The Present State of Hayti (Saint Domingo) with Remarks on its Agriculture, Commerce, Laws, Religion, Finances, and Population

by James Franklin

The next day Baron Mackau landed under a salute from the forts, and proceeded to the government-house, where he was received by the president, surrounded by the great officers of state and those of his staff. The same evening he was closeted with the president and the secretary-general Inginac for a considerable time, and entered upon the subject of his mission. They came to no conclusion that night, but the interview seemed to have been broken off somewhat abruptly and unsatisfactorily to the baron, who was necessitated to demand a prompt decision, or he should be obliged to resort to those measures for which he was so amply provided. The same night, and immediately after the departure of the baron to his hotel, a conference took place at the bureau of the president between the secretary-general, some members of the senate, and himself on the subject of the propositions, and it was determined that another interview should take place the next day at the secretary-general’s house, and that he should be deputed to make such arrangements as the exigence of affairs required. The baron acquiesced in the appointed meeting, and accordingly prepared himself to meet the secretary-general, but without any disposition to relax in those demands which he had made the night previous. The French cabinet, it must be remarked, had provided the baron with ordonnances of different degrees of propositions, already prepared for presentation, acceptation, and signature, and with these he proceeded to the place of interview, first presenting that which was most favourable for his country, and lastly, the one which the secretary-general Inginac, in the name of the republic, deemed it adviseable to accept, and by which, should its several clauses not be complied with, Hayti is admitted to be a colony of France. The ordonnance is dated in Paris on the 17th of April, 1825, and signed by the king, and sets forth, that the ports in the French part of St. Domingo shall be open to the commerce of all nations; that the French ships and merchandize shall be admitted into the French part on paying only half the duties exacted from other nations, and the same on the exports thence; that the inhabitants of the French part of Saint Domingo agree to pay, in five annual instalments, the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of francs as an indemnity for the losses of the ancient colonists; and that when the conditions of this ordonnance are fulfilled the French part of Saint Domingo is declared independent. When this ordonnance is particularly considered, it will be seen that France has been admitted to the sovereignty of Hayti, and that President Boyer when he accepted it, recognized in Charles the Xth his future sovereign, at once declaring himself to be only the nominal representative of that monarch, and by the most extraordinary weakness and precipitancy assigns over the independence of his country, at once annulling that constitution framed by his predecessors, which says, “never again shall a colonist or an European set his foot upon this territory with the title of master or proprietor.”

The negotiations having been concluded on the 8th of July, preparations were made for proclaiming their independence on the 11th, and a great deal of ceremony and parade attended it. The people of Port au Prince exulted at the idea of being now placed beyond the possibility of disturbance in their persons and property; but such exultation was confined to the city alone in which the celebration of the event was to take place. Throughout the whole island, and particularly the north and south, the intelligence was received with great murmurings, and the negro cultivators began to apprehend that they had been sold to the French for the purpose of reestablishing slavery. At Cape Haytien in particular the people shewed the strongest symptoms of a disposition to revolt, and in the neighbourhood all was ripening for resisting the measures of the government. Boyer was informed of it, and so powerful did it appear, that he immediately ordered troops to advance for the purpose of awing the people into an acquiescence in the arrangements which had been made. He succeeded in doing so; but although he discovered the principals and seized them, yet fearing the consequences that were likely to ensue from bringing them to trial, he only directed them to be banished to the south, confining the limits of their place of exile to the vicinity of Jacmel.

A general officer, who commanded one of the southern arrondissements, demanded from the secretary-general, Inginac, the cause of so disgraceful a concession on the part of President Boyer, and declared that it was cowardly and treacherous to the people. The secretary-general replied, “that it was impossible to do otherwise, as the French fleet lay off the city, and if the president had not acceded to the ordonnance, the destruction of the city would have followed, and then what would have become of our wives and children, our properties and the republic?” The general, who was a negro, with a look of the greatest indignation, immediately asked the secretary-general “if President Boyer and himself considered the city of Port au Prince alone the republic; and if that city had fallen into the hands of their enemies, whether there were not other places in which they might have taken refuge, rather than have submitted to the disgrace of such an unprecedented treaty?” After the spirited declaration of the negro general, it was intimated to him that his presence was particularly required at his place of command.

There were several fêtes given in Port au Prince to Baron Mackau and the French officers, all of which were only remarkable for the fulsome compliments which flowed from the respective parties. The French, who six months before were execrated by the people, were received with every appearance of esteem by those who had taken an active part in these transactions. The ears of strangers were continually beset by persons engaged by the President to cry through the streets, “Vive Charles the Xth!” “Vive le Dauphin de France!” “Vive la France!” “Vive Haïti!” “Vive le President d’Haïti!” “Vive l’Indépendence!”

Baron Mackau seems to have had a perfect knowledge of the people to whom he had been sent, for he dealt out his flattery with no unsparing hand, and the avidity with which Boyer swallowed it excited no little surprise among the French, and became the subject of general talk with all classes of people, Haytians and foreigners. Their noble struggle against Le Clerc, and their courage and virtues, were continually the subjects of the baron’s praise; at other times, the progress and improvement in the various branches of knowledge which the people had made, and above all, the high talents of Boyer, his discernment and discretion, and his many good and noble qualities.

The negotiation for independence having been arranged, it was necessary, before the whole could be concluded, that commissioners should forthwith be sent to France for the final adjustment of some differences which could not be provided for in the preliminary treaty, and for the raising of money by a loan for the payment of the first instalment of the indemnity. The persons appointed for the mission were, Mons. Rouanney, a senator, who had been employed in the previous mission, Mons. Daumec, a lawyer, and Colonel Frémont, aid-de-camp of the President. Daumec, the only man possessed of the least talent, was taken ill on his passage to France, and died soon after his arrival in that country. The duty therefore devolved on the other two, who were incompetent for the management of the important charge with which they were entrusted, and their execution of it confirmed such a conclusion. Rouanney was perhaps as little calculated for diplomacy as any person that could have been selected—he is a weak and superficial character, a compound of vanity and presumption; and Frémont could only have been nominated to display the splendour of the Haytian military costume, and to shew to the good people of France the magnificence of the court of the redoubtable President of Hayti!

They failed in their mission, for they were unable to determine on any question that was submitted by the French for their consideration, and consequently the cabinet of France was driven to the alternative of tendering to them the basis of a definitive treaty comprising twenty-one articles, with which they were ordered to return to Hayti, and to lay it before their government for approval or rejection. Their return excited no little astonishment; and when the document of which they were the bearers was presented to Boyer, he was anxious to accept it, but his council, it appears, and the secretary-general, Inginac, decidedly opposed it, alleging that if it were received it would be compromising the honour and independence of the republic; for it was a strange anomaly, and bore no analogy to a definitive treaty of peace, but in all its relative parts had a resemblance to a convention between a king and his rebellious subjects. Boyer therefore, much against his inclination, rejected the treaty, but intimated to the French cabinet his sincerity in wishing that such a treaty had been concluded as would be reciprocally advantageous, and establish a good understanding between the two countries. He also pledged himself to conform to the terms of the ordonnance of the French king, by the admission of the ships of France chargeable with reduced duties, and by providing for the payment of the indemnity at the respective periods at which the instalments became due.

With respect to the loan for paying the first instalment that fell due on the 31st of December following, the commissioners, Rouanney and Frémont, seem to have been totally ignorant of the nature and effect of such a negotiation. They appear to have been in a maze from the attractions of Paris, and their understandings—if they ever had any—warped by the influence of French intrigue, for they concluded a contract, that not only exhibited the greatest absurdity, but one that would entail a most extraordinary loss upon their country by its redemption; a loan that has excited the risibility of the moneyed men who had a share in its negotiation, and has displayed the incapacity of the persons selected by the Haytian government to represent it in a measure of so much importance.