With the elevation of the São Sebastião to the status of municipality, he was elected secretary for the municipal chamber in 1822. It was also in this year that the new Portuguese constitutional framework would establish a liberal form of government. In the following year, the Vila-Francada in Portugal (1823) ushered in political persecution of constitutionalists, in which Terceira was not immune. Francisco Ferreira, as with others, saw themselves forced to escape, on 27 July, to the island of Santa Maria, then São Miguel and Madeira, eventually terminating in Lisbon, where he remained exiled for less than a year. With the failure of Prince Miguel's Abrilada rebellion (30 April 1824), Francisco was able to return to Terceira. From there he participated in the struggles of the Portuguese Civil War (1828–1834), which he later described in the "Anais da Ilha Terceira".