Resolved to profit by this division, Christophe marched against Pétion, but the common danger brought about a union, and Christophe judged it prudent to retire.
When Pétion had been left at peace, by the temporary retirement of Christophe from the war against him, all his former jealousy was awakened within him against Rigaud. The treaty of Miragoane had been wrung from him by the hard necessities of his situation, which were such as to force him to choose between yielding himself a prey to the warlike ambition of Christophe, or complying with the urgent demands pressed upon him by the political importance of Rigaud. A compact thus brought about by the stern compulsion of an impending danger, and not yielded as a voluntary sacrifice for the preservation of peace,was not likely to remain unviolated when the necessity of the moment had passed away and was forgotten. Thus, as has been observed, when Christophe, engaged as he was in renovating the structure of his government, had ceased from his hostilities against Pétion, the latter became immediately infested with all his former dislike of Rigaud. Intrigues were commenced against him, to shake the fidelity of his followers, and to turn the hearts of the Southern blacks against the mulatto who had been placed over them as their chief.
Emissaries were employed in all parts of that province, reminding the people of the obligations which they owed to the constituted authorities of the Republic at Port au Prince, and conjuring them to remember that the preservation of the country against the designs of France could only be assured by the unanimous support given to the chief of the Republic, who alone could perpetuate the institutions of the country, and maintain its independence against its foreign enemies.
An armistice concluded between Pétion and the Maroon chief, Gomar, furnished an opportunity to the former to arm this formidable brigand against the government of the South. Gomar’s followers, eager for new scenes of plunder, commenced their depredations in the plain of Aux Cayes, and the plantations in that quarter were soon subjected to the same ravages as had fallen to the lot of those of Grand Anse. While Rigaud was involved in a perplexing war with these banditti, and had already discovered that the allegiance of his own followers at Aux Cayes was wavering and insecure, he was dismayed at the intelligence that Pétion had already invaded histerritory at the head of an army. Thus were the mulattoes committing suicide upon their political hopes, if not upon their very existence, by a mad strife in the cause of their respective chiefs, when their formidable enemy in the North was concentrating his power, and watching a favorable moment to pour destruction upon both.
Rigaud hastened to collect his forces, in order to defend his territory against this invasion of Pétion; and the latter, having already passed the mountains of La Hotte, was met by his antagonist in the plain of Aux Cayes. A furious battle immediately took place; and after a gallant resistance, Rigaud’s troops had already begun to give ground before the overpowering numbers and successive charges of the enemy, when a strong reinforcement of troops under the command of General Borgella, coming in from Aquin, turned the tide of battle in favor of Rigaud, and Pétion was defeated in his turn, and his army almost annihilated in the rout which followed.[39]
The joy of this signal victory over his opponent, which had driven him from the southern territory, did not efface the bitter recollections which had fastened themselves upon the sensitive mind of Rigaud. In that province, where he had once been all-powerful, and Pétion a subservient instrument of his will, he saw that his former glory had so far departed that he could not trust the fidelity of his own personal attendants, while his former lieutenant was now his triumphant rival. The applauses and sworn devotedness with which the multitude had once followed in the march of his power had now with proverbial fickleness,been exchanged for the coldness of indifference, or an open alliance with his foes.
In this desolate state of his fortunes, Rigaud had lost his wonted energies; and instead of following up his late success, and arming himself for the last desperate effort to crush his insinuating but unwarlike opponent, he returned to Aux Cayes, to new solicitudes and new experience of the faithlessness of that mob whose whirlwind-march he had once guided by a single word. Pétion’s partisans had now gained over to their opinions a formidable proportion of the people of Aux Cayes, and Rigaud had scarcely entered his capital when a multitude of blacks and mulattoes were gathered in the streets opposite the government house.
Their cries of vengeance upon Rigaud, and their menacing preparations, struck a panic into the little body of followers, who, faithful among the faithless, still adhered with unshaken constancy to the declining fortunes of their once glorious chief. His friends besought Rigaud not to attempt the hazardous experiment of showing himself in the gallery to persuade the mob to disperse. But not suspecting that the last remnant of his once mighty influence had departed from him, Rigaud persevered in his design, and advancing to the gallery of the house, he demanded in a mild voice of the leaders of the multitude what they intended by a movement so threatening, when he received in answer a volley of musketry aimed at his life.
But he remained unharmed, though he returned into the house heart-sick and desperate. A furious onset was immediately commenced from without, and this was answered by a vigilant and deadly defencefrom Rigaud’s followers within. The contest continued through the night, but the mob were defeated in every attempt which they made to obtain a lodgment within the walls of the edifice, and no decisive success could be obtained to disperse them. Rigaud, now convinced that the witchery of his power existed no longer, made a formal abdication of his authority, and nominated General Borgella as his successor in the command of the South. Rigaud, worn with chagrin and humiliation, retired to his plantation, Laborde, where he died within a few days after, a victim to the faithlessness of the multitude.
Thus ended the life of André Rigaud, the ablest scholar and most accomplished military man of any color which the St. Domingo revolution had produced. The death of Rigaud had the effect of uniting the mulatto generals, Borgella and Boyer under Pétion, and against Christophe; the latter, however, succeeded in maintaining his authority in the North, and still looked forward to a time when he should be able to govern the whole Island.
Christophe, like Dessalines, had been made a monarch by the constitution which formed a basis to his power; but he had at first only assumed to himself the modest title of President. This moderation in his ambition arose from the desire to supplant Pétion in his government, and become the supreme head of the whole country without any rival or associate. For this purpose it was necessary to surround his power with republican forms; to make it attractive in the estimation of the better class of blacks and mulattoes, with whom republican notions happened to be in vogue.
But the prospect of superseding Pétion in his authority had become less clear with every succeeding attempt, of Christophe against him; and after years of untiring hostility, it was evident that Pétion was more firmly enthroned in the hearts of his people than at the commencement of his administration, and that no solid and durable advantages had been gained over him in the field. Christophe was thus led to change his policy; and, instead of seeking to assimilate the nature of the two governments, in order to supplant his rival in the affections of his countrymen, he now resolved to make his government the very contrast of the other, and leave it to the people of his country to decide which of the two forms of power was the best adapted to the nature and genius of the population over which they maintained their sway.
The one was a republic in direct contact with the people, and governed by a plain engineer officer, who, though clothed with the sovereignty of the state, “bore his faculties so meekly†that he mixed freely with his fellow-citizens, but as a man in high repute for his intelligence and his virtues.
Christophe determined that the other should be a monarchy, surrounded by all the insignia of supreme power, and sustained by an hereditary nobility, who, holding their civil and military privileges from the crown, would be props to the throne, and maintain industry and order among the subjects of the government. The Republic was a government of the mulattoes, and had been placed under the rule of a mulatto president. The monarchy was to be essentially and throughout, a dominion of the pure blacks, between whom and the mulattoes it was alleged therewas such diversity of interest and personal feeling that no common sympathy could exist between them.
In pursuance of this new policy, Christophe’s Council of State was convoked, and commenced its labors to modify the constitution of February, 1807, in order to make it conformable to the new ambition of Christophe. With this council there had been associated the principal generals of the army and several private citizens, who were sufficiently in the favor of Christophe to be ranked among those willing to do him honor. The labors of this council were brief, and upon the 20th of March, 1811, the session was closed by the adoption of a new form of government. The imperial constitution of 1805 was modified to form an hereditary monarchy in the North, and to place the crown of Hayti upon Christophe, under the title of Henry the First.
In their announcement to the world of this new organization of the government, the Council declared that the constitution which had been framed in the year 1807, imperfect as it was, had been adapted to the circumstances of the country at that epoch, but that the favorable moment had arrived to perfect their work, and establish a permanent form of government, suited to the nature and condition of the people over which it was to bear rule.
They added that the majority of the nation felt with them the necessity of establishing an hereditary monarchy in the country, inasmuch as a government administered by a single individual was, less than any other, subject to the chances of revolution, as it possessed within itself a higher power to maintain the laws, to protect the rights of citizens, to preserve internal order, and maintain respect abroad; that thetitle of governor-general, which had been conferred upon Toussaint L’Ouverture, was insufficient to the dignity of a supreme magistrate; that that of emperor, which had been bestowed upon Dessalines, could not in strictness be conferred but upon the sovereign of several states united under one government, while that of president did not, in fact, carry with it the idea of sovereign power at all. In consideration of these grave objections to all other terms to designate the supreme head of the state, the council expressed itself driven at last to adopt the title of king. The council next proceeded by a formal decree to confer the title of King of Hayti upon Henri Christophe and his successors in the male line, and to make such changes and modifications in the constitution of 1807 as were required by the recent alteration in the structure of the government.
On the 4th of April, the Council of State, which, with the additions made to their number from among the chiefs of the army and the leaders among the population, was pompously styled the Council General, in their robes of state, and headed by their president, proceeded to the palace of Christophe, to announce in formal terms the termination of their labors, which had resulted in the formation of a new constitution, making the crown of Hayti hereditary in the family of the reigning prince. After a speech filled with the very essence of adulation, the President of the Council, General Romaine, exclaimed in the presence of the sovereign, “People of Hayti, regard with pride your present situation. Cherish no longer any fears for the future prosperity of your country, and address your gratitude to Heaven; for while there exists a Henryupon the throne, a Sully will ever be found to direct the march of your happiness.â€
On the day following, the new constitution was proclaimed by official announcement throughout the kingdom, and Christophe entered upon the exercise of the kingly powers which had been conferred upon him. The first act of his reign was the promulgation of a royal edict, creating an hereditary nobility, as a natural support to his government, and an institution to give éclat and permanence to his sovereignty. These dignitaries of the kingdom were taken mostly from among the chiefs of the army, and consisted of two princes, not of the royal blood, of seven dukes, twenty-two counts, thirty-five barons, and fourteen chevaliers.
Of priority in rank among the princes of the kingdom, were those of the royal blood, consisting of the two sons of Christophe, the eldest of whom, as heir apparent, received the title of Prince Royal.
Having finished these creations of his new monarchy, and received the two royal crowns of Hayti, Christophe appointed the 2d of June, 1811, as the day for his coronation. All the chiefs of the army and other grandees of the realm had orders to repair to the capital, and among them there appeared a deputation from the blacks of the Spanish territory, who had assumed to themselves the pompous appellations of Don Raphael de Villars, chief commandant of Santiago; Don Raymond de Villa, commandant of Vega; Don Vincent de Luna, and Don José Thabanes, who at least represented the Spanish creoles by the grandiloquence of their names. An immense pavilion had been erected upon the Place d’Armes of Cape Henry, furnished with a throne, galleries forthe great ladies of the court, chapels, oratories, an orchestra, and all the arrangements necessary for the august ceremony. This was performed in due stateliness by the new archbishop of Hayti, the capuchin Brelle, who consecrated Christophe King of Hayti, under the title of Henry the First.
[39]Lacroix.
Christophe, now enthroned as the sovereign of the North, seized upon the leisure which was afforded him after perfecting the internal details of his new government, to attempt a peaceable union of the blacks of the South with those who were already the loyal subjects of what he considered the legitimate authority of the Island. For this purpose a large deputation was dispatched from his capital, to proceed into the territory of the republic as the envoys of the black king, who proposed the union of the whole population in one undivided government, secured under the form of an hereditary monarchy, both from the revolutions and weakness of one, the structure of which was more popular. These emissaries, sent to declare the clemency and peaceful intentions of the monarch of the North, were taken from among the prisoners who had fallen into the power of Christophe by the capitulation of the Mole St. Nicholas, and who had been adopted into the royal army, and made the sharers of the royal bounty of the black king. Toassist in this new measure, a proclamation was issued from the palace at Cape Henry on the 4th of September, 1811, addressed to the inhabitants of the South, who were no longer called the enemies of the royal government, but erring children, misled by the designing; and they were implored to return to their allegiance to the paternal government of that chief who had just been constituted the hereditary prince of the blacks. “A new era,†said this royal document, “has now dawned upon the destinies of Hayti.
“New grades, new employments, new dignities; in fine, an order of hereditary nobility are hereafter to be the rewards of those who devote themselves to the State. You can participate in all these advantages. Come, then, to join the ranks of those who have placed themselves under the banners of the royal authority, which has no other design than the happiness and glory of the country.â€
This policy of Christophe was to employ the weapons of Pétion against himself. But the republican chieftain was in better play with the foils than his more unsophisticated rival of the monarchy, and Christophe soon discovered that while he was attacking the government of Pétion by appeals to the blacks, who were to be dazzled with his royal goodness, the arts of his rival were employed in the very heart of his dominions, and had already insinuated the poison of rebellion among his most trusted subjects. His infant navy had hardly been launched and manned with the objects of his clemency and royal favor, when a detachment of the squadron, consisting of the Princess Royal and several brigs of war, abjured his authority, and raised the standard of the republic. This defection waspunished by an English frigate under Sir James Lucas Yeo,[40]who captured the rebellious squadron, and restored the agents to Christophe’s vengeance.
Indignant at these attempts of the mulatto government to divert the affections of his subjects from their sworn allegiance to his throne, Christophe resolved on immediate war and the employment of the sword against that race whose pride and hatred made them the enemies of the pure blacks. Conscious of his military superiority, he resolved to make his preparations for the intended enterprise such as to ensure success over his opponent, and all the disposable forces of his army were gathered together for an invasion of the territories of the Republic.
The Artibonite was soon crossed, and Pétion’s forces, under the command of General Boyer, were met and defeated in the gorges of the mountains of St. Marks; and the way thus laid open for an immediate advance on Port au Prince.
The siege of this place was the object of the expedition, and Christophe pressed forward once more to try the fortune of war against his hated enemy. So sudden was the invasion, that Pétion was taken totally unprepared—a considerable portion of his army being absent from the capital, employed in watching the movements of General Borgella in the south.
In this state of weakness the town might have been surprised, and fallen an easy prey to the invading army, but Christophe had not calculated upon such a speedy result, and though his vanguard had seized upon a post a little to the north of the town, while the inhabitants in their exposed condition were panic-struckat the certain prospect of being captured immediately, the arrival of the main body of Christophe’s army being delayed twenty-four hours, time was thus afforded to Pétion to rally and concentrate his means of defence, so as to be prepared for an effectual resistance. Christophe’s whole force came up the next day, and Pétion’s capital was nearly surrounded by a formidable train of artillery, and an army of twenty thousand men.
In this gigantic attempt of their old adversary, the mulattoes felt with terror that defeat and conquest would not be to them a simple change of government, but would involve in its tremendous consequences the total extermination of their race. In so hazardous a situation, they were taught to reflect upon the madness of their ambition, which, by sowing dissensions among themselves, had exposed them, weak and unarmed, to the whole power of their natural enemy. In so fearful a crisis, the resolution was at last taken to repair their former error, and thus avert the disasters which now overhung them by an attenuated thread. Negotiations were hastily commenced with General Borgella, who, sympathizing with his brethren of Port au Prince in their perilous situation, consented to conditions of peace, and even yielded himself to the orders of Pétion. The assistance of the army of the South was thus secured, and General Borgella at the head of his forces marched to the assistance of Pétion, and succeeded, in spite of the efforts of Christophe, in gaining an entrance into the town.
The operations of the siege had already commenced; but the mulattoes, now united, were enabled to make a vigorous defence. Christophe’s formidabletrain of artillery had been mounted in batteries upon the heights above the town, and kept up a slow but ceaseless fire upon the works of the garrison within.
Pétion conducted the defence with considerable ability, and a succession of vigorous sallies made upon the lines of the besieging army without the town, taught the latter that they had a formidable adversary to overcome before the town would yield itself to their mercy.
Amidst these continued struggles, which daily gave employment to the two forces, and had already begun to inflame Christophe with the rage of vexation that his anticipated success was so likely to be exchanged for defeat, Pétion had, one day, at the head of a reconnoitering party, advanced too far beyond his lines, when he was pursued by a squadron of the enemy’s cavalry.
The President of the Republic had been discovered by the decorations upon his hat; and the enemy kept up a hot pursuit, which hung upon the very footsteps of the mulatto commander-in-chief, whose escape in such circumstances seemed impossible, when one of his officers devoted himself to death to save the life of his chief.
Exchanging hats with the president, he rode swiftly in another direction. The whole party of the enemy were thus drawn after him, and he was soon overtaken and cut down, while Pétion made his escape into the town.
The siege of Port au Prince had now continued two months, and the obstinacy of its defence had already begun to make Christophe despair of final success, when an occurrence took place which determined himto raise it immediately. Indignant at the tyranny of the black king, several chiefs of his army had formed a conspiracy to assassinate him during his attendance at church. Christophe was always punctual at mass, and upon these occasions the church was filled with officers in waiting, and surrounded with soldiers. It had been arranged to stab him while he was kneeling at the altar, and then to proclaim the death of the tyrant to the soldiery, whose attachment to their monarch, it was thought, was not so warm as to render such an enterprise hazardous.
This dangerous undertaking had been prepared in such secrecy, that a great number of the officers and soldiers of the army had been drawn into the ranks of the conspirators, and all things were now in readiness for the final blow. In this stage of the transaction, a mulatto proved faithless to his associates, and informed Christophe minutely of all the plans of the conspiracy, and of all the agents who had devoted themselves to his destruction.
The monarch, thus possessed of a full knowledge of all that had been prepared against him, concealed the vengeful feelings that burned within him under an appearance of the utmost composure. He feared lest a whisper intimating that he had been informed of the intentions of the conspirators might snatch them from his vengeance by urging them to desert to the enemy. At the usual hour the troops paraded at the church, and Christophe, instead of entering to assist at the mass, placed himself at the head of his army, and designated by their names the leaders of the conspiracy, who were ordered to march to the centre.An order was then given to the troops to fire, and the execution was complete.
A black named Etienne Magny, was one of the ablest of Christophe’s generals; and though he had been secretary to the council of state that had raised the latter to the throne of Hayti, he had now become so dissatisfied with his work that nothing retained him to the standard of his king but the reflection that his family, whom he had left at Cape Henry, would be required to pay the forfeit of his defection with their heads. A body of black soldiers, who were upon the point of deserting to the army of Pétion, willing to give éclat to their defection by taking their commander with them, surrounded the tent of Magny by night, and communicated to him their intention. The black general hesitated not to express his willingness to accompany them; but he urged that tenderness for his family forbade an attempt which would doom them all to certain destruction.
The black soldiers refused to yield to these considerations, and seizing upon Magny, they bore him off undressed, and without his arms, into the town. To preserve the lives of Magny’s family, Pétion treated him as a prisoner of war; and he remained at Port au Prince until the death of Christophe, when he was made the commander of the North under Boyer.
Christophe, discouraged at his defeats, and enraged at the sweeping defections which were every day diminishing the numbers of his army, and strengthening the resources of his rival, now commenced his retreat towards the north, whence intelligence had lately reached him of designs in preparation against himamong his own subjects. The army of the republic, under General Boyer, commenced a pursuit. The cause of Pétion seemed triumphant. Boyer pressed closely upon the rear of the royal army, and Christophe seemed on the point of losing all, when the cautious policy of Pétion restrained Boyer’s activity, and the republicans turned back from the pursuit. Christophe had been foiled in his great effort by Pétion and Borgella, and he now regarded the mulattoes with a hatred so deep and fiendlike, that nothing would satisfy the direness of his vengeance but the utter extermination of that race. A body of mulatto women of the town of Gonaives, who had sympathized with their brethren of Port au Prince in the struggle which the latter were maintaining against the power of Christophe, and with this communion of feeling had made prayers to the Virgin against the success of their king, became the first victims of the rage of Christophe against their race.
They were marched out of the town, and all subjected to military execution, without a distinction in their punishment or consideration of mercy for their sex. Christophe had long ago resolved to rest the foundation of his power upon the support of the pure blacks, and he now determined to make his administration one of ceaseless hatred and persecution to the mulattoes.
Through the influence of this policy, he hoped to make the number of the blacks prevail over the superior intelligence and bravery of the mulattoes.
[40]Lacroix.
Christophe had now discovered the too palpable truth, that so far from his possessing the means to drive his rival from the government of the South, all his cares and precautions were requisite to maintain the sovereignty over his own subjects of the North. A train of perpetual suspicions kept his jealousy ever alive, and vexed by the tortures of eternal solicitude, his despotic temper grew by the cruelty which had become its aliment. Together with this perpetual inquietude for the safety of his power, which made the new throne of Hayti a pillow of thorns and torture, other considerations had their influence to arrest the hostilities between the two chiefs of the country. The giant power of Napoleon had now extended itself over almost all the thrones of Europe, and with such an infinity of means at his disposal, it was yearly expected that another armament, proportioned to the overgrown power of the French Emperor, would be sent to crush the insurgents of St. Domingo, and restore that island once more to the possession of its ancient colonists.
Influenced by the fears inspired by these forebodings, the two governments of Hayti were actuated by a common instinct of self-preservation to cease from their warfare, and instead of spending their resources in a civil strife which threatened to become interminable, to employ themselves in giving permanence to their existing condition, and prosperity to the country under their control. The population, which had been employed in the armies of the two powers, had been taken from their labors upon the soil, and the ravages of war had consumed and destroyed the scanty growth of the plantations.
Amidst this unproductiveness of agriculture, which spread the miseries of want and destitution among the inhabitants of both governments, the occurrence of a maritime war between the United States and England entirely cut off the supplies which had been drawn from those two countries, and the evil condition of the Island was complete. In this sad state of their affairs, both Christophe and Pétion ceased from all military operations against each other, without previous arrangement or military truce; and they directed all their efforts to heal the wounds which had been inflicted by hostile depredation or the neglect of peaceful employments within their respective territories.
The tax laid by Christophe upon his subjects exceeded in despotism anything of the kind ever before known in the Island; and even surpassed the outrageous demands of Dessalines.
Pétion dared not to tax his subjects to supply the wants of his administration; and for this purpose he was driven to embarrass commerce by the imposition of enormous duties upon the trade carried onin his ports. But Christophe had assumed a station which forebade him to fear his subjects, and he furnished yearly millions to his treasury by a territorial tax, which poured one-fourth of all the productions of the kingdom into the royal coffers. Possessed of this revenue, which placed his finances beyond the contingencies of chance, the commercial regulations of Christophe were the very opposites of those enforced within the republic; and the traffic in the ports of the kingdom was annually augmented by a competition sustained at advantages so immense.
The army of the monarchy was in all things better furnished and more respectable than that of the republic. The troops were well clothed and well armed. They were kept under a discipline so strict that it knew no mercy and permitted no relaxation. The smallest delinquency was visited upon the offender with unsparing flagellation or with military execution. The troops received a merely nominal stipend for their services, and each soldier was required to gain his subsistence by the cultivation of a few acres of ground, which were allotted him out of the national domain; and of this scanty resource a fourth was required to be delivered into the hands of the king’s officers, as a part of the royal revenues.
Although Christophe had determined to maintain his power by the bayonets of the soldiery, he condescended to no measures of unusual moderation in his conduct toward these supporters of his authority. The soldiers of the army, as well as the laborers of the plantations, lived in perpetual dread of the rod of authority which was ever brandished over their heads; and of themerciless inflictions of authority the former obtained a more than ordinary share.
Upon common occasions, Christophe assumed little state, showing himself among his subjects but as a private individual of superior rank. Like his model, George III., it was his habit to walk the streets of the capital dressed in plain citizen’s costume, and with no decorations to designate his rank but a golden star upon his breast. In this unostentatious manner he was often seen upon the quay, watching the operations at the custom-house; or in the town, superintending the laborers engaged in the erection of public edifices. His never-failing companion upon these occasions was a huge cane, which he exercised without mercy upon those who were idle in his presence, or whose petty offences of any kind called for extemporary flagellation.
Christophe was without education, but like his predecessor, Dessalines, he found a royal road to learning. His knowledge of books was extensive, as several educated mulattoes retained about his person under the name of secretaries were employed several hours of each day in reading to the monarch. He was particularly delighted with history, of which his knowledge was extensive and accurate; and Frederick the Great of Prussia was a personage with whom above all others he was captivated, the name of Sans Souci, his palace, having been borrowed from Potsdam.
Such sharpness had been communicated to his genius, naturally astute, by having knowledge thus dispensed to him in daily portions, that Christophe became at last a shrewd critic upon the works read before him, and even grew fastidious in the selection of hisauthors. The events of that stormy period of European history, as detailed in the public journals of the time, were listened to with a greedy ear, and the course of Napoleon’s policy was watched with a keenness which manifested Christophe’s own interest in the affair.
Christophe, though a pure African, was not a jet black, his complexion being rather a dusky brown. His person was commanding, slightly corpulent, and handsome. His address was cold, polished, and graceful. He possessed a certain air of native dignity which corresponded well with his high official station, and he exacted great personal deference from all who approached him. The personal qualities and majestic bearing of the black king impressed his own characteristics upon his court. The most formal ceremony was observed upon public occasions, and no grandee of the realm could safely appear at the court of his sovereign without the costume and decorations of his rank. The ceremonial and observances were modelled after the drawing-rooms at St. James palace, and Christophe was always pleased with the attendance of whites, particularly if they were titled Englishmen. Many distinguished foreigners visited the court of the black monarch, attracted thither by a curiosity to witness the spectacle of an African levée, a scene which, by established regulation, was held at the palace on the Thursday of every week.
The company was collected in an ante-chamber which adjoined the principal hall of the palace, where the novices in courtly life were suitably drilled and instructed in the minute details of the parts they were expected to play in the coming pageantry, by two orthree assistants of the grand master of ceremonies, the Baron de Sicard. When all things were in readiness, both within and without, the doors were thrown open, and the monarch of Hayti appeared seated upon the throne in royal costume, with the crown upon his head, and surrounded by a glittering cortege composed of his ministers, grand almoner, grand marshal of the palace, chamberlains, and heralds at arms.
Political offences were never left unpunished by Christophe, and towards delinquents of this kind he never manifested his vengeance by open violence or a display of personal indignation. Those who had excited his mistrust were upon some occasions even favored with a personal visit from the monarch, who studiously concealed his vengeful purposes under a show of kindness, and the utmost graciousness of manner. But the arrival of his vengeance was not retarded by this display of civility. The agents of Christophe generally made their appearance by night, and the suspected offender was secretly hurried off to the fate which awaited him. But though Christophe’s anger for offences not of a political character was violent, it was seldom bloody.
Amidst a torrent of philippics against such persons, his customary expression, “O! diable,†was a signal to those in attendance to fall upon the offender and scourge him with canes; and when the punishment had been made sufficient, the justice of the monarch was satisfied, and the culprit was restored again to his favor. Sometimes, however, his indignation in these cases was aroused to the ferocity of a savage not to be appeased but by the blood of his victim.
We must now turn to the affairs of the republic.Pétion had long been despondent for the permanence of the republic, and this feeling had by degrees grown into a settled despair, when he discovered that his long administration had not succeeded in giving order and civilization to the idle and barbarous hordes composing the dangerous population of his government. While the more despotic sway of Christophe maintained the prosperity of his kingdom, Pétion found that the people of the republic was becoming every day a more ungovernable rabble, indolent, dissolute, and wretched. While the coffers of Christophe were overflowing with millions of treasures wrung by the hard exactions of his tyranny from the blacks who toiled upon the soil, the finances of the republic were already in irretrievable confusion, as the productions of that territory were hardly sufficient for the sustenance of its population.
Amidst these perplexities and embarrassments, Pétion fell sick in the month of March, 1818, and after a malady which continued but eight days, he perished of a mind diseased, declaring to his attendants that he was weary of life.
The announcement that Pétion was no more threw all the foreign merchants of the republic into consternation. They expected that an event like this would be the harbinger of another revolution to overturn all that had been achieved, or of a long and destructive anarchy, which would completely annihilate the little authority there yet remained in the republic. Merchandise to the amount of millions had been sold to the credit of the country, in the doubtful hope that its government would be durable. Both treasures and blood were at stake, but the terror of the moment wassoon appeased. At the tidings of Pétion’s illness, the Senate had assembled itself in session, and this body conferred power upon the expiring president to nominate his successor; and Pétion, when he foresaw that his death was inevitable, designated for this purpose General Boyer, then commanding the arrondissement of Port au Prince.
The funeral ceremonies of the deceased president took place upon the first of April, and were performed with the most august solemnity. All the great officers of the army were ordered to their posts, and required to maintain a ceaseless vigilance for the preservation of tranquillity. An embargo was laid until the Sunday following upon all vessels in the harbor of Port au Prince, and several detachments of troops were ordered to march towards different points of the frontier. The observance of every precaution which the most anxious solicitude could suggest for the maintenance of internal peace, and the prevention of invasion from abroad, was evidence that Pétion had bequeathed his power to a successor worthy of his choice.
There was a wide difference between Pétion and Christophe; the former was a republican at heart, the latter, a tyrant by nature. Assuming no pretensions to personal or official dignity, and totally rejecting all the ceremonial of a court, it was Pétion’s ambition to maintain the exterior of a plain republican magistrate. Clad in the white linen undress of the country, and with a Madras handkerchief tied about his head, he mixed freely and promiscuously with his fellow-citizens, or seated himself in the piazza of the government house, accessible to all.
Pétion was subtle, cautious, and designing. Heaspired to be the Washington, as Christophe was deemed the Bonaparte, of Hayti. By insinuating the doctrines of equality and republicanism, Pétion succeeded in governing, with but ten thousand mulattoes, a population of more than two hundred thousand blacks.
The administration of Pétion was mild, and he did all that he could for the elevation of the people whom he ruled. He was the patron of education and the arts; and scientific men, for years after his death, spoke his name with reverence. He was highly respected by the representatives of foreign powers, and strangers visiting his republic always mentioned his name in connection with the best cultivated and the most gentlemanly of the people of Hayti. The people of the republic, without distinction of color or sect, regarded Pétion’s death as a great national calamity; and this feeling extended even into Christophe’s dominion, where the republican president had many warm friends amongst the blacks as well as the mulattoes. Pétion was only forty-eight years of age at his death. He was a man of medium size, handsome, as were nearly all of the men of mixed blood, who took part in the Haytian war. His manners were of the Parisian school, and his early military training gave him a carriage of person that added dignity to his general appearance.
Boyer, the new president, was peaceably acknowledged by the people of the republic as their lawful chief, and no other general of the army manifested any disposition to establish an adverse claim to the vacant dignity.
Boyer, finding himself tranquilly seated in power, and placed beyond any danger from the hostile enterprises of the rival dynasty, devoted himself to the encouragement of agriculture and commerce within his territory. He made a tour of inspection through all the different districts, and in each of them the due observance of the laws was enjoined, and the citizens were urged to abandon their idle habits, and for the good of the State, if not for the promotion of their individual interests, to employ themselves in the development of the great resources of the country.
Within a few months after his elevation to power, the new president formed the resolution to disperse the hordes of banditti that infested Grande Anse, and kept the whole South in perpetual alarm. Conscious of theimportance there existed of depriving his great competitor of a lodgment within the very heart of the republic, such as to expose its very capital to the danger of an attack both in front and rear, Boyer determined to fit out a sufficient force to sweep the mountains of La Hotte, and if possible, to capture Gomar within the very fastnesses which had been for so many years his natural citadel.
Christophe, on the other hand, determined, if possible, to preserve this important point from which he could so easily gain an entrance to the territory of the republic, made a diversion in favor of the Maroons in this movement against them, by assuming a hostile attitude upon the northern frontier of the republic. A formidable detachment of the royal army was already entering the neutral territory of Boucausin, and threatening another attack upon Port au Prince, when Boyer found it necessary to defer his intended expedition against Gomar, and recall all his forces to repel the danger which was threatening in an opposite quarter. This was the single result which Christophe designed to accomplish by his movement on Port au Prince; and when this had been effected, his army returned to its quarters in the North.
But Boyer was not to be turned aside from his resolution of rescuing the best districts of his territory from continual spoliation, and when the panic had subsided which had been inspired by the threatened invasion of Christophe, he put his troops in motion in the autumn of 1819, for a campaign against the Maroons of Grande Anse. The troops of the republic met, and defeated the brigands.
Having accomplished the objects of his visit, and left peace and tranquillity where those conditions had so long been unknown, Boyer commenced his return to his capital, gratified that his attainment of power had been effected so peaceably, and that the hopes of his administration were already based more solidly than ever upon the wishes of the people.
Boyer had now attained complete success in his design to shut the boundaries of his states against the machinations of Christophe; and until a more favorable moment he contented himself to maintain a policy strictly defensive against an opponent so warlike. The latter, on his side, enraged at the defeat and overthrow of his allies of Grande Anse, began to threaten another invasion of Boyer’s territory, and many months glided away in the daily expectation of the commencement of hostilities between the two governments. In this interval the growing tyranny of Christophe forced a flood of emigration from his realms into the territories of the republic, and the very household troops of the monarch began to desert in large numbers from the service of a sovereign whose cruelty decimated their ranks at the instigation of his caprice. Bold, crafty, and suspicious, Christophe with one breath congratulated his subjects upon the glorious possession which they held of personal liberty and national independence, and with another he doomed them to scourgings, imprisonment, and death.
So unlimited and habitual was his severity, that it was said of him that he would put a man to death with as little hesitation as a sportsman would bring down an article of game. His dungeons were filled withthousands of victims of all colors, and new detachments of prisoners were daily arriving to swell the number. The innocent were confounded with the guilty; for under the promptings of his hatred or jealousy, the despot would not stop to make nice discriminations.
Christophe, who now might be denominated the Caligula of the blacks, was every day adding to the discontent and terror of his subjects. His soldiers were treated with extreme severity for every real or fancied fault, and they sought for nothing so earnestly as for an occasion to abandon his service, and gain an asylum within the territories of his rival; or to attempt, what they scarcely dared to meditate, the dethronement of a tyrant who caused them to pass their lives in wretchedness. Christophe possessed a knowledge of this disaffection entertained towards him, and instead of seeking to assure and perpetuate the allegiance of his army, to the bayonets of which he was indebted for his power, his vengeance became every day more watchful and more terrible, until his conduct exceeded in cruelty even that which had already spread hatred and misery throughout the nation. Christophe determined to rule through the inspirement of fear alone, and he practised no arts of conciliation to preserve to his interests those even who were necessary to the maintenance of his power.
His despotism was thus carried beyond the limits of endurance. So far from seeking to attach his great officers to his own person, by lavishing upon them the favors of his government, his suspicions had become alarmed at the growing wealth of his nobles, in consequence of the immense incomes drawn by them from the estates placed under their control, within the districts of which they were the titulary lords. To prevent this inordinate increase of wealth among a class of persons who, it was thought, might one day employ it against the throne and dignity of the sovereign, an institution was formed, called the Royal Chamber of Accounts, which, by a sort of star-chamber process, appraised the estates of the nobility, and disburdened them of so much of their wealth as the king deemed a matter of superfluity to them. Several of the black nobles had already been subjected to the jurisdiction of this royal court; and, actuated by secret indignation for this arbitrary spoliation of their property, they sought only for an opportunity to drive Christophe from his power, in the hope to share the same authority among themselves.
In the month of August, 1820, Christophe, while attending mass, was attacked with paralysis, and was immediately carried to his palace at Sans Souci, where he remained an invalid for many months, to the great satisfaction of his subjects.
This event, so favorable to the treacherous designs of the discontented chiefs of his government, furnished an occasion for the formation of a dangerous conspiracy, at the head of which were Paul Romaine, Prince of Limbe, and General Richard, the governor of the royal capital. The conspirators designed toput Christophe to death, and after the performance of a deed so acceptable to the nation, to form a northern republic, similar in its structure to that which existed in the South, at the head of which was to be placed General Romaine, with the title of president.
But before this scheme could be carried out, a division of the royal army, stationed at St. Marks, and consisting of a force of six thousand men, exasperated at the cruelties practiced upon them, seized upon this occasion to revolt. The commanding general was beheaded, and a deputation of the mutineers was dispatched to carry the head of the murdered officer to the president of the republic at Port au Prince.
The intelligence of this revolt was carried quickly to Christophe’s capital, and it produced an explosion of popular feeling that betokened the speedy downfall of the black monarchy. The troops of the capital immediately put themselves under arms, and assumed a threatening attitude. On the evening of the 6th of October, the inhabitants of the capital were startled at the noise of drums beating to arms.
The streets were soon filled with soldiers, obeying or resisting the authority of their officers, as the latter happened to favor or hate the power of the king. The governor of the capital, who did not wish for such a dénouement to his plans, undertook measures to subdue the mutinous spirit of the troops; but though he sought for support on every side, he found no readiness, either on the part of the army or of the people, to assist him in his attempt. The tumult increased every moment, and spread by degrees to every part of the town, until the whole population became united in the rebellion. The army took the lead, and thewhole body of the inhabitants followed the example of the soldiers. It was decided by acclamation to march upon Sans Souci, and seize upon Christophe within his own palace, but this movement was deferred until the following day.
Meantime, Christophe had been informed of these proceedings, so ominous to the preservation of his power, if not of his life. He had not yet recovered from his malady, but his unconquerable energy of soul had not been paralyzed by disease, for he leaped immediately from his bed, demanding that his arms should be brought to him, and that his horse should be ordered to the door. But if his bold spirit did not quail before the calamities which were impending over him, his bodily frame proved unequal to the activity of his mind, and he was compelled to rest satisfied with sending forward his guards to subdue the rebellious troops of the capital, while he remained within his palace to await his destiny.
Meantime, General Richard, the governor of the capital, had put himself at the head of the insurgents, the number of whom amounted to ten or twelve thousand, and the column took up its march directly for Sans Souci. On Sunday, the 8th of October, the insurgents encountered on their way the detachment of body guards which the monarch had dispatched against them.
The two forces quickly arranged themselves in order of battle, and a brisk fire commenced between them. It continued, however, but a few minutes. The cry of the insurgents was, “Liberté, liberté,†and the utterance of this magical word soon became contagious in the ranks of the royal guards. The latterhad even less predilection for their monarch than the other corps of the army, for their situation and rank bringing them in nearer contact with the royal person, they were frequently exposed to the terrific explosions of the royal vengeance.
Thus the watchword of the mutineers was answered with redoubled enthusiasm by the household troops, and they passed over in a body to join the forces of the insurgents. The whole military power of the kingdom was now united in a vast column of mutineers, burning for vengeance upon Christophe, and pressing onward to the palace of Sans Souci.
The king was soon informed that his guards had declared against him, and that the forces of the insurgents were already in the immediate vicinity of his palace. At this astounding intelligence he exclaimed in despair, “Then all is over with me!†and seizing a pistol, shot himself through the heart.
Thus perished a man who had succeeded in maintaining his authority over the blacks for a longer time than any of the chiefs of the revolution. This he accomplished through the single agency of the extraordinary energy of his character. The unshrinking boldness and decision of his measures made terror the safeguard of his throne, until his excessive cruelty drove his subjects to a point at which fear is changed into desperation. His policy at first was that of Toussaint, but he carried it to an access of rigor which made his government a despotism. Like his great predecessor, he possessed such intimate knowledge of the African character, as enabled him to succeed completely in controlling those placed under his sway, and, in spite of the national propensities, to make hisplans effectual for developing the resources of the country. While the territory was still a neglected waste, and its population poor, the lands of Christophe were in a condition of high productiveness, and the monarch died, leaving millions in the royal treasury.
But the salutary restraints imposed upon his disorderly subjects at the commencement of his reign, had been augmented by degrees to correspond to the demands of an evergrowing jealousy, until they had become changed to a rigorous severity of discipline, or vengeance, such as has been practised in few countries upon the globe. The dungeons of the Citadel Henry were almost as fatal to human life as the Black Hole at Calcutta, and it has been asserted, that amidst the pestiferous exhalations and suffocative atmosphere of these abodes of misery, the prisoners were almost sure to perish after a short confinement. With less truth it has been alleged, that fifty thousand persons lost their lives in these living tombs, while thirty thousand others perished of fatigue, hunger, and hardship of those who had been condemned for offences of a lighter nature, to labors upon the public works of the kingdom, all of which were performed under the lash and bayonet of the soldiery.[41]
These estimates are probably beyond the truth, though the number is incredible of those who perished under the severe exactions of Christophe’s tyranny, by hardship, imprisonment, military execution, or the infliction of sudden death, executed amidst a burst of ferocious vengeance in the despot. Christophe failed of giving perpetuity to his government through the mere abuse of his power.
The king was fifty-three years of age at his death, having reigned nine years. With a mind little capable of continuous thought, Christophe possessed a strong and obstinate will. When once he had gained an elevated position, he manifested great energy of character. Anxious to augment by commerce the material strength of his dominions, and to develop its moral power by education, he imposed on the emancipated people a labor not unlike that of the days of their servitude. Many hundreds of lives were sacrificed in erecting the palace of Sans Souci, and grading its grounds. The schools put in operation in his time, surpassed anything of the kind ever introduced in that part of the Island before or since.
[41]Malo.
The death of Christophe was hailed with enthusiasm and applause, in his own part of the Island, as well as in the republic; and on the 15th of October, 1821, General Paul Romaine put himself at the head of affairs, and proclaimed a republic. A deputation was at once dispatched to President Boyer, with an offer to unite the two governments under him, as their head. This was accepted, and in a short time the union took place.
From the time of the evacuation of the Island by the French under Rochambeau, Santo Domingo, the Spanish part of the Island, had become a place of refuge for the white colonist, and the persecuted mulattoes; and during the administration of Dessalines and Christophe, Santo Domingo was comparatively quiet, except an occasional visit from the partisans of some of the Haytian chiefs. Santo Domingo was a mulatto government, and it hailed with joy the union under Boyer, and a scheme was set on foot to carry the Spanish part of the Island over to Boyer. Many of their best men thought it would be better for thewhole Island to be governed by one legislature, and that its capital should be at Port au Prince.
The authorities of Santo Domingo were clearly of this opinion, for when the new project was laid before them, they yielded a ready assent, and a deputation immediately set forward in the month of December, 1821, to convey the wishes of the Spanish blacks to the mulatto chief of the French part of the Island. Boyer was formally solicited to grant his consent that the Spanish part of the Island should be annexed to the republic. This was a demand so gratifying to Boyer’s personal ambition that any reluctance on his part to comply with it was clearly impossible. Thus the Spanish deputies were received with the utmost graciousness, and dismissed with every favor that gratified hope could bestow.
But a year had elapsed since the rebellion in the North had transferred the realms of Christophe as a precious godsend to the peaceable possession of Boyer, and the army of the republic was now ordered to put itself in readiness for a victorious and bloodless march to Santo Domingo. Boyer placed himself at its head, and a rapid advance was made into the heart of the Spanish territory. Not the least resistance was encountered, and the inhabitants of each of the towns in succession hastened emulously to testify their adherence to the cause of the republic, until the invading column marched at last in a sort of triumph into the city of Santo Domingo.
The principal authorities, and the people generally, made a formal transfer of their allegiance to their new rulers, and were permitted to remain in the enjoyment of their former privileges. The chiefcommand of the lately acquired territory was placed by Boyer in the hands of General Borgella, and the president returned to Port au Prince, gratified by the extraordinary success with which fortune had crowned his administration; which he commenced by governing a distant province in the southwestern part of the Island, and by a succession of unlooked-for incidents, he had been placed at the head of the whole country, without a competitor to annoy him, or any malcontents to disturb the internal repose of his government.
The death of Christophe, and the elevation of Boyer to the government of all St. Domingo, were events which had in the meantime created a strong sensation in the ranks of the old colonists residing in France, as well as at the office of the minister for the colonies. Boyer’s attachment to France was presumed to be stronger than that of his predecessor, Pétion, and under such circumstances, new hope was derived from the event of his exaltation to power. It was now thought that an occurrence so propitious to the claims of France upon her ancient colony would lead to a satisfactory adjustment of the difficulty which had been interposed against the success of former negotiation. The French cabinet immediately formed the resolution to sound the new chief of Hayti as to his sentiments in regard to an arrangement between the two governments. The difficulties in the way of an easy conquest of the country, and the tone of firmness which had been held both by Christophe and Pétion to all former demands made upon them by the agents of France, had by degrees depressed the hopes of the colonists, and diminished the expectations of the French government in relation to the claims uponSt. Domingo. The restoration of the Island to its former condition of colonial dependence, and the establishment of the ancient planters in the possession of their estates and negroes, were no longer regarded as events within the bounds of possibility, and the demands of France upon the government of Hayti were now lowered to the mere claim of an indemnity to the colonists for the losses which had reduced them to beggary.
At length, a secret agent of the minister of marine held an audience with Boyer, and informed him that the French government having in former years made repeated attempts to accomplish an arrangement between the two countries, all of which had been fruitless, it was desired that Boyer himself would renew the negotiations in his turn. In consequence of this information, Boyer appointed General Boyé as his plenipotentiary, who was furnished with instructions authorizing him to commence negotiations with the appointed agent of France, either in that or some neutral country, for the purpose of terminating the differences existing between their respective governments. M. Esmangart and the Haytian envoy agreed to hold their conferences at Brussels, but the hopes of the two contracting nations were in this instance also destined to be frustrated. The parties could not agree as to the nature of the indemnity to be made.
At length, in 1825, after the recognition of the independence of Hayti by others, the French, under Charles X., sold to its inhabitants the rights which they had won by their swords for the sum of one hundred and fifty millions of francs, to be paid as an indemnity to the colonists. This was the basis of a treaty of peace andfraternal feeling between France and Hayti, that resulted in great good to the latter. In 1843, a party opposed to president Boyer made its appearance, which formed itself into a conspiracy to overthrow the government. Seeing that he could not make head against it, Boyer, in disgust, took leave of the people in a dignified manner, and retired to the island of Jamaica, where, a few years since, he died.
Jean Pierre Boyer was born at Port au Prince, on the second of February, 1776, received a European education at Paris, fought under Rigaud and Toussaint L’Ouverture; and in consequence of the success which the black leader obtained, quitted the Island. Boyer returned to Hayti in Le Clerc’s expedition; he, however, separated from the French general-in-chief, and joined in the foremost in the great battle for the freedom of his race. He was a brave man, a good soldier, and proved himself a statesman of no ordinary ability. When he came into power, the mountains were filled with Maroons, headed by their celebrated chief, Gomar; Rigaud and Pétion had tried in vain to rid the country of these brigands.
Boyer, however, soon broke up their strongholds, dispersed them, and finally destroyed or brought them all under subjection. By his good judgment, management, and humanity, he succeeded in uniting the whole island under one government, and gained the possession of what Christophe had exhausted himself with efforts to obtain, and what Pétion had sighed for, without daring to cherish a single hope that its attainment could be accomplished. Few men who took part in the St. Domingo drama, did more good, or lived a more blameless life, than Boyer.