1. “Under the views of an illustrious Regency”: the structure of political opportunities

A characteristic of the regential period highlighted by ^{Lenharo (1979)} is the social rise of the Minas Gerais producers, who reached its height in the first years of the Regency, when they achieved a significant spotlight on the political scene. After checking the names mentioned by Lenharo with those involved with the associative movement of the Regencies, we find coincident names such as José Bento Ferreira de Mello, Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga, Bernardo Jacinto da Veiga, Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcellos and Antônio Paulino Limpo de Abreu.

The political hegemony reached by the group of the 1830s was gradually being forged. According to ^{Lenharo (1979)}, it began with the transfer of the royal family to Brazil in 1808. After its installation in Rio de Janeiro, a policy of integration of the southern center of Brazil was initiated through the supply trade, made possible by measures like incentive and financing of production, for the opening of roads and distribution of land. In the first Reign, the group of producers from Minas Gerais ascended socially and penetrated the commercial square of Rio de Janeiro. At that moment, their regional political interests were defined, with the outbreak of the press, especially in the south of Minas, and with the appearance of its first political leaders. As for the regential period, ^{Lenharo (1979)} states:

The deposition [abdication] of the emperor shook the concentrated power of the imperial state, opening space for the projection of the supplying sector of the proprietary class which became coresponsible for the regency administration. Associating mainly with politicians who had originated from the urban petty bourgeoisie and the military segment, they formed a relatively cohesive group, but without partisan political deepening, generally known as moderate liberals (^{LENHARO, 1979}: 122, emphasis added).

The assertion of the author, especially the passage that we highlight, in which he affirms that the D. Pedro I abdication opened space for the political participation of the members of the supplying sector of Minas, leads us to conclude that the Regency functioned for that group as a structure of political opportunities, as put by ^{Alonso (2002)}. According to the researcher, political opportunity structures are

[...] consistent, but non-formal and permanent dimensions of the political environment that provides an incentive for people to engage in collective action because they affect their expectations of success or failure (^{ALONSO, 2002}: 42).

Alonso, after investigating the intellectual movement⁷ of 1870, established a relation between the expansion of the structures of political opportunities and the said movement, understood as a social movement. These reflections allow us to think that the D. Pedro I abdication and, consequently, the establishment of the Regencies, constituted structures of political opportunities for a group of producers in Minas Gerais. Such structures are conducive to the creation of public associations, understood as a social movement, which in turn are a way of expressing specific demands of the group with which it is involved.

It is important to note that the projection of the subjects connected to the supplier sector coincides with the multiplication of the associations. Given this, the notion of structure of political opportunities makes possible the approach of the associative movement of the Regencies as an intellectual and social movement. To grasp this movement in its complexity means to give intelligibility to the elements to which they have recourse in order to understand the situation they are experiencing and to define the most effective lines of action.

2. “In these small meetings man learns to develop his reason, to know and defend the interests of his country”: the objectives of associations

The regimentation of votes and political learning, made possible by participation in the associative movement, alone did not ensure the victory of the moderate Brazil project. A collective project of formation of the people, which had been put into practice since the beginning of the 1820s and which, in the framework of the associations of the regency period, took on clear contours of political-cultural projects, or educational projects, was a fundamental element in this process. Both the elaboration of this training project and its execution had as one of its objectives the construction of a consensus regarding the way to be followed in the construction of the State and the Brazilian Nation, that is, that of moderate liberalism.

In Minas Gerais, this project of formation of the people took on specific contours that gave certain nuances to the associativism. The objectives of the associations, as provided in the statutes, allow us to partially access such projects, which are multifaceted. This is because they have a political dimension, so the societies and newspapers linked to them were mobilized by the groups that disputed the power as important instruments-arms of struggle, whose effectiveness can be perceived, mainly, by the political indoctrination that they promoted through the diffusion of liberal political culture. However, they are not limited to this.

The associations of the regency period in Minas Gerais have a multidimensional character, which can be apprehended, initially, by the identification of the ends to which they were destined. The objectives of the associations were a fundamental item of their statutes. The Society of Defenders of Freedom and National Independence in São João del Rei had as main purpose:

Sustaining for all legal means, freedom and National Independence: 1^st Developing the aid of the action of the public authorities every time, which is necessary for the sake of public order and tranquility. 2^nd Using the right of petition for the measures, which are not within their reach, and even when larger measures are considered indispensable, claiming them only by legal means (STATUTE of the Society Defending Freedom and National Independence in São João del Rei apud^{CAMPOS, 1998}: 156-157).

The objective of Defensora de São João del Rei defined, in article 10 of its statutes, its purpose: to assist the authorities in maintaining order and public tranquility, an urgent need in the first years of the regencies. Meanwhile, the Peacemaker, Defender, Philanthropic Society of Freedom and Constitution in Sabará defined as ends:

Article 14^th The purposes of the Association are:

Paragraph 1 To promote charitable establishments and Public

Instruction.

Paragraph 2 To watch over the internal economy of these, and of the Association.

Paragraph 3 To support National Security, and individual one by means of advice, persuasions, and representations as Authorities, Executive, and Legislative Powers, and through guns in Political oscillations, insurrection, and enemy invasion (SP PP 1/7, Box 01, Pac 03).

Thus, the content of paragraph 3 of the article is quite similar to that of the articles that define the objectives of São João del Rei, with a difference: the Peacemaker, contrary to what this first term of his name suggests, proposed to take guns, if necessary, “To support National Security”.

Another nuance of the associativism in Minas Gerais can be identified in the paragraphs antecedent to the cited one. The proposal to promote and care for the internal economy of charitable institutions and public education allows us to note the overlapping of the principle of charity, based on religious values expressed by material and spiritual donation, with philanthropy characterized by the secularization of the love to the neighbor, bathed in the broth of culture of the Lights, which had in the public instruction one of its ways of accomplishment. Thus, the aims of the Peacemaker give a distinctive nuance to the associativism in Minas Gerais, since it had a political, charitable and philanthropic dimension, amalgamating secular and religious elements and values.

Unlike the people from Sabará, the people in Campanha not only ceased to be inspired by religious values, elements and principles, but also, within the framework of the secular ones, got separated in an almost didactic form from the political dimension of the philanthropic. This is because the subjects involved with the associative movement in Campanha created at one time a branch of the Defender of Rio and a Philanthropic Society. The ends of the first have already been problematized lines above; as to the second, they are as follows:

1^st To advance the instruction of the Country by means of class establishment, free publishing of periodicals and all the others, which for the future are within reach of the Society.

2^nd To help the misery and indigence (Purposes of society, article 1, SP PP 1/7, box 01, pac 05).

The objective defined in article 1^st is an expression of the pedagogical dimension of Philanthropic and that defined in article 2 expresses the beneficent dimension, both defined from the philanthropy principle. According to ^{Falcon (1986}: 76), “beneficence means doing good to others. It is a duty of those favored by God to contribute to alleviating the misery of the disadvantaged.” For the philanthropists from Campanha, beneficence consubstantiated itself in feeding the poor prisoners of the village (SP PP1 / 7, box 02, pac 20).

The pedagogy, vector of the Lights diffusion, therefore a key element of the progress of reason, has in the diffusion of educational institutions one of its forms of realization (^{FALCON, 1986}: 62-64), which would be accomplished by the establishment of classes and distribution of newspapers. From the distribution of periodicals we have no news. As for the expansion of instruction, the Society drew up a plan that provided for the establishment of classes in Latin and French and the Women’s Education, since women were entrusted with their first education (^{VALADÃO, 1942}:44).

This pedagogical dimension identified in the Philanthropic of Campanha and in the Peacemaker of Sabará was present in the Promoter of Ouro Preto, but acquired broader contours that allow us to speak in a cultural dimension, not just pedagogical. As follows below:

Art.7. This Society is responsible for:

1^st To have a Public Library, in which they can read for free all the people they want, as long as they keep the rules established by the Administration. The Library will be open every day at least five hours.

2^nd To promote the Library’s expansion, and how much it can contribute to the diffusion of the lights, and consolidation of the Monarchy Hereditary – Constitutional – Representative⁸.

3^rd To publish a Journal called = Journal of the Public Instruction Promoting Society =, which contains verifiable news of all the Provinces of the Empire, and especially the state, and progress of the Public Instruction of Minas, the Foreign, and the doctrines most adapted to conservation of the Constitutional Monarchia (SP PP 1/42, box 01, pac 41, UNIVERSAL, n 634, 1831).

As can be seen, the political dimension is expressed in the intention to promote and consolidate the constitutional system. However, it is difficult to separate it from the cultural dimension, related to the appropriation by the politicians and scholars gathered in the Promoter, of the concept of culture spread by the Enlightenment. According to ^{Cuche (2002)}, in the historical context of the Enlightenment, the term culture is progressively referred to as formation and education, a state of mind cultivated by instruction. The thinkers of the Enlightenment conceived culture as a distinctive character of the human species.

Culture, for them, is the sum of knowledge accumulated and transmitted by humanity, considered as totality throughout history [...] Culture is thus fully inscribed in the ideology of the Enlightenment: the word is associated with the ideas of progress, evolution, of education, of reason that are at the center of the thought of the time (^{CUCHE, 2002}: 21).

In view of this, it seems to us that the creation of the Public Library of Ouro Preto, in 1831, and of the Journal of the Public Instruction Promoting Society, in 1832, are imbricated in the political and cultural dimension of the educational project of the Promoter. The contours of this project became clearer when the Promoter undertook to “print the Constitution of the Empire, and the most important Legislative Acts to the Province, to make them distribute gratuitously for the poor youth, who attend the First Letter Schools, and Grammatica Latina” (art. 28) and created and sustained public lessons of Geography, History and French, at the Public Library of Ouro Preto.

The associations, such as the the Public Well Promoting Society, organized in Vila do Príncipe (Serro) on February 2, 1832, which, according to the founder’s own words, Theophilus Ottoni, was installed with the aim to approve, by Senate, the project of reform of the Constitution of 1824, which had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies, whose decision did not only involve a political dimension. Thus, we can affirm that the Minas Gerais associative movement of the Regencies is multifaceted, and within the scope of political and philanthropic motivations, their functions are juxtaposed cultural, pedagogical and beneficent. The analysis of the ends of the societies gives a different tone to the associative movement in Minas Gerais, which shows itself, among other aspects, by amalgamating religious and secular values, producing a hybridism in the context of the public space.

3. “Journalism will be augmented in our Province”: the expansion of the periodical press

The expansion of the periodic press derives as much from the constitution of the public sphere of power as from the diffusion of the Lights. In Brazil, the multiplication of public papers accompanies and is linked to the transformations of public spaces, the political and cultural modernization of institutions, the process of Independence and the construction of the National State. The Portuguese liberal revolution and the law of freedom of the press strongly stimulated, here and in Portugal, the periodical press development. The abdication of Dom Pedro I meant an explosion of the public word. For the first time since Independence, the political discussion was exasperated. The debates and clashes between moderates, exalts and conservatives unfolded, especially through the periodicals, which were enlarged numerically.

The publication of newspapers is one of the most, or perhaps, the most important element of the dynamics of functioning of associations. In addition, they are also an efficient instrument for the dissemination and execution of educational projects, understood as political-cultural projects. According to ^{Veiga (1898)}, in a statistic published by the newspaper Aurora Fluminense in 1828,

32 newspapers and political periodicals in Brazil (a few were neutral or exclusively litterary papers at that time), a number which in December 1835, according to other news of the same Aurora, rose to 54, as well as several periodicals or simply diaries of announcements and news, or literary (^{VEIGA, 1898}: 173).

This phenomenon of public word explosion also occurred in Minas, as shown in the following Graph:

Source: Xavier da Veiga. A Imprensa em Minas Gerais, 1898.

Figure 100 – Newspapers published in Minas Gerais between 1828 and 1840 

This expansion of the periodic press has very close relations with the multiplication of public societies. Several associations created the journal themselves:

Journalism will be augmented in our Province with four more newspapers. In Marianna it is said that a newspaper protected by a Society of Patriots is about to come out, and that they will be present for the purpose of buying a Typography, and there they establish their newspaper. In the Campaign was to appear, on March 25, a new political newspaper. In Sabará, there will soon be published the Journal of the Philanthropic Society, which the expense of its Members has ordered a Typography of the Court, what had already left for the Villa. In our City, it is said that there will also appear the Journal of the Public Instruction Promoting Society on March 25, the anniversary of its installation (^{O UNIVERSAL, N. 726, March 21, 1832}).

The editor of O Universal, in the section above, refers to the União Fraternal, periodical of the Sociedade Patriótica Marianense, written by Antônio José Ribeiro Bhering (^{O UNIVERSAL, 769, 1832}); to the Opinião Campanhense spokesman of the Freedom Defending Society and National Independence of Campanha, whose editor was Bernardo Jacintho da Veiga (^{VEIGA, 1898}:193); to O Vigilante, the organ of the Pacifying Philanthropic Society Defender of Freedom and of the Constitution of Sabará, written by Pedro Gomes Nogueira (^{SANTOS, 2007}:98); and to Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da

Instrução Pública, linked to the association referred to in the title, whose main editor was José Antônio Marinho. (JORNAL DA SOCIEDADE PROMOTORA DA INSTRUÇÃO

PÚBLICA, No. 27, 1832).

In addition to the papers mentioned above, the Sentinela do Serro by Teófilo Ottoni was also created, linked to the Public Promotion Society (^{OTTONI, 1930}:9); in Pouso Alegre, O Pregoeiro Constitucional, a publication linked to the Society for the Defense of Freedom and National Independence, which was in charge of José Bento Leite Ferreira de Mello (^{PASCOAL 2007}; ^{VEIGA, 1898}:192); and in São João del Rei, O Mentor das Brasileiras, under the responsibility of José Alcebíades Carneiro (^{JINZENJI, 2008}, p.89), who apparently was linked to the Society for the Defense of National Freedom and Independence of that village (^{O MENTOR DAS BRASILEIRAS,1831}:755).

The newspapers created by the societies were added to the others that began publication before 1830 and were still in circulation. In Ouro Preto we had O Universal (1825-1842), O Telegrapho (1829-1839), O Novos Argos (1829-1834) and O Semanário Mercantil (1830-1831), in São João del Rei, there was O Astro de Minas (1827-1839) and, in Mariana, Estrella Marianense (1830-1832) was edited (^{VEIGA, 1898}:195-210).

The most troubled period of the Regencies, from 1831 to 1834, also coincides with the publication of a large number of newspapers. The publications were greatly boosted by the political disputes of the period. According to ^{Silva (2002)}, there is a predominance of liberalmoderate papers, between 1830 and 1834, a period in which the group adhering to this political orientation dominated the public scene in Minas Gerais and sought to spread a liberal political culture. Moreira (2004) makes a similar statement, but in relation to the liberal phase of the Regencies, that is, from 1831 to 1837. According to him, for this period we hardly find conservative papers and the exalted liberal papers are even rarer⁹.

3.1. Typographical and material aspects of newspapers

In general, the Minas Gerais periodicals created in the regency period had an ephemeral existence (^{VEIGA, 1898}: 169-249), which varies from a few months to three years. The exception is the Opinião Campanhense, published for almost five years. In relation to the newspapers created by or linked to the societies, the picture is not very different, as we can be seen below.

The periodicity of the publications was quite irregular. In this respect, we have data on the Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrucção Pública, analyzed by us, and on O Mentor das Brasileiras, investigated by Mônica Yumi ^{Jinzenji (2008)}. In both cases, the finding is a significant irregularity in the publication of newspapers. See below the table of the editions of the Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrucção Pública.

The remaining copies of the Jornal Sociedade Promotora da Instrucção Pública de Ouro Preto allow us to confirm that it was published between 1832 and 1834, one year more than ^{Veiga (1898)} states. In examining the copies, we find that there is no regularity in their publication – for example, the numbers 17, 18 and 19 were edited, respectively, on September 12, 1832, Wednesday; September 18, 1832, Tuesday; and September 21, 1832, Friday.

The lack of regularity or punctuality was not uncommon at a time when several stages of a newspaper’s production could be concentrated in one person. Besides, there was a shortage of skilled people (^{JINZENJI, 2008}:81). Not to mention the difficulties faced in the writing process. Most typographies have struggled with small numbers of employees. In January 1842, O Universal was not published because one of its composers suddenly fell ill. The reduced number of employees also prevented an increase in the periodicity of newspapers. In 1836, there was an attempt to publish O Universal daily, but the experience lasted only four days (MOREIRA, 2004:5). The shortage of labor motivated requests for dispensation from military service for typographers such as that done by Manoel José Barbosa (^{VEIGA, 1898}: 183)

In spite of the ephemerality of the papers, as well as the irregularity of their publication, the associations, not only in Minas Gerais, but in the whole Empire, communicated through the newspapers. The correspondences exchanged between them, as provided by statute¹¹, were published in the newspapers (JORNAL DA SOCIEDADE PROMOTORA DA INSTRUCÇÃO PUBLICA, N. 21, October 13, 1832). The publication of its acts by the press, also provided by statute¹², was an important strategy to give visibility to its actions. The formation of this network of interlocution is also noticeable by indicating the places of sale of the newspaper outside the locality in which it was published, as well as by the circulation of newspapers. We find one of these inscriptions in the periodical Opinião Campanhense (December 29, 1832).

It is subscribed to this paper in the houses of João Pedro da Veiga e C. in Rio de Janeiro, Manoel Soares do Couto in Ouro Preto, Martiniano Severo de Barros e C. in São João d’Elrei, Francisco de Paula Pereira e Mello in Pouso Alegre, Joaquim Antônio Alves Alvim in São Paulo, Antônio Clemente dos Santos in Guaratinguetá, and in this town in the one of Bernardo Jacinto da Veiga at 1$600 rs per quarter [...].

One circuit of the sale of the form was as follows. In the capital of the province was Manoel Soares do Couto, member of the Public Instruction Promoting Society. In São João del Rei was Martiniano Severo de Barros, judge of peace and member of the Defender of Freedom and National Independence of that locality. In Rio de Janeiro, a Opinião

Campanhense could be acquired at the house of João Pedro da Veiga, Bernardo Jacintho da Veiga’s brother, editor of the leaf and member of the Defending Society and the Philanthropic Society of Campanha. In Pouso Alegre, the paper was found in the house of Paula Pereira and Mello, whose coincidence of surname and locality may indicate relations of kinship with Jose Bento Leite Ferreira de Mello, editor of Pregoeiro Constitucional and member of the Village Defender Society.

A similar inscription appears in the newspaper O Mentor das Brasileiras, edited in São João del Rei by Jose Alcebíades Carneiro, founding member of the local Defensora. In the capital of the Empire, O Mentor could be acquired at the house of Evaristo da Veiga, editor of Aurora Fluminense, member of the parent of the Defending Society and brother of João Pedro da Veiga and Bernardo Jacintho da Veiga, mentioned above. In Ouro Preto, one could subscribe for the paper in the Typography of O Universal, where it was also published, Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrucção Pública. Thus, it seems to us that within the province and beyond, a network of correspondents linked to societies and newspapers has been formed, which denotes a joint action of societies through newspapers.

3.2- The content and composition of newspapers ¹³ 13

The Statutes of the Public Instruction Promoting Society point out to us the subjects that its members intended to constitute the content of the newspaper. It was planned to publish “veridical news of all the Provinces of the Empire” on “the state, and progress of the Public Instruction of Minas” and also from abroad. In addition to news on this subject, it would be published “the doctrines more adapted to the conservation of the Constitutional System¹⁴”.

It is essential to note the mode of enunciation to which the members of the Promoter Society appeal. In the Jornal, they set out to publish not just any news, but true news about the public education, as well as those that would allow maintaining the constitutional system. We can articulate this enunciation to a certain social place, the Public Instruction Promoting Society, which gathered mostly members of the moderate liberal elite of Minas Gerais, all intensely involved in the organization of public education. Promoting public education meant, among other things, informing the public about its state and its progress and in that process producing the place of public instruction in the process of state organization.

The survey of the variety of textual genres found in the Jornal as much as its textual content allows us to say that the Promoting Society went beyond what it intended. As in other periodicals of the time, it is not possible to perceive a regularity in terms of sections. In fact, to use such nomenclature is to incur anachronism, it is more appropriate to speak in outline of a “routine” due to the recurrence of certain genres. In order to give intelligibility to this routine sketch, we chose to use the nomenclature “genus” to designate the titles of the texts that were printed in capital letters and appear with certain assiduity when compared to the incidence of as many texts without titles or other textual elements that are not allowed to be classified. After this analysis, we elaborate the following chart in the attempt to explain the routine that the editors of the newspaper tried to establish and a panorama of the content conveyed:

We note that not only Jornal da Promotora, but also those published by other societies, and/or linked to them, have a textual content, but also a symbolic content. The analysis of the textual/explicit content in the texts is important to restore both the dynamics of functioning of the associations and the meanings of the political-cultural projects formulated and executed. Not less important, however, is the symbolic content that allows us to unveil the meanings and meanings by which politicians and literates gathered in associations actively produced the reality of that time.

We can begin with the dates on which societies began to publish their newspapers, which, like the dates set for some of the sessions of the Public Instruction Promoting Society, put into circulation a symbolic content that can impose meanings and legitimize them. The publication of Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrucçâo Pública was scheduled for March 25, 1832. (UNIVERSAL, N. 726, March 21, 1832). O Pregoeiro Constitucional began its publication on September 7, it is unknown whether in 1830 or 1831. The first issue of Opinião Campanhense came out on April 7, 1832 (^{VEIGA, 1898}:192, 194). The dates chosen were, respectively, the oath anniversary of the Constitution, the Independence of Brazil and the abdication of the emperor D. Pedro I. The dates are not random, but were linked to important political events whose representation these subjects sought to institute.

Other elements, and those found in the very materiality of the newspapers, bearers of a significant symbolic content are the genres: epigraphs, maxims, varieties and anecdotes. The epigraph is a typographic feature common in the newspapers of the first half of the nineteenth century. It is a textual resource that has the character of synthesis. Through it, it was sought to anticipate the central theme to be treated and, also, to explain a broader political stance. Let us see below the epigraphs of the newspapers of the associations in Minas Gerais:

Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrução Pública

‘Equality, Freedom, Justice; here is from now on our Code, and our banner’ (VOLNEY, 1832 and 1833).

‘They will therefore know the Brazilians

The fruitful in prodigies, Equality,

And what are Guarantees, and Rights,

That we all grant Nature’ (1834)

Opinião Campanhense

‘One people can not preserve a form of free government and the happiness that results from freedom, but by a firm and constant adherence to the rules of justice and moderation’

Sentinella do Serro

‘The aim of all practical association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are Liberty, security, property and resistance to oppression.’

O Vigilante

‘Unis en faisceau vous serez invisibles, pris separement vou serez brisés comme des roseaux’ (VOLNEY, 1833)¹⁶.

‘Voilá les effets d’el union: Unis en faisceau vous serez invisibles, pris separement vou serez brisés comme des roseaux’ (VOLNEY, 1833)¹⁷

O Mentor das Brasileiras

‘Rendez-vous estimables par votre sagesse, et vos moeur’.¹⁸

O Pregoeiro Constitucional

Outrages est d’un fou, flatter est d’un esclare. Il faut bannir l’audace et non la liberté. La balance à la main presser la vérité

(BERNIS – Sur l’Independence)¹⁹

While analyzing the practice of the first half of the nineteenth century to adopt French epigraphs, translated or not, the historian ^{Silva (2007}: 46) calls attention to the possibility of language functioning as a cultural mediator, as a promoter of circulating ideas and in his work he asks instigating questions such as: “Are the contents of these epigraphs, for example, bearers of what ideas? And above all, how do these ideas sensitize those who take ownership of them? Where are these ideas contained in the epigraphs consonant with the moment when they are produced and appropriated?” These questions point out ways to think of the importance of epigraphs in periodicals. If we consider the historical moment, the beginning of the Regencies and the key words Freedom, Equality and Justice, it is possible to perceive an attempt to demarcate the attributes of a new time in relation to the past that was sought to overcome. Changes in the epigraphs, such as that of the Jornal da Sociedade Promotora da Instrucção Pública, in 1834, are also related to the political changes that were taking place. This was the year of publication of the Additional Act, which reformed the Constitution of 1824, granted by D. Pedro I, considered a despot who benefited the Portuguese to the detriment of Brazilians. We see, therefore, that the epigraphs also have the primary function of instituting the senses for the new times.

In addition to the epigraphs, the maxims published in Jornal da Promotora have a symbolic content, but also a textual one that deserves to be highlighted, since it allows us to perceive and understand the ways in which subjects, gathered in Society, constitute the world, understand it and speak about it. Let us look at the example: “We should never be ashamed to confess that we were wrong; it is to say that we are wiser today than we were.” (Da Aurora)²⁰

The maxim above was transcribed from the newspaper Aurora Fluminense, whose main writer was Evaristo Ferreira da Veiga. He was one of the most important leaders of the moderate liberal group, one of the most active members of the Rio Defending Society and one of the main responsible for replacing the revolutionary connotation of the term “revolution” with a less radical one. This connotation alluded to the meaning that the term has in astronomy, that is, back to the starting point, therefore less radical, which was related to the adoption of a moderate political stance. In view of that, when affirming that we should never “be ashamed to confess that we are wrong” because it means that “we are today more prudent than honest”, Evaristo da Veiga reveals to us a cunning operation to legitimize the change of meaning of the term revolution.

Another important example is the variety transcribed below from Matutina Meiapontense²¹ newspaper:

Just as all the productions of the earth are created for the use of men, so the same men are formed for each other, and should mutually help each other. Each one, according to the impulse of nature, must enter with what is possible in the coffer of common utility, and by a reciprocal trade of offices, and services to employ not only his works, and industry, but still his goods, so that they narrow more and more the bonds of human Society.

Like the maxim, quoted above, transcribed from Aurora Fluminense, this variety of Matutina Meiapontense seems to us to legitimize not a political stance, but a hierarchical conception of society when it states that “each one, according to the impulse of nature, must enter with what power is possible in the coffer of common utility”. We have important indications that politicians and lawyers shared the same opinion expressed by the editor of Matutina, which, in turn, is a liberal idea. This corroborates our hypothesis, whose plausibility is greatly increased when we learn that the Matutina Meiapontense was edited in the Village of Meia Ponte (currently Pirenópolis) in Goiás between 1830 and 1834, and was linked to the moderate liberal group of the locality (^{ASSIS, 2007}).

We find in the Jornal da Sociedade Promotora another textual genre which, like the epigraphs, the maxims and the varieties, is loaded with symbolic content, that is, the anecdote.

He wondered why a Foreigner, arriving at a city, recognizes if education is despised. Plato answered: If doctors and judges are needed there (JORNAL DA SOCIEDADE PROMOTORA DA INSTRUCÇÃO PÚBLICA, n. 17, 1832).

The objective, both with the textual content of the anecdote and with the symbolic, is to reinforce the representation of education as a means to prevent diseases and crime, which for at least a decade has been diffused not only in Minas, but in Brazil. The textual and symbolic content of the Jornal da Sociedade reveals the ability of politicians and literates gathered in the association to produce senses and meanings for reality through discursive practices and to put them into circulation through the periodic press. However, no less denotative of such ability is the process of composing the newspaper, which reveals complex practices of appropriation²².

We also find in the Jornal da Sociedade excerpts from two books: Jean-Jacques Barthélémy’s Viagem de Anacharsis, and Entretenimentos de Phocion [on morality’s relation to politics]. Both sections are in the “Varieties” section. The work Viagem de Anacharsis was published in France in 1789. The young Greek Anacharsis, who lived 600 years before Christ, reports on the habits of the governments and antiquities of the country he allegedly visited. According to ^{Abreu (2008)}, the Viagem de Anacharsis is one of the titles of fictional works of Fine Letters that compose the set of the most sent to Brazil between 1808 and 1826²³. The work Entretenimentos de Phocion sobre a relação do moral com a política was translated from the Greek to the French by the abbot of Mably and published in Brazil for the first time in 1826. The Extracto das Viagens de Anacharsis found in the Jornal is as follows: “Sapho said: Such a person is distinguished by his figure; such others by their virtues. One looks beautiful at first glance; the other seems more beautiful to the second” (JORNAL DA SOCIEDADE PROMOTORA DA INSTRUCÇÃO PÚBLICA, n. 14, p. 44, 7 set. 1832).

Already the excerpt extracted from the work Entretenimentos de Phocion is longer. But the fundamental point is that “the object of politics is to facilitate justice, prudence and courage” (JORNAL DA SOCIEDADE PROMOTORA DA INSTRUCÇÃO PÚBLICA, n. 54, 1834).

Thus, in Minas, since the mid-1820s, the press was mobilized as a strategy to persuade the population with the objective of representing the moderate liberal political project and the diffusion of liberal political culture. In the context of associations of the regency period, the periodical press was one of the strategies for the realization of political-cultural projects formulated by the associations, assuming the outlines of an educational project whose scope was the formation of the people. In addition, involving their newspapers and the others in a complex print circuit, the associations played a fundamental role in shaping a public sphere of power in Minas Gerais in the regency period.

4. Finishing

Research on the civic pedagogy of Minas Gerais newspapers in the regency period revealed important nuances of the complex relationship between politics and education. The moderate liberals, involved in state government throughout the regencies, were fundamentally dedicated to restoring and reinvigorating the foundations that served as a foundation for the independent state, namely, the defense of private property, which presupposed the maintenance of slave labor; freedom of trade; respect for constitutional precepts; the representativeness; and administrative centralization. For this purpose, they used associativism.

Together with political and public associations, spaces of sociability that tended towards greater secularization, compared to the religious associations of the eighteenth century, the moderates strengthened their actions aimed at leading the formation of the imperial State in the direction they desired, preventing the political revolution from becoming a Social revolution. In addition, they sought to spread the idea that there was a consensus regarding the way to be followed in the construction of the Brazilian State and Nation. The two extremes had to be avoided: liberalism exalted in democratic nuances, whose main risk was the subversion of established social hierarchies; and the restoration, which meant the return of Dom Pedro I.

The individuals gathered in the associations intensified, especially through the publication of newspapers, the diffusion of the idea that the adequate freedom was one that did not violate the principles enshrined in the legislation. The press was an important strategy for framing the actions of individuals within the limits of legality, a main attribute in the process of structuring the Brazilian National State.

The civic pedagogy of the Minas Gerais newspapers of the regency period consisted in a proposal of human formation or education in the broad sense, supported by the incorporation of the discipline, the diffusion of instruction and the development of civility and morality, since it did not have school as its strategy, nor is it exclusively the children as the target of this action. This human formation or education in a broad sense was emanated from the political-cultural projects formulated and executed by the Minas Gerais associations of the regent period and/or by the politicians and literates gathered there, analyzed here by the use of newspapers, which constituted a public space, whose subjects included actions of disciplinary, instructing, civilizing and moralizing, Kantian conception of education whose four pillars are: discipline, education, civility and morality.

Finally, these political-cultural projects of the Minas Gerais associations materialized in educational projects, defined based on their relation with two phenomena that are intertwined and complementary, yet distinct: the diffusion of the Lights and the configuration of a public sphere of power. In the context of the diffusion of the Lights, it was a question of seeking to diminish the “abyss that separated the well-thinking, morally well-formed and socially well-educated spirits of the ignorant, superstitious, morbidly inclined and illmannered” (^{FALCON, 1986}:62-63), without jeopardizing social hierarchies. With regard to the configuration of a public sphere of power, it was sought to incorporate the population into political modernity and to promote its adherence to the principles and values that supported the construction of the State and the Brazilian nation, at that time.