saquaremas. Caxias himself was a saquarema, but according to Needell, he "was first and foremost a military man. Personal fealty to the Empire came before any other. As so many did, he identified this loyalty with fealty to the Crown in abstraction and to Dom Pedro personally." He was a choice that could please all sides. Caxias, said Needell, "was not so much a political man as a man profoundly loyal to the Monarchy with which he ... had come to identify with the Conservative Party. Thus, Paraná may have appointed Caxias to reassure traditional Conservatives without endangering the more independent political position Paraná was taking." Presidencies of the Council of Ministers Paraná succeeded in passing electoral reform, which was called the Lei dos Círculos (Law of the Circles). As predicted, and feared, it gave greater powers to the president (prime minister) of the Council of Ministers to meddle in elections. Unexpectedly, Paraná fell ill and died on 3 September 1856. Caxias replaced him, but was reluctant to face the legislature, elected under the electoral reform, that was slated to convene the next year. He resigned, along with the other cabinet ministers, on 4 May 1857. The Law of the Circles and the controversy surrounding it split the Conservative Party: one faction was the saquarema ultraconservative (or traditionalist) wing, then called the vermelhos (reds) or puritanos (puritans), led by Eusébio de Queirós, Uruguai and Joaquim Rodrigues Torres, Viscount of Itaboraí. The second bloc comprised the conservador moderado (moderate Conservative) wing, composed mostly of younger politicians who owed their positions to electoral reform. The moderate Conservatives were Conservatives in name only, and did not support the saquarema ideology and leadership. During the years following 1857, successive cabinets quickly collapsed, unable to muster a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, as the two Conservative wings undercut each other in a fight for dominance. The Emperor asked Caxias to head a new cabinet on 2 March 1861. Among his ministers were José Maria da Silva Paranhos (later Viscount of Rio Branco), whom Caxias had met and befriended during the Platine War while serving as secretary to Paraná. Caxias tried to secure support from the traditional saquarema leadership. They attempted, however, to use him as a figurehead and to further their own agendas. He commented to Paranhos: "I see what you meant, with respect to the bizarre behavior of these gentlemen, who do not