In the first place, he called upon the legislative body to sanction his treaty with France, to admit it to have been both expedient and unavoidable, from the situation into which the republic was thrown by the unlooked-for appearance of the French armament on their shores, and finally, by their entrance into the harbour of Port au Prince, before any preparations for defence could be made. No one entertained any doubt respecting the issue of this question; every person who knew how the legislative body was constituted was aware that it would meet with their acquiescence, that no member would have the temerity to offer his dissent, and that it would pass nem. con. In fact, there was no debate upon the question; the measure was proposed, and passed three times in one day.
Another important question also, submitted by the president, was the indemnity promised to France. He called upon them to declare it a debt of the nation, and to devise such means as would enable him to meet and liquidate it at the periods when the respective instalments became due. This met with some trifling opposition, but was however carried, and immediately promulgated on the plea that the honour of the republic and its credit would be compromised were it not most rigidly and strictly complied with.
When it was known through the country that the representatives of the people had acceded to these two propositions of the president, the inhabitants began to express themselves in language easily to be understood, and to declare that they would not submit to be burthened with the indemnity to France, and that on no consideration whatever would they contribute towards its liquidation, it never having met with their concurrence: that they never wished the recognition of their independence by France, and in fact that the whole of the proceedings of the government, with regard to the negotiations with that power, ought to be universally execrated by every citizen in the republic; and when it was further known that an act had passed to compel each arrondissement to pay its proportion as pointed out under the law, they strongly expressed their determination to resist a levy which they were neither willing nor able to raise.
I had an opportunity of knowing the sentiments of the people on this subject, from a communication made to me by several of the most opulent of the planters in the south-western part of the republic, and it was made without any feeling of hostility entertained on their part towards the government; but they declared that the small cultivators, and others composing the great mass of the population of their district, were so exasperated at the concession of such privileges to their enemy, that they were confident that no force could compel them to pay their quota of the indemnity, and that resorting to compulsory measures would only infuriate them so much more.
The government from every quarter received the most unfavourable intelligence respecting the impression which their measures for raising this indemnity had made, and the irritability which it had excited; it was therefore deemed advisable to try if it were possible to raise one or two of the instalments by voluntary loans, to be redeemed in thirty years, and to bear an interest of six per cent. on the stock at par. If this could have been accomplished, the compulsory measure would not have been enforced, and the law would have remained a dead letter; but the attempt proved unsuccessful. The people had no confidence in the government, and although every officer of the state contributed, and even some British merchants, yet they could not raise three hundred thousand dollars, and even that sum has not been paid into the treasury.
Many citizens, on being applied to, to aid the contribution, declined to render any assistance to a measure which they declared to be pregnant with the most pernicious consequences; for they had, they said, no hesitation in avowing it to be their opinion that the government never intended to repay one shilling either of principal or interest, and that they could not, consistent with their ideas of justice towards their fellow citizens, give their sanction to so unjust and nefarious a proceeding. They observed also, that as to faith in the integrity of the government they had none; that under no consideration would they lend it a dollar, for that it was impossible for it to redeem any loan it might obtain when it was fettered with a debt that was too burthensome for the country; a debt contracted by every species of weakness, and want of energy and courage in those who were placed at the head of the state.
In the eastern part of the republic, the people were much more violent in their opposition, for they openly remonstrated against contributing towards the indemnity, alleging that they had not been an integral part of the French colony at any time, and that they would not be compelled to pay any proportion of the debt contracted by the government for a recognition of independence by France, because they never acknowledged the right of that power to any part of their division of the island. They had voluntarily joined that part of the country under Boyer’s government, but not with the supposition that they were to submit to such an arrangement as to pay any proportion of an indemnity which it was thought proper to give to France for a recognition of the rights of the people of the other extremity. This was but just in the inhabitants of the Spanish end of the island, and it would be unfair to condemn them for thus strenuously rejecting every attempt on the part of the government to allure them into an acquiescence.
It was pretty generally believed also, that this determination of the people of the east was countenanced by the officers who commanded in its several districts, who were not backward in expressing their dissatisfaction at the measures of the president; and the latter found it advisable not to adopt any further means for the raising of a loan in the country, but to try what could be accomplished when the new law for levying the contributions came into force.
Into this dilemma therefore has Boyer thrown his country, and without any ostensible means by which he can extricate it from the difficulties in which it is involved. Oppressed with the weight of an overwhelming debt, contracted without an equivalent—with an empty treasury, and destitute of ways and means for supplying it—the soil almost neglected, or at least but very partially tilled—without commerce and credit,—such is the present state of the republic; and it seems almost impossible that, under the system which is now pursued, there should be any melioration of its condition, or that it can arrive at any very high state of improvement. Any change from the present would in all probability be worth the experiment, but the existing inefficiency of the government precludes the chance of any beneficial alteration being effected. Hence there appears every reason to apprehend that it will recede into irrecoverable insignificance, poverty, and disorder.
It must be manifest to every individual who visits Hayti, and who devotes some little attention to the state of the country, that the leaders in the government mistake the true principle of governing, and that their ideas of the most effectual way to exalt their country are erroneous, wild, visionary, and inconsistent. They are so excessively vain too of their talents and discernment, that they think they have framed a constitution the most pure and unobjectionable of all the modern republics; and they arrogate to themselves the merit of having perfected a system that must eventually excite the admiration and receive the approbation of the world. With such arrogance on the part of her rulers, it is not surprising that Hayti, instead of improving in her condition, should greatly decline, and that her advancement under such circumstances should be exceedingly slow. Whereas, on the contrary, were the president and his advisers to study the best interests of their country, they would look round for information, consult the experienced from every quarter, and court advice rather than shun it. But so long as Boyer is permitted to fill the presidential chair, this cannot be expected; his vanity is too deeply ingrafted to be easily rooted out, and labouring as he does under the most extraordinary infatuation of his infallibility, no good can be anticipated from his government, nor can the people be expected to advance in knowledge, wealth, or prosperity.