- Page 365 and 366: By the dawn of the 1880s, national
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- Page 369 and 370: with his son-in-law Alexander da Cr
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these absurd and unwarranted charges are shown to be false, the accuser will be condemned<br />
to the full extent of the law.” 50<br />
Fernandez then wrote to the court requesting that Marcelino be arrested. They<br />
argued that if Marcelino left town, he could “instruct and intimidate witnesses” before the<br />
eventual trial. Fernandez then broadened his argument, claiming that the matter “should be<br />
resolved here in the presence of the accused and his accuser with all the independence that<br />
the truth, the base or all justice, requires.” Fernandez concluded that this face-to-face<br />
encounter between equals was necessary to preserve “the honor and rights of my client”<br />
along with “the rectitude and dignity of the Your Mercy’s office and public justice.”<br />
Fernandez’s demands also represented a kind of social leveling. Specifically, he called upon a<br />
self-described “honorable vecino” and property-owner to stand face-to-face in a formal<br />
proceeding and answer charges from his black peon. 51<br />
The court both refused to arrest Marcelino or hold him accountable for his actions.<br />
The file ended without any additional proceedings against the landowner. Still, da Silva’s<br />
implicit rejection of Marcelino’s status had to trouble officials. The willingness of Fernandez<br />
to then link such an assertion to ideas of equality before the law and national citizenship also<br />
had to be alarming. This was particularly so in light of the disruptions caused by Aparicio’s<br />
two-year campaign against the national government and the continuing low level<br />
disturbances occurring throughout the Uruguayan countryside in the mid-1870s. In<br />
response, local elites in Salto, along with hacendados in the Uruguayan Rural Association,<br />
began explicitly to reframe their relationship with the national government by equating<br />
patriotism with adherence not only to national laws, but also to local social hierarchies. This<br />
<br />
50 Ibid.<br />
51 Ibid.<br />
321 <br />
<br />
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