Brazilian emancipation and principles of good education in the capital of Brazil (1827 - 1839) ^{2 3 4}

Abstract

Studies on periodicals have demonstrated the power of this documentation as a political device in the correlation of forces between private and economic interests, in the transformations of public spaces. Accordingly, based on the theoretical-methodological perspective of the rigor of historical research and on the theoretical frameworks of “Imagined Community” and “Intellectual Mediator,” this work aimed to understand the motivations of the editors of the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense (1827–1839) to publish articles on education and public instruction on the pages of that periodical. We considered that the writers of that periodical aimed to communicate what they understood as truths as to the development of “public spirit” and potential patriots.

Keywords
Periodical Press; Political education; Aurora Fluminense

Resumo

Os estudos sobre os periódicos têm demonstrado a potência dessa documentação como dispositivo político na correlação de forças entre interesses privados e econômicos, nas transformações dos espaços públicos. Nesse sentido, ancorado na perspectiva teórico-metodológica do rigor da pesquisa histórica e nos marcos teóricos de “Comunidade Imaginada” e de “intelectual mediador”, o objetivo deste trabalho é compreender as motivações dos redatores do jornal A Aurora Fluminense (1827–1839) a publicarem artigos sobre educação e instrução pública nas páginas desse periódico. Considerou-se que os redatores do periódico em exame visavam comunicar o que entendiam como verdades acerca da formação do “espírito público” e de potenciais patriotas.

Palavras-chave
imprensa periódica; educação política; Aurora Fluminense

Introduction

In order to think about Brazil, shortly after independence (1822), politicians, intellectuals and educators interested in the issue of education dedicated themselves to writing on political education, publishing ideas and proposals in printed materials circulating in the Imperial Court. In this context, this work aims to research the debates present in the pages of the periodical A Aurora Fluminense, in order to examine motivations and conceptions advocated by Evaristo da Veiga (1799–1837) — intellectual mediator and main editor of the aforementioned periodical — on political education. Based on the epistemological foundations of the concepts of “Imagined Community” (Anderson, 2008), “intellectual mediator” (Gomes & Hanse, 2016), on the debates about the transformations of public spaces (Morel, 2005) and on the rigor of historical research, the hypothesis to be tested is that the periodical under examination was an editorial device, of a political nature, used by Evaristo da Veiga to disseminate his thought on the limits of intervention of the forming Imperial State in the lives of the various social actors.

Accordingly, I intend to reflect on the notion of political education, present in the pages of Aurora Fluminense, and of intellectual mediator, proposed by Gomes and Hanse (2016). Thus, I appropriate the printed word in newspaper format in its materiality by investigating the actions of Evaristo da Veiga. I try to demonstrate the time and to what extent this journalist expanded his participation in the select Brazilian publishing market – from bookseller to journalist – and, in doing so, he strove to upset the balance of power of the constituted authorities. To this end, he informed the reading public of some of the ideals he advocated: fighting for a free press and defending the Constitution through popular dissemination of an emancipatory and conciliatory political education.

Evaristo da Veiga and the periodical A Aurora Fluminense

Each event is always a moment, a unique and incomparable point in time, which only reveals its value if it refers to a more general movement – the process woven by the narrative –, which reserves a place for it, marks a quality and confers a meaning.

(Mattos, 1989, p. 163, our translation)

I approach the quote of Ilmar Mattos (1989) for understanding that it is only possible to understand the notion of political education present in the pages of A Aurora Fluminense by weaving the historical narrative that includes the central character: Evaristo da Veiga (1799–1837), considered in this reflection as intellectual mediator. Evaristo da Veiga was born on October 8, 1799 in Rio de Janeiro, then Imperial Court, and lived a short life spanning 38 years. Son of Francisco Luís Saturnino Veiga, a Portuguese man who arrived in Brazil at the age of 13, a militia soldier⁵ in the parish of Santa Rita, in Rio de Janeiro, later appointed royal teacher of first letters in the parish of São Francisco Xavier do Engenho Velho, Evaristo lived his childhood and youth in Colonial Brazil and, as an adult, in independent Brazil. During his student life in Rio de Janeiro, he learned French, Latin and English, took classes in rhetoric and poetics, and studied philosophy. During this period, he acquired an interest in journalism by visiting the workshops of Impressão Régia⁶ in the basements of the palace of the Count of Barca (Sousa, 2015).

When he finished his studies, his father had already opened a bookstore on Alfândega street, the central street of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the books he brought from Europe had Evaristo as the first reader, the most curious one. His frustrated project of leaving for the University of Coimbra found compensation in his father’s bookstore⁷. Among the ideals he struggle for, the issue of national unity was a striking presence. The vital interests of the people: fostering industry, sanitizing almost uninhabitable areas, and disseminating public education were also on his agenda of claims (Ramos, 2010). He was also one of the founders of Sociedade Amante da Instrução [Instruction Loving Society]⁸ and Sociedade de Instrução Elementar [Society of Elementary Instruction]. In addition, other spaces were hubs of his daily activity, such as the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense – object of this reflection – and the tribune of the Chamber as Deputy for Minas Gerais from 1830, and he was re-elected until his early death in 1837.

In addition to the above mentioned spaces is the Society Defender of National Freedom and Independence, installed in Rio de Janeiro in 1831, shortly after the departure of D. Pedro I to Portugal. According to his biographer (Sousa, 2015), this space would be another instrument of order, social discipline and political guidance. And the biographer goes on to say that Evaristo

marks a new generation, the one that takes the lead after the farewell of Dom Pedro I on April 7; the generation of “moderate liberals, those who engaged in a hard fight between the “restorers” or “caramurus,” who called for the return of the monarch in struggle in Portugal, and the “exalted” and “republicans,” who advanced to the Roussean daydreams or even to the imitation of the neighbors with the republican ideas. Desiring a constitutional monarchy, the “moderates” crossed the regency and were largely responsible for maintaining national unity, carrying out institutional advances and consolidating the political elite of the Second Reign. Journalist of A Aurora Fluminense, Veiga was a reference for them. Author of the Hymn of Independence, he was always guided by moderation; such that temperance was his distinguishing feature when the tensions of a country in the making intensified. He was the centered head, contributing more than anyone else for the consolidation of liberal opinion in the country.

(Sousa, 2015)⁹

These professional experiences would have been essential for Evaristo to become the main Editor of the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense in 1828. According to Alves (2010),

Veiga is credited with the position that the newspaper soon assumed, claiming a central position for the Chamber of Deputies in the political scene of the Empire. Having as ideal the English parliamentary regime, the newspaper’s aim was that this house of legislative power had the same role played by the House of Commons in England. Evaristo da Veiga advocated the thesis that ministers should be accountable for their actions not only to the Emperor, as provided for in the text of the Constitution of 1824, but also to deputies. In addition, he argued that the formation of ministerial offices should consider the majority composition of the Chamber of Deputies, in order for them to work in concert. His ideas would lead to a “parliamentarization” of the regime instituted by the Constitution of 1824, contrary to one of the primary attributions of the moderating power, which provided that only the emperor was responsible for the appointment and dismissal of ministers.

(Alves, 2010, p. 6, our translation).

By opposing the constitutional monarchy, Evaristo sought political and social responses to the challenges presented by the newly emancipated Nation. Regarding the Constitution of 1824, it is worth noting that it established the bases of the political structure, of the functioning of the Brazilian empire and of its main institutions, such as the adoption of the monarchical, hereditary and constitutional form of government. In addition to the separation of political power into four instances: Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and Moderating Branches, “master key of all political organization” exercised by the emperor (Grinberg, 2002).

It is also important to note the several revolts that broke out across Brazilian territory, the issues surrounding the historical moment in which the Prince Regent decided to stay in Brazil after the population’s request; as well as the departure of D. Pedro I to Portugal, the Regencies and the coming of age of D. Pedro II as part of the context motivating Evaristo’s activity¹⁰.

In this article, I will highlight only the social responses related, according to Evaristo, to the need to disseminate conciliatory and emancipatory political education in a context of incipient development of educational policy. It is important to emphasize that historians of Brazilian education, in the period in question, “have underlined the processes of constitution of the school form of education, implemented throughout the nineteenth century, amid disputes and tensions, associated with nation projects and the formation of the Brazilian State” (Gondra & Schueler, 2008, p. 19, our translation).

In this context, the first General Education Law was implemented in the country, which had just been promulgated on October 15, 1827. Regarding higher education, Evaristo was aware of the existence of the University of Coimbra, which he had not been able to attend. As for Brazilian cultural movements, Evaristo observed them in full effervescence through two law schools founded by D. Pedro I also in 1827, the Colleges of Olinda and São Paulo. In addition, the reformulation of medical schools in 1830 and, in 1837, the foundation of Colégio de Pedro II, a secondary education institution. In 1838 – a year after his early death – Evaristo would not witness the formation of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB), bringing together, according to Schwarcz (1998), the Rio economic and literary elite.

In this milieu, journalist Evaristo da Veiga had the exact dimension of the importance of his newspaper as a space to share information about his political positions/options, which was evident to the attentive reader of the periodic newspaper at the exact moment when Evaristo da Veiga defined the political nature of the periodical A Aurora Fluminense. Alongside Apolinário Pereira de Morais (1808–1833), José Francisco Xavier Sigaud (1796–1856) and Francisco Crispiniano Valdetaro (1805–1862), Evaristo da Veiga founded the periodical newspaper A Aurora Fluminense in 1827, as mentioned above. The general plan of the periodical is presented to us through printed word in issue No. 1, of December 21, 1827. The quote is long, but worth reading:

The plan of this periodical newspaper, which, due to the tender memory of our independence and the great services that the capital of the empire has rendered it, we have entitled – Aurora Fluminense – will conform to the plans adopted in many newspapers, both in America and Europe. The newspaper will consist of three sections, namely National, Foreign, and Varieties. The first section will contain two parts; one will be dedicated to the controversy about the issues that interest the Nation in the exercise of its constitutional rights; the other will consist of news from Brazil, worthy of fixing the attention of readers, capable of providing true information about the country and inspiring in foreigners an advantageous idea about this part of America. The second section will exhibit foreign news. Finally, the third section will contain the correspondences that our fellow citizens are pleased to send us, analyses of interesting works, literary or political texts, national anthems, and all fragments of literature which other journals ordinarily include in the article Varieties.

We, animated by the love of the Motherland, and possessing a holy respect for the Constitution and for the Sovereign, who swore it with us, having in us no other passion than that for the public good, will not follow in the footsteps of those who, by the effect of ambitious or venal passions, alternately make liberty their idol, or a monster of their enmity. The Brazilian youth does not follow the lessons of some of those who preceded them; on the contrary, they must always show to be docile to the voice of reason, and deaf to the specious seductions of intrigue, which in this beauteous and blissful part of the world undermines all useful enterprises, represses the drive of generous hearts, and only applauds and celebrates the abuses of which they are the driving principle. It is our morality not to capitulate with some abuse, not to excuse, not to spare some injustice; and however powerful the attraction of arbitrariness may be, it is the sacred duty of the writer, a man of good and honor, to attack it without ado, just as it is also without fear that he must defend from misfortune, however oppressed and full of reproach it may be.

Such are the principles, and such is the profession of faith of those who have assumed the head of this literary enterprise. The freedom of the press, which is proclaimed in Brazil, is the powerful weapon that our still young and weak hands must learn to handle with dexterity, to fight against despotism and against absolute government. Therefore, let us work to consolidate the alliance between the People and the Sovereign, let us be courageous, persevering, and even importunate in demanding our guarantees; however, let us sternly defend ourselves from any and all spirit of faction and turbulence: this is how we will achieve complete victory over the enemies and detractors of our Homeland: by our love of order, and by our cult toward the Constitution, we will be able to give to our government a lasting existence, to our contemporaries an example of character, which for the future will assure us a distinguished place among the civilized Nations of the old and new continents.¹¹

Evaristo and the general plan of the newspaper: a well-known bookseller at the Imperial Court and, upon taking over as editor-in-chief of A Aurora Fluminense, ended up expanding his participation in the select publishing market. The newspaper was published at irregular intervals in the city of Rio de Janeiro from 1827 to 1839, with Evaristo da Veiga being the main editor from 1828 to 1835 (Table 1).

Table 1
Issues of the periodical newspaper A Aurora Fluminense – 1827–1835

Year	Number of issues
Total	1,134 issues
1827	63
1828	73
1829	149
1830	147
1831	147
1832	139
1833	161
1834	119
1835	136

• Source: Prepared by the author based on the Digital Newspaper and Periodicals Library of the National Library¹²

Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga, Diogo Antônio Feijó, Manuel Odorico Mendes and many others were, according to Sousa (2015), known supporters of a regime of freedom of the press, as well as of the convenience of a throne in guarantee of national unity (Sousa, 2015). Imbued with this thought, Evaristo – at the head of the newspaper – opposed the constitutional monarchical government in a very peculiar manner, in a period with an estimated population of nearly 200,000 inhabitants in Rio de Janeiro (Imperial Court), with a high rate of people who could not read or write. As reported in A Aurora Fluminense, in 1831, the newspaper had a total of 1,100 subscribers, a volume that, according to Basile (2004), was considered significant at the time. The newspaper itself, in issue No. 643 of 1832, informed readers that “the free population [of Rio de Janeiro] amounts to just over 5 million inhabitants, and perhaps slaves can be calculated at 2 million with a small difference.”

It is noted that Evaristo maintained a significant communication strategy between the different Brazilian provinces, dialoguing with a varied set of editors that Vieira (2019) considered as “journal producers¹³.” Evidence of the existence of this communication strategy is noticeable in research carried out in A Aurora Fluminense and in recent historiography.

Below, I present a fraction of these editors and the respective provinces in which they worked, aiming to strengthen this communication strategy. From the province of São Paulo: José da Costa Carvalho (1796-1860) and Libero Badaró (1798-1830); Baptista Caetano de Almeida (1797-1839) and Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos (1795-1850), from the province of Minas Gerais; Manuel Odorico Mendes (1799-1864), from the province of Maranhão; Antônio Borges da Fonseca (1808-1872), from the province of Paraíba; and Cipriano José Barata de Almeida (1762-1838), from the province of Pernambuco¹⁴.

What prompts us to think about this communication strategy formed by this set of “journal producers,” including Evaristo da Veiga, representative of the Imperial Court and editor of A Aurora Fluminense? Prevented, in theory, from communicating in person, the members of this communication strategy formed an imagined community, taking the periodicals as ideal technical means to represent this same imagined community (Anderson, 2008). With this strategy, the “journal producers” eternalized the yearnings of what they defended as the imagined ideal of a newly independent Brazil.

In this context characterized by political and institutional uncertainties, upheavals, changes (Vieira, 2019), slavery, and acute exploitation (Gondra & Schueler, 2008), it is observed the diffusion of enlightenment in the periodicals A Aurora Fluminense and O Observador Constitucional. In the first, according to Evaristo, the goals of education, whether in school or outside this space, would be to prepare the youth respectful of customs and good principles, and who cordially loved the work and dignity of an active and independent life¹⁵. In Líbero Badaró’s 1829 prospectus for O Observador Constitucional, the editor advocated education for the lower classes as “the only means for the constitutional system to be able to march more solidly with huge steps¹⁶.” In this regard, there are indications that in those pages were printed the objectives of a “good education,” transmuted into political education, a subject that I will address below.

Political education in the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense

Considering the 1,134 issues of A Aurora Fluminense, totaling 4,536 pages, how to enable research on articles that dealt specifically with education in that periodical? The research was organized into two stages: (i) search using keywords seeking to observe whether the word “education” appeared accompanied by the following terms: political, constitutional and school (Table 2); (ii) then, we proceeded to the reading of the articles where these keywords were located.

Table 2
A Aurora Fluminense – keywords – 1827–1838

Education	348
Political education	14
Constitutional education	7
School education	1

• Source: Prepared by the author based on A Aurora Fluminense

Of the 348 occurrences, education is referred to as “Political Education” in the following years: five occurrences in 1828, three in 1829, one in 1830, one in 1833, two in 1835, and two in 1838, totaling 14 references. Articles relating to political education are not signed. Were they written by anonymous authors or by the editor himself, that is, Evaristo da Veiga? There are indications that Evaristo da Veiga would be the author due to the conciliatory tone of the writing, as in the example extracted from the article that makes strong criticisms of the armed violence for political independence that was experienced in Spanish America, especially in Argentina. In relation to these conflicts, this is how the editor positioned himself:

No one is more convinced than we are of the advantages of the system because we are happily governed; no one recognizes more than we do all the danger of violent transitions, and of the difficulty that lies in planting the true Republican Government among peoples, debased by Despotism, and without any political education. We shall never call free and happy States those in which parties succeed each other and slit each other’s throats.¹⁷

The excerpt shows the editor of A Aurora Fluminense in a rhetoric almost reconciled with the political regime of a newly installed representative monarchy in Brazil, were it not for the problems of non-respect for the Brazilian Constitution – including by constituted authorities.

In the context of the 1830s, in A Aurora Fluminense, a newspaper that had a major influence on the events of the time, Evaristo da Veiga led the political and societal movement against D. Pedro I, who, for not resisting the domestic and foreign political pressure, abdicated the Brazilian throne on April 13, 1831. With the abdication, the First Reign was founded, beginning the Regency Period (Bandechi & Arroyo, 1970). As a combatant against the current order, it will be in A Aurora Fluminense that Evaristo’s political star would begin to shine. According to Lúcia Guimarães (2002),

His articles were distinguished by the uncompromising defense of constitutionalism, of the representative system, and of press freedom, while censoring the authoritarian practices of the government of D. Pedro I. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies by Minas Gerais in 1830, joined the oppositionist bench, where he had a prominent role, alongside Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos, Honorio Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Paula Souza e Melo, Father José Custódio Dias and other liberals.

(p. 247, our translation)

Thus, even before his election as Deputy in the 1830s, Evaristo oriented public opinion through articles published in A Aurora Fluminense. This orientation involved what was understood as subjects that were present in the main articles published on the newspaper, such as those dealing with politics and education.

With regard to political education in issue No. 034 of 1828, the newspaper published news about the progress of education in Minas Gerais and São Paulo. The editor of A Aurora Fluminense informed that, in Minas Gerais, in the city of São João del-Rei, there was a public bookstore that had a “good collection of the best authors of public law and philosophy.” In that space, the newspaper added, Mr. Baptista Caetano de Almeida (1797-1839) would have promoted the political education of that people. Similar action would occur in São Paulo under the responsibility of the politician and journalist Mr. Jose da Costa Carvalho (1796-1860)¹⁸. At that time, the argument that prevailed in that article was that political education would fulfill the mission of making its readers aware that there was an unequal possession of Brazilian riches.

In the same year of 1828, in news of the opening of the works of the 3rd Session of the Legislative Assembly of that year, the newspaper editor informed the reading public of the advances observed by him in the short space of seven years in which a new country had emerged. From a country “without rights, without laws, without public spirit, without national representation” to the sensible progress being made in political education, civilization and administrative system¹⁹. The defense of patriotism was the keynote of the editor’s text and its practice required sacrifices. What sacrifices? That the spirit of class should yield to the love of the general good. Such a choice of life would awaken a majestic social movement that would trigger love for the Motherland and the Constitution.

In this case, especially under the discourse of absence – a country “without rights, without laws, without public spirit, without national representation” – the editor of A Aurora Fluminense forged his understanding of political education: that is, one that would have as its primary function developing in individuals a strong love for the homeland to the detriment of love for oneself.

From the year 1829, we read in issue number 142 that “the republican regimes recently instituted in Spanish America after the revolutionary movements made possible the victory and political emancipation of Argentina (1816) and Colombia (1819).” On this political issue, Evaristo positioned himself as follows:

We shall never call free and happy states those in which parties succeed each other, and slit each other’s throats; in which the sword of St. Martin, of O’Higgins or of Bolívar commands more than the Law, and where they will still not be able to establish institutions that achieve individual security and public order.²⁰

Evaristo continued to state to his readership that such tensions would result from the total absence of “political education,” as observed in the same year of 1829, in issue number 162, in which we read that “good education is to position oneself with moderation” and that “education would be the only means of regenerating a people²¹.” It can be seen that education for peace and civility was present in the fragments of the two articles mentioned above.

In the following year, the newspaper denounced the misuse of public resources for payment to the representative of Brazil in the United States, whose work carried out by “Mr. José Silvestre Rebello” was “to direct the construction of the Izabel and Príncipe Imperial Frigates²².” The newspaper claimed that, despite the “advances in political education in the last four years,” the aforementioned representative of the Brazilian Crown in the United States had not been intimidated from appropriating public money. This time, political education arises as being capable of character improvement.

In the context in which Evaristo presents to us the multiple possibilities that in his political education project subsists the idea that the solution to establish a “culture” of respect for the Constitution also involved school education. In this sense, Evaristo called for the need for public instruction to be comprehensive, that is, stripped of scholastic subtleties.

The subject of political education appeared again in the pages of A Aurora Fluminense in 1838. At that time, Evaristo da Veiga had died a year prior. In issue 15, of June 6 of that same year, under the title “Materialist and rational politics” — the only article with a title that referred to political education —, the tone remains similar to previous years: criticism of the work of politicians who were part of the governmental power. To inform the reader that the politics practiced in the country was that of the politicians’ own interests, the editor quotes the French philosopher Montesquieu (1689-1755) about despotism: “when the savages of Louisiana want fruit, they cut the tree by the foot to harvest it.” In other words, it was a materialistic politics. Rational politics, by definition, would be the opposite of what had been practiced until that moment; it would be the politics of denaturalization of the slave trade which, according to the newspaper, was the most degrading example of materialist politics and acutely affected the morals of the people, whose system, in addition to absolving it, also justified it.

Where would be the change in the way of doing politics and being a politician in Brazil? The exercise of rational politics would depend on the modernization of justice and its relation with the jury, which would have not yet established roots in the soil of the country. Alongside this finding, the newspaper presented the solution to the problem: the need to promote political education in society as a sine qua non condition for the crimes committed by politicians to be penalized. Recent historiography addresses the issue of the formation of the Board of Judges as an important space for the exercise of political citizenship. As an example, I refer to the studies of Carvalho (1996). According to this author,

In the Constitution of 1824, the Judicial Branch was composed, both in crime and in civil matters, of judges and jurors. Being a juror, therefore, meant participating directly in the exercise of judicial power, participation more frequent and more intense, for those summoned, than that represented by the exercise of the vote. More frequent because the boards of jurors met at least twice a year and the sessions lasted fifteen days, or as necessary for the judgment of pending cases. More intense because there is no way to compare the quick act of voting with the time-consuming exposure to the laws and judicial procedures required by the exercise of the juror function. In the latter, contact with the State was deeper and it can reasonably be assumed that the resulting political socialization would also be more effective. In addition to being a political right, to be a juror was to be part of an institution that was from the beginning a stronghold of the defense of political and civil rights.

(Carvalho, 1996, p. 341, our translation)

In view of the above, it was no coincidence that the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense problematized exactly this issue by signaling the need for greater care in the selection of jurors, preferably those enlightened by education (political, moral and religious). As they had been granted access to the “lights of the century,” would those jurors have the necessary conditions to judge the offending politicians when necessary? The newspaper indicated that they did not have the necessary conditions, despite fulfilling the prerequisites, that is, knowing how to read and write. In this conjuncture, A Aurora Fluminense projected the solution of the problem through the organization of effective political education in conjunction with another form of government.

Final considerations

In this analysis, I considered the events and reflections of the period present in A Aurora Fluminense. By expanding his space of work, that is, as bookseller and journalist, what happened to Evaristo da Veiga? As a bookseller and journalist, he ensured his subsistence and that of his family, and his sociability network would probably be more restricted to Rio de Janeiro. In the exercise of journalism, in addition to creating, in A Aurora Fluminense, a space and place to advocate his political positions, he assumed the political nature of his newspaper and, thus, ended up building a wider sociability network. In view of this, and by extension, he broadened his horizon of possibilities in convincing more people about what he aspired for Brazil. How? As a politician, he accumulated experience in this field, which he leveraged during the management of A Aurora Fluminense. In the newspaper, he gathered a set of information about events in different places in Brazil and abroad. In the Societies in which he participated as a philanthropist, he also expanded his social coexistence. With this strategy, he was able to present to his readership the diversity of realities imagined through the circulation of himself and of the newspaper itself. Thus, he may have fostered cooperation between authors/readers by establishing the alliance between the press and education, and ended up creating conditions to gather allies who also defended the order and unification of the young Nation that was being formed.

However, at that historical time, Brazil was an open field of seditions around the formation of the main pillars supporting the Imperial State: legal power (consolidation and respect for the Constitution) and organization of the educational field, mainly. A new subjectivity should be shaped: the future citizen, new artistic sensibilities, new bodies, new homes, new feelings and desires (Ramos, 2010). Printed word should function as an important editorial device for disseminating these multiple novelties, and the press itself was a technological modernity that had recently been installed on Brazilian soil. Evaristo recognized this modern condition of the press by referring to this technology when he stated that the nineteenth century was “the century of paper.”

At this point, I return to the question motivating this reflection: was political education a necessity of other times? The answer to this question leads us to other questions. Evaristo da Veiga, in advocating the popular dissemination of “political education,” did so by mentioning problems that, according to his understanding, would be solved with education, such as “the freedom of the citizen vote.” However, we know that in the period there was an intense debate around the definition of the electorate and by extension of political citizenship. The constituents of 1823 established the conditions that defined the Brazilian citizen as the distinction between active citizens and passive citizens. Active citizens would have political and civil rights, and passive citizens would have civil but not political rights. The difference between these two categories would be exercised through voting, which, in turn, was related to ownership, which in fact became the foundation of citizenship (Carvalho, 1996).

Evaristo da Veiga owned a bookstore and a newspaper. Therefore, would political education be directed only to the owning portion of the population with right to electoral participation? As per the Constitution of 1824 – in addition to what was mentioned – the right to vote in primary elections required a minimum age of 25 years, except for married men, military officers, bachelors and clergy (for whom the minimum age required was 21 years). There were no restrictions as to the level of education, that is, the illiterate could vote, as well as freed slaves. Voting was mandatory (Carvalho, 1996).

This legislative provision motivates one more question: Did Evaristo direct criticism at his peers, who probably controlled their voters through some kind of dependence, or did he have an expanded view of citizenship? José Murilo de Carvalho (1996), taking the example of José Antônio Pimenta Bueno (1803–1878) – the Marquis of São Vicente and main commentator on the Constitution of 1824 – states that:

Pimenta Bueno saw in active citizenship much more than the right to vote and be voted. According to him, a political citizen, or active citizen, was one who could participate in the exercise of power of the three branches, who could exercise the political press, form political organizations, submit complaints and petitions to the government…. It can even be added as a political right what the author calls civil right, namely, the right, guaranteed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1832, to resist the illegal action of the authorities

(Carvalho, 1996, p. 340, emphasis added).

In his time, Evaristo realized that the impact of the expansion of the Imperial State on the lives of citizens would be negative, especially on issues of non-respect of the constitution. His weapon of choice was the word printed on A Aurora Fluminense. Thus, the maintenance of order through obedience to the laws would happen through peaceful convincing, that is, through education, which also interested him as the politician he was for seven years of his life.

I also consider that commercial intentionalities were present in Evaristo’s life since he owned a bookstore and the newspaper A Aurora Fluminense. However, the greatest value of A Aurora Fluminense was symbolic, that is, that of asserting itself as a political press through the rhetorical force of Evaristo da Veiga, who maneuvered it as a tool for conciliatory struggle against the established order. In a Brazil with multiple imagined realities, it can be inferred that Evaristo turned his newspaper into an editorial device to mediate his beliefs, in which political education would play an important role for the construction of emancipated thought, woven through the dissemination of the so-called “political education” as per the standards of the editor of A Aurora Fluminense.

If we understand the signifiers “education” and “politics” as defined in the Dictionary of the Brazilian Language of 1832 — with education defined as giving creation, teaching of doctrines and good customs, and politics defined as the art of governing —, then, by these two understandings, political education, advocated by Evaristo, allows us to think of an expanded version of care for the forming homeland and for the art of educating the new man.

In this sense, there are indications that the rules of political conduct and those that governed the circulation of a fraction of the population — especially free people who could read and write, in addition to having a certain economic power that made them electors and electable — were certainly those that Evaristo would like to achieve through what he understood as political education: education for civility and character improvement, for peace and to develop, in the Brazilian youth, a strong love for the homeland that was in the process of formation. Thus, what was at stake was the urgency of developing “public spirit” and potential patriots. Such attributes would be achieved by disseminating the principles of a good education.

• 1
  Thematic dossier organized by: José Cláudio Sooma Silva <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3647-8703> e José Antonio Miranda Sepulveda <https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4460-7704>
• 3
  References correction and bibliographic normalization services: Fernanda Corrêa (Tikinet) <[e-mail]>
• 4
  English version: Roberto Candido Francisco (Tikinet) <[e-mail]>
• 5
  The “militia soldier,” active in the early nineteenth century, was the security professional of the Empire. These professionals were part of the military apparatus of that period that maintained the same organization that Portugal had created during the colonial period. The job position was active until the end of the First Reign in 1831 (Keegan, 1995).
• 6
  Impressão Régia was the first Brazilian publisher, founded by decree of May 13, 1808 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian Impressão Régia was a branch of the publisher (of the same name) existing in Lisbon, capital of Portugal. The initiative was due to the arrival of the Portuguese royal family in Brazilian lands and its first publication was Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro (official agency of the court), in addition to the newspaper O Patriota, published between 1813 and 1814. It is the current National Press. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impress%C3%A3o_R%C3%A9gia
• 7
  https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaristo da Veiga
• 8
  Evaristo da Veiga was president of the Sociedade Amante da Instrução and secretary general of the Sociedade Defensora da Aliança Nacional (Souza, 2006).
• 9
  The originals are available at the Manuscript Section of the National Library. Further information about Evaristo da Veiga is available at https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaristo_da_Veiga and http://www.academia.org.br/academicos/evaristo-da-veiga/textos-escolhidos
• 10
  All these issues were the object of analysis of political history. I highlight, among others, the studies of José Murilo de Carvalho (2005a, 2005b).
• 11
  A Aurora Fluminense, No. 1, Dec 21, 1827. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 12
  http://bndigital.bn.gov.br/acervodigital
• 13
  About the category “journal producers,” see Vieira (2019).
• 14
  A detailed study on the profile of journal producers can be seen in Vieira (2019).
• 15
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1827, issue 9, p. 34. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 16
  O Observador Constitucional, 1829, issue 15, p. 1. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/observador-constitucional/814326
• 17
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1829, issue 142. Emphasis added. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 18
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1828, issue 34. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 19
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1828, issue 39. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 20
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1829, issue 142. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 21
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1830, issue 310. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795
• 22
  A Aurora Fluminense, 1830, issue 310. http://bndigital.bn.br/acervo-digital/aurora-fluminense/706795

Referências

• Anderson, B. (2008). Comunidades imaginadas: reflexões sobre a origem e a difusão do nacionalismo Companhia das Letras.
• Alves, J. V. C. (2010). A defesa da constituição pelo jornal Aurora Fluminense na crise de 1829. Anais do Encontro Regional de História: História e Liberdade, Franca, 20 http://www.encontro2010.sp.anpuh.org/site/capa
  » http://www.encontro2010.sp.anpuh.org/site/capa
• Bandecchi, B., & Arroyo, L. (1970). Novo dicionário de História do Brasil Melhoramentos.
• Basile, M. (2004). O Império em construção: projetos de Brasil e a ação política na Corte Regencial [Tese de doutorado não publicada]. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
• Carvalho, J. M. (1996). Cidadania: tipos e percursos. Estudos Históricos, (33), 337-361. http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/reh/article/viewFile/2029/1168
  » http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/reh/article/viewFile/2029/1168
• Carvalho, J. M. (2005a). A construção da Ordem: Teatro das sombras Civilização Brasileira.
• Carvalho, J. M. (2005b). Pontos e Bordados: escritos da história e política Editora UFMG.
• Fundação Biblioteca Nacional. (1965). Anais da Biblioteca Nacional, 85 http://memoria.bn.br/pdf/402630/per402630_1965_00085.pdf
  » http://memoria.bn.br/pdf/402630/per402630_1965_00085.pdf
• Gondra, J. G., & Schueler, A. M. (2008). Educação, poder e sociedade no Império brasileiro Cortez, 2008.
• Gomes, A. M. C. G., & Hanse, P. S. (2016). Intelectuais Mediadores: práticas culturais e ação política Civilização Brasileira.
• Grinberg, K. (2002). O fiador dos brasileiros: cidadania, escravidão e direito civil no tempo de Antonio Pereira Rebouças Civilização Brasileira.
• Keegan, J. (1995). Uma história da guerra Companhia das Letras.
• Mattos, I. R. (1989). Do Império à República. Estudos Históricos, 2(4), 163-171.
• Morel, M. (2005). As transformações dos espaços públicos: imprensa, ator, e sociabilidade na corte Imperial (1820-1840) Hucitec.
• Ramos, H. C. M. B. (2010). O periodismo jurídico brasileiro do século XIX. Passagens: Revista Internacional de História Política e Cultura Jurídica, 2(3), 54-97.
• Schwarcz, L. M. (1998). As barbas do imperador: D. Pedro II, um monarca nos trópicos Companhia das Letras.
• Sousa, O. T. (2015). História dos fundadores do Império do Brasil Senado Federal.
• Souza, M. Z. M. (2006). Sociedade amante da instrução: benfeitora da “inocência desvalida” na Corte Imperial – 1844-1889. Anais do IV Congresso Brasileiro de História da Educação, Goiânia, 4 http://www.sbhe.org.br/novo/congressos/cbhe4
  » http://www.sbhe.org.br/novo/congressos/cbhe4
• Vieira, L. O. (2019). Origens da imprensa no Brasil: estudo prosopográfico dos editores de periódicos publicados entre 1808 e 1831 [Dissertação de mestrado, Universidade de São Paulo]. Biblioteca Digital USP. https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8138/tde-12122019-164105/pt-br.php
  » https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8138/tde-12122019-164105/pt-br.php

2

Responsible Editor: André Luiz Paulilo <https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8112-8070>

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  14 Aug 2023
• Date of issue
  2023

History

• Received
  12 Apr 2021
• Reviewed
  23 Nov 2021
• Accepted
  03 Jan 2022