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.