Page:The Forgotten in the Independence Process.pdf/20

 Lucia Maria Bastos Pereira das Neves The forgotten in the independence process: a history to be made

Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 25, ef00220, 2020 http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463325ef00220 the other. The work was successful, as the advertisement described: “Having completed the first part of the Alfaiate Constitucional with incredible brevity, from which there is evidently great acceptance that deserved from the Respectable Public, O Alfaiate Constitucional was reprinted and is already on sale at Loja da Gazeta ”. The pamphlet discussed the main themes of the constitutionalism of the years 20, through instigating satirical and fictional dialogue, as confirmed by the announcement: “this is a severe criticism against the abuses and perversity of the Despots, being at the same time pleasant by the joking style”. The main character - a tailor defending constitutional ideas - carries out his main job at home, where he received several customers, ideal types of the society of that time: a hunchback, a constitutional, clerics, a tradesman, a nobleman, a merchant, a scholar and a commander, in the manner of The Spectator of 1711. The central theme of the dialogues is adherence to liberal ideas and constitutional fashion, symbolized by the use of jackets, the tailor’s main specialty. The repercussion of the pamphlet brought problems to the editor, since in the reports of the Rio de Janeiro Police Intendency it is said that he was severely reprimanded by João Inácio da Cunha, in November 1821, for the publication of the pamphlet. Although he opposed the separation of Brazil from Portugal, José Anastácio Falcão is an example of a character, like many of the time, who circulated in the different regions of the old Portuguese Empire. Likewise, in some moments, albeit sparse, he joined royalty again, after the movement of Vila Francada in 1823, only to later defend a representative government. In 1826 he wrote a long exposition in Portuguese and French about the state of Portugal, denouncing an arbitrary government and requesting support for a political change from the Diplomatic Corps

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