ron seckinger - rusga

The Politics of Nativism: Ethnic Prejudice and Political Power in Mato Grosso, 1831-1834Author(s): Ron L. SeckingerSource: The Americas, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Apr., 1975), pp. 393-416Published by: Academy of American Franciscan HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/980010 .Accessed: 13/09/2013 16:54

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THE POLITICS OF NATIVISM: ETHNIC PREJUDICE AND POLITICAL POWER

IN MATO GROSSO, 1831-1834*

N ATIVISM has proved an enduring theme in the history of the New World. Successive waves of immigration have brought groups of diverse cultural and ethnic origins into intimate con-

tact within the nations of the Americas. The bitter fruit of such contact has frequently been nativism, which here refers to a social movement that seeks to purge elements considered alien to a culture.'

Nativist movements have usually been directed against latecomers who pose a threat to established groups. In 1798, for example, the Federalist administration of the United States attempted to use popular hostility toward French and Irish immigrants as a weapon against Jefferson's Re- publican party, which tended to attract new arrivals from Europe. The Alien Acts limited the political activities of immigrants and marked the foreign-born as potential subversives. The Sedition Act was designed to suppress criticism of the administration and indirectly challenged the liberal ideas of the French Revolution.2

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the massive transfer of humanity from Europe to America provoked virulent expressions of nativism in the United States and ultimately led to immigration restriction.3 A similar influx into Brazil resulted in sporadic violence against Portuguese immigrants and in state repression of foreigners involved in labor organization. Restrictions on immigration were enacted as early as 1846, and after the First World War the Brazilian government

* Research for this study was made possible by a grant from the Foreign Area Fellow- ship Program. An earlier version was presented at the Duquesne History Forum, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1971.

I am grateful to Neill Macaulay, Eul-soo Pang, Joseph S. Tulchin, Harold A. Bierck, and William L. Harris for their comments.

1 See Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Nativism and Revivalism," International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (17 vols.; New York, 1968), XI, 75-80. See also Ralph Linton, "Nativis- tic Movements," American Anthropologist, XLV, No. 2 (Apr.-June 1943), 230-240. This use of the term differs from that of E. Bradford Burns, Nationalism in Brazil. A Histori- cal Survey (New York, 1968), 9. 2 James Morton Smith, Freedom's Fetters. The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties (Ithaca, N.Y., 1956); and John C. Miller, Crisis in Freedom. The Alien and Sedition Acts (Boston, 1951).

3 John Higham, Strangers in the Land. Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (2nd ed.; New York, 1963).

393


394 POLITICS OF NATIVISM IN MATO GROSSO

adopted policies of legal discrimination against the foreign-born and exclusion of "undesirable" immigrants.4 The same trans-Atlantic migration prompted cultural nationalism and immigration restriction in Ar- gentina, while Chileans responded with economic nationalism.5

The early national history of Brazil and Mexico offers exceptions to this pattern. Soon after independence, both countries saw nativist movements aimed at former colonial elites. During the 1820s, a nativist faction in Mexico capitalized on anti-Spanish sentiment in a struggle for power. Political and economic competition between creoles and peninsulares, along with creole resentment against the former masters of the colony, led to numerous mutinies and outbreaks of violence. The nativists seized the opportunity to enhance their own political fortunes by legislating the expulsion of Spaniards from Mexico on three separate occasions between 1827 and 1833.6

Independence brought a similar reaction in Brazil, where the Portu- guese-born became the targets of violence and verbal insults. This study examines one of the numerous instances of Brazilian nativism: the period of nativist agitation in the province of Mato Grosso, culminating in the Rusga, an anti-Portuguese uprising that took place in 1834.

II.

Although Brazilians and Portuguese shared a common language and a common religion, different values and life-styles had long separated them into two distinct groups and were in themselves sources of friction. The disproportionate wealth and political influence of the Portuguese contributed to Brazilian resentment, manifested by civil wars in Pernambuco and the mining zones during the early eighteenth century. Lusophobia was also evident in the liberal revolts of the late colonial era and in the achievement of independence. But nativism as a political movement did not appear until the First Empire (1822-1831), when a nativist party emerged in response to the autocratic behavior of Pedro I and his reli-

4 Ann Marie Pescatello, "Both Ends of the Journey: An Historical Study of Migration and Change in Brazil and Portugal, 1889-1914" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970), 248-254; Michael M. Hall, "The Italians in Sio Paulo, 1880-1920," paper presented at annual meeting of American Historical Association, Dec. 28, 1971; and J. Fernando Carneiro, ImigrafJo e Colonizacao no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1950), 31-37.

5 Carl E. Solberg, Immigration and Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914 (Aus- tin, 1970).

6 Harold D. Sims, "The Expulsion of the Spaniards from Mexico (1821-1828)" (Ms, to be published by Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica, Mexico) and "Las clases econ6micas y la dicotomia criollo-peninsular en Durango, 1827," Historia Mexicana, XX, No. 4 (Apr.- June 1971), 539-562; and Romeo Flores Caballero, La contra-revolucidn en la independencia. Los espaiioles en la vida politica, social y econmnzica de Mexico (1804-1838) (Mdxi- co, 1969).


RoN L. SECKINGER 395

ance on Portuguese advisors. The movement that led to the abdication of the emperor, himself Portuguese-born, may be seen as an attempt to com- plete the work of Brazilian independence by securing political control for the natives of the former colony.7

Nativism reached its peak during the early years of the turbulent Re- gency period (1831-1840). The economic stagnation in which most of Brazil languished heightened the political crisis that followed the abdication of Pedro I on April 7, 1831. The imperial government was a monarchy without a monarch, as regents ruled on behalf of the child emper- or, Pedro II. While the General Assembly grappled with constitutional issues, impatient groups in the capital and the provinces sought to apply their own solutions to the legitimacy crisis. Such solutions included republican government, a federal monarchy, and a return to quasi-absolu- tist rule via the restoration of Pedro I. This last option, considered a con- stant threat from the emergence of a restorationist party in late 1831 until the death of the ex-emperor in September 1834, generated a climate of fear bordering on hysteria and stimulated anti-Portuguese sentiment. In this atmosphere the Portuguese-born more frequently felt the sting of such epithets as pes-de-chumbo ("lead-feet") and bicudos ("beaked ones")." The nativist crusade in Mato Grosso should be viewed against the background of the generalized social tensions and, in particular, the rampant Lusophobia of the time.

Numerically, the Portuguese of Mato Grosso were few. With the de- cline of gold mining during the second half of the eighteenth century, immigration from Portugal almost ceased, and many natives of the me- tropolis left Mato Grosso for more prosperous regions. One provincial resi- dent estimated the total Portuguese-born population at less than 100 in 1834, out of a total free population of approximately 20,000.9 Figures

7 For the origins of Lusophobia, see Caio Prado, Jr., The Colonial Background of Mod- ern Brazil, trans. Suzette Macedo (Berkeley, 1967), 94-95, 405-407, 426-427. For nativism during the First Empire, see Tobias Monteiro, Histdria do Imperio. 0 Primeiro Reinado (2 vols.; Rio de Janeiro, 1939-1946), especially II, 25-29; and Pedro Octivio Carneiro da Cunha, "A fundagio de um imperio liberal," in Histdria Geral da Civiliza9Jo Bra- siliera, ed. Sergio Buarque de Holanda (5 vols.; Sio Paulo, 1960-1967), Tomo II: O Bra- sil Mondrquico, Vol. I: O Processo de Emancipagfo, 382-397. 8 To my knowledge, no comprehensive treatment of Brazilian nativism exists. J. M. Pereira da Silva, Historia do Brazil durante a Menoridade de D. Pedro 11 (1831 a 1840) (2nd ed. rev.; Rio de Janeiro, [1888]), may serve as a rough guide to the nativist content of the various revolts of the Regency period. For specific revolts, see Manuel Correia de Andrade, Movimentos Nativistas em Pernambuco: Setembrizada e Novembrada (Recife, 1971); Dunshee de Abranches, A Setembrada, ou a Revolu.Cjo Liberal de 1831 em Mar- anhio. Romance hist6rico (Rio de Janeiro, 1933); and Domingos Ant6nio Raiol, Motins Politicos. Ou histdria dos principais acontecimentos politicos da Provincia do Pard desde o ano de 1821 ate 1835 ([2nd ed.]; 3 vols.; [Belem], 1970).

9 [Augusto Leverger], Bario de Melgago, "Apontamentos cronol6gicos da provincia



for Cuiabi, the provincial capital, are more precise. A census of 1827 listed 2,739 free residents of the capital, of whom only forty-three were natives of Portugal. Given the wide disparities of income and status that characterized Cuiabi society, however, these few Portuguese had a social importance that transcended their small number. Among the natives of Portugal were some of the most prosperous and prominent men of the province. The forty-one Portuguese males of Cuiabai included twelve merchants, two sugar planters, four army officers, a miner, a priest, a surgeon, and a public employee; in addition, one Portuguese was both merchant and army officer, another was both agriculturalist and army officer, and a third was merchant, rancher, and sugar planter. Eight of them held municipal offices prior to 1834, and six held positions in the provincial administration. Military posts offer an impressive index of Portuguese power in Mato Grosso; of the forty-one Portuguese males, six were officers in the regular army and thirty held militia commissions.'0 A nexus of kin- ship ties and personal interests linked them to Brazilians of similar occupation and social standing. Together, these Brazilians and metropolitans made up a small, relatively closed elite that had dominated the social and political life of the province since the unofficial transfer of the capital to Cuiaba about 1812.

Members of the elite occupied key public offices at the municipal and provincial level. The municipal council (cdmara municipal) of Cuiabi had no real law-making functions but served as a source of status and tabulated the returns in both municipal and provincial elections-a duty that conferred substantial political power on the camara. The administrative council (variously called conselho administrativo, conselho da presiddncia, and conselho do govdrno) was an elective body that participated in the administration of the province but enjoyed no legislative powers. The counselor receiving the most votes in the annual election served as vice-president of the province in the absence of the president. The general council (conselho geral) was another elective body; it merely advised the provincial president on various issues and was not as important as the administrative council. Usually, the elite of Cuiabi domi-

de Mato Grosso," Revista do Instituto Histdrico e Geogrdfico Brasileiro (hereafter cited as RIHGB), CCV (Oct.-Dec. 1949), 348. According to figures published in A Matutina Meiapontense (Meia Ponte, Goiis), June 28, 1831, the total population of Mato Grosso in 1831 was 30,701. Census data from other years reveal a relatively steady slave population at about one third of the total; thus the estimate of 20,000 free persons.

10 Instituto Hist6rico e Geogrifico Brasileiro, Arquivo (hereafter cited as IHGB-A), Rio de Janeiro, lata 12, doc. 26: "Capitania-M6r da Cidade de Cuyabi. Estatistica da pop- ulaggo, com designaqio dos chefes de familia e pess6as d'ela. 1827-31 Maio," Ms. Most of the information concerning the Portuguese came from this document, but some data were gleaned from scattered archival and published sources.


RON L. SECKINGER 397

nated all three of these bodies and claimed in addition various judicial and administrative posts at the provincial level.

Moreover, the elite was seldom checked by imperially appointed officials. After the overthrow of the last colonial governor in September 1821, various juntas administered the province until the arrival in September 1825 of the first provincial president, the only outsider to preside over the province until late in 1834. When the president departed in April 1828, he was succeeded in the administration by the vice-president, Jerinimo Joaquim Nunes, a Portuguese-born army officer and member of the Cui- abai elite. Andr6 Gaudie Ley, a Brazilian merchant and also a member of the elite, became vice-president in January 1830. And in July 1831, a third member of the elite, Ant6nio Correa da Costa, assumed the presidency after being named to the post by the imperial government." The entrenched leadership was further isolated from imperial interference by distance and rough terrain; communication between Rio de Janeiro and Cuiaba normally required ten to twelve weeks in each direction.

On the fringes of the elite were a number of small-time merchants, ranchers, public officials, and professionals. Many of these men held commissions in the national guard, created by the Regency in 1831 as a check on the army, the loyalty of which was suspect because of the high pro- portion of Portuguese-born officers. Some also held posts in the municipal and provincial councils. It was from this segment of the population that the nativist leadership emerged. Because of the identification of the Por- tuguese with the traditional elite of the province, nativism could be used to discredit the entire elite and thereby open the way for the political rise of others.

The nativists could count on the support of at least three other groups. The first was the urban poor, headed by the artisans-carpenters, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths, masons, jewelers, saddlers, boiler-makers, tinkers, and silk-spinners-who numbered 245 master craftsmen, 242 journeymen, and 245 apprentices in the province,'2 perhaps half of them located in Cuiabai. Almost all of the artisans of Cuiabi were mulattoes,13 and thus the usual antagonism between rich and poor was augmented by racial tensions. Even if E. J. Hobsbawn's assertion that "Who says cobbler says Radical"'' cannot be applied to Cuiabi, the artisans were nevertheless sus-

11 Virgilio Correa Filho, Notas d

Margem (Sio Paulo, 1924), 94, 96, 100. 12 Luiz de Alincourt, "Rezultado dos trabalhos e indagag6es statisticas da Provincia

de Matto Grosso, por Luiz d' Alincourt, Sargento-M6r Engenheiro, encarregado da Com- missio Statistica Topografica aicerca de mesma Provincia (Cuyabai 1828)," Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, VIII (1880-1881), 64.

13 Hercules Florence, Viagem Fluvial do Tiete ao Amazonas, de 1825 a 1829, trans. Afonso de Escragnolle Taunay (2nd ed.; Sgo Paulo, 1948), 179.

14 E. J. Hobsbawn, Primitive Rebels. Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries (New York, 1965), 109.



ceptible to nativist appeals and turned on the Portuguese when the opportunity presented itself.

Vagrants made up a second group. Like all Brazilian cities, Cuiaba at- tracted a throng of drifters, mostly of mixed racial ancestry. This mass of unskilled, illiterate, propertyless poor shunned manual labor in favor of the life of the vagabond, surviving by begging, gambling, and petty crime. A contemporary described the vagrants of Cuiabi as "a multitude of loaf- ers who daily cross the streets and plazas and fill the taverns without one's knowing what might be their occupation, trade, etc.; being even more a cause for wonder that almost all of them appear to be fops and pre- tentious paupers.""5 They passed the hours in dancing the African ba- tuque and cururu and in performing the capoeira, the stylized mock fight invented by the slaves and marginal population of Brazil. A scandalized observer, complaining of the idleness and crime that characterized Cui- abai, painted this picture:

Many water-carriers congregate here because of the great scarcity of water. Every day heads and water pots are broken, and no measure has been taken about this problem. At the Prainha [a stream in the city] one finds groups of Negroes on Holy Days, performing the capoeira or playing drums or dancing the cururu, so that it resembles a place in Africa more than a Provincial Capital in the Constitutional Empire of Brazil.'"

Many persons, especially those from outside Cuiabai, insisted on carrying guns in town, a custom that resulted in many gunfights and killings."

Soldiers constituted the third and most important group that followed the nativist leadership. Like their counterparts elsewhere, the army and national-guard troops stationed in Mato Grosso were a downtrodden lot and frequently expressed their frustrations in violence. Forcibly recruit- ed, the soldiers-most of them artisans, vagrants, or subsistence farmers- endured harsh treatment and physical deprivation. They suffered from lack of food, clothing, salaries, and other supplies, and from exploitation by unscrupulous officers. The popular refrain attributed to the troops of the late colonial period might just as well have originated during the years following independence:

15 A Matutina Meiapontense, Nov. 6, 1833. 16 Ibid., Mar. 15, 1831. For a general discussion of vagrancy in the late colonial era, see

Prado, Colonial Background, 328-333, 402-414. 17 Ricardo Jose Gomes Jardim, Discurso Recitado pelo Exm. Presidente da Provincia de

Mato Grosso, Ricardo Jose Gomes Jardim, na Abertura da Sessio Ordinaria da Assem- blea Legislativa Provincial em 10 de Junho de 1846 (Cuiabai, 1846), 6.

The violence that pervaded the lives of the free poor is admirably discussed in a case study of a community in Sio Paulo province during the nineteenth century: Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco, Homens Livres na Ordem Escravocrata (Sio Paulo, 1969), 19-60.



Oh, Jesus! Death shall I meet! So much serving, So little to eat! 18

Desertion and insurrection were common occurrences, especially among the frontier garrisons. The lack of military discipline was compounded by the practice of exiling rebellious troops to Mato Grosso, far from the pop- ulous coastal provinces, and by that of conscripting social deviants. The authorities used conscription as punishment for local felons; in 1826, for example, a militiaman was inducted into the army because of "his bad habit of barbecuing other people's cattle."'9 Some members of the "bat- talion of the periquitos [parakeets]," which had revolted and assassinated the commander-of-arms of Bahia in 1824, were exiled to Mato Grosso, where they contributed to the unrest among the troops.20 Between 1821 and 1832, some fifteen incidents of armed insurrection by soldiers occurred at various points in the province.21

Discontent, then, ran high in Cuiaba' and throughout Mato Grosso. Moreover, a corps of armed men accustomed to violence was at hand when the nativists chose to make use of it. Soldiers, vagrants, and urban poor constituted a manpower reserve that could be mobilized to serve the interests of the nativist counter-elite once the political situation called for a violent solution to the competition for power.

18 "Ai! Jesus!/Que vou a morrer!/Tanto serviqo,/tio pouco comer!" Jose de Mes-

quita, "Gente e cousas de antanho. Periodo colonial," Revista do Instituto Histdrico de Mato Grosso (hereafter cited as RIHMT), Anos XXIX-XXX, Tomos 57-60 (1947-1948), 16. Abundant documentation of the harsh conditions suffered by the soldiers is available in the Arquivo Pi'blico do Estado de Mato Grosso (hereafter cited as APEMT), Cuiabi.

Since my research in Cuiabai in 1967 and 1968, a reorganization of the state government has transformed the APEMT into the Departamento de Documentagio e Arquivo, Sec- retaria de Administraqio do Estado de Mato Grosso.

19 APEMT, caixa 1826: Ant6nio Jose Ramos e Costa to Jose Saturnino da Costa Pereira, Diamantino, Aug. 22, 1826.

20 Seven periquitos were indicted for their participation in the 1834 uprising in Cui- abi; see the sources listed in footnote 79. Concerning the periquitos' revolt in Bahia, see Laercio Caldeira de Andrade, "O cel. Felisberto Gomes Caldeira e a independencia da Bahia. O coronel Jose Bonificio Caldeira de Andrada e suas 'Memorias.' " Primeiro Con- gresso de Hist6ria da Bahia, Anais (5 vols.; Salvador, 1950-1951), III, 213-234; and "Memoria descriptiva dos attentados da facqio demagogica na provincia da Bahia. Contendo a nar- raqio circumstanciada da rebelliio de 25 Outubro de 1824, e mais factos relativos, ate o dia do embarque para Pernambuco do 30 batalhio de linha, denominado dos-periquitos-e contendo as relaq6es officiaes da tropa reunida fbra da cidade por causa da dita rebelliio," RIHGB, XXX, Pt. 1 (1867), 233-355. 21 Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Oct. 14, 1832, published in "Docu- mentos sobre a Rusga," RIHMT, Anos XIII-XIV, Tomos 25-28 (1931-1932), 169-170.



III. The central figure of the nativist movement in Mato Grosso was a mu-

latto surgeon named Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso, born in 1788 in the province of Sio Paulo. In late 1822 Manso arrived in Cuiabai to assume the post of surgeon-major of the province. Within a few years the haughty and abrasive mulatto had alienated many influential persons, especially Colonel Jodo Poupino Caldas, a wealthy Brazilian merchant and militia officer who became Manso's implacable enemy. Other than a brief period of service on the provincial board of revenue (junta da fazenda), Manso remained aloof from politics until August 1831, when he was appointed secretary of the provincial government.22

Manso was not associated with the initial manifestations of nativism. The first incident occurred in the city of Mato Grosso, formerly Vila Bela, the old colonial capital. When news of the abdication of Pedro I arrived in that city in July 1831, numerous citizens demanded the ouster of a few Portuguese-born officials. But Ant6nio Correa da Costa, a wealthy landowner and native of Cuiab:i who had recently assumed the provincial presidency, denied the petition and insisted that the officials retain their positions.23

Although at this time the entire country witnessed such spontaneous outbursts against the Portuguese, the Regency was not then concerned over the loyalty of those Portuguese who had sworn allegiance to the Constitution of 1824. Such persons, called Adotivos ("adopted" Brazil- ians), enjoyed full citizenship rights and escaped the early purge of Bra- zilian officialdom. In August 1831 the imperial government instructed provincial presidents to investigate the nationality of public employees; all foreigners were to be dismissed and their positions filled by Brazilians, Adotivos, and naturalized citizens.24 Adotivos did not fall under the sus- picion of the Regency until the formation of the restorationist, or Cara- muru, party.

But to the soldiers of Mato Grosso the Portuguese-born were still Por-

22 Manso's career is treated in Correa Filho, Notas a Margenm, 21-30; J. Remedios Mon- teiro, "Biographia do Dr. Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," RIHGB, LIII, Pt. 2 (1890), 385-393; Basilio de Magalhies, "Biographia de Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XXII (1919), 77-96; Rubens de Mendonga, O Tigre de Cuiabd (Campo Grande, 1966); and Franklin Cassiano, "Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32 (1934), 57-71. Concerning Poupino, see Jose de Mesquita, "Joio Poupino Caldas," ibid., 73-117.

23 Arquivo Nacional, Segio dos Ministerios (hereafter cited as AN-SM), Rio de Janeiro, pasta IJJ9 505: Ant6nio Correa da Costa to Manoel Jose de Sousa Franga (No. 32), Cuiabai, Sept. 2, 1831. 24 Decree No. 252, Aug. 18, 1831, Collec~fo das Decis6es do Governo do Brazil de 1831 (Rio de Janeiro, 1876), 190-191.



tuguese, Brazilian citizenship notwithstanding. On the evening of Decem- ber 7, 1831, the Cuiabai garrison rebelled and demanded that Joao Pou- pino Caldas replace Jer6nimo Joaquim Nunes as commander-of-arms and that all other Adotivo officeholders be discharged. The administrative council reluctantly capitulated on both points, "since by this illegal step worse evils will be avoided."'" This uprising initiated a series of military mutinies and rumors of mutinies that persisted despite preven- tive measures by the administrative council. In October 1832, following a rebellion by the garrison at Albuquerque (now Corumbai), the council disbanded all regular-army units in the province and replaced them with a new legion of light infantry (ligeiros).26 But such measures proved ineffective in halting military unrest.

During 1832 the fear that Pedro I would be restored to the throne fueled the nativist movement throughout Brazil. Even before the restora- tionists' abortive coup in Rio de Janeiro in April, the provincial president of Goias proposed a joint effort by the governments of Goiais, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, So Paulo, Espirito Santo, and Parai to thwart the designs of "anarchists" and Caramurus. Correa da Costa promised the support of Mato Grosso for such a project,27 but the whole affair was merely a patriotic exorcism of the restorationist demon. The president of Goias also founded the Society for the Defense of Liberty and National Independence in May 1832, in the city of Meia Ponte.28 A Matutina Mei- apontense, a Meia Ponte newspaper that was distributed to subscribers in Cuiabai and reached other Mato Grosso settlements as well, regularly reported on the activities of this nativist organization. The newspaper's xenophobic editorials and its role as propagandist for the club contributed to the growth of nativism in Mato Grosso. But nativism remained in- choate until the arrival of a Carmelite friar named Jos6 dos Santos In- nocentes.

Innocentes was vicar-general of the comarca (district) of Rio Negro (later the province of Amazonas) in Parai. In June 1832, disgruntled

25 AN-SM, pasta IG1 260: Atas of administrative council (copies), Dec. 7 and 8, 1831, accompanying Jolo Poupino Caldas to Manoel da Fonseca Lima e Silva (No. 44), Cui- abs, Jan. 4, 1832. The Adotivos were reinstated by order of the Regency in June 1832, with the exception of Nunes, who declined to resume his post because of illness. Poupino re- tained the provincial military command until replaced by a new imperial appointee in November 1832. [Leverger], "Apontarnentos cronol6gicos," 345-346. 26 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Atas of administrative council (copies), Cuiabi, Oct. 13, 14, and 16, 1832, accompanying Correa da Costa to Jos6 Lino Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 7, 1832.

27 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Administrative council to [Pedro II], Cuiabi, May 4, 1832, and accompanying documents; and A Matutina Meiapontense, June 9 and July 4, 1832. 28 A Matutina Meiapontense, June 9, 1832.



leaders in Rio Negro declared the comarca to be a separate province and commissioned Innocentes to journey to Rio de Janeiro to plead the case of Rio Negro before the Regency. Since the Pari government controlled the mouth of the Amazon River, the friar set out for the imperial capital by way of Mato Grosso.29

In February 1833 Innocentes arrived in Cuiabi, accompanied by several national guardsmen from Rio Negro. President Correa da Costa and the circuit magistrate (ouvidor) rebuffed the friar, but Patricio Manso befriended him and sought to explain his case to the Minister of Empire. According to Manso, Innocentes lacked personal ambition but was "rather fanatical" in his dislike of the Portuguese-born. "He says," wrote Manso, "that he cannot shake the resentment of having lost the majority of his relatives by intrigue of those [Portuguese]." The surgeon secretly for- warded Innocentes's letters to Goias for transmission to Rio de Janeiro and accepted the friar's power of attorney, agreeing to take over the task of representing the rebels of Rio Negro before the imperial government.30

Innocentes turned to Manso because the circuit magistrate refused to issue him a passport and instead recommended that he be expelled from the province, presumably in the direction of Rio Negro. According to the magistrate, Innocentes introduced the anti-Portuguese epithet of "bicudo" to the residents of Cuiabai. "Even in gatherings of respectable persons of this City," he reported, Innocentes "has indiscreetly shouted, 'Death to the Bicudos,' abusing in this manner the hospitality that he has found here."3' Correa da Costa instructed the commander-of-arms to keep Innocentes under surveillance but did not expel the controversial friar. By early June the frustrated emissary had voluntarily embarked on the return trip to Rio Negro. A secret communication from the Minister of Justice, who asked that Innocentes be sent to Rio de Janeiro where his activities might be monitored, arrived too late.32

The friar from Rio Negro served as a catalyst for the nativist movement in Cuiabai. His outspoken hatred of the Portuguese rekindled the Lusophobia that earlier had flared in the province. No evidence exists to indicate that Manso was a nativist prior to the arrival of Innocentes. Earlier he had voiced contempt for the plight of the regular-army

29 Raiol, Motins Politicos, I, 256-259. 30 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Ant6nio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso to Nicolau Pereira de

Campos Vergueiro, Cuiabai, Mar. 1, 1833. 31 APEMT, caixa 1833: Joaquim Francisco Gonqalves Ponce de Leko to Correa da

Costa, Cuiabai, Mar. 28, 1833. 32 Virgilio Correa Filho, Histdria de Mato Grosso (Rio de Janeiro, 1969), 479, 508, n.

106.


RON L. SECKINGER 40 3

troops,33 who had raised one of the first cries against the Adotivos. More- over, in 1825 he had accused Poupino of frightening the Portuguese residents of Cuiabai by shouting "Death to the p6-de-chumbo!" before the home of an Adotivo.34 Manso's conversion coincided with efforts by the traditional elite of Cuiabai to eliminate him from participation in the provincial government. It is unclear whether the elite began its campaign after Manso became a nativist or whether he embraced nativism in response to the efforts of the entrenched leadership to end his career.

The first serious clash occurred over Manso's appointment in January 1833 to a special commission charged with investigating the conduct of the officials of the provincial board of revenue. The board protested the selection of Manso on the grounds that he had served on the body in 1828 and should therefore be disqualified from the investigation.35 In February 'the administrative council honored the board's protest by dis- missing Manso from the special commission. The surgeon asserted that four members of the administrative council had earlier served on the board of revenue and feared that their abuses would be uncovered.36

Be that as it may, a newly appointed commission revealed that Manso had become the creditor of the provincial treasury in the amount of nine- ty-nine contos (U.S. $75,240), almost a third of the provincial debt.3" Manso's notes on the treasury were in the form of scrip given to soldiers and public employees in lieu of salaries. During the 1820s wealthy individuals purchased such scrip from desperate soldiers at only five percent of the face value, and then demanded full payment or offered to do- nate the scrip to the provincial treasury in return for an honorary title from the emperor. A military engineer engaged in a statistical study of the province criticized an unnamed surgeon-major, who could only have been Manso, for these and other financial abuses.38 Some of Manso's credits may have taken the form of promissory notes drawn on the national

33 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Oct. 13, 1832, accompanying Corr&a da Costa to Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 7, 1832.

34 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Representaf Jo from Manso to Joio Vieira de Carvalho, Cuiabi, July 22, 1825.

35 APEMT, caixa 1833: Board of revenue to Correa da Costa, Cuiabi, Feb. 13, 1833. 36 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, Mar. 1, 1833. 37 V[irgilio] Corr&a Filho, Evolu.Jo do Erdrio (Sio Paulo, 1925), 51n. Conversion

of contos into United States dollars is based on the 1833 exchange rate listed in Julian Smith Duncan, Public and Private Operation of Railways in Brazil (New York, 1932), 183.

38 Alincourt, "Rezultado dos trabalhos," 111n-112n. As a deputy, Manso later asked the imperial government to honor notes on the Mato Grosso treasury amounting to 103 contos. Annaes do Parlamento Brazileiro. Cdmara dos Srs. Deputados, 20 Anno da 3a Legis- latura, Sessio de 1835 (July 14), Tomo II, 73. Apparently the debt was not paid, for at his death in 1848 Manso left notes totaling 134 contos. Magalhies, "Biographia de Antonio Luiz Patricio da Silva Manso," 88.



treasury. In November 1831 the imperial government undertook to re- lieve the financial crisis of Mato Grosso by permitting the provincial board of revenue to issue such notes in return for cash loans; capitalists who provided loans to the provincial government could redeem the notes in Rio de Janeiro at eight percent interest, thereby reaping a substantial profit without risking their capital.39 Given the decadent state of the Mato Grosso economy and the absence of major export commodities, these transactions were of supreme interest to local capitalists. Such financial opportunities constituted one of the most important perquisites of public office and added another dimension to the competition for political power.

Dominating the administrative council, the traditional leadership ma- neuvered to deny Manso a seat on that body. In filling a vacancy, the council passed over the surgeon, who was first alternate by virtue of the last election, and gave the seat to a member of the general council. Manso protested that holding positions on both councils simultaneously was for- bidden by law,40 but the administrative council responded by pointing out that Manso was ineligible because he was already secretary of the provincial government.4" Learning that Manso had appealed the case to the Minister of Empire, the administrative council considered suspending the surgeon from his secretarial post but instead decided to prosecute him for misuse of public funds. When one member of the council protested, his colleagues promptly expelled him and summoned a Portu- guese-born merchant to take his place. Another councilman contributed to the offensive by initiating a civil suit against Manso for slander.42 The entrenched leadership also tried to isolate another outsider, Paschoal Domingues de Miranda. A law graduate, Miranda had come to Cuiabai on being appointed municipal judge (juiz de fora), which post he had assumed in January 1829.43 In March 1833 the administrative council suspended him on charges of abuse of office.44

As the power struggle went on, rumors of impending insurrection circulated in Cuiabai. A plot to murder the Adotivos of the capital was re-

39 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Correa da Costa to Coutinho, Cuiabi, Mar. 3, 1832; and Joaquim Ferreira Moutinho, Noticia sobre a Provincia de Matto Grosso, Seguida d'um Ro- teiro da Viagem da Sua Capital d S. Paulo (Sio Paulo, 1869), 64.

40 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, Mar. 1, 1833. 41 AN-SM, pasta IJI 918: Atas of administrative council (copies), Cuiabi, Mar. 7 and

23, 1833, and parecer of Joio Poupino Caldas and Joaquim da Costa Teixeira, Cuiabi, Mar. 7, 1833, accompanying Andr6 Gaudie Ley to Hon6rio Hermeto Carneiro Lego (No. 17), Cuiabi, June 1, 1833. 42 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiaba, Mar. 31, 1833.

43 Biblioteca P6iblica do Estado de Mato Grosso, Cuiaba: "Annaes do Senado da Ca- mara de Cuiabi," Ms, fl. 197.

44 APEMT, caixa 1833: Cuiaba cimara to Correa da Costa, Apr. 1, 1833.



ported to President Correa da Costa on April 15, 1833, and the administrative council took steps to prevent such an uprising.45 Although the night passed without incident, Correa da Costa despaired of calming the province. Troubled by chronic ailments, he decided not to wait for the imperial government to act on his request to be relieved of the presidency. On April 19 he retired to his fazenda. As the member of the administrative council who had received the most votes in the last election, Andr6 Gaudie Ley assumed the administration of the province as vice-president. A native of Goias, Gaudie had migrated to Cuiabi during the first decade of the century. There he had married the sister of Joio Poupino Caldas and established himself as one of the wealthiest merchants of the region. After independence he was a key political figure and served as vice-president from January 1830 till April 1831.46 During his second term as vice-president, Gaudie emerged as principal leader of the traditional elite.

On assuming the administration of the province, Gaudie advised the Minister of Empire that a certain faction was "courting popularity by proclaiming a boundless persecution of the adopted Brazilians," and he predicted "the loss of many families" in an imminent civil war.47 Gau- die's letter, written while the rebel friar Innocentes tarried in Cuiabi, indicates that an opposition party espousing Lusophobia had already formed. Soon afterwards, elections for several posts demonstrated the growing influence of the nativists and prompted more energetic efforts to purge them from public office.

Elections for the general and administrative councils, and for the province's sole representative to the Chamber of Deputies in Rio de Janeiro, took place in May. On the appointed day for tabulating the votes for deputy, the municipal council of the capital had not received the electoral returns from the county (municipio) of Diamantino. Dominated by the nativists, the Cuiabai camara counted the returns from the other two municipios and declared Patricio Manso the winner.48 The nativists also captured several seats on the general and administrative councils

45 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Apr. 15, 1833, accompanying Gaudie to Vergueiro (No. 12), Cuiabi, Apr. 27, 1833.

46 Jose de Mesquita, "O capitio-mor Andre Gaudie Ley e a sua descendencia (Ensaio de reconstituiq~o historico-genealogica)," RIHMT, Ano III, Tomos 5-6 (1922), 27-50. 47 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Gaudie to Vergueiro (No. 12), Cuiabi, Apr. 27, 1833. 48 APEMT, caixa 1833: "Acta da apuraqio Geral dos Votos dos Collegios Eleitoraes de :oda a Provincia para o Deputado, que deve reprezentar a mesma" (copy), Ms, Cui- abs, May 30, 1833. The three counties were Cuiabi, Mato Grosso, and Diamantino. In 1831 the imperial government created the municipio of Pocond, but the first municipal council was not installed until July 1833, after the elections for provincial offices had taken place.



and already commanded three of the four national-guard companies.49 In addition to Manso and Paschoal Miranda, the nativist party included Captain Caetano de Silva e Albuquerque, merchant, municipal councilman (vereador) of the Cuiabai camara, alternate justice of the peace (juiz de paz), and commander of the fourth national-guard company; Captain Ant6nio Peixoto de Azevedo, merchant and landowner, municipal councilman, and commander of the first national-guard company; Captain Jos6 Jacinto de Carvalho, secretary of the general council, commander of the second national-guard company, and formerly member of the board of revenue; Felippe Manoel de Arai'jo, merchant and member- elect of the administrative council; Caetano Xavier da Silva Pereira, merchant and municipal councilman; Braz Pereira Mendes, a mulatto, professor of philosophy, municipal councilman, and member-elect of the administrative council; Joaquim de Almeida Falcdo, landowner and merchant, circuit magistrate, and president of the Cuiabai camara; Ben- to Franco de Camargo, a mulatto, municipal councilman; Euzebio Luiz de Britto, a multatto, professor of grammar and adjutant in the national guard; Jos6 Alves Ribeiro, merchant and cattle rancher; and Sebas- tiio Rodrigues da Costa, merchant and lieutenant in the national guard.50

Gaudie and his allies still controlled the incumbent administrative council and mounted a counter-attack. Manso had not performed his duties as secretary of the provincial government since early February, pro- testing in this manner his exclusion from the administrative council. On June 15 the council suspended Manso from office and ordered his prosecution for dereliction of duty."5 Gaudie also nullified the recent vote tabulation and suspended the national guard, claiming that certain persons

49 APEMT, caixa 1833: "Acta da apuraqio geral dos votos para Membros do Conselho Geral de Provincia" (copy), Ms, Cuiaba, May 31, 1833; "Acta da apuraqio geral dos votos para Membros do Conselho da Presidencia" (copy), Ms, Cuiabi, June 1, 1833; and "Rellaqio dos Officiaes, e Officiaes inferiores das quatro Companhias das Guardas Na- cionaes desta Cidade," Ms, Cuiabai, Mar. 21, 1833, accompanying Ant6nio Jos6 Guimaries e Silva to Corr&a da Costa, Cuiabai, Mar. 21, 1833.

50 No records of the nativist organization, the Sociedade dos Zelosos da Independencia, are extant. The classification of individuals as nativists has therefore depended on identification in official documents. The most important source is a collection of depositions made by Cuiabai citizens who fled to Goiis on the occasion of the nativist uprising of May 1834. "Inquerito instaurado na cidade de Goyaz, pelo respectivo Juiz de Paz e por ordem do Governo da Provincia, a cerca dos successos de 30 de Maio em Cuyabi," Oct. 10, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32 (1934), 130-148. The personal information concerning the nativists was compiled from various archival sources.

51 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, June 15, 1833, accompanying Gaudie to Vergueiro, Cuiabai, July 30, 1833.



were stirring up trouble among the troops.52 Acting on Gaudie's instructions, a justice of the peace investigated Manso's official conduct in July and sentenced the delinquent secretary to pay a fine and to spend a month in jail. Manso claimed immunity as deputy-elect to the Chamber,53 and the authorities made no attempt to arrest him. His suspension from the secretarial post remained in effect, however, and the administrative council refused to authorize the travel allowance that would permit him to take his seat in the Chamber. Moreover, in filling two vacancies the council passed over Manso a third time and selected two Adotivos, both of whom were ineligible by virtue of their membership on the general council. Manso continued to appeal to the Minister of Empire for imperial intervention on his behalf.54

The issue of nativism became paramount as the struggle between the two factions progressed. In March 1833 the Caramuru party in Minas Gerais launched a rebellion, ostensibly to protest persecution by the Re- gency. Although the uprising was suppressed after two months, those who longed for the return of Pedro I did not lose hope. In June the prominent Caramuru leader Ant6nio Carlos de Andrada journeyed to Europe to confer with the ex-emperor and thereby convinced many Brazilians that another restorationist coup was in the offing. News of these events heightened the power struggle in Mato Grosso. In August Manso founded and was elected president of a club called the Society of the Zealots of In- dependence, patterned after the nativist organizations that had sprung up throughout Brazil since the last years of the First Empire. The club proposed to unite "true Brazilians" in "mutual assistance to insure the independence of Brazil, and to pose legal resistance to tyranny wherever it is found."55 The Portuguese residents of Cuiabai countered shortly

52 AN-SM, pasta IJJ5 16: Portaria of Gaudie to Cuiabi cimara (copy), Cuiabi, June 17, 1833, accompanying Cuiabai camara to Ant6nio Pinto Chichorro da Gama, Mar. 18, 1834. AN-SM, pasta IJ1 918: Gaudie to Carneiro Leio (No. 20), Cuiabi, June 27, 1833.

5' Cart6rio do Segundo Oficio, Cuiabi: "Notas Geraes," Ms, Livro 4 (1830-1834), fls. 141-142.

54 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, July 8, 1833, accompanying Gaudie to Vergueiro, Cuiaba, July 23, 1833. AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Vergueiro, Cuiabi, July 31, 1833. The Minister of Empire removed Manso from the post of secretary on July 9, but the decree did not arrive in Cuiabi until September. AN- SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Gaudie to Aureliano de Sousa e Oliveira Coutinho, Cuiaba, Sept. 28, 1833. Manso's removal probably stemmed from his association with Innocentes. A few weeks previously, the Minister of Empire had instructed Corria da Costa to chastise the friar for his part in the Rio Negro rebellion and had mentioned that Manso was the priest's intermediary. Decree No. 314, June 15, 1833, Collecgfo das Decisies do Governo do Imperio do Brasil de 1833 (Rio de Janeiro, 1873), 219.

55 "Estatutos da Sociedade dos Zellosos da Independencia installada na cidade de Cui-



thereafter by establishing their own club, the Philanthropic Society."6 These two organizations served to mobilize support for the warring factions.

During the last days of August, Gaudie received a circular from the Minister of Empire, warning of the possibility of a plot to restore Pedro I to the throne and to subjugate Brazil to Portuguese domination again. The minister urged provincial officials to exercise vigilance and to arm the national guard as a contingency measure. The administrative council decided not to make the circular known to the public, out of fear of promoting the nativist cause and in order to avoid having to arm the national guard, which was still suspended.57

Despite the council's precautions, the circular could not be kept secret, for newspapers from other regions told of the enthusiastic reception of the Regency's warnings of a Caramuru plot. On November 10 the Society of the Zealots of Independence asked the provincial government for a copy of the circular, which was finally made public two days later. The long delay convinced many persons that the administrative council was involved in a restorationist conspiracy.58 On November 13 Gaudie con- voked the council to announce the discovery of another plot against the Adotivos of Cuiabai. The council ordered that the municipal guard be alerted and, at Gaudie's suggestion, summoned Correa da Costa to re- assume the presidency.59

Correa da Costa returned to the capital and claimed his post during the first week of December. At this point the president displayed a vacillatory attitude toward the bitter struggle for political supremacy. After having participated in the attempt to oust Manso and other nativists from the provincial administration earlier in the year, Correa da Costa now at- tended a banquet sponsored by the Society of the Zealots of Indepen-

abi, Provincia de Matto Grosso," A Matutina Meiapontense, Nov. 13, 1833. In 1835 Manso spoke at length before the Chamber of Deputies concerning the creation of the nativist society; unfortunately, the speech was not recorded in full, but merely summarized brief- ly. Annaes do Parlamento Brazileiro. Cdmara dos Srs. Deputados, 20 Anno da 3a Legis- latura, Sessio de 1835 (July 11), Tomo II, 67.

56 [Leverger], "Apontamentos cronol6gicos," 349. 57 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Gaudie to Oliveira Coutinho, Cuiabai, Aug. 29, 1833.

AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiaba, Aug. 30, 1833, and representagio from Gaudie to [Pedro II], Cuiabai, Feb. 4, 1834.

58 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 527: Manso to Correa da Costa, [Cuiabi], Dec. 6, 1833, copied in certidaio, Jan. 7, 1834; and [Leverger], "Apontamentos cronol6gicos," 348.

59 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 505: Ata of administrative council (copy), Cuiabi, Nov. 13, 1833, accompanying Correa da Costa to Chichorro da Gama, Cuiabi, Dec. 30, 1833. Gaudie later claimed that fifty-one members of the Society of the Zealots of Independence had gathered in Manso's home on November 13 for the purpose of overthrowing the provincial government. Deposition of Andre Gaudie Ley, "Inquerito," Oct. 10, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " 138.



dence in Manso's home. The president made matters worse by consenting to visit Adotivos only under cover of night.6o

The nativists became bolder after the alleged conspiracy of November 13. Pasquinades mocking the Adotivos circulated in Cuiabai, and the Por- tuguese-born were subjected to verbal insults. The author of a regular column on Mato Grosso affairs in A Matutina Meiapontense expressed alarm at the number of Caramurus who drew salaries as public employees in Cuiabai, "since one should not warm vipers that will kill us one day if we do not crush them quickly."6' The same writer, in a bitter denun- ciation of the pro-Portuguese element in Cuiabai, anticipated the day when "Kill the Caramurus!" would be heard.62 This unidentified propagandist tried to keep tensions high by warning that Pedro I might invade the province by way of Paraguay63-an unlikely possibility, but one cal- culated to advance the nativist cause by linking the restorationist peril directly to Mato Grosso.

The nativists scored a major victory in February 1834, when the Cui- ab'i camara recounted the votes for the provincial representative to the Chamber of Deputies. Although Manso received none of the Diamantino ballots, which had been excluded from the earlier tabulation, he still won the election.64 Having obtained his diploma from the camara, the deputy-elect departed for Rio de Janeiro shortly thereafter.

Already in control of the Cuiabai camara and the national guard, the nativists had now elected their leader to the Chamber of Deputies. In addition, their ranks included many of the judicial officers of the capital. According to Gaudie, Manso had committed his "crimes" with impunity because "the Judges belong to the Society of which he is President."65 In January 1834 one of the leading nativists, Paschoal Domingues de

60 Depositions of Francisco Manoel Vieira and Bernardo Jose Vieira, "Inquerito," Oct. 10, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " 131, 134. President Ant6nio Pedro de Alencastro later asserted that Correa da Costa had been a member of the nativist society. AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 506: Alencastro to Joaquim Vieira da Silva e Souza (No. 60), Cuiabi, Aug. 17, 1835.

61 A Matutina Meiapontense, Jan. 29, 1834. 62 Ibid., Feb. 22, 1834. 63 Ibid., Feb. 26, 1834. 64 Cimara dos Deputados, Diretoria do Arquivo, Segio Hist6rica (hereafter cited as

CD-DA-SH), Brasilia, 1835, amarrado F, mago 1, pasta 1: "Acta da nova apuraqio Geral dos votos dos Collegios Eleitoraes de toda a Provincia de Mato-Grosso, para o Deputado, que deve Representar a mesma" (copy), Ms, Cuiabi, Feb. 7, 1834. According to legend, a woman whose husband was killed in the nativist uprising in Cuiabi ruined Manso's political career by shouting "Assassin!" at him as the deputy entered the Chamber to take his seat for the first time in September 1834. See [Alfredo de Escragnolle Taunay], Visconde de Taunay, "A cidade de Matto-Grosso (antiga Villa-Bella), o rio Guapore e a sua mais illustre victima," RIHGB, LIV, Pt. 2 (1891), 83-85.

65 AN-SM, pasta IJJol 527: Representagio from Gaudie to [Pedro II], Cuiabi, Feb. 4, 1834.



Miranda, was installed as the first district judge (juiz de direito) of the province, having been appointed to that post by the Regency.66 On the complaint of an Adotivo, who asserted that Miranda had been guilty of misconduct while serving as municipal judge, the administrative council suspended Miranda in early March. The Society of the Zealots of Indepen- dence sponsored protest demonstrations, which resulted in an assault on the Adotivo and a shower of stones for the municipal guardsmen who tried to restore order.7' With the nativists on the offensive, the older leadership was further shaken by the defection of Joio Poupino Caldas.

Poupino was not above anti-Portuguese sentiment, if Manso's charges of 1825 may be credited, and he was the hero of the troops who demanded the removal of all Adotivo office-holders in 1831. Yet he had constantly sided with his brother-in-law Gaudie and the traditional elite against the challengers to the established order. Poupino's conversion to nativism took place between February and April 1834 and was probably facilitated by the departure of his arch-enemy, Manso. In early May Poupino protested the imperial government's appointment of an Adotivo to the post of fiscal officer (procurador fiscal) of the provincial treasury, arguing that such an appointment would further increase tensions. The administrative council narrowly voted to comply with the instructions from Rio de Janeiro. Poupino and the Society of the Zealots of Independence staged a mass demonstration and submitted a petition expressing disapproval of the appointment. Under this pressure, the council capitulated and removed the Adotivo from his post. That night Poupino furnished food and drink to an exultant crowd gathered in front of his home.""8

Frightened by the militancy of the nativists, Gaudie and two comrades abandoned their seats on the administrative council, leaving their opponents in control. On May 10 Correa da Costa summoned the body to dis- cuss an anonymous message warning of an imminent rebellion-by the national guard against the Adotivos. Predictably, in view of the nativist

66 CD-DA-SH, 1834, amarrado B, mago 2, pasta 1: Correa da Costa to Chichorro da Gama (No. 3), Cuiabai, Jan. 31, 1834.

67 Estivio de Mendonga, Datas Matogrossenses (2 vols.; Rio de Janeiro, 1922), I, 124- 125. Mendonqa says that Miranda was suspended by the general council, but this is surely an error.

68 IHGB-A, lata 168, doc. 8: "Manifesto dos acontecimentos que tiverio lugar na Cidade de Cuyabi, Provincia de Matto-Grosso, Em a noite da 30 de Maio do anno pas- sado, acompanhado da exposigio fiel dos factos que contribuirio para a sedi~io, operada em a mesma noite, e as consequencias que dahi se seguirio, ate o dia 4 de Novembro daquelle anno, em que forio deportados o Juiz de Direito, e mais quatro Cidadios. Rio de Janeiro. Na typographia de R. Ogier, Rua do Ouvidor no 188, 1835," Ms, fls. 1-2. This document is a copy of a broadside printed in 1835. It is also published as "Acontecimentos da

'Rusga,'" RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32 (1934), 155-178.



domination of the council, that body decided that the message "should be given no consideration.""6

Rumors of conspiracies by the pro-Portuguese faction spurred the nativists to conceive their own plot. During the annual celebration of the Feast of the Holy Spirit, the Adotivos and the Brazilians were to sit at separate tables. According to one nativist leader, a scheme to poison the food of the native-born was discovered before the meal began.70 Another rumor prophesied the use of the municipal guard by the Portuguese to seize control of the capital. Relations between the municipal- and national-guard units were so strained that Correa da Costa mustered all troops to hear a proclamation by which he hoped to settle differences. But afterwards Poupino sabotaged the reconciliation attempt by treating the national guardsmen to refreshments at his home.71

On May 24 the ailing Correa da Costa again surrendered the presidency. Two days later the administrative council decided that Poupino should assume command of the province as vice-president.72 With Poupino oc- cupying the post of chief executive, the nativists controlled the entire provincial and municipal governmental apparatus.

The tragic dinouement of the politics of nativism came on the evening of May 30, 1834, when several nativists led the national-guard troops, who were quickly joined by vagrants, artisans, and other elements of the urban poor, in an assault on the homes and shops of the Portuguese-born residents of Cuiabai. The precipitating incident was a rumor that masked Adotivos had attempted to assassinate two officers of the national guard.73 The rioters demanded that all Adotivos under the age of sixty be expelled from the province within twenty-four hours.74 Although the administrative council accepted this demand, the nativists proceeded with a system- atic elimination of their opponents. The insurgents remained in com-

69 Ata of administrative council, Cuiabi, May 10, 1834, published in "Documentos sobre a Rusga," 171.

70 AN-SM, pasta IG1 260: Euzebio Luiz de Britto to Jose Manoel Alves Ferreira, Cui- abs, June 15, 1834, accompanying Joaquim Jose de Almeida to Antero Jose Ferreira de Brito, Mato Gross, July 26, 1834. The letter is published in "Centenario da 'Rusga,' " 149- 152.

71 IHGB-A, lata 168, doc. 8: "Manifesto dos acontecimentos," Ms, fl. 2. 72 Atas of administrative council, Cuiabi, May 24 and 26, 1834, published in "Documen-

tos sobre a Rusga," 172-173. 73 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 497: Poupino to Alencastro, Cuiabi, June 16, 1834, accompanying

Jose Rodrigues Jardim to Chichorro da Gama, Goiis, July 14, 1834. AN-SM, pasta IG1 260: Britto to Alves Ferreira, Cuiabai, June 15, 1834, accompanying Almeida to Ferreira de Brito, Mato Grosso, July 26, 1834.

74 Ata of administrative council, Cuiabai, May 30, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rus- ga,' " 147-148.



mand of the capital and much of the province for three months, during which time they murdered thirty Adotivos and three Brazilians and committed numerous other crimes, including rape, robbery, and extor- tion.75

Once the uprising began, Poupino shrank from the violence of the riot- ing mob. As vice-president he fronted for the nativist leaders for three months, but ultimately he betrayed them to the new provincial president, Ant6nio Pedro de Alencastro. By the beginning of November, the nativist leadership and hordes were dispersed, in hiding or in jail. Except for brief periods of imprisonment, none of the principal nativists was ever punished by the authorities. Poupino, however, was assassinated in 1837, apparently because of his betrayal of his former comrades. All of the rioters condemned to capital punishment managed to escape from the Mato Grosso jail and flee to Bolivia, so that not a single person was executed for having participated in the murders of May-September 1834. A few soldiers and vagrants sentenced to forced labor paid by themselves the debt owed to the victims of the politics of nativism.76

IV. The abdication of Pedro I was the first link in the chain of events lead-

ing to the bloody catharsis of 1834. Verbal abuse, discrimination, and violence manifested the long-standing hatred of the Portuguese-born. Luso- phobia furnished a simple explanation for the economic and political uncertainties of the day. Although Lusophobia appealed to individuals from various social stations, the soldiers were particularly receptive. The miserable troops of Mato Grosso found in the Adotivo a scapegoat for their grievances, and their insurrections contributed to the tension.

But in 1833 what had begun as ethnic prejudice became a political movement: Lusophobia yielded nativism. Outsiders like Patricio Manso and Paschoal Domingues de Miranda joined discontented locals to chal- lenge the wealthy merchants and landowners who had dominated Cuiabk since the colonial era. The challengers sought political control of the

75 CD-DA-SH, 1835, amarrado D, mago 2, pasta 4: Alencastro to Oliveira Coutinho (No. 8), Cuiabai, Oct. 31, 1834. [Leverger], "Apontamentos cronol6gicos," 350, also gives thirty-three as the total number of victims. A cross-check of all the names mentioned in the documents substantiates this figure. Other authors have suggested that the dead numbered in the hundreds, explaining away lesser estimates as the attempt of contemporaries to conceal the extent of the massacre. See Taunay, "A cidade de Matto-Grosso," 99; and Oc- taviano Cabral, Histdrias de uma Reginio (Mato Grosso, Fronteira Brasil-Bolivia e Rond6nia) (Niteroi, 1963), 123.

76Concerning the Rusga and its aftermath, see Ron L. Seckinger, "Politics in Mato Grosso, 1821-1851" (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Florida, 1970), 162-194; and Correa Filho, Histdria de Mato Grosso, 485-496.



province and the power, prestige, and financial opportunity that public office offered. Fear of a restorationist coup, combined with traditional anti-Portuguese sentiment, supplied an ideology that justified a struggle against the incumbent leadership, and the Regency's alarums of a Cara- muru plot gave a quasi-official sanction to nativist agitation. Brazilian- born members of the elite could be tarred with the same brush as the Por- tuguese, and thus the nativists could dispute the loyalty of the entire traditional elite. The Society of the Zealots of Independence provided a formal organization for mobilizing popular support and for disseminat- ing nativist propaganda. Real or rumored acts of violence by Adotivos precipitated the uprising of May 30.77

The shock troops of the Rusga came from the soldiers, the poor, and the drifters of Cuiabi, eager to vent their frustrations on the Adotivos, convenient symbols of the privileges of wealth and class. Riot and pillage offered the urban poor an occasion, albeit a brief one, to break out of the narrow circle of their misery and to register their discontent by the only means available.7" Approximately 109 persons were charged with crimes apparently connected with the nativist uprising in Cuiabai and in subsequent outbreaks in Diamantino and Miranda; eleven of these may be classified as leaders. Personal information concerning the remaining nine- ty-eight is spotty, but suggests that the rioters were of the poorer class- es. The documents identify ten artisans, ten soldiers, three soldier-artisans, and four women; seven of the soldiers were periquitos exiled from Bahia. The other rioters were presumably vagrants or other marginal types. For- ty-seven persons are listed as being of mixed racial origin (pardos, cabras, caboclos, caburis), twenty-three as whites, and nine as Negroes (of whom only one, apparently, was a slave). Most were natives of Mato Grosso; at least nine were from Bahia, and one was Italian-born. Their ages ranged from nineteen to sixty.79

77 The process by which prejudice led to violence in Mato Grosso closely followed the sequence described by Gordon Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (abridged ed.; Garden City, N.Y., 1958), 57-58.

78 For parallels with mass violence in Europe, see George Rud', The Crowd in His- tory. A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730-1848 (New York, 1964) and Paris and London in the Eighteenth Century. Studies in Popular Protest (New York, 1971); and Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels, chap. 7, "The City Mob."

79 No exact listing of the rebels has been located, but cross-checking of archival sources yielded 109 names. This total may be incomplete, or it may be slightly inflated due to a lack of clarity in the lists. The major documents are as follows: AN-SM, pasta IJ1 918: List of persons under prosecution, Cuiabai, Oct. 23, 1834, accompanying Alencastro to Oliveira Coutinho, Cuiabi, Nov. 4, 1834; "Mappa demonstrativo dos Reos pronunciados neste 1" Destricto do Termo da Villa do Diamantino, durante o ultimo Trimestre de 1834," Ms, Dec. 18, 1834, and list of persons under prosecution, Cuiabai, Dec. 30, 1834, accompanying Alencastro to Oliveira Coutinho (No. 20), Cuiabi, Jan. 5, 1835; "Rellagqo



Mato Grosso historians frequently absolve the nativist leaders of re- sponsibility for the excesses of the Rusga, suggesting that the leaders desired only the expulsion of the Adotivos but lost control of the hordes that had been aroused by nativist propaganda. These historians demon- strate, quite correctly, that the phenomenon of Lusophobia was wide- spread in Brazil; but some of them also argue that the Rusga was actually the work of outsiders like Manso and the Bahian periquitos.s0 In view of the documented participation in the Rusga by the local nativists-notably Caetano da Silva e Albuquerque and Caetano Xavier da Silva Pereira- such absolution seems unwarranted.81 The nativists apparently pre- ferred a more definitive elimination of the Portuguese than mere expulsion.

In their goal of overturning the traditional elite, the nativists were eminently successful, for the Rusga occasioned substantial alterations in the leadership of the province. The Portuguese-born merchants, landowners, and military officers who had exercised tremendous economic and political influence in Cuiabai prior to 1834 were, for the most part, eliminated from politics. Even those who survived the bloodshed were reluc- ant to enter the political maelstorm again. Jer6nimo Joaquim Nunes, for example, retired to his fazenda following the alleged conspiracy of No- vember 1833; he resumed his duties as commander-of-arms in 1836, but never again held civil posts or participated in politics."2 The Portu- guese families who had fled to Goiis when the uprising began did not be- gin to return to Cuiabai until November 1835, more than a year after the nativists were scattered."3 Another three years passed before the surviving Portuguese and their families were reintegrated into the social life of

dos individuos que forio Pronunciados por este Juizo de Paz do lo Districto da Cidade de Cuyabai no primeiro trimeste do anno de 1835," Ms, Mar. 31, 1835, accompanying Alen- castro to Manoel Alves Branco (No. 41), Cuiabi, Apr. 26, 1835. APEMT, caixa 1836: "Rellaqio dos Prezos que Existem na Emdiovia Poblica desta Cidade," Ms, Cuiabi, Feb. 16, 1836. APEMT, caixa 1837: "Mappa dos Criminozos Sentenciados pelo Tribunal do Jury desta Capital," Ms, Cuiabai, Sept. 30, 1837.

80Philog6nio Correa, "A significaSqo da rusga," RIHMT, Ano XVI, Tomos 31-32 (1934), 20; Firmo Rodrigues, "O elemento portugues na capitania de Matto Grosso," ibid., 56; and Jose de Mesquita, "Espirito matogrossense," Cultura Politica, II, No. 13 (Mar. 1942), 63. Mendonqa, O Tigre de Cuiabd, 42, blames the uprising on the climate of fear created by the Regency's warning of a plot to restore Pedro I to the throne.

81s The major sources for reconstructing the role of the nativist leadership are the depositions in "Inquerito," Oct. 10, 1834, published in "Centenario da 'Rusga.' "1

82 Joio Barbosa de Faria, "Apontamentos para a biographia do Brigadeiro Jeronymo Joaquim Nunes," RIHMT, Ano XII, Tomos 23-24 (1930), 8.

83 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 506: Alencastro to Silva e Souza (Nos. 78 and 83), Cuiabi, Nov. 2 and 20, 1835.



the capital, for only in 1838 did they consent to attend public celebrations again."4

Many of the Brazilian-born members of the elite also fell from power. Gaudie retired from public office at the provincial level, contenting himself with a seat on the Cuiabai municipal council. Poupino survived only for another three years. Correa da Costa, although continuing to hold administrative posts, including two subsequent terms as provincial vice-president, no longer commanded much respect or power.s5

But the nativist counter-elite did not fill the power vacuum. The principal leaders, Manso and Paschoal Miranda, never returned to Mato Gros- so. Lesser figures, such as Caetano da Silva e Albuquerque, Braz Pereira Mendes, and Felippe Manoel de Araijo, disappeared from view. Euzebio Luiz de Britto was among those who escaped to Bolivia. With both elite and counter-elite eliminated or crippled, Cuiabai lost the leadership of the province to the town of Pocon&. Manoel Alves Ribeiro, a merchant and cattleman whose Pocone-based clan became the nucleus of the Liberal party in Mato Grosso, was the most powerful man in the province from about 1838 until his death in 1852. In the rise of Alves the nativists won a partial victory, for two of their number-Caetano Xavier da Silva Pereira and Alves's brother Jose Alves Ribeiro-emerged as pillars of the Liberal party. The merchant-planter families of Cuiabai, on the other hand, formed the core of the Conservative party in Mato Grosso; thus, the political divisions of the nativist period endured for many years after the Rusga.86

The rhetoric of the participants has obscured the significance of the period of nativist agitation. Each faction sought to identify the other with a political ideology repugnant to the imperial government and to the in- habitants of Mato Grosso. The nativists tagged Gaudie and others as Cara- murus, although no evidence exists to indicate that any of them desired the restoration of Pedro I. Likewise, Gaudie called his opponents exalta- dos, or crypto-republicans.s7 After the uprising Manso and seven other nativists were charged as "Authors of the Republican System," but no proof was offered." Both factions appear to have taken the national

84 AN-SM, pasta IJJ9 506: Estiv^o Ribeiro de Rezende to Bernardo Pereira de Vas- concellos (No. 57), Cuiabi, Dec. 5, 1838.

85 Seckinger, "Politics in Mato Grosso," 191-192. 86 Ibid., 178-266, passim. See also Jos6 de Mesquita, "Manoel Alves Ribeiro (Ensaio biographico)," RIHMT, Ano XX, Nos. 39-40 (1938), 3-32.

.s AN-SM, pasta IJJ:I 505: Gaudie to Vergueiro (No. 12), Cuiabi, Apr. 27, 1833.

88AN-SM, pasta IJ1 918: "Rellagio dos individuos que forio Pronunciados por este Juizo de Paz do 10 Districto da Cidade de Cuyabai no primeiro trimeste do anno de 1835," Ms, Mar. 31, 1835, accompanying Alencastro to Branco (No. 41), Cuiabai, Apr. 26,



political system for granted and to have attempted to work within the established framework rather than to subvert it. The politics of nativism in Mato Grosso fed on old hatreds between two distinct ethnic or cultural groups. But the central issue was a power struggle in which an aggressive counter-elite sought to displace the old leadership of the province.

The use of ethnic prejudice to advance personal or group interests is by no means unique to Mato Grosso. Indeed, aggrandizement in one form or another may be considered an integral part of the concept of nativism as historians use the term.89 Where Brazil-and Mexico-differed was in the choice of victims. Brazilian nativism during the early nineteenth century did not strike at a newly arrived immigrant group totally isolated from the dominant culture, but at a minority that had enjoyed a privi- leged position in the colonial era and appeared to do so after independence. Thus, Brazilian nativism must be seen within the context of build- ing a new nation. The assault on the Portuguese-born extended the thrust of the independence movement and represented a rejection of a portion of Brazil's cultural heritage. Nativism gave expression to an emergent nationalism and aided in the definition of what it meant to be a "Brazil- ian."

RON L. SECKINGER University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

1835. Mendonea, Datas Matogrossenses, I, 251, states that Miranda "was a republican who accommodated himself to the monarchy, because he considered it an intermediate political form for the advent of the democratic regime." Mendonqa fails to substantiate this claim with evidence of any kind. None of the eight ever stood trial.

89 Note the following comment by Linton, "Nativistic Movements," 239: "Rational [as opposed to magical] nativistic movements can readily be converted into mechanisms for aggression."


Article Contentsp. 393p. 394p. 395p. 396p. 397p. 398p. 399p. 400p. 401p. 402p. 403p. 404p. 405p. 406p. 407p. 408p. 409p. 410p. 411p. 412p. 413p. 414p. 415p. 416

Issue Table of ContentsThe Americas, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Apr., 1975), pp. 393-560Volume Information [pp. 539-559]Front MatterThe Politics of Nativism: Ethnic Prejudice and Political Power in Mato Grosso, 1831-1834 [pp. 393-416]The Political Economy of Paraguay and the Impoverishment of the Missions [pp. 417-433]Juan Gins de Seplveda on the Nature of the American Indians [pp. 434-451]Mexican Political Elites 1935-1973: A Comparative Study [pp. 452-469]A Matter of Faith: North America's Religion and South America's Independence [pp. 470-487]The State of Scientific Inquiry in Colonial Spanish America during the Enlightenment: A Preliminary Bibliography [pp. 488-500]Two Kentuckians Evaluate the Mexican Scene from Vera Cruz, 1853-1861 [pp. 501-512]Inter-American Notes [pp. 513-524]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 525-526]Review: untitled [pp. 526-527]Review: untitled [pp. 527-528]Review: untitled [pp. 529-530]Review: untitled [pp. 530-531]Review: untitled [pp. 531-532]Review: untitled [pp. 533-534]Review: untitled [pp. 534-535]Review: untitled [pp. 535-536]Review: untitled [pp. 536-537]Review: untitled [pp. 537-538]

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