CHAPTER IX.
Boyer elected president.—His character.—Revolution in the north—annexed to the south.—Revolution in Spanish part.—Union of the whole.—Measures pursued after.—Overtures to France.—Arrival of French fleet.—Negotiation and independence.—Baron Mackau.—Dissatisfaction prevails.—British consul-general.—Further dissatisfaction.—Determination not to pay the indemnity.—Voluntary loan attempted—it fails.—Observations on the inefficiency of government.—State of the military.—Naval force, etc.
Jean Pierre Boyer, who succeeded the late president, Petion, and who consequently became chief of the countries of his predecessor and of Christophe united, is a native of Port au Prince, and is about forty-eight or fifty years of age. He is a mulatto, but somewhat darker than the people of that class. His father, a man of good repute and possessed of some wealth, was a store-keeper and a tailor in that city. His mother was a negress of the Congo country in Africa, and had been a slave in the neighbourhood. He joined the cause of the Commissioners Santhonax and Polverel, with whom he retired, after the arrival of the English, to Jacmel, when he joined General Rigaud, whom he accompanied to France, after the submission of the south to the authority of Toussaint. On his voyage thither he was captured by the Americans, during the short dispute between France and the United States, and after the adjustment of the differences between those two powers he was released. Having resided in France some time, he, with many other persons of colour, attached himself to the expedition of Le Clerc, and accompanied that armament for the subjugation of the colony: but on the death of that general, he joined Petion, who successively appointed him to be his aid-de-camp, private secretary, chief of his staff, general of the arrondissement of Port au Prince, and finally named him for his successor in the presidential chair.
Boyer is below the middle size, and very slender; his visage is far from being pleasing, but he has a quick eye, and makes a good use of it, for it is incessantly in motion. His constitution is weak, and he is afflicted with a local disease, which compels him to be exceedingly abstemious. He is fond of parade and exterior ornaments, as is the custom of the country, but he does not display his propensities for them, except in compelling those of his staff and household to appear in all their embellishments. He is but little seen among his people, except on a Sunday, when he appears at the head of his troops, and after reviewing them he rides through the city, attended by a cortége of officers and guards. He is exceedingly vain of his person, and imagines that it is attractive and captivating, and that his manners are irresistible.
I shall now proceed to notice a few of the proceedings of Boyer after his elevation to the supreme command in the republic.
I remarked in the last chapter, that the commander of the troops of Christophe at St. Marc, on finding that his soldiers had determined on a revolt, had sent to inform Boyer of the circumstance, and invited him to proceed to that place and take possession of it. No sooner had Boyer received this intimation than he made preparations to march into the north. He took only a few troops, consisting of his horse and foot guards, being aware that there would be no resistance to his advance, and that the people were ready to submit to him without any opposition. This was pleasing to the president, who, as it has been observed before, never shewed any disposition for hostile measures, and that fighting was a trade to which he was unaccustomed, and for which he had no predilection. On his arrival at St. Marc, he received the submission of the inhabitants, and was joined by the revolted troops of Christophe; and he also received information of the death of that chief, and that General Paul Romain, Prince du Limbé, had declared for the republic. He had therefore nothing to apprehend from any interruption likely to be given to his advance. On the 21st of October, 1820, he entered Gonaives, which received him without any opposition, and on the 22d he proceeded for the city of Cape Haytian, and the capital of Christophe, the inhabitants of which had made great preparations to receive him; he entered it the same night at the head of 20,000 men, and on the 26th he was proclaimed president of the north. General Romain called upon the people to receive the president with every demonstration of joy, and to acknowledge the people of the south as true Haytians and brothers, with the usual salutations of “Long live the Republic of Hayti!” “Independence, Liberty, and Equality!” and “President Boyer!”
After the first acclamations of the people had in some measure subsided, Boyer, by the advice of his officers and the chief people of the north, began to make such arrangements for incorporating the north with the southern government as were requisite and imperative for the better administration of the united districts. The troops of Christophe were also removed from their stations to others in the south, whilst those of the south, in some cases, succeeded them: and those general officers who had taken prominent parts in bringing about the revolution were confirmed in their rank; but as the government was republican, all distinctions of title were abolished, and the designation of citizen was adopted, as in the south. Some of those who were raised to titles by Christophe, and had survived the revolution, were well pleased to be disrobed of the trappings of nobility, because it entailed upon them an expenditure beyond their scanty means. The Baron Dupuy told me that he was pleased with the designation of citizen, whilst the appellation of baron had always sounded disagreeably to him. Noble distinctions, he said, suited those only whose conduct was noble, and who had by their virtues truly earned them. For his part he was not aware that he had accomplished any thing that ought to have raised him above his fellow-citizens. There is reason to fear that the Baron Dupuy was the only man in Hayti possessing such modest and unassuming ideas.
After the events of the revolution in the north, and the arrangements for the government of that district had been completed, Boyer made preparations for his return to Port au Prince. Elated with success, and vain of what he termed his unexampled career of glory derived from the downfall of his rival chief, he signified a wish that his entrance into the city of government should be attended with some pomp and demonstrations of joy suitable to the occasion. Accordingly, those of his suite who knew that nothing could be more gratifying to the president than show and parade, prepared for a triumphant entry, and at the northern gate an arch was constructed and ornamented with a variety of devices celebrating his victory. But it having been communicated to Boyer anonymously, that some disaffected individuals were conspiring to shoot him as he passed through this arch, he arrived at the government house by a circuitous route, before the whole was completed, and without the knowledge of the populace. He began to make some inquiry respecting the intelligence he had received, but it was soon suspended, as it was suggested by his chief officers that he would be acting wisely not to prosecute it further, as it might tend to fan the flame of disaffection rather than smother it.
The union of the north effected by this revolution, did not seem at all gratifying to the people of the south, as they had imbibed a great dislike to the inhabitants under Christophe’s government, from the civil feuds that had existed, and by which their lives and property had so often been in jeopardy.
The revolution in the north was followed by a similar event in the eastern or Spanish part, which took place at the end of the succeeding year. The first symptoms of the latter manifested itself in the city of Santo Domingo, the capital of the east. A deputation formed of the principal inhabitants waited on President Boyer at Port au Prince, and tendered the submission of the people of the east to the republic, and soliciting that their country might be incorporated with it.