Civique de Gastine (1793-1822) in the Correio do Rio de Janeiro: Colonial Pact¸ Political Economy and the Independence of America

Abstract

The article deals with the dissemination, translation and recreation of the book De la Liberté des Peuples et des Droits des Monarques Appelés à les Gouverner (1818) by author Civique de Gastine (1793-1822) in the publications of Correio do Rio de Janeiro of 1822. His editor João Soares Lisboa is considered one of the most radical writers of the province who acted in Brazil’s Independence process and was the first and only to be condemned for “republican collusion” in the history of the Empire. Thanks to the dissemination and participation in the writing of the Representação do Povo do Rio de Janeiro, which asked for the convening of Cortes in Brazil to the Prince Regent D. Pedro, his career became a mandatory mention in the narratives about the history of the Independence process Brazil, both to value its initiative and to explain his radicalism. Nevertheless, it is possible to analyze his engagement and development of the ideas of citizenship, participation and popular sovereignty in a constitutional monarchy through the dissemination, circulation, cultural exchange and recreation of Ibero-American publications, especially the work of Civique de Gastine. An author barely published in the periodicals of the time, he is remembered as “abolitionist” because of his works which advocated the abolition of slavery and the indepenence of St. Dominic. Given this scenario, João Soares Lisboa is responsible for his translation and rereading, in order to disseminate his ideas as his main theoretical reference and, at the same time, make them possible as a constitutional monarchy for Brazil in the eyes of a writer and dealer belonging to a group of liberals formed by the mercantile practice and printed in circulation, especially in the late eighteenth century.