“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
criminal libel in the Alegrete courts against José Evaristo dos Anjos in 1866 over allegations that he failed to control not only soldiers under his command, but also several slaves on his property. Evaristo, a progressista ally of the now exiled Ribeiro faction, penned an article in the local paper, El Alegretense, in which he claimed that Loureiro and another man, Manoel Pereira del Valle, had imprisoned several soldiers. Evaristo alleged that they did so in order to punish them for alerting authorities about several slaves crossing the border into Corrientes. Evaristo claimed that the two men “engaged in contraband on a vast scale.” The article further implied that the two men had used their slaves in these operations, sending them to the correntino town of La Cruz to smuggle goods across the river. When the slaves attempted to flee, the two organized “a posse” that crossed into Corrientes and not only captured the slaves, but threatened to murder the local police chief. The article lamented: “the violence practiced by authorities in a neighboring state where many Brazilians reside and have substantial interests is a scandal that could provoke reprisals for which innocents will pay the costs.” 61 It concluded by asking if “the government will permit this to continue.” 62 The implication of the article was clear. Loureiro and his local liberal allies had failed in their duty to maintain order. In particular, they had placed personal profits above social peace by permitting slaves to cross the Uruguay River. Worse still, when they could not control them, they provoked an international incident that threatened to undermine substantial Brazilian property interests in a neighboring country further. Provincial officials responded to these charges by requesting additional investigations into the matter. The local frontier commander drafted a response to the provincial government, ensuring them that the 61 Athanasio dos Santos Loureiro c. José Evaristo dos Anjos, APRGS. Alegrete. Cartório Civil e Crime. Procesos Crimes, Maço 86, n. 3023 (1866), 6bis-7. 62 Ibid., 7. 328
matter was overblown and that reports stemmed more complaints from a local merchant against the town’s leaders than from any real threat to order. Loureiro then brought suit to protect his own reputation against the “articles impugning his character and position in the town.” 63 The file ultimately ended without any additional action on Loureiro’s libel suit. The seriousness with which both local and provincial officials took the claims, however, reflected the obsession with order on the Brazilian periphery. As gaúcho liberals in Porto Alegre asserted their autonomy from the imperial government, they equally kept in mind their need to control the countryside. These forces combined to ensure that even as riograndense elites complained about the central government’s “tyranny,” they willingly supplied the bulk of fighting forces for the national cause in the Paraguayan War. They forged a compromise in which the state recognized their own relative autonomy and social standing in exchange for military service and order in the countryside – two elements that peripheral elites in the Brazilian borderlands were more than happy to provide. Viewed from this perspective, Rio Grande do Sul’s “seigneurial liberalism,” to borrow Roger Kittleson’s term, provided an mechanism by which peripheral elites in the Brazilian borderlands could successfully fold themselves into the empire. 64 Conclusion By the end of the 1870s, elites in the borderlands connecting Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had largely incorporated themselves into national systems. Technical advances like the Remington repeating rifle combined with the growing professionalization of the military to erode the ability of mounted caudillo armies like those under Lopéz Jordán and Timoteo 63 Ibid. 64 Kittleson, The Practice of Politics, 6. 329
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- Page 381 and 382: ARGENTINA ARCHIVES CONSULTED BIBLIO
- Page 383 and 384: PUBLISHED PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MAT
- Page 385 and 386: Cárcano, Ramón J. Guerra del Para
- Page 387 and 388: Flores, Mariana Flores da Cunha Tho
criminal libel in the Alegrete courts against José Evaristo dos Anjos in 1866 over allegations<br />
that he failed to control not only soldiers under his command, but also several slaves on his<br />
property. Evaristo, a progressista ally of the now exiled Ribeiro faction, penned an article in<br />
the local paper, El Alegretense, in which he claimed that Loureiro and another man, Manoel<br />
Pereira del Valle, had imprisoned several soldiers. Evaristo alleged that they did so in order<br />
to punish them for alerting authorities about several slaves crossing the border into<br />
Corrientes. Evaristo claimed that the two men “engaged in contraband on a vast scale.”<br />
The article further implied that the two men had used their slaves in these operations,<br />
sending them to the correntino town of La Cruz to smuggle goods across the river. When the<br />
slaves attempted to flee, the two organized “a posse” that crossed into Corrientes and not<br />
only captured the slaves, but threatened to murder the local police chief. The article<br />
lamented: “the violence practiced by authorities in a neighboring state where many Brazilians<br />
reside and have substantial interests is a scandal that could provoke reprisals for which<br />
innocents will pay the costs.” 61 It concluded by asking if “the government will permit this to<br />
continue.” 62<br />
The implication of the article was clear. Loureiro and his local liberal allies had failed<br />
in their duty to maintain order. In particular, they had placed personal profits above social<br />
peace by permitting slaves to cross the Uruguay River. Worse still, when they could not<br />
control them, they provoked an international incident that threatened to undermine<br />
substantial Brazilian property interests in a neighboring country further. Provincial officials<br />
responded to these charges by requesting additional investigations into the matter. The local<br />
frontier commander drafted a response to the provincial government, ensuring them that the<br />
<br />
61 Athanasio dos Santos Loureiro c. José Evaristo dos Anjos, APRGS. Alegrete. Cartório Civil<br />
e Crime. Procesos Crimes, Maço 86, n. 3023 (1866), 6bis-7.<br />
62 Ibid., 7.<br />
328 <br />
<br />
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