We have here indeed an outstanding contribution to Brazil’s historical scholarship, one which, in the words of its distinguished editor, may become one of the greatest accomplishments of Brazilian historiography (Vol. I, xvii). The work was undertaken as part of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the installation (in 1823) of Brazil’s first constituent and legislative assembly. Initially responsible for the project, Senator Petrônio Portella, president of the federal Senate, declares in his words of presentation (Vol. I, v-vii) that he had been inspired, to a large extent, by his reading of the Anais of the International Meeting on Brazilian Studies and the First Seminar on Brazilian Studies held in September of 1971 under the auspices of the Institute of Brazilian Studies of the University of São Paulo. Incidentally, it may be added that the Senate’s editorial committee is also responsible for the publication of several other important works, including O Parlamento e a evolução nacional (Brasília, 1972), under the direction of and with historical introduction by José Honório Rodrigues.
There were three councils of state in monarchical Brazil. The first one, of representatives (procuradores) elected by the provinces, was created by decree of the then regent, later emperor, Dom Pedro I, in 1822, and lasted until the following year when it was abolished by the first constituent and legislative assembly then in session. The assembly having been closed by Dom Pedro on November 12, 1823, the emperor set up a new council the following day, with members appointed by himself and with the specific duty, among others, of drafting a constitution for independent Brazil. This constitution, sworn in in 1824, kept the council of state which, however, the additional constitutional act of 1834 abolished. The third council—the last of the monarchical period, also the longest and the most important one—was created under the terms of a law passed in 1841. It functioned until the downfall of the empire in 1889. The action of this third council was so decisive in the political and diplomatic life of the empire that it became known as “the fifth power” and “the first legislative chamber (Vol. I, xiii and xix).
Rodrigues, in his historical introduction, has considered briefly the previously published studies on his country’s councils of state. His extensive and scholarly historical introductions to each volume are outstanding. So are also his biographical sketches, critical essays on the sources, and select bibliographies.
The first volume includes the Minutes of the Council of Provincial Procurators from its inception in 1822 to its extinction the following year. The idea of its creation seems to have been first publicly advanced by José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva in a memorial he had drafted and read before the regent the previous year, in his name and that of his fellow members of the governing junta of his province (São Paulo). José Bonifácio’s avowed purpose was to create a common center of strength and union to counteract the Portuguese côrtes’s divisionary schemes and demands for the submission of Brazil to her previous condition of a colony. Apparently, other leaders had had the same idea or concurred in it. They were influential liberal leaders who were members of the powerful local masonry and who were active in the municipal chamber of Rio de Janeiro. Dom Pedro, himself, in his opening speech to the first meeting of the council (June 2, 1822) declared that he had received requests from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais, to disregard the demands of the Lisbon cortes for his return to Portugal and to set up a council of state.
The regent’s decree of February 16, 1822, creating the first council, provided that it was to meet as soon as the representatives of no less than three provinces were present in the capital. However, as Dom Pedro further declared in his talk, the will of the people, as expressed through the provincial chambers, had led him to decide that a general constituent and legislative assembly should be convened as soon as possible. Considering the dangers then facing Brazil, Dom Pedro decided to call a meeting of the Council of Procurators at once, despite the fact that the representatives of only two provinces were then in Rio de Janeiro: two from Rio de Janeiro province and one from the Cisplatine province. In fact, only the representatives from Rio de Janeiro had been duly elected; the representative from the Cisplatine province, Lucas José Obes, had been sent by the Montevideo junta to represent that province in the Lisbon cortes. Dom Pedro ordered Obes to stay in Rio de Janeiro and to represent his province in the newly created council.
Volume I includes debates relating to questions such as whether to adopt the direct or indirect system of voting in the election of the assembly’s members; how much freedom of the press should be granted; the convenience of addressing a manifest to foreign nations explaining the reasons for the conflict with Portugal; and others. In the annex there are included important papers never published before: the remarks of Obes on the urgent need to strengthen the public credit; and measures to be taken for the country’s security. There is also a notable and comprehensive paper on the external defenses submitted by General Joaquim Xavier Curado.
The second council had been specifically created to draft a constitution for the empire as promised by the emperor. This constitution was prepared and sworn in on March 25, 1824, in the capital, after having been first submitted to, and approved by, the provinces municipal chambers. This is the charter under which Brazil was governed—and indeed well governed—until the fall of the empire in 1889, with only a few changes introduced by the Ato Adicional of 1834 and the interpretative laws of 1840. Unfortunately, the records of the council’s sessions from 1823 to 1827 are not available.
The minutes for the succeeding period until 1834 are rich in opportunities for the historian. The war over the Cisplatine province (1825-1828) brought great problems to Brazil. Relations with some foreign governments were embittered by the not-always-wise enforcement of the Buenos Aires blockade by the Brazilian naval forces. These questions are reflected in the debates of the second council. Commercial relations with foreign countries, the dispute with Britain over the slave trade and the abolition of the extraterritorial rights (Conservatória), and other questions, were also debated by the members of the council.
The last volume reviewed here includes the minutes of the full council’s meetings (Conselho Pleno) from 1875 to 1880. For some tune past, the council had been divided into sections (justice, and foreign affairs, etc.) that met separately with apparently occasional meetings of the entire council as the circumstances demanded. The originals of the consultations and individual opinions (Consultas e Pareceres) of the members of the justice and foreign affairs section, extremely important for the understanding of the momentous events in which Brazil was involved during the period, are to be found in the Itamaraty archives. The editor promises that such materials will be included in volumes to be published later. In fact, Rodrigues believes that the entire work, as planned, will probably comprehend more than 30 volumes, without taking into account possible unknown documents existing in the private archives of members of the council now mostly kept in the archives of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, in Rio de Janeiro.
Volume IX includes the minutes of twelve sessions of the council found in a single volume (307) at the National Archives. These sessions were not consecutive. Thus, of 1875, the minutes of three sessions only are included in this volume; of 1877, only one; of 1878, three; of 1879, two; of 1880, three. Notwithstanding these lacunae, this volume is extremely valuable, as it includes extensive debates on the religious question, the electoral reform, the financial strictures of the empire resulting mainly from the Paraguayan war, the agrarian reform, and others. The council’s discussion of the religious question, together with Rodrigues’s own remarks on the subject, are particularly significant. The question arose in 1872, and so not all the council’s debates on it are included in this volume. Historians attribute in large measure to the bitterness provoked by the government’s action in regard to the so-called “Bishops’ question” (1872-1875) the downfall of the empire.
It is not clear why Volume IX was published immediately after Volume II, except, perhaps, that the minutes from 1875 to 1880 were readily available at the National Archives, as the editor seems to suggest (Vol. IX, vii). It is to be hoped that the publication of this valuable source material will go on as planned by its editor. After all, the reign of the second emperor of Brazil was one of the most notable and successful periods in the history of the country.
