No. 247.
Mr. Langston to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Port au Prince,
Hayti, June 7, 1879.
(Received June 20).
No. 159.]
Sir: Referring to my dispatch, No. 157, of the 19th
ultimo, I had the honor to advise you of the opening of the National
Assembly of this republic, and in that dispatch promised to transmit to you
copies in French, with the translations, of the addresses delivered on this
occasion by the president of the Senate and the President of the republic.
Copies of such addresses I herewith inclose and transmit for your
consideration.
Both addresses are brief, and both are well calculated, as presented in the
French, to be of service to the people of this country. The address of the
president of the Senate, in so far as it attempts a description of the real
situation of Hayti, seems to me to be altogether truthful. And that portion
of the address of the President in which allusion is made to the want of
capital here is very correct. Industry does languish for some reason here,
and capital seems to grow steadily less and less.
It is a fact that the fifteenth legislature has done its work and passed into
history; and the sixteenth legislature, with its unusual responsibility of
making a selection of the successor of President Canal, enters upon the
duties of its first session with anything other than a bright and flattering
future. Indeed, whether the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will be able
to act harmoniously in the interest of the general good seems even now to be
problematical. For, so soon after the formal opening of the National
Assembly, the Senate has refused to recognize the election of General
Prophéte, sr., to the Senate, alleging as ground for such refusal that the
Chamber of Deputies has not been constituted upon a legal majority, and the
two bodies are at conflict to-day upon this subject.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure No. 1 in No.
159.—Translation.]
Address of the President of the National
Assembly.
Mr. President, Gentlemen, Senators, and
Deputies: In all States governed by parliamentary rules, the
period of meeting of the legislature, and especially a new house, is
replete with active and legitimate preoccupations; the great powers of
state are soon to face each other; the acts of the administration are to
be submitted to the control of the chambers; serious political,
administrative, international, and financial questions are to be
introduced and debated; the people, desiring to be enlightened on the
progress of their affairs, pause and observe. If to this ordinary status
you add the exceptional condition in which our country finds itself, the
important action of the [Page 557]
nomination of a chief of state, which the legislature about to be opened
will have to accomplish, you will recognize that these causes united are
quite of a nature to communicate a greater intensity to these anxieties
appertaining to the ordinary course of parliamentary institutions, and
to give a new animation to the stirring spirit of our young nation.
The condition of the people, we say, renders them anxious. Admittedly
commerce is in a most deplorable state; agriculture is in open
decadence; industry perfectly paralyzed; work, in one word, the moral
and essential base of all prosperity, is wanting; thousands of hands are
idle.
Guardians of the nation, it is in you the country confides her hope. Let
us then gauge our patriotism and devotion to the demands of our duty.
For this it is necessary to make a perpetual sacrifice of all that is
personal, particularly when one remembers that to former sufferings are
added the disasters of a cyclone which has befallen the south; that a
flood has carried off the greater part of our products in the north;
that a fire has obliterated Miragoâne, one of our most important and
prosperous towns; the sinking of one of our steamers, together with
great loss of life; and, finally, the insurrection in the arrondissement
of Marmelade.
To-day we inaugurate a new house, and from this moment each one of us
assumes a share of the duties and responsibilities in the work of repair
and restoration which imposes itself upon the present
administration.
The fifteenth legislature which has just expired had its share of duties
and responsibilities. Its mission was confined to the purpose of
reorganization of all branches of the administration, conformably to the
principles of re-establishment of which was the cause of the revolution
of 1876; to settle the control of the management of public affairs; to
guard, to the extent of its power, and conciliate the interests of order
with those of liberty; to enforce the practice of the constitution of
1867 and the principles which it enunciates; and to occupy itself above
all in the determination of the burdens that the nation ought
legitimately to assume, and to provide the means of meeting gradually,
to the extent of our resources, without paralyzing, the progress of the
ordinary public service.
It has done its work; it is for us to take up and continue this work of
pacification and civilization.
“When, by the general exposé of the situation of
the republic, the chambers will be inspired by the results obtained in a
legitimate manner, as in the case of all those to be hereafter sought,
they will have resolutions to assume which must be in conformity to the
general weal. May such resolutions, assumed with the candid and loyal
aid of the executive, tend only to the amelioration and restoration of
the material and moral situation of our beloved country.
President, in the name of the National Assembly and of the country, we
thank and congratulate you and your council of secretaries of state for
having kindly honored this important ceremony by your presence.
In the name of the constitution, I declare open the first session of the
sixteenth legislature.
Vive l’Union!
Vive la paix!
Vive la liberté!
Vive l’indepéndence!
Vive le Président d’Haiti!
Vive la constitution de 1867!
[Inclosure 2 in No.
159.—Translation.]
Gentlemen, Senators, and Deputies: In viewing
with you the anxiety caused by the convening of a new legislature called
upon to decide the most momentous questions in all countries subject to
parliamentary rule, I cherish the hope that the great powers of state
will find, even in the spirit of present difficulties, in the desire to
place the duty of the citizen above personal competition, the calm and
reason suited to appease public disquietude.
The sufferings of the country are evident. Are they but the consequence
of early or late disasters; or is it necessary to trace past history to
discover their origin? Here is the study which demands our attention.
The share of duties and responsibilities that you assume in the work of
national regeneration is to me a sure guarantee that you will second the
efforts of the executive, in the complicated task which devolves upon
us.
This task, in fact, embraces questions of every nature. From an
economical and financial point of view, one cannot be astonished that in
a new country, in which practice has not yet demonstrated the truth of
different theories, there are diversities of opinion and tendencies to
opposition. Nevertheless, while accepting the principles which a happy
reform proves to be each day just and advantageous among the [Page 558] most civilized people, the
executive has always hesitated when confronted by measures calculated to
destroy the fruit of work which exists, however defective it may he, to
the profit of enforced labor. It believes that it is not work that is
wanting for hands, but hands that lack for work; it believes that as
capital, the primary element of prosperity, is lacking in our youthful
growth, it should be encouraged by all possible means, in offering it
entire security which will guarantee it against the inroads of past
restrictions and the impositions of arbitrary provisions.
Such, gentlemen, is the rule which has governed the acts which the
executive will shortly have the honor of submitting to you.
The fifteenth legislature has terminated its career. It is within your
province, gentlemen, to profit from the experience that it may offer,
and to use such acquired experience to the accomplishment of the work of
progress of which our country stands in so much need. In considering the
demands of general interest, you will appreciate the results already
obtained; you will recognize the causes which have hindered the flight
of a higher progress; you will give to the country the means of promptly
obtaining its legitimate development. Best assured that all resolutions
taken with a patriotic purpose and in a candid and frank understanding
with the executive will meet on its part the most complete and sincere
support.
Vive l’Union.
Vive la Paix.
Vive la Constitution de 1867.
Vive l’Assemblie Rationale.
