America during the remaining period of the war was of essential
consequence, and its conduct toward them since the peace has not
weakened its title to their patronage and favor. So far its pretensions
to the character of a national bank are respectable, but there are
circumstances which militate against them and considerations which
indicate the propriety of an establishment on different principles.
"The directors of this bank, on behalf of their constituents, have since
acted under a new charter from the State of Pennsylvania, materially
variant from their original one, and which so narrows the foundation of
the institution as to render it an incompetent basis for the extensive
purposes of a national bank.
"There is nothing in the acts of Congress which implies an exclusive
right in the institution to which they relate, except during the time of
the war. There is, therefore, nothing, if the public good require it,
which prevents the establishment of another. It may, however, be
incidentally remarked that in the general opinion of the citizens of the
United States, the Bank of North America has taken the station of a bank
of Pennsylvania only. This is a strong argument for a new institution,
or for a renovation of the old, to restore it to the situation in which
it originally stood in the view of the United States. But--there may be
room to allege that the Government of the United States ought not, in
point of candor or equity, to establish any rival or interfering
institution in prejudice of the one already established, especially as
this has, from services rendered, well-founded claims to protection and
regard.
"The justice of this observation ought, within proper bounds, to be
admitted. A new establishment of the sort ought not to be made without
cogent and sincere reasons of public good. And in the manner of doing it
every facility should be given to a consolidation of the old with the
new, upon terms not injurious to the parties concerned. But there is no
ground to maintain that in a case in which the Government has made no
condition restricting its authority, it ought voluntarily to restrict
it, through regard to the interests of a particular institution, when
those of the State dictate a different course; especially, too, after
such circumstances have intervened as characterize the actual situation
of the Bank of North America.
"If the objections, which have been stated, to the constitution of the
Bank of North America are admitted to be well founded, they,
nevertheless, will not derogate from the merit of the main design, or of
the services which that bank has rendered, or of the benefits which it
has produced. The creation of such an institution, at the time it took
place, was a measure dictated by wisdom. Its utility has been amply
evinced by its fruits. American independence owes much to it.
"The Secretary begs leave to conclude with this general observation,
that if the Bank of North America shall come forward with any
propositions which have for their object the ingrafting upon that
institution the characteristics which shall appear to the Legislature
necessary to the due extent and safety of a national bank, there are, in
his judgment, weighty inducements to giving every reasonable facility to
the measure. Not only the pretensions of that institution, from its
original relation to the Government of the United States, and from the
services it has rendered, are such as to claim a disposition favorable
to it, if those who are interested in it are willing, on their part, to
place it on a footing satisfactory to the Government and equal to the
purposes of a bank of the United States; but its cooperation would
naturally accelerate the accomplishment of the great object, and the
collision, which might otherwise arise, might, in a variety of ways,
prove equally disagreeable and injurious. The incorporation and union
here contemplated may be effected in different modes, under the auspices
of an act of the United States, if it shall be desired, by the Bank of
North America, upon terms which shall appear expedient to the
Government."
As far as can be ascertained, however, the management of the bank took
no steps in accordance with the suggestions of the report. The quiet and
prosperous business in which they were engaged, under State auspices,
was to them preferable to the anxieties and hazards which would probably
attend the new national undertaking; the scheme of a separate
institution was, therefore, rapidly pushed forward, and on February 19,
1791, the first Bank of the United States began its corporate existence.
The Bank of North America now sustained a serious loss in the
resignation of its president, Mr. Willing, on January 9, 1792, after a
term of service extending over a little more than ten years. He had been
chosen to preside over the affairs of the Bank of the United States, a
station for which it was justly supposed that his talents and experience
eminently qualified him. He was succeeded in office by John Nixon, an
almost equally well-known and respected citizen. Born in 1733 of Irish
parentage, Mr. Nixon for a number of years did a prosperous business in
the city of Philadelphia. He was one of the many signers of the
Non-importation Resolutions, and upon the breaking out of the Revolution
made himself prominent by his strenuous efforts and warm interest in the
national cause. He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and had the
honor of first proclaiming to the citizens of Philadelphia the
Declaration of Independence. During some portion of the war he did
active service, with the rank of colonel, in the Continental Army. He
was one of the original subscribers to the bank, and had been a director
since 1784. He retained the office of president for seventeen years
until his death, which occurred on December 24, 1808.
Meantime the business of the bank was rapidly increasing as the commerce
of the country grew. The profits were so great that annual dividends of
12 per cent. were paid to the various stockholders. Nor did the
institution cease to accommodate the public from time to time with loans
of considerable extent. During the year 1791 the bank advanced to the
Commonwealth, at different times, in all one hundred sixty thousand
dollars, and in the following year something over fifty-three thousand
dollars.
NEGRO REVOLUTION IN HAITI
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE ESTABLISHES THE DOMINION OF HIS RACE
A.D. 1791
CHARLES WYLLYS ELLIOTT
Haiti, the Spanish Santo Domingo, earlier called Espanola,
is the largest of the West Indian islands except Cuba. The
bloody revolutionary and slave revolts which began in 1791
and ended in the supremacy of the negroes, form the most
memorable passages in its history. From 1797 their great
leader, Toussaint Louverture, whose achievements are here
recounted, was Governor of the whole island, whose
independence he proclaimed in 1801. Having afterward opposed
Napoleon's attempt to reestablish slavery, Toussaint was
treacherously arrested and sent to France, where, in a
dungeon, he died in 1803. But white supremacy was never
restored in Haiti.
In 1697 France, by treaty, acquired the western part of the
island, the eastern portion remaining in the possession of
Spain, which had held it ever since its discovery by
Columbus. The French found their Haitian lands very
profitable in cotton and sugar, and the western region
prospered, while the Spanish community was stagnant. At the
outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) the whole island
was thrown into a ferment, out of which came the changes
that Elliott relates.
At that time the French portion of Haiti had about half a
million inhabitants, of whom some forty thousand were of
European blood, thirty thousand free negroes, the rest negro
slaves. The free colored people, mostly mulattoes, had no
voice in the Government, but in 1790 the French National
Assembly decreed to those born of free parents full
citizenship. Opposition on the part of the whites caused
delay in carrying out the decree. Taking advantage of the
ensuing commotion, the slaves rose in revolt (August, 1791),
and the conditions which Toussaint at length was called upon
to meet were inevitably brought about.
This black hero, of whose origin and personality information
is given below, has been made the subject of a noble sonnet
by Wordsworth, of an equally fine eulogy by Wendell
Phillips, of a tragedy by Lamartine, and of a romance, _The
Hour and the Man_, by Harriet Martineau. Auguste Comte, the
founder of positivism, placed Toussaint in his new calendar
among the great modern liberators--Hampden, Cromwell,
Algernon Sidney, Washington, and Bolivar.
On August 25, 1791, was the feast of St. Louis. For the week preceding,
the planters gathered at Cap Francois[35] to concert measures against
the mulattoes; against the National Assembly; and--to dine. The great
men, and the rich, and the brave, were there. It was not a time to drive
the slaves; and during that week they "danced" more than before. On the
evening of August 23d, the best dishes of the cook Henri, a born prince,
whose future no one could suspect, tempted the palates of the born
whites. In brave counsels, in denunciations of the mulattoes, in songs
for Governor Blanchelande and "Liberty," the time passed, the wine
flowed, and hearts swelled. So the shadows of the night stole on. Light!
More light! was called for; they threw open the jalousies; curious black
faces swarmed about the piazzas--but what meant that dull glare which
reached the sultry sky? The party was broken up: they rushed to the
windows; they could smell the heavy smoke, they could hear the distant
tramp of feet. The band, unbidden, struck up the _Marsellaise_; it was
caught up in the streets; and from mouth to mouth, toward the rich Plain
du Nord, passed along the song:
"_Le jour de gloire est arrive!_
_Aux armes! aux armes! pour Liberte!_"
Consternation followed the feast. Each man grasped his arms: into the
midst of the company rushed a negro covered with dust; panting with
heat. He sought his master. Pale with fear and excited with wine, he
received him on the point of his sword. As the life and blood flowed he
gasped, "O master! O master!" Murmurs of disapprobation filled the room,
but it was too late: the hour had come! The slaves had risen. This poor
creature had wished to save the man that owned him.
The rebellion broke out on the plantation of Noe, nine miles from Cap
Francois. At midnight the slaves sought the refiner and his apprentice
and hewed them in pieces. The overseer they shot. They then proceeded to
the house of Mr. Clement: he was killed by his postilion. They proceeded
from plantation to plantation murdering the whites; their ranks swelled
by crowds of scarred and desperate men who had nothing to lose but
life; and life with slavery was not so sweet as revenge. Everywhere
they applied the torch to the sugar-mills--those bastilles, consecrated
to the rites of the lash and to forced labor, dumb with fear--and to the
cane fields, watered with sweat and blood.
Toward morning crowds of whites came pouring into Cap Francois, pale,
terror-stricken, blood-stained. Men, women, and children found the day
of judgment was come: none knew what to do; all was confusion. The
signal-gun boomed through the darkness warning of danger, and every man
stood to his arms. The inhabitants of the city were paralyzed with fear.
They barred their doors and locked up their house-slaves. The only
living objects in the streets were a few soldiers marching to their
posts. Panic ruled the hour. The Assembly sat through the night. Touzard
was sent out to attack the negroes, but was driven back. Guns were
mounted, and the streets barricaded.
The morning dawned, and with the rising sun came rising courage. "It is
nothing," said some; "burn and hang a few negroes and all will go on as
before." The exasperation against the mulattoes, who were charged with
having fomented the rising, resulted in hatred, insult, bloodshed and
murder in and around Cap Francois; and a butchery was only stayed by the
vigorous opposition of the Governor. Whatever negroes were seized were
tortured and massacred. "Frequently," says Lacroix, "did the faithful
slave perish by the hands of an irritated master whose confidence he
sought."
The maddened negroes had tasted blood. They seized Mr. Blen, an officer
of police, nailed him alive to one of the gates of his plantation, and
chopped off his limbs with an axe.
M. Cardineau had two sons by a black woman. He had freed them and shown
them much kindness; but they belonged to the hated race, and they joined
the revolt. The father remonstrated, and offered them money. They took
his money and stabbed him to the heart. If they were bastards, who had
made them so? "One's pleasant vices often come home to roost." Horrors
were piled on horrors: white women were ravished and murdered; black
were broken on the wheel: whites were crucified; blacks were burned
alive: long pent-up hatreds were having their riot and revenge. M.
Odeluc was wrong, then! The slaves did _not_ seem to love their
masters. What could it mean?
Pork and bananas: slavery and ignorance; with some, dancing and the free
use of the whip seemed to be producing surprising results. The whites
could not understand it. Much sugar was raised, and yet the negroes were
not satisfied, and now seemed to have gone mad. Destruction hung over
the whites, and they concluded to try hanging and burning in their
extremity--having no faith in justice and honesty for the blacks.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, owed their safety to the kindness of their
house-slaves.
Monsieur and Madame Baillou with their daughter, her husband, and two
white servants lived about thirty miles from Cap Francois, among the
mountains. A slave gave them notice of the rising: he hid them in the
forest and joined the revolt. At night he brought them food and led them
to another place of safety. He did this again and again: led them
through every danger and difficulty till they escaped to the sea. For
nineteen nights they were in the woods, and the negro risked his life to
save theirs. Why repeat instances? This was one of hundreds.
M. Odeluc was the superintendent of the Gallifet estate, the largest on
the Plain. "As happy as one of Gallifet's negroes," was a saying in the
district. He was sure of _his_ hands, and regretted the exaggerated
terror of the whites. With a friend and three or four soldiers he rode
out to the estate and found his negroes in arms with the body of a white
child for a standard. Alas! poor Odeluc! He believed the negroes were
dogs and would lick the hand that struck the blow. It was too late: he
and his attendants were cut down without mercy. Two only escaped to tell
the tale. Four thousand negroes were in arms and they were everywhere
successful. The Plain was in their possession; the quarters of Morin and
Limonade were in flames, and their ravages extended from the shore to
the mountains. Their recklessness was succeeded by regular organization
and systematic war. In the first moments of their headlong fury all
whites were murdered indiscriminately. This did not last: they soon
distinguished their enemies; and women and children were saved. The
blacks were headed by Jean Francois and Biassou--generals not to be
despised. Brave, rapid, unscrupulous; vain of grandeur, greedy of
plunder, they were not far from the marshals of France.
This, then, was not a revolt, but a revolution! Success would decide.
Never could the whites believe that the blacks were men. Oge had
revealed a widespread conspiracy, headed by well-known slaves. The
whites concealed this. They did not believe him; they believed only that
the blacks were their born slaves, fit for the whip, incapable of
courage or honor or martyrdom. Experience only was to teach them.
At first the whites acted upon the defensive. The Assembly was rancorous
against France in the midst of this destruction, and effaced from behind
the Speaker's chair the motto "_Vive la Nation, la Loi, et le Roi!_"
Even when destruction was over them they heeded not: their bickerings
continued. The negro generals declared that they were fighting for their
King, and against slavery--for a rumor had reached them that Louis
favored emancipation. They had the strongest party and the strongest
side. At length the whites determined upon a war of extermination. The
blacks responded. Heads of whites were stuck on poles around the negro
camps. Bodies of negroes swung on gibbets in the white encampments and
on trees by the roadside. Within two months two thousand whites and ten
thousand blacks perished. _Te Deum_ was sung in both camps and daily
thanksgivings were said for what was done. Pale ghosts hovered over them
and sighed in the tropical groves; but they could not speak for pity or
for justice. The insurrection spread to the southwest, and two thousand
mulattoes, headed by Rigaud, rose to revenge the death of some of their
comrades; many negroes joined them and they threatened Port au Prince.
The colonists were now thoroughly alarmed, and proceeded to try
reconciliation. The inhabitants of Port au Prince and Rigaud agreed upon
a truce, and the whites admitted that the slaughter of certain mulattoes
had been "infamous," and agreed that the civil rights of the mulattoes
should be allowed them. At last! Was it not too late?
Governor Blanchelande issued a proclamation earnestly entreating the
revolted negroes to lay down their arms and return to their duty. It was
too late. They laughed in derision at his small request. What! to
slavery and work and degradation and cruelty, even! They had burst
their fetters and stood with arms in their hands. "Will you," they
replied to the Governor, "will you, brave General, that we should, like
sheep, throw ourselves into the jaws of the wolf? It is too late. It is
for us to conquer or die!"
On September 11, 1791, the whites at Port au Prince had consented to the
civil rights of the mulattoes. On October 23d the _Concordat_ had been
signed; the whites and mulattoes had walked arm in arm through the city
and peace seemed possible, when word came that on September 24th the
National Assembly at Paris had reversed the decree of May 15th. The
mulattoes at once flew to arms, and the struggle between them and the
whites went on with increased carnage and cruelty. This continued with
varied results through 1792. "You kill mine and I'll kill yours," was
the cry. As it had been from the outset, so it continued among the
whites: open war between the colonists and the governors; between the
people of the North and the South; contention and bitterness, intrigue,
treachery. They made head nowhere against the mulattoes; nowhere against
the negroes. In December, 1791, three commissioners arrived from France
to distract the confusion. They accomplished nothing, and were succeeded
in September, 1792, by Santhonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, ordinary men;
not sufficient for so extraordinary a state of things as this.
The hour had come, but not the man. The world waited for him, but none
knew where to look; for none believed him to be among the degraded
negroes. The old custom of master and slave was broken in pieces, and a
nation of men, with no cultivation, with no education in
self-government, with none of the conservative strength which hangs
about privilege and possession and long-honored habit, were now up,
inspired only with a hatred of slavery and vague aspirations for that
which they knew not how to name. In this chaotic hour the man who could
express this longing for freedom, this need of growth, this aspiration
for infinite good--not only in words, but in deeds and in life--was
needed: without him all would come to nothing, and the struggle of the
blacks would be but a spasm, to end in exhaustion and discouragement;
for successful revolutions have been secured by developing, from among
the unknown, the known man, around whom the elements of the new state
could gather for new order.
Among the half-million blacks there must be one, and more than one, who
could redeem his race; to whom the outcast and despairing might look and
take courage and say, "Such as he is, I may try to be." This man was
longed for; consciously or not, the blacks yearned for their king, could
they but see him. The presentiment existed, for had not the Abbe Raynal
long before predicted a vindicator for the race? No man can save
another, and no nation. Each race must look for its salvation and its
leaders in its own comprehensive soul. The Moses who will lead the
blacks out of bondage must be a _black_, and he will come!
Let us go back for a moment. On the arrival of the first commissioners,
Mirbeck, Roume, and St. Leger, the mulattoes in the West were in arms
under Rigaud; the blacks in the North, under Jean Francois and Biassou.
They were a ragged crowd: pikes, muskets, cane-knives, axes, whatever
the hand could find, were their arms, and they fought without order or
discipline, inspired by revenge and hatred to slavery. Jean Francois, if
vain and ostentatious, was sagacious and full of resource. Biassou was
bold, fiery, and vindictive. The blacks had slaughtered and been
slaughtered, hanged and been hanged, plundered and been plundered. There
seemed no end to it and no object. They heard that the commissioners
were placable, so they wished to make terms. But who would dare to
venture among the whites? Were not all outcasts, hunted beasts, fugitive
slaves? Raynal and Duplessis (mulattoes) at last took the hazard. The
Governor sent them to the commissioners, they to the Colonial Assembly.
The Assembly that day was in an exalted state: it emulated the gods. It
replied loftily: "Emissaries of the revolted negroes, the Assembly,
established on the law and by the law, cannot correspond with people
armed against the law. The Assembly might extend grace to guilty men,
if, being repentant, etc.," and Raynal and Duplessis were ordered
sharply to "withdraw."
They did withdraw, amid the hooting of the mob. They returned to Grande
Riviere. The army and the people came out to meet them, wishing peace:
they told their story, and peace was turned to war, love to hatred.
Biassou, in a rage, ordered all the white prisoners in the camp to be
put to death. "Death to the whites!" went along the lines and among the
people. The insane pride of the whites worked its own punishment, and
now a hundred more were to be slaughtered. No white was there to save
them, and no God to wrest them away. Then a man, black, indifferent in
person, unpleasing of visage, meanly dressed, makes his way among the
crowd to Biassou swelling with rage. He speaks to him a few words,
quietly, calmly; they are to the purpose. The General's face is
composed; he listens; he countermands his orders, and the whites are
saved.
The negro who saves them is Toussaint Breda, afterward called
Louverture. The son of an African chief, Gaou-Guinon, with no drop of
white blood in his veins. He had been the born slave of the Count de
Breda, and had been well treated by his manager, Bayou de Libertas. He
was the husband of one wife and the father of children. With religious
aspirations, an inflexible integrity, and an inquiring mind, he had been
a valuable slave and had been raised from a field-hand to be M. Bayou's
coachman.
Toussaint was never hungry while a slave; he was not whipped. His hut
was comfortable; vines twined around his door. Bananas and potatoes grew
in his garden. Toussaint, it seems, was not a beast of burden. To make
sugar he was worth no more than a Bozal just stolen; but with these rare
virtues--patience, courage, intelligence, fidelity--he might have sold
for five hundred dollars and might be trusted to drive horses. When the
rebellion broke out he did not join it, but assisted M. Bayou with his
family to escape, and shipped a rich cargo to the United States for his
maintenance.