Emperor Pedro has written that slavery is…

Emperor Pedro has written that slavery is a "cancer that is gnawing away at Brazil" and that no one has the right to enslave another.

He wants to abolish slavery, but his own liberal constitution gives the law-making authority to the slavocrat-controlled Parliament.

In Brazil liberal principles and political formulas are given special meaning.

The language of social contract, popular sovereignty, supremacy of law, universal rights, division of powers, and representative government is stripped of its revolutionary content and applies only to a select, privileged minority.