Christophe takes the command.—His officers of government.—Promotes
agriculture and commerce.—Petion opposes him.—Cessation of arms
mutually agreed upon.—Christophe crowned king.—Code Henry.—Baron
de Vastey’s opinions.—Commissioners from France.—Conduct to
them.—Christophe pursues his system of government.—Petion relaxes
in his.—His offers to the British government.—State of his
dominions.—Has recourse to a debased currency.—Consequences.—His
death.—Christophe negotiates for the possession of the Spanish
part.—Revolution in his dominions.—His death.
WHEN Dessalines fell, the people seemed to consider that they were
released from the most abject and oppressive tyranny, and the event was
celebrated with the greatest demonstrations of joy; and satisfaction
and comfort were observed in the countenances of the people, whilst the
soldiers congratulated each other on being relieved from a state of
servitude almost insupportable. It was no doubt a most fortunate event
for the liberty of the people, and their exultations therefore cannot
be in the least a matter of astonishment.
There was one evil however which they had not to contend with in the
time of Dessalines, a competition for the chief command. He had kept
all in subordination by the terror of his name, none daring to oppose
him; and consequently, so long as the people attended to the duties
of their station, and remained passive observers of the measures of
his government, they were not molested; but after his death, civil war
was rekindled, and their repose much disturbed, and consequently their
avocations for a time were again partially suspended.
Christophe, who had been next in command to Dessalines, and who, during
the period of Toussaint’s sway, displayed great skill and activity at
the head of the troops under his command, and to whom was entrusted
the defence of the city of Cape François, on the arrival of the French
army under Le Clerc, now assumed the supreme command in Hayti, and from
his spirit and talent he seemed better qualified for this important
trust than any other of the officers attached to the government. At
this period he stood very high in the estimation of the people, and
his humanity, with his moral and religious conduct, had diffused a
general satisfaction and approval of his elevation. His bravery was
indisputable, as he had upon several trying occasions manifested a
degree of courage, which inspired his troops with confidence and his
country with admiration. His assumption of the supreme command was
therefore pleasing to his countrymen, who were not backward in proving
that his elevation met with their universal concurrence, and that they
looked forward for the most flourishing and happy times from an event
so auspicious.
Christophe displayed great judgment and good sense at the very
beginning of his government by calling around him men of talent, both
black and coloured, whether they had been at all times attached to
the cause of independence, or, on the contrary, had on some occasions
been ranged in opposition to it. He made no distinction; he looked for
men of abilities wherever they could be found, and he had no aversion
for even the whites (unless they were French, of whom he was always
suspicious from their intriguing characters), having several of them
near him, with whom he would often consult on matters of state policy,
and on his future views with regard to agriculture, commerce, and
matters of finance. To these persons he always paid implicit attention,
deliberated upon every subject which they thought it prudent to
suggest, and otherwise evinced a confidence in them, which in return
inspired respect for his authority and an attachment for his person.
With one of his secretaries, Mons. Dupuy, afterwards Baron Dupuy, I
have had some conversation on subjects connected with the history of
his country. He was a man of education and of great natural talents;
had acquired considerable information on matters of government, and
seemed to possess no little degree of knowledge of the politics
and views of the European cabinets. His mind was well stored with
historical information, and he was sensible of the way by which his
country was to exalt herself in the estimation of the world. He looked
upon it to be the first duty of the executive to devise plans for the
encouragement of agriculture, and for the extension of commerce; and he
left no means untried to endeavour to open an intercourse with those
countries from which there was a probability of deriving advantages,
and with England in particular, which he highly extolled. To Mons.
Dupuy, Christophe looked up with attention; and although he was a man
of colour, which, as some have insinuated, was objectionable, not one
in his suite received more attention, for there was not one who could
be more serviceable: as the chief’s interpreter too he was invaluable,
and no man could have been more faithful towards his master.
De Vastey, another of his secretaries, was also a man of strong natural
understanding, and a work described as his “Reflections on the Blacks
and Whites”, with his notes, printed at Cape Haytian, 1814, shews, that
he possessed no little acquaintance with history, and that he was not
without some knowledge of mankind in most countries, as well as of the
opinions entertained in Europe on the affairs of his country. De Vastey
is now living at the Cape in retirement, and is exceedingly attentive
to the English residents, for whom he has a very high respect and
veneration. He is a black.
Mons. Prevost, afterwards Count Limonade, and secretary for foreign
affairs, exhibited proofs of a very strong mind, and displayed
considerable knowledge in political matters, as his state papers
particularly exemplify: in him also Christophe placed great
confidence, and to him he entrusted the entire regulation of his
foreign communications; and in doing so, he shewed that he confided
in a servant of no ordinary judgment and discretion, who seemed to be
impressed with a sense of the importance of his duties, and shewed a
great desire to acquit himself to the satisfaction of his chief, and to
ensure the respect of his countrymen.
With such men as these, and one or two others, English and Americans,
Christophe generally conferred, and to their suggestions for his future
plans of governing, he generally, if not always, acceded: and it is not
a matter therefore of any surprise if the regulations with which he
commenced his career should be marked by great judgment, discretion,
and good policy.
The first step of Christophe was to assume the plain and simple
designation of “Chief of the Government of Hayti”, under which, and not
the imperial dignity, it was his determination to govern; and he made
the most prompt arrangements for immediately endeavouring to establish
a commercial understanding with Great Britain and the United States.
To effect this object he expressed the greatest anxiety to several of
the officers of the British men-of-war who frequented the port of the
Cape, and to whom he always shewed the greatest courtesy and civility.
To the Americans who were about him, and who had taken up their
residence at the Cape for the purpose of carrying on their commercial
dealings with the people, he also expressed a similar desire; and the
latter, always on the alert to communicate any thing likely to extend
the commercial intercourse of their country, immediately undertook to
transmit his wish to their government, but the proposition made to
the British did not at that time receive an immediate acquiescence.
Had it been consistent with the British colonial interests to enter
into a commercial treaty at this time, there is no doubt, I think, of
one having been concluded, which would have insured to Great Britain
privileges of trade that would not have been conceded to any other
country. Every man connected with the government, and who had any
weight with Christophe, considered it of paramount consequence that
the countenance of England should be gained, if possible, and that it
was expedient that such advantages should be offered as would induce
that power to enter into a commercial treaty with them, without at
all adverting to the effect it might produce on other powers: but
it does not appear that such measures were ever adopted, and it is
presumed, that an intimation was given from an undoubted quarter, that
no propositions could be received by the British government at that
juncture in consequence of the effect it might produce in their own
colonies. The matter, therefore, remained in suspense, and Christophe
began to turn his attention to other important measures for the
aggrandizement of his country.
His first address teemed with sentiments which did honour to the
feelings by which he was actuated. It was dated the 24th of October,
1806, and set forth the system which he intended to pursue with
respect to commerce. It proclaimed certain free ports, and that the
flag of all nations would be respected, and property protected; that
personal security was pledged; and that the odious law, passed by his
predecessor Dessalines, which established exclusive consignments in
the citizens of the country, was abrogated, and that every individual
should be privileged to place his property in the hands of his own
factor, who should have the full protection of the government.
Such regulations were productive of the greatest benefit to the
country. Americans and Europeans began to find their advantage
in trading with Hayti; and the manufactures of England, with the
provisions of the United States, began to flow into it freely, and in
quantities quite large enough for the means of the people, in return
for which they obtained the staple products of the country, and on
terms that enabled them to carry on a very beneficial and lucrative
trade. The people were not disposed for any of the extravagantly rich
manufactures of Europe; they confined themselves entirely to such
as their means would permit them to purchase, and in no case was a
system of credit resorted to; every thing was confined to barter with
foreigners, who certainly were not yet sufficiently conscious of the
rectitude and integrity of the people, to adopt a measure which was
likely to be attended with so much danger of loss. Where, therefore,
there was no credit, there was but little if any risk, and the commerce
of Hayti was, in consequence of such a system, of great advantage to
those who engaged in it, many of those who first adventured thither
realizing handsome fortunes.
Christophe had not long been at the head of the government before
a competitor for the supreme authority started up in the person of
Alexandre Petion, a mulatto, who had succeeded to the command held
by Clerveaux, after the death of that general, and was subsequently
commander-in-chief at Port au Prince. Petion was greatly respected
by the people; he was of a mild and attractive manner, and possessed
talents of a very superior order. He had been educated in France,
and served in the French armies, in which he had acquired the rank
of a field officer. He was a skilful engineer, in which capacity, it
appears, he had rendered the most essential services to Toussaint
and Dessalines, from both of whom he received the greatest marks of
attention and advancement in his military rank. He was induced to aim
at the sovereign authority at the instigation of the population of
the southern and western districts, the largest proportion of which
were persons of colour; and the blacks in the same division were much
inclined to support his claims, his general deportment and his known
talents having inspired them with confidence and esteem.
Both chiefs now began to have recourse to arms, and Christophe, who
had succeeded in many of the rencontres which had taken place, secured
the whole of the north; but on his advancing to the south, and making
an attempt on Port au Prince, he failed, returned to his seat of
government at Cape François, and began to shew a disposition towards
peace and the prosecution of those designs which he meditated for
insuring the tranquillity of his country, and promoting the happiness
of the people.
In the February following he published his new constitution, in which
the Catholic religion is declared to be the religion of the state, and
every other religion is tolerated. For the better encouragement of
commerce and an intercourse with foreigners, it is declared “that the
government solemnly guarantees the foreign merchants the security of
their persons and properties.”
He began also to make great advancement in the instruction of youth,
and contemplated the establishment of public schools, so soon as the
state of the country should be sufficiently tranquillized to enable him
to carry his intentions into effect.
In a proclamation which he subsequently issued, he dwells strongly
on the subject of agriculture, and expresses an anxiety, beyond his
ordinary solicitude, for the encouragement of that great source of
national wealth. He makes a most forcible and powerful appeal to the
people, exhorting them to an unceasing application to the culture of
the lands, by the produce of which foreigners would be attracted to
their ports, to enter into an exchange for the products of their own
countries, as well as for money, whereby their country would advance in
wealth, and themselves in happiness and prosperity. Being uninformed
as to the line of politics which foreign countries might adopt towards
them, he declared it to be his wish to remain quiet until they had made
their decision, expressing a hope only that it might be such as would
be favourable to their commerce, and tend to cement an intercourse
founded on a basis of reciprocity.
The declaration often made by Christophe, that he never would permit
an interference with the colonies of any European state, was often
questioned and never believed to be sincere; but an event occurred
which at once proved his sincerity, and called forth the approbation
of the British government. Discovering that some individuals in the
southern parts of the island were intriguing with those persons in the
island of Jamaica who were hostile to their government, he immediately
arrested them, and brought them to punishment for infringing the
declaration which he had so often made. The British government viewed
this act of Christophe in a very favourable light; and in consequence
of his integrity, it permitted an intercourse with certain ports in
Hayti, by an order of council of February, 1807. This contributed
greatly to increase the commercial views of Christophe, and became
of considerable importance to the Haytians, as well as beneficial to
British merchants.
In the year 1811, Christophe was raised to the throne, under the title
of King Henry, an act which seems to have had the approbation of the
majority, if not of the whole of his subjects who were endowed with
talents to discriminate. They were of opinion that the conversion
of the state into a monarchy suited the exigences of the times, as
more likely to make them respected abroad, and maintain their rights
at home; putting it ever out of their consideration that it was an
act only of gratitude, that they should manifest their sentiments
of attachment for one who had, through a long career of war and
desolation, rendered such important services in the cause of liberty.
The act which raised him to the throne provided also for the
establishment of the various offices of state, and made other important
arrangements for the security of the crown, declared hereditary in the
family of Christophe, all of which met with a general concurrence, and
gave the fullest satisfaction to the people.
I shall not pursue my narrative of the operations of the respective
chiefs who were now at the heads of the governments of the north and
the south, but merely notice a few circumstances which appeared most
prominent in the proceedings of each.
About the period of the elevation of Christophe to the throne of the
northern part of Hayti, a cessation of hostilities between him and his
rival took place, through, it is generally believed, the intercession
of the British government, who interposed to stop the further effusion
of blood between the two chieftains, and if possible to reconcile them
to the government of their respective divisions, without encroaching
on each other, or without again exciting that jealousy which had so
long existed between them. The application to the British government
to take upon itself directly the adjustment of their differences, and
to suggest a reconciliation on specific terms, was entrusted to the
charge of a British merchant in the confidence of Petion, who, from his
reverses, seemed to court a peace with his rival. Lord Castlereagh, the
then secretary of state for foreign affairs in England, it is believed,
declined to interfere when applied to upon the subject, the nature of
the application being such as to preclude the British cabinet taking
any part in it. Petion solicited the aid of England to preserve his
dominions against the encroachment of his rival, in return for which
he offered to place the trade of the British upon a more favourable
footing than that of any other nation: motives however of a political
urgency in the then state of the colonies of Great Britain induced
his lordship to reject the proposition; but it is understood, and I
believe generally admitted, that there was an indirect suggestion made
to Christophe to suspend hostilities, and which succeeded; for we do
not perceive that any acts of aggression were subsequently committed
by either chief. It is also true that Petion lowered the imposts on
British goods imported into his country from 12 to 7 per cent., giving
them a preference of 5 per cent. over those of other neutral nations.
Hostilities having been suspended, both these chiefs began to turn
their attention towards the improvement of their dominions, and to
use every possible effort for the encouragement of agriculture and
commerce; but they certainly pursued quite opposite courses to attain
their end; and in a few years it was evident, that the one who adopted
a system of rigid enforcement raised his country into affluence, whilst
the other who submitted to the indolent habits of his people, and was
regardless of the consequences that would ensue from too great a
supineness and inactivity, sunk it into the lowest state of poverty,
and was necessitated to resort to measures which finally proved its
ruin. I shall offer a few remarks on the respective characters of these
two individuals, by way of shewing their different ideas of the people
whom they governed, and of the most effectual way of raising their
country to wealth and prosperity.
Christophe, there is no doubt, was the most conversant with the
real character and disposition of his countrymen. He was sensibly
impressed with the idea, that to govern them, it would be requisite
and imperative to resort to strong and powerful measures, and not to
proceed by slow and easy degrees: he knew that if he were once to relax
in his authority, and permit them to pursue their own course, indolence
would become so deeply rooted, that to obtain any exertions from them
hereafter, would prove a most Herculean task, and in all probability
lay the foundation of much irritation, if not of disturbance. He was
persuaded therefore, that, before it would be possible to raise his
country in wealth and in happiness, an implicit obedience to such
regulations as he should deem adviseable, must be enforced; that if the
people were left to their own free agency, from their innate love of
indolence, nothing could be obtained from them: they would wander about
quite unconcerned for to-morrow, satisfied with that which the day
had produced. He knew that the negro race were prone to idleness and
addicted to lust and sensuality; that they were ignorant of the duties
of civilized life, and of the ties which bound them together; and it
was a matter of the first importance for the consideration of those
who were to direct the affairs of state, to devise the means by which
they should be taught their duty to their country; that idleness and
concupiscence were vices of the worst cast; and that unless an upright
and moral course were pursued, they could neither expect improvement
in their individual condition, nor advance themselves in the opinions
of mankind. To accomplish these objects, he was fully aware, or, at
all events, his advisers had made him sensible of it, would be a work
of no ordinary difficulty, and that unless obedience could be legally
exacted, and the people compelled to the performance of all civil
obligations, it would only be a waste of time to attempt to rule, or to
endeavour to place the government on a solid and permanent foundation.
With such impressions as these, Christophe and his council and advisers
set about a work, which, whatever may be said of them as legislators,
exhibits no little share of talent and judgment. His Code Henry made
its appearance in 1812; it is a digest of the laws passed for the
government of the kingdom, and seems to have provided for every class
of offences. Some of its laws are new, and others are founded upon the
laws of his predecessors, with such judicious curtailments or additions
as circumstances seemed to require. Those of agriculture and commerce
are decidedly such as were in force in the time of Toussaint and
Dessalines; and as they were effectual, and tended highly to augment
those sources of national wealth, it displayed great discernment and
discretion in Christophe to adopt them as part of his code.
With this shield for the executive administration of the government,
Christophe began to exact a due observance of all those measures
likely to be beneficial to his country. He enforced attention to
agriculture, encouraged commerce with foreigners, whom he led to his
ports by extensive purchases of their commodities to supply the wants
of his government, and he made rapid strides towards the advancement
of education by establishing schools for the instruction of youth,
and by inviting men of learning and talents from all countries, for
the purpose of presiding at the head of the institutions which he had
formed for the promotion of science. His regulations unquestionably
display sound views of policy, which ought to have ensured the welfare
of the country, together with the security and happiness of its people.
It has been often asserted that the negroes are as capable of receiving
instruction in morality, religion, and every branch of science, as
the people of any other nation or colour. This I shall not attempt
to deny; but it may not be improper to say that very few instances
have yet been adduced to support such a theory, and that Hayti is
an illustration of the contrary being the fact; for with all the
advantages, with all the opportunities which Christophe afforded his
people to improve their minds, and to seek for knowledge in the various
branches of science, very few indeed have been found who have raised
themselves above mediocrity, whilst thousands have been found incapable
of tuition, or have rejected instruction altogether.
Mazeres, in speaking of them, says, “The negro is only a grown child,
shallow, light, fickle, thoughtless, neither keenly sensible of joy or
of sorrow, improvident, without resources in his spirits or his soul.
Careless, like other sluggards; rest, singing, his women, and his
dress form the contracted limits of his taste. I say nothing of his
affections, for affections, properly so called, are too strong for a
soul so soft, so inactive as his.”[6]
On the subject of public instruction, which, the same writer contends,
can never be introduced into Hayti, because there cannot be found
people to comprehend its true virtues, he says, “There cannot be
found throughout the dominions of Christophe ten men who can read
fluently; and there certainly cannot be found one sufficiently learned
to comprehend the meaning of the words military tactics, geography,
mathematics, fortification, &c.”
Mazeres is certainly not altogether wrong; his observations in the
first paragraph are correct, with the exception of his opinion of
the affections of the negro. It must, I think, be admitted that the
affections of the negro race are somewhat warm and unalloyed; and in
no instance are they so feelingly illustrated as in the solicitude
evinced by the negro for his offspring. To his children his attachment
is strong and unalienable; and he displays it on leaving his home with
the greatest fervour, and on his return with every mark of gratitude
and joy. Mazeres would wish to sink the affections of the negro to
a condition below the instinct of the brute creation; but that he
is wrong I can pronounce from experience, not only in Hayti, but in
other quarters in which that species of the human race exists. In
his second paragraph, he has gone too far in saying, not “ten men
can read fluently”; but if he had asserted that, at the period of
the revolution, when the first acts of rebellion commenced, a few
only could “read fluently,” I think he would not have been wrong,
for I do not find that among the blacks, at that period, any were
at all learned, or had any skill or knowledge in those branches of
science which he particularizes. This is exemplified in Toussaint,
Dessalines, and Christophe, not one of whom, at the commencement
of the struggle, had been instructed in even the common branches of
education. Dessalines in particular could neither read nor write, with
the simple exception of signing his name. All the three chiefs were
indebted to foreigners for the elegant style of language in which
their proclamations were written; and it is too great a stretch of
vanity and egotism to attribute them to the citizens of the country,
when it is so notorious that most of those papers which issued from
the bureau of Christophe, and from the bureau of Count Limonade, were
written by Europeans, whom the former had admitted into his confidence,
and who were consulted by the latter on all occasions of importance.
Baron Dupuy was doubtless a man well qualified for the office he held
as secretary to the king (Christophe), and to whom has been given
the credit of many of the state papers of his sable majesty, and I
know that such a compliment is no more than what is justly due to
his talents; but were he present, he would declare that he derived
the highest possible assistance, in his productions, from one or two
foreigners who were acquainted with the technicalities of official
correspondence, to which the Baron had not been accustomed, and who
therefore generally undertook to correct any part of it that required
such labour.
Baron de Vastey, who is a warm advocate for the genius and talents of
his countrymen, and exceedingly severe upon the opinion of Mazeres,
says, “See the grown children planning the construction of impregnable
fortresses, building palaces, calculating almanacks, possessing
black writers, poets, and ministers of state.” Now I really have not
been able to discover where these impregnable fortresses, planned by
Haytians, are to be found. I believe that when the Baron wrote there
was not one single fortification erected from the design of a Haytian;
they were the old works of the French repaired, where such repairs were
wanted. The Citadel Henry, or Fort Ferrier, is the only new fortress
of which I have heard, and that was not constructed from the design of
a Haytian, but from the plan of a British officer, from whom it takes
one of its appellations, Ferrier. The same thing is true with respect
to the palace Sans Souci. The only merit to which the Haytians can lay
claim, in the erection of these works, is the preparing the materials,
and the labour of carrying them to the spot on which they are built:
for the whole of those materials for building which could not be
obtained on the spot, were carried from other parts on the shoulders
of the people, and Christophe compelled blacks and browns, young and
old, boys and girls, of all ages and denominations of citizens, to
perform that labour which ought to have been performed by brutes.
Young and interesting girls were to be seen carrying bricks or boards
up the mountains, almost ready to sink under their loads, followed by
soldiers with fixed bayonets or the sabre; but on this subject both
De Vastey and Prince Saunders are silent. As to writers and poets, I
have only heard of those now mentioned, De Vastey and Larnders, except
Chandlatte, Count de Roziers, who, I imagine, being something of
poet-laureate to the king, governor-general of the play-house, prepared
pieces for representation, teeming with the most fulsome compliments to
the monarch’s virtues, and wrote sonnets to the peerless beauties of
the queen and the princesses. Here, I believe, ends the catalogue of
architects, poets, and writers of Hayti; and unless the Baron de Vastey
can adduce other proofs of Haytian capacities, I must be excused if
I still remain sceptical. I must wait to see what time and a further
intercourse with the world will accomplish; at present but little of
that improvement manifests itself which has been the subject of so much
praise and admiration. That the people of Hayti should improve, and
that society should become refined, I confess I wish may be realized,
but at this moment it is very distant from it.
Christophe was particularly anxious to improve the face of his country,
by making every exertion to divest it of all those appearances of
dilapidation effected during the war; and by commanding all the
nobility, and persons attached to the state, to erect magnificent
houses on their estates, and otherwise to ornament the plantations in
the vicinity of their residences, so as to give the whole an air of
grandeur equal, if not superior, to former times; but in this he did
not succeed, except in a few instances, the poverty of the people who
had been raised to their new dignities, putting it out of their power
to comply with his demand.
After the fall of Bonaparte in 1814, the ministers of Louis XVIII.
sent out commissioners to Hayti to try what could be accomplished by
a negotiation with the two chiefs on the subject of the admission
of France to the sovereignty of the island. By these emissaries an
indirect menace was held out, forgetting that by harsh measures no
good could be done. De Medina, who was the commissioner deputed to
Christophe, had served in the army of Toussaint, and afterwards
betrayed his cause and joined Le Clerc. Such an individual was
an object of considerable suspicion to Christophe, and from some
irregularity which ensued respecting the credentials of Medina, he was
arrested, and his papers seized. On the examination of the papers, it
was discovered that his aim was to excite insurrection and disorder
among the people, and endeavour to prevail upon them to recognize Louis
XVIII. as their sovereign, that monarch assuring them of his paternal
solicitude, and of his pledge that they should retain their property
and military rank.
Christophe brought Medina to trial, and he was found guilty by a
military tribunal of the charges which had been alleged against him.
He was committed to the prison of the Cape, and it was said died in
confinement; but no accounts were given afterwards respecting him, or
of the fate which befell him.
Monsieur Lavaysse, who seems to have been the chief commissioner, and
who had at the same time proceeded to Port au Prince, for the purpose
of carrying on a similar negociation with Petion, met with no better
success,—except that having been more cautious he avoided the fate of
Medina,—as that chief was well informed of the nature of his mission,
and was prepared to give a decided negative to the propositions of the
French crown; and the rejection of his proposals was conveyed to M.
Lavaysse in a way very flattering to him, nothing being evinced like
the passion or violence exhibited by Christophe during the progress of
these negociations.
I happened to be in Jamaica at the time of the arrival of the French
commissioners, who touched there on their passage for Hayti; and I was
often in company with Lavaysse after his return from his unsuccessful
mission, and I heard him speak in high terms of the conduct of
Petion for promptness and decision, whilst he was warm against the
harshness of Christophe. This however might have emanated from the
former offering to the French a pecuniary indemnity for his dominions,
although he would not recognize France as having the sovereignty;
whilst Christophe would receive no proposals from France on the one
hand, nor would he submit to any claim for pecuniary compensation on
the other.
After the failure of this mission, the French king declared officially
that Monsieur Lavaysse had exceeded the power which had been delegated
to him; but such a disavowal had no effect on the people, who were more
determined than ever to resist the admission of French influence into
the country. Other attempts were afterwards made, and commissioners
were appointed to proceed to Hayti, with powers from the king of
France; but although they proceeded round the island, and sent letters
on shore at different places, yet they received no attention, and
consequently they thought it advisable to give up the object of their
mission as impracticable; and I believe no attempt was afterwards made
during the sway of either of these chiefs.
As Hayti might then be considered perfectly secure of her independence,
and as a strong feeling pervaded the people of the north as well as
the south against the French, the two governments, although there had
not been any relations of amity established between them, proceeded in
the work of civilization and general improvement in their divisions,
without being apprehensive that their tranquillity would be interrupted
by the encroachments of either. Christophe was unquestionably, as has
been before observed, better qualified than his rival to govern a
people like the Haytians, from his being naturally of a determined
and resolute temper, and not to be alarmed by the consequences of his
measures, however tyrannical, harsh, or oppressive; and therefore,
aided as he was by men of capacity, he enforced so rigid a system of
government, and exacted from the people so complete a submission to
his will, that the north, over which he reigned, presented an aspect
of affairs quite different from that of the south. Agriculture was
smiling, the produce of the soil increasing considerably, whilst
commerce was making rapid progress, and bidding fair to become
equally advantageous to the state. Both contributed to the revenue,
making it sufficiently ample for all the exigences of government, and
consequently there were no calls upon the people of any importance in
the way of taxation.
The government of Petion, on the other hand, relapsed into a system
of relaxation which subsequently proved the bane of his country, and
ultimately brought upon him all those unhappy difficulties which
he experienced previously to his death. After he had permitted his
people to follow their own indolent inclinations, and indulge in the
propensities inherent in the negro race, he found it impossible to
prosecute measures for the advancement of the wealth and prosperity
of his country similar to those which his rival had so successfully
pursued. Agriculture had sunk to the lowest possible ebb, the
cultivators being allowed to follow their own inclinations. Instead
therefore of industry and a spirit of emulation displaying itself
through his dominions, scarcely any thing was to be seen but men and
their families indulging in idleness, and in those lusts and vices
which could only entail wretchedness on themselves, and poverty on
their country.
Although Petion had laws, doubtless, by which he might have enforced
from the people the cultivation of the soil, and prevented them leaving
their plantations, except on those days particularly enumerated,
yet he never seems to have attended to the spirit of the laws and
have insisted upon their due execution, but simply to have contented
himself with the mere letter, without in the least reflecting on the
serious consequences that would inevitably flow from his want of
that resolution and decision which formed so prominent a feature in
the character of Christophe. The mild and soft disposition of Petion
disqualified him to be the head of such a rude and untaught people as
those over whom he was appointed to preside. Far from possessing the
unrelaxing and unrelenting temper of his rival, he was kind, indulgent,
and humane. Over a country so disorganized, and over a people so prone
to every vicious propensity, and regardless of their own as well as
the public good, a man of more nerve, and not so sensible to the
finer feelings of our nature, would have been better calculated for
governing than President Petion, who, in the language of a writer
on his country, was said to be “of a sensible and humane character;
tutored in the schools of Europe, his mind has received an expansion
that fits him for the helm of government, and his exterior an address
that would distinguish him in a court. Ill suited perhaps to witness
scenes to which his station as a military commander exposes him in the
field of battle, the tear of sensibility often bedews his cheek at the
sight of slaughter, and though brave, enterprising, and bold, he values
more the responsive glow of a humane act than the crimsoned laurel he
has plucked from the brow of his adversary. He sighs at the purchase of
victory with the sacrifice of those subjects whom he loves: in short,
nothing can be more descriptive of his peculiar virtues than the motto
of an English artist at the foot of his portrait—‘Il n’a jamais fait
couler les larmes de personne.’”[7]
The character given of Petion by Mr. Walton, I have heard confirmed by
all classes of people in Hayti, and by those who are well versed in
the dispositions of their countrymen; whilst admitting it, however,
they were not backward in expressing their opinion that he was of
too easy and too lenient a temper to enforce those measures which
the exigences of the government so loudly and imperatively called
for. Through such leniency and indulgence, therefore, his country
relaxed to an alarming degree in both agriculture and commerce, and
he was driven, for the purpose of supplying the wants of government,
to means which, although they brought temporary relief, were finally
most baneful and ruinous. The revenue arising from the produce of the
soil was small, from his not enforcing the culture of it to that extent
which he might have done, considering the strength of the population;
and the imposts on foreign manufactures fell infinitely below his
estimation, from the reduction of the duties on British goods, and from
the little encouragement given to foreigners by the diminished means
of the people to purchase their commodities. Had he pursued the same
coercive system which his rival Christophe adopted; had he compelled
his people to cultivate their lands, by which his means of export would
have been much increased; and had he enforced from the proprietors of
the soil a strict attention to its cultivation, instead of allowing
them to indulge in the most sensual appetites which can disgust our
feelings, he would have aggrandized his country, and have raised it to
the summit of affluence and prosperity. Had he taught the people to
know artificial wants, and encouraged a desire for luxuries, he would
have increased the resources of his country, and the burthens of the
people would not have been heavier. The means for supporting the state
would have been indirect, and consequently would not have excited
any discontent; which his successor has experienced in no ordinary
a degree. From these sources, therefore, forming, as I believe they
do, the principal sources of revenue in all countries, he obtained
much less than the extent of his dominions led him to anticipate, and
consequently he became greatly involved, and was necessitated to devise
other means of supporting his government.
The first thing which was suggested was a fictitious or debased
currency, which in the opinions of most people is very little better
than swindling under the sanction of government; especially a
government like that of Petion, reduced to so low an ebb as to have
been without a dollar in its treasury, and without any ostensible
means of bettering its miserable condition, or adding to its pecuniary
means. Every country has probably a fictitious circulating medium, and
I shall not condemn it, or question its propriety, when the country is
capable of redeeming it at any specific period, or at its pleasure:
but when a country like Hayti has recourse to a debased currency,
it is very little better than an imposition. Petion was without the
means of raising money, even upon the demesnes of government, for the
exigences of the state, so that it was impossible for him to hold out
any security to the people, that his fictitious coin would be called
in at any distant period, unless he did so at a very large discount.
He issued in the first instance three millions of dollars in value in
pieces of metal, a composition of about nineteen parts of tin and one
part silver, and subsequently a further issue of a million of dollars
in value. This measure of temporary relief proved a serious injury to
his country, for it not only enabled him to carry on the business of
his government for a time without any calls on the people, which, in
its then impoverished condition, was exceedingly improvident, but it
was the occasion of a great consternation among the foreign merchants
whom he had induced to settle in his dominions, and who from great
apprehension of the consequences began to look around them and to
confine their commercial operations within very contracted limits.
They lost their confidence in the stability of the government, and
consequently, as their importations gradually fell off, the revenue
fell infinitely short of the anticipated returns.
He commenced also another system, which proved exceedingly injurious
to his finances, and I cannot see how he could have contemplated
any other result. For the encouragement of the agriculturists, the
government, whenever the price of the several products were low,
bought very largely of some of them, for the purpose of raising their
value, by which impolitic measure, they not only lost considerably by
their trading system, but it had a most pernicious effect in driving
foreigners out of the market, who would always cease to buy the
moment the government attempted to raise the market value beyond what
the value in the European markets warranted. Of these speculations of
the government I had some little knowledge in my mercantile capacity
in Jamaica, for it was through that island that most of Petion’s
government produce found its way to England; and on the estimated
value of it, very large sums in specie were sent to Port au Prince
from Jamaica, the moment the proper documents of its being shipped
were received. These measures of the government were exceedingly
injudicious, for it raised the price of their products so much above
the European markets, that the foreign merchants could not think
of touching them; and it finally proved the most injurious system
that could ever have been devised for upholding the exigences of any
government. Had he enforced those laws which had been passed for the
cultivation of the soil, and put all the estates of the government into
tillage, and conducted them upon a judicious principle of management,
as his rival Christophe had done in the north, all his wants would
have been supplied, the distresses under which he daily laboured would
have been averted, and his treasury, like Christophe’s, would have
been always liberally replenished, without obliging him to resort to
ways and means which proved in the end so injurious to him. It is
therefore evident that Petion was not calculated to govern a people
like the Haytians. His mildness of temper would never allow him to
adopt coercive measures to raise his country to opulence; he restrained
those who were disposed to insist on the cultivators doing their duty
as pointed out by the law for the encouragement of agriculture.
To this Christophe was the very reverse, for he not only called upon
the magistrates and other officers to see the law for the cultivation
of the soil rigidly executed, and take into custody all those who
committed the least breach, but, daily accompanied by his staff, he
absolutely rode personally to different parts to ascertain whether the
cultivators were doing their duty. He well knew those whom he had to
govern, and also that were he once to allow them to give way to their
love for indolence, it would in time become invincible, and therefore
he adhered to the old rule, that a preventive is better than a cure.
The consequences were, that from his system of coercion the calls of
his government were provided for, the people individually advanced
in wealth and security, and the cultivators, who would otherwise
have been in a state of sloth and misery, disease and wretchedness,
lived well, and were contented. The condition of cultivators under
Petion’s mild government, and under whom there was no such thing as
coercion, presented a striking and instructive contrast; indolent and
unconcerned, they passed their time like animals without the least
exertion, and without a thought beyond the supply of their immediate
wants; and those wants being provided for, they again sunk into
apathy and indifference. Lust and every vicious propensity obtained
an unlimited sway over them, and to feed their sensual appetites and
satiate their brutal passions seemed to form the only object which they
studied. Disease became prevalent, poverty accompanied it in all its
ravages, and a more wretched, miserable race of human beings could not
have been selected than might be seen in different parts of the country
over which the sensible and humane Petion ruled.
This was the state of the country over which Petion presided previously
to his death, which lamentable event took place on the 29th of
March, 1818, after an illness of no long duration, but attended with
circumstances that excited the greatest sympathy for his sufferings.
It was generally admitted that the state of his country had produced
an extraordinary depression of spirits, which no exertions of his
most intimate friends could remove. Medical aid became unavailing, he
lingered, but without, it appears, enduring any pain, and at last sunk
under the weight of accumulated distress of mind, brought on by the
deranged state of his finances and the impoverished condition of his
country. Petion was undoubtedly a good man, and greatly beloved by his
people, who valued him for his mild and inoffensive manners, and for
the courtly and unassuming conduct which he always manifested to every
one who approached him. The day on which he died the people assembled
in the square opposite to the government-house, waiting with the most
painful anxiety to learn if all hopes of his recovery had vanished, and
towards twelve o’clock at night, when the gun fired to announce that he
was no more, the cries and moans of all classes were heard through the
different streets as they were verging towards the square.
This was not the most dreadful part, nor that which excited the
greatest anxiety; those inhabitants who had experienced the changes
which had taken place during the time of Dessalines, and had seen
the massacres of that wretch, began to fear a similar catastrophe
during the interregnum, from the rude state of the negro population,
from their relaxed state of morals, and from a spirit of ungovernable
insubordination, fostered by the ill-judged mildness and leniency
of the late President. The foreign merchants were alarmed, and
apprehensive also of confusion as well as the probability of the
destruction of their property; their fears in this respect were
however fortunately unfounded, as nothing occurred which indicated
the least disposition towards hostility and molestation. Petion had
designed Boyer for his successor, who was immediately after his decease
accordingly declared President in the customary form, and took upon
himself the administration of the government.
At the death of Petion, Christophe indicated no wish to interfere with
the election of Boyer, who preserved the tranquillity of his dominions.
Christophe was still pursuing his system of aggrandizement, and had
realized a very large sum of money in his treasury, with which he
contemplated the purchase of the Spanish territory and to annex it
to his dominions; and for this purpose he had actually commenced a
negotiation through the agency of some powerful individuals in London.
This design unquestionably evinced great judgment, for it would have
given him a decided superiority over the southern government, and he
could have menaced all their points, and having a larger force would
have been able to make considerable impression on their principal posts
of defence; but his death, which took place in October 1820, put an
end to the negotiation, and established the union between the north
and south, uniting them in one government, designated “The Republic of
Hayti.”
The system pursued by Christophe had become too despotic for the
people; exceeding the bounds of prudence, his ambition had no limits,
and his tyranny and oppression became at last so insupportable that
neither the people nor his troops would any longer submit to his power
and caprice. A revolution ensued which began with the revolt of the
garrison of St. Marc, the commandant of which sent a courier to Boyer
to inform him of the event, and of the wish of the people to place
themselves under his government. Shortly after, the city of Cape
Haytian followed the example, and the troops were preparing to march
against Christophe who was confined by sickness at Sans Souci. His
guards now revolted, and finding all chance of escape impossible, he
shot himself with a pistol in his own chamber. His sons were killed
by the troops, as well as several of his officers of state who were
obnoxious to the people and the soldiers. His eldest son, it was said,
exhibited the most abject submission, and begged them to save his
life; whilst his youngest defended himself with great heroism, killing
several of the soldiers, but was at last cut down and shockingly
mangled.
His wife and daughters were spared through the interference of Boyer,
who sent them to Port au Prince by water, with instructions that they
should be particularly protected, and not disturbed by the citizens;
and after his return to the city, permission was given them to leave
the country, which they accepted, and sailed for England, where they
were received, by those persons who were admirers of Christophe, with
some respect and attention. A small estate was secured to them, and
Madame Christophe’s jewels, which were valuable, were restored to her,
and I have reason to believe that she is in possession of an income
which, although not splendid, is quite enough for the purposes of
genteel life. She was considered a good and humane woman, and often
softened the anger of her husband, who was addicted to sudden gusts
of passion, and to the infliction of punishment with unjust severity.
But notwithstanding his impetuosity of temper, he was the only man
who was competent to preside over a people in the state of ignorance
in which his subjects were. He not only possessed the discernment
necessary to discriminate between that which was advantageous to his
country and that which was injurious to his interest, but he had the
courage and resolution to enforce the one and prevent the other. Had
Christophe lived he would have raised his country in affluence and
in civilization, but his death has sunk the former, and retarded
the latter; and the people, now left to pursue with an unlimited
range their own propensities, will dwindle again into that condition
of ignorance which is characteristic of the early periods of the
revolution.