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.