“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

not only to affirm these local findings, but also confirm the diligence of Liberal officials in
maintaining order. The juiz de direito equally played this role. He noted the thoroughness of
the “subdelegado in prosecuting such an important matter.” The court then confirmed the
sentence. 75
The allegations against men like Christomo and Rodrigues clearly were aimed to
push important members of the Ribeiro faction, along with their legal lieutenant Mathias
Teixeira de Almeida, further from Alegrete’s local government. In effect, much like the
contemporaneous disputes in Salto’s courts, they provided a mechanism to signal to
provincial officials that the Ribeiros could not be trusted to rule. At the same time, the cases
also conveyed an important message about the Liberals that controlled the town. As
provincial elites worried about maintaining order in the countryside, the cases placed
Alegrete’s dominant faction clearly on the side of the law. In this way, the traditional
elements of local justice provided an important means for the Liberal Party to establish its
control over the province while maintaining its commitment to social order.
Through these local political shifts, the Liberal Party consolidated its hold on
riograndense politics throughout the 1870s. In 1872, the Liberals finally gained unquestioned
control over the provincial assembly. Gaspar Silveira Martins, a rancher from Bagé, emerged
as the Liberal Party’s leader during the decade. Throughout the 1870s, the Liberal Party
exercised almost uncontested power over provincial life. It was only in the 1880s that a
challenge to their authority emerged in the form of the new Republican Party. Rooted in
positivist principles, the Republicans advocated for a dramatic centralization of political
authority in both the provincial and national governments. Under the leadership of Júlio de
Castilhos, the party developed a base of power around Porto Alegre and the surrounding
75 Ibid.
361