Sovereignty, State Powers and Provincial Autonomy at the Time of the 1823 Constituent Assembly: “Liberal-moderate” Conceptions in Miguel do Sacramento Lopes and José Bernardino Batista Pereira d’Almeida

Abstract

This article evaluates conceptions of the State presented between 1822 and 1823, with characteristics which, later on, after the political reopening of 1826, acquired visibility as those of the so-called “liberal-moderates”. Blurred at the time of the Constituent Assembly by the antagonism between the positions deemed to be “liberal-radical” and “aulic”, their recovery contributes to the reconstitution of the mosaic of positions presented from then on for the construction of the national State. In order to do so, I comparatively approach the conceptions developed in the periodical O Conciliador Nacional, by Miguel do Sacramento Lopes, from Pernambuco, and in the books of José Bernardino Batista Pereira d’Almeida, from Espírito Santo.