Mr. Peck to Mr. Seward
Sir: In despatches Nos. 23 and 24 I gave you a full history of political affairs in this republic, from the abdication of President Geffrard (March 13) to the date of No. 24, March 27th. The object of this despatch is to bring the record [Page 311] of leading political events here down from that point to the present date.
In the despatches I have named, I represented to you that the provisional government, while it began its career with the avowed determination to make thorough work in the reconstruction of the principles and policy of the government, showed regard for the wishes and differing interests of the people, and a liberal disposition towards men who had been supporters of President Geffrard’s administration; that it seemed likely to continue its conciliatory measures, and that the country approved its course.
An event, which occurred within a few days after the organization of the new government, confirmed the promise of liberality which the acts of the government gave. This event was a change in the manner of making up the convention for the revision of the constitution. At first, the provisional government directly appointed the members of this body. But it was not long before the people began to say: “Our government professes great regard for the will of the people; why, then, does it take from the people that most essential right—the right of electing the makers of the organic laws?” The government confessed the justice of the criticism, and, recalling its appointment of the members of the constituent assembly, ordered that, on the 8th of the present month, (April,) each commune should elect, by universal suffrage, two (2) members for this body.
The change met with general approval, and confirmed the favor with which the public was regarding the government.
But about this time it began to be known that the general policy of the administration was undergoing a change in the direction of narrowness and illiberality. The prudent and conciliatory Nisage was evidently giving place to the fiery and headlong Chevalier. The acts of the government were not affirmed by the “provisional president,” but by the “chief of the execution of the will of the people.” And the acts themselves began to savor of proscription:
1. All the former friends of President Geffrard were dismissed from the government. 2. A decree of banishment and confiscation was pronounced against not only President Geffrard, but against his family, including all his sons-in-law. 3. All persons who had served under President Geffrard as cabinet ministers since April, 1863, (when the President refused to present a budget to the chambers and dissolved the chambers for insisting on having one,) were “put in accusation.” 4. All commissions in the army since early in 1865 (when the rebellion under General Salnave broke out) were revoked. 5. Many partisans of ex-President Geffrard were banished from the country.
These measures completed, General Chevalier began to quarrel with the remnants of the anti-revolutionary army, and after a few days nearly all of this class of troops were disbanded, leaving only the soldiers who had come with Nisage and Chevalier.
The public did not regret the disbanding of the troops, but the other measures I have named soon excited a general uneasiness, and provoked a fear that the conduct of the government would excite a counter revolution.
This fear led everybody to look with great anxiety for the coming of General Salnave, for whom, as I reported in Nos. 23 and 24, a delegation had been sent.
It was thought that the general would favor moderate counsels, and would check unwholesome measures. For 10 or 12 days there was an unhappy suspense as to the whereabouts and doings of the much desired popular favorite. The arrival here from Cape Haytien, on the 1st instant, of the United States steamer Mackinaw, broke the suspense. The ship reported that General Salnave, not knowing that a revolution had occurred here, left Turk’s Island about the middle of last month, (before the arrival of the delegation which was sent to meet him,) went to Monte Christo in a schooner, gathered a company of his Dominican friends, armed them, and started for Cape Haytien to undertake a revolution there. On his arrival at the cape he found that the work of revolution [Page 312] was done; that the people were waiting to give him unheard-of ovations; that he had been appointed by the popular voice commandant of the department of the north, and that it was expected that this government would confirm the choice, which it did.
But the general on landing, while he accepted the ovations, did not accept the acts of the provisional government.
He issued a proclamation in which he assumed that the present revolution was only the consummation of his own movement of 1865, and that he therefore had the right (which right he should exercise) to consider himself its head. He then proceeded to denounce President Geffrard and to decree his expatriation for life; but he added that he did not desire and would not permit acts of persecution against the friends of the exiled President. He then criticised, and, by implication, seemed to put aside, the provisional government, which, as he said, had assumed excessive power in appointing the members of the constituent assembly; (the news of the change in the mode of appointing the members of that body had not yet reached the cape.)
He also complained that the government had betrayed its trust by putting into the provisional offices so many of the friends of President Geffrard; (of the elimination of the Geffrardists from the government he had not yet heard.) He closed by solemnly promising that the wishes of the people should be strictly followed in the reconstruction of the organic law and of the government.
The tone of the paper was elevated and reasonable, and calculated, on the whole, to make a favorable impression in behalf of the general. Still, the criticisms upon the provisional government looked as if the government was to be ignored and a new provisional government set up. To what results this new (feared) breaking up might lead no one could predict; but it was certain that good could not come out of it.
The suspense which had weighed on the public mind here for days was therefore changed by the Mackinaw’s news into uneasiness and fear. This feeling was partly quieted by a letter from General Salnave to Provisional President Nisage, in which the writer said that he desired to come to Port-au-Prince, and that he should do so as soon as he had put an end to some disorders in the north, which disorders he described as being acts of violence against former friends of President Geffrard.
Since the arrival of the Mackinaw the public ear has been filled with rumors, of which the following is the substance: General Salnave has sent a steamer to Turk’s Island for 6,000 stand of arms; he has called out all the troops of the north; has sent a vessel to bring ex-President Baez to the cape; has announced his determination to separate the northern from the southern departments of the republic; to overthrow President Cabral’s administration in the east part, and to make a new republic by the annexation of Santo Domingo to northern Hayti.
What truth there is in these rumors I cannot say. I greatly fear that they are not without foundation.
The government here is very uneasy, and has, within a week, sent two delegations to General Salnave urging him to come here at once.
Meantime, the suspense and doubt are telling on the public mind. The provisional government is losing rather than gaining ground, and the prestige of General Salnave is declining. If matters do not come to issue soon, new parties will spring up, and there are already indications in the south that the dreadful question of color is beginning to rouse the hatred of the blacks towards the mulattoes and vice versa. In a word, affairs are in a much more unpromising state than they were at my last writing.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.