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.