State president (governor) Raul Fernandes, sworn in on 31 December 1922 at the Ingá Palace, in Niterói, was being challenged by a parallel government led by Feliciano Sodré.

The opposition did not control the public political machine nor the state's budget, but it counted on the strong arm of the federal government — the same one that Peçanha used against his opponents in Rio de Janeiro in 1910 and 1914.

The possibility of a federal intervention hovered over Nilism for months, attracting attention in the press, against the backdrop of the state of emergency in force since the Copacabana Fort revolt.

Raul Fernandes took office as governor guaranteed by a writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Federal Court (STF), with security provided by the Brazilian Army.

Violence spread throughout the state's countryside, in which oppositionists and police officers from the Federal District removed mayors, city councillors and other authorities, installing municipal governments loyal to Feliciano Sodré.

[4] Its economy and number of Congress members were still sufficient to rank it as a second-tier power in the First Brazilian Republic, inferior to São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul.

In 1914, Peçanha personally ran against Feliciano Sodré and requested a writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to take office.

[19][20] The state deputies elected in December 1921 would be sworn in by the Legislative Assembly on 17 July through a Powers Verification Commission appointed by the president of the previous legislature.

[21] Feliciano Sodré, Horácio de Magalhães and Manoel Duarte, at the head of the candidates' delegation, were physically prevented from climbing the stairs of the building.

[22] The delegation went to the Niterói City Council session room, with the support of mayor Teixeira Leomil and allied councillors, and began legislative work on their own.

[29] In August, Bernardes wrote to Afrânio de Melo Franco: "how great is the mistake of our friends in the State of Rio, remaining divided, at this time, by disputes or personal rivalries".

[36] On the 23rd, Levi Carneiro and Assis Chateaubriand wrote a petition for habeas corpus (number 8,800) to the Supreme Court in favor of the inauguration of Raul Fernandes and Artur Costa.

The federal government had not recognized Artur Costa's assembly and threatened to "give a strong hand to the petitioners' political opponents, restricting their rights".

"[38] Carneiro and Chateaubriand legitimized Artur Costa's assembly, as, among other contacts, it maintained relations with the federal ministers of Justice, War, Finance and Foreign Affairs and representatives of the governments of São Paulo, Paraná and Santa Catarina.

Almeida argued that Rio de Janeiro's Executive and Legislative, were leaderless on both sides and thus the next in the line of succession, the president of the Court of Appeals, should take over.

[46] By six votes against five, the STF granted the writ of habeas corpus on 27 December, despite protests from the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Pires de Albuquerque, for whom federal intervention was a political act and therefore within the jurisdiction of Congress and not of the Judiciary.

[54] On the 9th, "twenty-one municipalities have already joined the Sodré government", including Petrópolis, Itaboraí, Teresópolis, Bom Jardim, Saquarema, Macaé, Cabo Frio and Madalena.

[55] Raul Fernandes wanted the support of the Judiciary so as not to fall into the trap of a violent confrontation, which would justify federal intervention, and therefore ordered the local authorities not to resist.

[57] In the Sodresist version of the facts, those who deposed the authorities were the "respective populations", due to the "heat of passions",[58] in a popular movement of "dignifying civics", according to Norival Freitas.

[60] The vast majority of telegrams from municipal authorities to Raul Fernandes reported the participation of federal agents, usually occupying the local police stations and prisons.

[61] Historians such as Hélio Silva,[50] Marieta de Moraes Ferreira,[45] and Edgard Carone[b] support the participation of federal agents in the depositions.

The mayor of that city described the violence:[61] a group of Federal District Police agents, arriving in this city by today's express [train], as soon as they disembarked, with weapons in hand, joined a group of major Feliciano Sodré's supporters and immediately attacked status quo friends who were close to the Leopoldina station, injuring a father and immediately attacking the public prison, where there was no resistance, as there was only two soldiers deployed.

The public force, free from the excesses of provocative authorities and reinforced by the dedication of worthy and respected men, allows the certainty that absolutely nothing will disturb the life and tranquility of the city.

However, they did nothing to defend the mayors and councilors, as judge Roussoulières understood that the protection granted by habeas corpus only extended to delegates of state power.

Justice Hermínio Francisco do Espírito Santo, president of the STF, called on Roussoulières to prevent municipal depositions and the "anarchy resulting from a de facto duality that is being established there and that would not have been possible if the ruling of this Court had been complied with".

According to minister Hermenegildo de Barros, the president of the STF revoked his previous order after a meeting with Artur Bernardes at the Catete Palace.

Captain Cavalcanti, Raul Fernandes' military assistant, was arrested for three days on the orders of the Federal District police chief, marshal Carneiro da Fontoura.

[55] According to Julião de Castro, before this maneuver, the officers most loyal to Nilism were called to testify in a police investigation, facilitating the co-optation of the rest of them.

In Rio Grande do Sul, federal intermediation at the end of the 1923 civil war prohibited the re-election of Borges de Medeiros and incorporated him into the government support base.

[79] Afonso Arinos, a critic of the decisions, cited documents from November 1921 as evidence of a plan to overthrow Nilo Peçanha: three legal opinions against the validity of the elections in Rio de Janeiro.