Despite being an active figure during the first half of King Miguel's reign, Macedo was imprisoned during the latter years of that period, specifically from 1831 to 1833. It is therefore fitting that he stated in a speech from 1838 that in 1831, "the Academy, orphaned of some of its members, imprisoned in dungeons, banished, and dispersed, was slowly moving towards gradual starvation and eventual dissolution.” («Discurso recitado na sessão pública de 15 de Maio de 1838» [Speech presented at the public session of 15 May 1838], in História e Memórias... , t. XII, 1839, p. XI). Costa de Macedo only became truly prominent in the affairs of the Academy in 1834 when he was appointed its perpetual secretary. From 1819 to 1834, no published texts by Macedo are known to exist. However, during the 1830s to 1850s, around 15 works were published, which can be described as follows:

The Aditamentos à primeira parte da Memória, sobre as verdadeiras épocas em que principiaram as nossas navegações e descobrimentos no oceano Atlântico [Additions to the first part of the Memoir, on the true period when our navigations and discoveries in the Atlantic Ocean began], presented at the academic session of 8 April 1835 (following the writings from 1819); the Memória em que se pretende provar, que os árabes não conheceram as Canárias antes dos portugueses [A memoir that aims to prove that the Arabs did not discover the Canary islands before the Portuguese], presented at the academic sessions of 13 July 1842 and after that date; and the work entitled "Sobre o estado da navegação dos árabes nos tempos próximos ao Islamismo, e sobre a invasão dos mesmos árabes na Espanha" [On the state of navigation of the Arabs in the days close to Islam, and on the invasion of those Arabs in Spain].

The circumstantial speeches delivered from 1834 to 1854 are valuable for documenting the internationalisation of the Academy, the initial efforts to attract members from foreign academic communities, the movement to exchange collective bibliographies of foreign societies and authors for national volumes, and the shifts in historiographical perspectives.

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