A member of the Portuguese Republican Party (before January 31, 1891), alongside Jacinto Nunes, Azevedo e Silva, Bernardino Pinheiro, Teófilo Braga and Francisco Homem Cristo, he was an active parliamentarian during the constitutional monarchy of King Luís I; he was involved in the debates on the reform of education, the penal code and prisons, in addition to electoral reform. By this time doctrinaire republicans had, by that time, been replaced by others in the party affiliated with masonry or the nascente Carbonari associations. He was also elected deputy for Funchal (1883–84) in the minority Republican government and later Lisbon (1890–92). A pragmatist, he actively promoted the Republican cause, while maintaining good relations with the Roman Catholic Church, unlike some of his contemporaries in the Republican movement. But, at the same time, he was combative and critical of what he saw as the "lethargy of monarchical governments, the wastes and luxuries of the royal family. Yet, he ardently denounced irregularities in his own government, especially when some Ministers transferred funds from the government coffers into private hands.