Tarquin quotes Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre: "They played the rebate church bells, met the City Council under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Colonel José Joaquim de Lacerda and after speeches and proclamations, Rafael Tobias de Aguiar was acclaimed acting president of the province."
Under his military command, he established the Liberating Column, with some 1,500 men, to march to São Paulo where they would overthrow the President of the Province, José da Costa Carvalho.