The Present State of Hayti (Saint Domingo) with Remarks on its Agriculture, Commerce, Laws, Religion, Finances, and Population

By the annexation of the eastern part therefore, the whole island became subject to one government. From Cape Tiburon to Cape Samana, and from Cape Nicolas Mole to Cape Engano, the power of Boyer extended, leaving no competitor to disturb his arrangements, nor to attempt to defeat those views which he contemplated for the preservation and repose of his dominions.

That a work of such magnitude should have been accomplished in so short a period, and without even the loss of blood and lives, seems more like the effect of magic than the result of the efforts of man; and so exceedingly vain was Boyer of the event, that he was known to declare that he thought himself like Bonaparte, and that he was endowed with almost supernatural power, and an agent of the Divine will to scourge those who had previously oppressed the people. He believes nothing to be the result of chance, or the effect of time and misrule; and arrogates to himself the capacity of accomplishing any thing which he may design and wish to execute.

After having reduced the whole island quite under his subjection, it was thought that Boyer would take into his immediate consideration its condition so far as regarded agriculture, commerce, and finance; and that he would resort to wise and judicious means by which the prosperity of the whole would be greatly promoted: that he would infuse a spirit of emulation into the cultivators, because there was nothing to interrupt their tranquillity, and they might pursue their labour unmolested and undisturbed. But this was not done; he seemed to be quite insensible to the good effects that would result from the encouragement of agricultural labour; and his people became so perfectly obstinate and indolent, that nothing could be obtained from them. Commerce also, which in the time of Petion began to decline, grew worse, and as the country produced but little, the people had the means of supplying but few wants: in fact it appeared very evident that Boyer wished to adopt a system of governing different from that which had been pursued by any of his predecessors. His plan has been to keep his people ignorant of artificial wants. By this means he expects the more easily to obtain from the produce of the soil the supplies required for the wants of government: in this he persists against all the suggestions of those persons who are capable of pointing out the disadvantages that must accrue from this line of policy. Finding his wants great, and that he had no means of supplying them from the products of the soil, or from the revenue arising from his commercial intercourse, he was driven to a fresh issue of debased coin, and to the project of working the mines in the different parts of his dominions, forgetting that the finest mine which Hayti possessed was in that soil, the very rich and productive quality of which was the theme of every man’s praise. Nothing can shew greater ignorance than considering gold and silver as real, instead of artificial wealth; or greater folly than exploring mines, whilst agriculture is neglected. The issue of the debased coin must, some time or other, be attended with all those evils which the inability to redeem it at its full value will inevitably bring on, and particularly in a country the inhabitants of which are in that very backward state of knowledge, where its expediency, – if it could be expedient to resort to an issue of it, – was beyond their conception, or the nature of the loss caused by it beyond their comprehension.

Another of Boyer’s inconsistent projects was his scheme for inducing France to recognize the independence of his country. Of all the impolitic measures devised by man, this certainly must stand preeminent for its folly; by his countrymen it must be deprecated as a wild scheme which will, in all probability, involve the republic in many difficulties. It is well known that on the 1st of January, 1804, Hayti was declared to be independent, since which period no attempts had been made, or steps taken by the government of France to reclaim it, except the visit of the commissioners in 1814, whose mission Louis the XVIIIth declared was undertaken without the authority of the crown, and consequently disavowed. So that in point of fact no attempt had been made by France to reassert its sovereignty over the island. Having therefore been independent de facto for twenty-one years, and having, by repeated proclamations of the several chiefs of government, and more particularly in the fulsome gasconades of Boyer himself, exhibited an unshaken spirit of hostility against French influence and French dominion, is it not the most unaccountable occurrence in the annals of almost any country, that overtures should have been made to France, to recognize an independence already established and tacitly admitted? Could any man in his senses, or set of men, have been so divested of all reason, judgment, or penetration? And is it not a circumstance unparalleled in the political history of any country in the world? But it is a fact, that the government of Hayti did in May, 1824, send two agents, Rouanney and La Rose, senators, to Paris, to negotiate for the recognition of the independence of their country, openly and avowedly admitting by it, that France still held the sovereignty over it, and that it was to all intents and purposes a colony, and an appendage to that crown. These agents were empowered to offer a very large pecuniary consideration, one hundred millions of francs, with certain privileges of trade over other nations; but the offer was rejected, and the agents ordered to quit the country without delay. The French cabinet had now got the thoughtless Haytian in the toil, and was determined to secure him; and no sooner was it known in France that Boyer had granted to an English company the privilege of working the mines in the eastern part of his dominions, and that other operations of a commercial nature would be connected with it, than a fleet of fourteen sail of the line was despatched under the command of Admirals Jarien and Grivel, for the purpose of reducing the Haytians to submission, and compelling them to acknowledge France as holding a sovereign right over them, or to accept of such terms for the recognition of their independence as should be tendered.

In this fleet sailed the Baron Mackau, an officer in the French navy, to whom was confided the business of the negotiation on the part of the French king; and certainly no man was better qualified for such an important trust. It would indeed have been impossible for any one to have displayed more adroitness and diplomatic skill, or have executed his mission with more satisfaction to his country: in fact, to use a nautical phrase, he got the weather-gage of the conceited Haytian.

The baron, it appears, was not altogether confined to pacific measures, for on his arrival in the harbour of Port au Prince the fleet shewed symptoms of active work being in embryo, unless the Haytians were disposed to submit to such terms as might be offered. The admirals moored their ships very judiciously abreast of the city, by which means, if hostilities were unavoidable, they might be able to make such an impression on it, as should alarm the people, and strike at once a decisive blow against their capital. From the untenable state of the several batteries and forts, any attempt at defence would have been unavailing, for it is evident that one line-of-battle ship could have demolished the whole. The appearance of such a formidable force before the city excited terror and consternation; the object it had in view was unknown, and it was unlooked for; and from the weak and defenceless condition of the city, every thing seemed hopeless.

The president, all his officers of state, his troops, and the inhabitants were alike in amazement; and his excellency, instead of setting an example of confidence, and exhibiting that spirit which, as the head of his country, he ought to have displayed, to rouse the energies of his people for defence, sunk into a half stupor, and absolutely shut himself up in his chamber, or closet, with his mistress and her children. His officers looked at each other like men bereft of reason through sudden fright; and the troops – those soldiers who were to brave every difficulty, and defy the whole world, – stood motionless, fearing that every moment would bring the signal of attack from their enemy. The women and children were sent off into the mountains in irregular droves, resembling the flight of a scared multitude, some with such articles as they could carry, and others without any thing. Upon the whole it is impossible to describe the panic which the arrival of the French occasioned; and I think I may venture to assert, that President Boyer will take great care that the Haytian historians shall not record the event during his sway, lest they be too minute in particularizing the conspicuous part he bore, and the bravery which he displayed!

When the whole fleet was safely moored, two officers of the president’s staff were despatched on board to the commander-in-chief to ascertain the object of their arrival, and they returned to the president with communications from Baron Mackau, explaining the nature of the mission with which he was entrusted, assuring him that it was entirely pacific, and that his master, the King of France, actuated by the most philanthropic motives, and in the spirit of the overtures which President Boyer had previously made, had been induced to appoint him as his representative to carry into effect such arrangements with his subjects of Saint Domingo, touching the recognition of their independence, as should be consistent with the dignity of his crown and the interests of his people. When this was announced to Boyer, he recovered somewhat from the alarm into which he had been thrown, and once more put on an appearance of confidence and resolution. When he heard that the object of the mission was conciliatory, and that hostile measures might be averted by submission to such propositions as might be offered, his mind became tranquil, and he at once determined, and his brave officers applauded him for his decision, not to draw his sword, but rather to try the effects of supplication on the sensible mind of the French diplomatist.

The next day Baron Mackau landed under a salute from the forts, and proceeded to the government-house, where he was received by the president, surrounded by the great officers of state and those of his staff. The same evening he was closeted with the president and the secretary-general Inginac for a considerable time, and entered upon the subject of his mission. They came to no conclusion that night, but the interview seemed to have been broken off somewhat abruptly and unsatisfactorily to the baron, who was necessitated to demand a prompt decision, or he should be obliged to resort to those measures for which he was so amply provided. The same night, and immediately after the departure of the baron to his hotel, a conference took place at the bureau of the president between the secretary-general, some members of the senate, and himself on the subject of the propositions, and it was determined that another interview should take place the next day at the secretary-general’s house, and that he should be deputed to make such arrangements as the exigence of affairs required. The baron acquiesced in the appointed meeting, and accordingly prepared himself to meet the secretary-general, but without any disposition to relax in those demands which he had made the night previous. The French cabinet, it must be remarked, had provided the baron with ordonnances of different degrees of propositions, already prepared for presentation, acceptation, and signature, and with these he proceeded to the place of interview, first presenting that which was most favourable for his country, and lastly, the one which the secretary-general Inginac, in the name of the republic, deemed it adviseable to accept, and by which, should its several clauses not be complied with, Hayti is admitted to be a colony of France. The ordonnance is dated in Paris on the 17th of April, 1825, and signed by the king, and sets forth, that the ports in the French part of St. Domingo shall be open to the commerce of all nations; that the French ships and merchandize shall be admitted into the French part on paying only half the duties exacted from other nations, and the same on the exports thence; that the inhabitants of the French part of Saint Domingo agree to pay, in five annual instalments, the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of francs as an indemnity for the losses of the ancient colonists; and that when the conditions of this ordonnance are fulfilled the French part of Saint Domingo is declared independent. When this ordonnance is particularly considered, it will be seen that France has been admitted to the sovereignty of Hayti, and that President Boyer when he accepted it, recognized in Charles the Xth his future sovereign, at once declaring himself to be only the nominal representative of that monarch, and by the most extraordinary weakness and precipitancy assigns over the independence of his country, at once annulling that constitution framed by his predecessors, which says, “never again shall a colonist or an European set his foot upon this territory with the title of master or proprietor.”

The negotiations having been concluded on the 8th of July, preparations were made for proclaiming their independence on the 11th, and a great deal of ceremony and parade attended it. The people of Port au Prince exulted at the idea of being now placed beyond the possibility of disturbance in their persons and property; but such exultation was confined to the city alone in which the celebration of the event was to take place. Throughout the whole island, and particularly the north and south, the intelligence was received with great murmurings, and the negro cultivators began to apprehend that they had been sold to the French for the purpose of reestablishing slavery. At Cape Haytien in particular the people shewed the strongest symptoms of a disposition to revolt, and in the neighbourhood all was ripening for resisting the measures of the government. Boyer was informed of it, and so powerful did it appear, that he immediately ordered troops to advance for the purpose of awing the people into an acquiescence in the arrangements which had been made. He succeeded in doing so; but although he discovered the principals and seized them, yet fearing the consequences that were likely to ensue from bringing them to trial, he only directed them to be banished to the south, confining the limits of their place of exile to the vicinity of Jacmel.

A general officer, who commanded one of the southern arrondissements, demanded from the secretary-general, Inginac, the cause of so disgraceful a concession on the part of President Boyer, and declared that it was cowardly and treacherous to the people. The secretary-general replied, “that it was impossible to do otherwise, as the French fleet lay off the city, and if the president had not acceded to the ordonnance, the destruction of the city would have followed, and then what would have become of our wives and children, our properties and the republic?” The general, who was a negro, with a look of the greatest indignation, immediately asked the secretary-general “if President Boyer and himself considered the city of Port au Prince alone the republic; and if that city had fallen into the hands of their enemies, whether there were not other places in which they might have taken refuge, rather than have submitted to the disgrace of such an unprecedented treaty?” After the spirited declaration of the negro general, it was intimated to him that his presence was particularly required at his place of command.

There were several fêtes given in Port au Prince to Baron Mackau and the French officers, all of which were only remarkable for the fulsome compliments which flowed from the respective parties. The French, who six months before were execrated by the people, were received with every appearance of esteem by those who had taken an active part in these transactions. The ears of strangers were continually beset by persons engaged by the President to cry through the streets, “Vive Charles the Xth!” “Vive le Dauphin de France!” “Vive la France!” “Vive Haïti!” “Vive le President d’Haïti!” “Vive l’Indépendence!”

Baron Mackau seems to have had a perfect knowledge of the people to whom he had been sent, for he dealt out his flattery with no unsparing hand, and the avidity with which Boyer swallowed it excited no little surprise among the French, and became the subject of general talk with all classes of people, Haytians and foreigners. Their noble struggle against Le Clerc, and their courage and virtues, were continually the subjects of the baron’s praise; at other times, the progress and improvement in the various branches of knowledge which the people had made, and above all, the high talents of Boyer, his discernment and discretion, and his many good and noble qualities.

The negotiation for independence having been arranged, it was necessary, before the whole could be concluded, that commissioners should forthwith be sent to France for the final adjustment of some differences which could not be provided for in the preliminary treaty, and for the raising of money by a loan for the payment of the first instalment of the indemnity. The persons appointed for the mission were, Mons. Rouanney, a senator, who had been employed in the previous mission, Mons. Daumec, a lawyer, and Colonel Frémont, aid-de-camp of the President. Daumec, the only man possessed of the least talent, was taken ill on his passage to France, and died soon after his arrival in that country. The duty therefore devolved on the other two, who were incompetent for the management of the important charge with which they were entrusted, and their execution of it confirmed such a conclusion. Rouanney was perhaps as little calculated for diplomacy as any person that could have been selected – he is a weak and superficial character, a compound of vanity and presumption; and Frémont could only have been nominated to display the splendour of the Haytian military costume, and to shew to the good people of France the magnificence of the court of the redoubtable President of Hayti!

They failed in their mission, for they were unable to determine on any question that was submitted by the French for their consideration, and consequently the cabinet of France was driven to the alternative of tendering to them the basis of a definitive treaty comprising twenty-one articles, with which they were ordered to return to Hayti, and to lay it before their government for approval or rejection. Their return excited no little astonishment; and when the document of which they were the bearers was presented to Boyer, he was anxious to accept it, but his council, it appears, and the secretary-general, Inginac, decidedly opposed it, alleging that if it were received it would be compromising the honour and independence of the republic; for it was a strange anomaly, and bore no analogy to a definitive treaty of peace, but in all its relative parts had a resemblance to a convention between a king and his rebellious subjects. Boyer therefore, much against his inclination, rejected the treaty, but intimated to the French cabinet his sincerity in wishing that such a treaty had been concluded as would be reciprocally advantageous, and establish a good understanding between the two countries. He also pledged himself to conform to the terms of the ordonnance of the French king, by the admission of the ships of France chargeable with reduced duties, and by providing for the payment of the indemnity at the respective periods at which the instalments became due.

With respect to the loan for paying the first instalment that fell due on the 31st of December following, the commissioners, Rouanney and Frémont, seem to have been totally ignorant of the nature and effect of such a negotiation. They appear to have been in a maze from the attractions of Paris, and their understandings – if they ever had any – warped by the influence of French intrigue, for they concluded a contract, that not only exhibited the greatest absurdity, but one that would entail a most extraordinary loss upon their country by its redemption; a loan that has excited the risibility of the moneyed men who had a share in its negotiation, and has displayed the incapacity of the persons selected by the Haytian government to represent it in a measure of so much importance.

Such was the state into which Boyer had thrown the republic by his weak and most improvident policy, and it required some skill and ingenuity to avert the evil likely to ensue from it, for dissatisfaction began to be prevalent. From the press of Hayti being under the censorship of the government, the proceedings with France relative to the recognition of independence were not known in many parts of the country, particularly amongst the cultivators of the interior. Although forming the largest proportion of the people, they had no knowledge of the conditions on which the French had acceded to the recognition, until the members of the chamber of communes returned to the several parishes which they represented, and explained the whole of the measures pursued by the president. No sooner was it made known that the French were to receive one hundred and fifty millions of francs as an indemnity to the old colonists, and that the ships of France were to be admitted on half duties, than a general murmur of disgust was heard, and the members of the communes were most justly censured for having countenanced an act which would entail upon them endless trouble and anxiety. The idea of paying so large a sum, or even any money at all, for so insecure a boon as that of the recognition by France, was declared to be of all acts the most absurd and inconsistent; and to admit them besides to a privilege of trade more favourable than that which was conceded to England, which had always been constant in her intercourse, was deprecated as a measure which was likely to bring down upon them the displeasure of that government, particularly as the President had, only but a very short time previous to his abject submission to France, most unwisely abrogated the law of Petion which admitted the manufactures and produce of Great Britain into the ports of the republic at lower rates of duty than those of other countries.

Such being the impression upon the generality of the people, they hesitated not to say, that the admission of the indemnity to France as a national debt by the legislative bodies was not binding upon the people; for as they had gained their independence by one of the greatest struggles in modern times, and as they had supported it at the expense of a great deal of blood, and as it had become indisputable from twenty-one years’ possession, they could only consider such conduct on the part of President Boyer as the effect of weakness and that want of energy and decision which ought to be conspicuous in the head of any government; and therefore that they were determined to resist any levies that might be attempted for raising the amount of the instalments out of their properties. In this predicament was Boyer placed, and it was made the more awkward to him from the cry of his people, “for arrangements with England,” and “give the English privileges, and down with privileges to France.” They were sensible, they said, that the British government would have protected them against the enemies of their peace and independence; but now, from the precipitancy of their own rulers, they were no better than a colony of France again; and that England could not hold out to them any expectation of support, unless she embroiled herself in a war with her neighbouring state.

Finding such to be the feelings of the people, Boyer had recourse to an expedient which he thought would appease their irritation, and once more soften them to an approval of his conduct. He made indirect overtures to the British government, and afterwards a direct communication, to know if it were the intention of the King of England to recognize the independence of his country, as the King of France had been induced to do; but no assurances were received, further than that his Majesty, for the protection of British commerce in the republic of Hayti, contemplated to send out consuls to that country to preside over the interests of British subjects; and that if the Haytian government had any proposals to offer, on which a treaty of commerce could be entered into upon a reciprocal basis, it would receive that attention which the nature of it demanded. This disposition of the British government was no sooner known in Hayti, – and I had been the bearer of it to Boyer – than the people manifested the highest symptoms of joy and satisfaction, declaring that they were now at the acme of their wishes. Boyer found it an act of prudence to express similar feelings of pleasure, though he secretly hated the English, and would have submitted to any sacrifice rather than have seen them triumphant in the opinions of the people; Inginac, the secretary-general, was not only gratified at the intelligence, but shewed openly that this was the nearest wish to his heart, and as he had always been much attached to the English from having had a good deal of intercourse with them, there was no event from which he could derive so much satisfaction and happiness as to see the representative of the commerce of Great Britain land upon their shores. The inhabitants of the country considered this as a tacit admission of their independence by Great Britain, and Boyer encouraged such an opinion.