[1] He supported public education, was an abolitionist and suggested that a new national capital be created in Brazil's underdeveloped interior (effected over a century later as Brasília).

In 1800, Bonifácio was appointed professor of geology at Coimbra, and soon after inspector-general of the Portuguese mines; and in 1812 he was made perpetual secretary of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

Returning to the Brazil in 1819, he urged prince regent Pedro to resist the recall of the Lisbon court, and was appointed one of his ministers in 1821.

When the independence of Brazil was declared, Bonifácio became minister of the interior and of foreign affairs; and when it was established, he was again elected by the Constituent Assembly.

He also was the first to discover another important lithium-containing mineral, spodumene, from the same source, the island of Utö in the Stockholm Archipelago of Sweden.

Bonifácio graduated with degrees in Law and Natural Philosophy from the University of Coimbra, he joined the Lisbon Academy Sciences.

On the dissolution of the Assembly in November (the Night of Agony), he was arrested and banished to France, where he lived in exile near Bordeaux until 1829, when he was permitted to return to Brazil.

After being again arrested in 1833 and tried for intriguing on behalf of Dom Pedro I, he passed the rest of his days in retirement at the city of Niterói.