Was the government of the provinces a constitutional matter in the Assembly of 1823?

Abstract

The text analyzes how the issue of the government of the provinces was treated in the Constituent Assembly of the Empire of Brazil, installed in May 1823, in Rio de Janeiro. Its central idea is that, in the face of the monarchical project led by D. Pedro as emperor, the Legislative House refrained, at that moment, from framing the question of the provinces as a properly constitutional problem. Far from seeming like a mere rhetorical question, we will discuss how, at the time, there was a political trick in prioritizing its discussion even before a greater number of the expected representatives were present in the legislative House; This gave rise to the approval of a proposal for a provincial government that paid less attention to local rights, and more to the defenders of the imperial proposal. We will point out how this action would leave marks on the Empire inward.