O Espelho and the public opinion development

The performance of Manuel Ferreira de Araújo Guimarães (1821-1822)

Abstract

This article aims to present the emergence of the newspaper O Espelho in the process of press consolidation in Rio de Janeiro. It also aims to reflect on the importance of its editor – Manuel Ferreira de Araújo Guimarães – within the consolidation of a broader historical process: the construction of his place as a man of letters, who called himself the representative quintessentially of the formation of an enlightened public opinion, responsible for putting publicly the main political debates about the Brazil process of independence, occurred from 1821 to 1823. In this perspective, the article focuses on the initial moments of circulation of this periodical – between the months of October 1821 and January 1822 – period in which the editor structured the editorial line of the newspaper, which guaranteed space for speech and reflection for two major political actors in the process of Brazilian independence: the Prince Regent D. Pedro and his minister José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. We will reflect, therefore, about the political relevance of the architecture of the discourse of this periodical amidst the feathers war that ocurred in the Portuguese-Brazilian world on both sides of the Atlantic, which was thought to be recognized by the enlightened elite as the main reference of journalistic credibility of the Court, since it was headed by Manuel Ferreira de Araújo Guimarães, the most experienced press man at the independence period.