Liberato de Castro Carreira

Liberato de Castro Carreira
Senator of the Empire of Brazil for Ceará
In office 1882–1889
Monarch	Pedro II
Personal details
Born	(1820-08-24)24 August 1820 Aracati, Ceará
Died	Rio de Janeiro, Republic of the United States of Brazil
Alma mater	Rio de Janeiro Medical School
Occupation	Politician

Liberato de Castro Carreira (24 August 1820 – 12 July 1903) was a Brazilian medical doctor and politician. He was a senator of the Empire of Brazil from 1882 to 1889.

Biography

He was the son of Luis da Silva Carreira, a surgeon from Leiria, Portugal, and Rita Apolinária de Castro Carreira, daughter of José de Castro e Silva II, chief-captain of Aracati, and Joana Maria Bezerra de Meneses, sister of João Facundo de Castro Meneses, José de Castro e Silva III, Manuel do Nascimento Castro e Silva and Vicente Ferreira de Castro e Silva.

After completing his preparatory studies in his hometown, he boarded the packet ship Brasília for Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived on 18 August 1838 to study at the School of Medicine, where he enrolled in March of the following year and graduated from on 20 December 1844. He returned to Ceará the following year, settling in Fortaleza.

On 11 September 1844, he married his cousin Brasília Angélica de Castro e Silva, daughter of his uncle Vicente Ferreira de Castro e Silva and Firmina Angélica de Castro e Silva. The couple had six children.

By order of 3 April 1845, he was appointed poverty doctor by the then president of the province, Colonel Inácio Correia de Vasconcelos. The following year, he was appointed a substitute for the judge of law, municipal and orphans of the combined terms of the capital, Aquiraz, Cascavel and Imperatriz, an appointment that was renewed for the biennia of 1848 to 1850 and 1850 to 1854. By decree of 2 April 1847, he was appointed consultant physician to the Military Hospital; by decree of 29 July 1848, health provider for the port of Ceará, and member of the public hygiene board by decree of 26 July 1852.

He went to Aracati twice, commissioned by the government, once during the smallpox epidemic in 1849 and again in 1851 because of the appearance of yellow fever there, as well as to the cities of Russas and Sobral by orders of 4 October and 10 November of the same year. His services earned him the Imperial Order of Christ.

On 10 December 1852, he boarded the steamer Imperatriz for Rio de Janeiro, settling in Niterói, where he was appointed, by orders of 6 September 1854 and 23 December 1858, first deputy to the police chief, and while in office, the remarkable fact occurred that in such a long period only one case followed the terms of the law, for the very justifiable reason that he always endeavoured to resolve all issues amicably, making the parties feel that the best thing about justice is not having the opportunity to try it, taking as a lesson from the ancients the saying that better a bad composition than a good claim, in the words of the Baron of Studart.

A notice dated 30 July 1855 appointed him to head the infirmary created for the treatment of the indigent afflicted with cholera in Niterói, and in this commission he rendered such meritorious services that at the end of his work he was decorated with the habit of the Rose.

As a shareholder of the D. Pedro II railway, he was the author of the proposal to appoint the commission that resolved the issue of the route of the second section, which took the railway to the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. He was secretary of this commission and presented an important and detailed report that was printed and distributed to the shareholders. The discussion of this report resulted in the withdrawal of most of the board of directors, who did not agree with its conclusions.

An election was held in Ceará on 19 March 1867 to fill two vacancies in the Senate, and his name received 752 votes as part of the six-person list presented to the imperial electorate. However, as the Conservative Party came to power on 16 July and José Martiniano de Alencar was part of the ministry, this election was annulled by the Senate, and when a new election was held, the Liberal Party abstained completely due to the reaction in the province.

By decree of 1 March 1877, he obtained approval for the statutes of the Banco Comercial e Hipotecário do Ceará (Commercial and Mortgage Bank of Ceará), a credit institution that he intended to set up in the provincial capital, but which failed to come to fruition due to both the drought that devastated the province for three years and the deaths of Senator Pompeu and the Viscount of Cauípe, his main assistants in this enterprise. During this period, he rendered important services to his home province. Through a series of articles published in the Jornal do Commercio, in which he gave a history of the events in the province, he managed to draw society's attention to the situation in Ceará and, taking advantage of this mood, a subscription was opened in favour of the victims of the drought. When it was opened in the capital, it was favourably received throughout the state of Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere, and donations were even received from France and England. All the work was done in the province by a commission of notables from Ceará, with Bishop Luís dos Santos as its chairman.

As the yellow fever epidemic raged in Rio de Janeiro in 1873, and the Santa Casa de Misericórdia decided to set up a homeopathic infirmary to treat the sick, he was put in charge by the provider.

As the province had to hold an election in 1878 to fill two vacancies in the Senate, his name could not fail to appear on the six-person list, and so it was that he came second; the election, however, was cancelled by the Senate on the preliminary grounds that it had been held at a time when the province was struggling with the calamity of drought, and so it was not until 1880 that it was held as a single list, due to the death of Senator Francisco de Paula Pessoa. In that election his name was adopted by all the parties, which is the greatest proof of their consideration and esteem. Recognised by all as deserving of the suffrage of his fellow citizens, he received almost unanimous votes and took first place. Chosen by imperial letter of 2 May 1881 as a senator of the Empire, the opinion of the Constitution and Powers Commission was approved on 23 January 1882 and he took his seat in the Senate on the 24th. During his mandate, he always endeavoured to obtain funds for Ceará. In 1889, he published a 768-page book by the National Press on the financial and budgetary history of the Empire since the independence.

He also discussed a number of issues, including reforms to the savings bank and the organisation of the treasury, and presented a very important bill on public hygiene, which reformed and completely organised this branch of the public service. This bill was soon approved, but since the Senate was dissolved by the Proclamation of the Republic, it was shelved. He was the third secretary of the Senate when this happened.

He died aged 82 in the federal capital. Mayor Raimundo Girão named the square where the Baturité railway station is located in Fortaleza after him.

Works

• História Financeira e Orçamentária do Império do Brasil (1899; 1980)

References

• Pitanga, Antônio Ferreira de Sousa (1903). "Necrológio de Liberato de Castro Carreira," Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Vol. LXVI, Pat 2, pp. 352–55.