The first thing which was suggested was a fictitious or debased currency, which in the opinions of most people is very little better than swindling under the sanction of government; especially a government like that of Petion, reduced to so low an ebb as to have been without a dollar in its treasury, and without any ostensible means of bettering its miserable condition, or adding to its pecuniary means. Every country has probably a fictitious circulating medium, and I shall not condemn it, or question its propriety, when the country is capable of redeeming it at any specific period, or at its pleasure: but when a country like Hayti has recourse to a debased currency, it is very little better than an imposition. Petion was without the means of raising money, even upon the demesnes of government, for the exigences of the state, so that it was impossible for him to hold out any security to the people, that his fictitious coin would be called in at any distant period, unless he did so at a very large discount. He issued in the first instance three millions of dollars in value in pieces of metal, a composition of about nineteen parts of tin and one part silver, and subsequently a further issue of a million of dollars in value. This measure of temporary relief proved a serious injury to his country, for it not only enabled him to carry on the business of his government for a time without any calls on the people, which, in its then impoverished condition, was exceedingly improvident, but it was the occasion of a great consternation among the foreign merchants whom he had induced to settle in his dominions, and who from great apprehension of the consequences began to look around them and to confine their commercial operations within very contracted limits. They lost their confidence in the stability of the government, and consequently, as their importations gradually fell off, the revenue fell infinitely short of the anticipated returns.
He commenced also another system, which proved exceedingly injurious to his finances, and I cannot see how he could have contemplated any other result. For the encouragement of the agriculturists, the government, whenever the price of the several products were low, bought very largely of some of them, for the purpose of raising their value, by which impolitic measure, they not only lost considerably by their trading system, but it had a most pernicious effect in driving foreigners out of the market, who would always cease to buy the moment the government attempted to raise the market value beyond what the value in the European markets warranted. Of these speculations of the government I had some little knowledge in my mercantile capacity in Jamaica, for it was through that island that most of Petion’s government produce found its way to England; and on the estimated value of it, very large sums in specie were sent to Port au Prince from Jamaica, the moment the proper documents of its being shipped were received. These measures of the government were exceedingly injudicious, for it raised the price of their products so much above the European markets, that the foreign merchants could not think of touching them; and it finally proved the most injurious system that could ever have been devised for upholding the exigences of any government. Had he enforced those laws which had been passed for the cultivation of the soil, and put all the estates of the government into tillage, and conducted them upon a judicious principle of management, as his rival Christophe had done in the north, all his wants would have been supplied, the distresses under which he daily laboured would have been averted, and his treasury, like Christophe’s, would have been always liberally replenished, without obliging him to resort to ways and means which proved in the end so injurious to him. It is therefore evident that Petion was not calculated to govern a people like the Haytians. His mildness of temper would never allow him to adopt coercive measures to raise his country to opulence; he restrained those who were disposed to insist on the cultivators doing their duty as pointed out by the law for the encouragement of agriculture.
To this Christophe was the very reverse, for he not only called upon the magistrates and other officers to see the law for the cultivation of the soil rigidly executed, and take into custody all those who committed the least breach, but, daily accompanied by his staff, he absolutely rode personally to different parts to ascertain whether the cultivators were doing their duty. He well knew those whom he had to govern, and also that were he once to allow them to give way to their love for indolence, it would in time become invincible, and therefore he adhered to the old rule, that a preventive is better than a cure. The consequences were, that from his system of coercion the calls of his government were provided for, the people individually advanced in wealth and security, and the cultivators, who would otherwise have been in a state of sloth and misery, disease and wretchedness, lived well, and were contented. The condition of cultivators under Petion’s mild government, and under whom there was no such thing as coercion, presented a striking and instructive contrast; indolent and unconcerned, they passed their time like animals without the least exertion, and without a thought beyond the supply of their immediate wants; and those wants being provided for, they again sunk into apathy and indifference. Lust and every vicious propensity obtained an unlimited sway over them, and to feed their sensual appetites and satiate their brutal passions seemed to form the only object which they studied. Disease became prevalent, poverty accompanied it in all its ravages, and a more wretched, miserable race of human beings could not have been selected than might be seen in different parts of the country over which the sensible and humane Petion ruled.
This was the state of the country over which Petion presided previously to his death, which lamentable event took place on the 29th of March, 1818, after an illness of no long duration, but attended with circumstances that excited the greatest sympathy for his sufferings. It was generally admitted that the state of his country had produced an extraordinary depression of spirits, which no exertions of his most intimate friends could remove. Medical aid became unavailing, he lingered, but without, it appears, enduring any pain, and at last sunk under the weight of accumulated distress of mind, brought on by the deranged state of his finances and the impoverished condition of his country. Petion was undoubtedly a good man, and greatly beloved by his people, who valued him for his mild and inoffensive manners, and for the courtly and unassuming conduct which he always manifested to every one who approached him. The day on which he died the people assembled in the square opposite to the government-house, waiting with the most painful anxiety to learn if all hopes of his recovery had vanished, and towards twelve o’clock at night, when the gun fired to announce that he was no more, the cries and moans of all classes were heard through the different streets as they were verging towards the square.
This was not the most dreadful part, nor that which excited the greatest anxiety; those inhabitants who had experienced the changes which had taken place during the time of Dessalines, and had seen the massacres of that wretch, began to fear a similar catastrophe during the interregnum, from the rude state of the negro population, from their relaxed state of morals, and from a spirit of ungovernable insubordination, fostered by the ill-judged mildness and leniency of the late President. The foreign merchants were alarmed, and apprehensive also of confusion as well as the probability of the destruction of their property; their fears in this respect were however fortunately unfounded, as nothing occurred which indicated the least disposition towards hostility and molestation. Petion had designed Boyer for his successor, who was immediately after his decease accordingly declared President in the customary form, and took upon himself the administration of the government.
At the death of Petion, Christophe indicated no wish to interfere with the election of Boyer, who preserved the tranquillity of his dominions. Christophe was still pursuing his system of aggrandizement, and had realized a very large sum of money in his treasury, with which he contemplated the purchase of the Spanish territory and to annex it to his dominions; and for this purpose he had actually commenced a negotiation through the agency of some powerful individuals in London. This design unquestionably evinced great judgment, for it would have given him a decided superiority over the southern government, and he could have menaced all their points, and having a larger force would have been able to make considerable impression on their principal posts of defence; but his death, which took place in October 1820, put an end to the negotiation, and established the union between the north and south, uniting them in one government, designated “The Republic of Hayti.”
The system pursued by Christophe had become too despotic for the people; exceeding the bounds of prudence, his ambition had no limits, and his tyranny and oppression became at last so insupportable that neither the people nor his troops would any longer submit to his power and caprice. A revolution ensued which began with the revolt of the garrison of St. Marc, the commandant of which sent a courier to Boyer to inform him of the event, and of the wish of the people to place themselves under his government. Shortly after, the city of Cape Haytian followed the example, and the troops were preparing to march against Christophe who was confined by sickness at Sans Souci. His guards now revolted, and finding all chance of escape impossible, he shot himself with a pistol in his own chamber. His sons were killed by the troops, as well as several of his officers of state who were obnoxious to the people and the soldiers. His eldest son, it was said, exhibited the most abject submission, and begged them to save his life; whilst his youngest defended himself with great heroism, killing several of the soldiers, but was at last cut down and shockingly mangled.
His wife and daughters were spared through the interference of Boyer, who sent them to Port au Prince by water, with instructions that they should be particularly protected, and not disturbed by the citizens; and after his return to the city, permission was given them to leave the country, which they accepted, and sailed for England, where they were received, by those persons who were admirers of Christophe, with some respect and attention. A small estate was secured to them, and Madame Christophe’s jewels, which were valuable, were restored to her, and I have reason to believe that she is in possession of an income which, although not splendid, is quite enough for the purposes of genteel life. She was considered a good and humane woman, and often softened the anger of her husband, who was addicted to sudden gusts of passion, and to the infliction of punishment with unjust severity. But notwithstanding his impetuosity of temper, he was the only man who was competent to preside over a people in the state of ignorance in which his subjects were. He not only possessed the discernment necessary to discriminate between that which was advantageous to his country and that which was injurious to his interest, but he had the courage and resolution to enforce the one and prevent the other. Had Christophe lived he would have raised his country in affluence and in civilization, but his death has sunk the former, and retarded the latter; and the people, now left to pursue with an unlimited range their own propensities, will dwindle again into that condition of ignorance which is characteristic of the early periods of the revolution.