Zacarias de Góes e Vasconcellos: atuação política entre os anos de 1868 – 1877

Abstract

The present work has as objective the reconstruction of the political action of the Counselor Zacarias de Góes and Vasconcellos between the years of 1868-1869, trajectory is neglected by the historiography. During this period he held the position of senator of the Empire. Thus, in this search we use the annals of the Senate as the main source, insofar as it directly reproduces all the conflicts that the Government was going through. We selected some of the central moments to understand Zacarias de Goes as not only a member of the Liberal Party, but also as an opposition front to the imperial policies, especially in the election of the heads of ministries. Our efforts to reconstruct the performance of the politician are, therefore, centered on the historiography that addresses politics in the second half of the nineteenth century. These themes are associated with the fall of the Empire in 1889, such as the Conservative return to power in 1868 and criticism of the intervention of the Moderating Power in the functioning of the State; as well as one of the first steps towards the emancipation of slavery with the Law of the Free Womb in 1871. Another element is the conflict and with the Church, official religion of the Empire, in the so-called "Religious Question"; and practically simultaneously, the electoral reform that unleashed the Law of the Rosary in 1875. In all these moments Zacarias was present in a decisive way with his long speeches. And this is what the present paper proposes to demonstrate.