Upon the end of the war, Aceval moved with his relatives to Corrientes and then to Buenos Aires, where he resumed his studies at National Central College.

After his recovery, he made a long trip through Europe and the United States, returning in 1881, and became a landowner and farmer.

His cabinet was formed by: José P. Urdapilleta, Finance; José Segundo Decoud in Foreign Affairs, Guillermo de los Rios in the Interior; Jose Zacarias Caminos, Venancio Víctor López, Geronimo Pereira Cazal, and Pedro Jose Tomas Bobadilla, Justice, Worship and Public Instruction, and Colonel Juan Antonio Escurra in War and Navy.

Paraguay also participated in the International Exhibition of Philadelphia during Aceval's presidency, and went through an epidemic of bubonic plague, which led to the creation of the Bacteriological Office.

Congress decided to appoint as his replacement then vice president, Don Hector Carballo.