As Secretary of the Treasury, he established liberty of industry and the decentralization of the provincial revenues, and thus prepared the way for the future federal institutions. At the same time, he defended the administration in the press, and initiated the greater part of the progressive reforms that were established by it, such as the abolition of slavery, abolition of the death penalty for political crimes and abolition of several fiscal monopolies. He advocated liberty of the press, and the reform of the civil code.