No. 392.
Mr. Langston to Mr. Evarts.
Port-au-Prince, November 6, 1879. (Received Nov. 22.)
Sir: Revolutions in Hayti are not only frequent, bat they often work unforeseen and unexpected results, in bringing to defeat and apparently utter ruin their originators and chief actors, and to power others whose promotion is as offensive to the revolutionists as the authority against which they direct their blows.
Bazelais moved against Canal. He sought his own advancement; and for several days and weeks it was doubtful as to what would finally be the result of his movement. It is a fact that Canal, after considerable hesitation arid delay, advanced with vigor and success against this movement, as it discovered itself in Port-au-Prince, and routed Bazelais; and his adherents sought refuge in various legations and consulates situated hereabout. But the movement of the North assumed daily larger proportions and more commanding importance. From the Cape to St. Marc, to the very gates of the capital, under the command of Hérissé Télémaque, Simon Sam, and others, the people were found rising and the soldiers moving against the constituted authorities.
In the midst of this condition of things Canal resigned; for lie understood full well that this movement was against him. But was it favorable to Bazelais, and will it sustain his pretensions? Within a very few days after Canal had embarked for St. Thomas, and while Bazelais was in refuge upon the English man-of-war Boxer, lying in this harbor, the revolutionary army of the North took possession of the capitol. Bazelais then proposed to leave his refuge with his chief followers, Paul and Alexis, not to mention others—for I understand there were some six or seveu such persons n the man-of-war—and coming ashore, through the aid of this army, which was the natural fruit of the movement which he inaugurated, be placed, at no very distant day, in the chair of state made vacant by the resignation of Canal.
Certainly to his disappointment and chagrin, he found the revolutionary forces not only opposed to Canal, but equally and as positively opposed to him. He was not permitted to land from the Boxer at Port-au Prince. Subsequently, on the 1st day of August last, embarking upon the German steamer Vandalia, he sailed for Gonaives, and landed there on the 2d of the month. This city he immediately took and held till [Page 618] the 17th of the month, when he was driven out by the forces of the provisional government, and making his escape thence by the Rouillonne, a steamer belonging to the Haytian Steamship Company, then in the hands of certain insurgents of Jérémie, he took refuge in the French consulate of the last-named place, whence he left on one of the steamships of the Atlas line on the 23d of August for Kingston, Jamaica, where he is said to be at this time. His colleague in the House of Deputies for ten years past, his chief adviser and supporter in the late insurrectionary movements, Edmond Paul, is at present, as he has been for some time, since the Boxer left, August 9 last, in refuge at the British legation here, while his followers generally are scattered, some concealed in the country and others exiled abroad.
It is true that Canal has lost his power; but it is equally true that Bazelais is not his successor therein.
The man of all others in the country whom Bazelais and the entire liberal party would have opposed is in power. His name was associated in such manner with the Tanis movement of March, 1878, by the persons referred to, while they professed to be honestly and patriotically interested in sustaining CanaFs administration against the attack which seemed then about to be made, that Salomon was then compelled to seek refuge in the consulate of Peru in this city and go thence to Kingston, where he remained in exile till Canal had fallen; Bazelais had been utterly routed; and his countrymen had called him home to aid, in the use of his great powers, in re-establishing law and order, and thus conserve the common welfare. And upon a vote of the National Assembly, unprecedented in its unanimity, he has just been made the Chief Magistrate’ of the Republic.
Exile, calumny, unjust accusation, have not prevented the advancement of Salomon; and his advancement has been hastened, if not assured, by the very movements which were intended to promote the aspirations and success of a man who certainly would not have attempted his insurrectionary enterprise if he had foreseen such result. But so it is; and Bazelais is in exile, and Salomon is the President of Hayti. And he is the President, not by force organized by himself or his friends; not by opposition made to depose his predecessor; not by uniting with Tanis, Benjamin, and others in conspiracy; but on the free vote, in accordance with popular demand of the national assembly. Tanis and Benjamin, who, like Bazelais, opposed him and joined Lamothe and Hérissé in their recent machinations against him, are suppliants for his mercy.
The destruction of life and property, as connected with the revolution commencing on the 30th day of last June, must certainly constitute a sad chapter in the history of this country. If it be true that the amount of property destroyed belonging to foreigners was comparatively small; that the scenes of real contest were Port-au-Prince and Gonaïves only; it is nevertheless a fact that the whole amount of property destroyed belonging to the government, including the war vessel “1804,” blown up in this harbor by a treacherous commander, and that belonging to private citizens, by fire and otherwise, must aggregate at least a million dollars. The lives lost are counted by hundreds, while the interruption of general business—commercial and other—must be sorely felt for a long time.
It is very justly regarded as an auspicious omen that the great body of the people—the masses—did not take special interest in this revolution until the question of electing a successor to Canal was presented. Up to that time the whole matter seemed more particularly confined, [Page 619] on the one part, to the army and the immediate friends of the administration, and on the other, to Mr. Bazelais and his co-conspirators. Thereafter, however, when the revolutionary army had taken control of affairs, and the matter of organizing a new administration began to be discussed and to assume its natural importance, the masses of the people discovered earnest and profound interest in the reconstruction about to take place. The army became animated with new zeal and purpose; so that when the soldiers were given permission, by regulation of the provincial government, to cast their vote here at the capital for Deputies to fill vacancies caused by the treachery of several members who had gone into the insurrection, they voted with decision and promptness, as if they felt that their votes must have important bearing upon the Presidential election; and when it was discovered that Lamothe and Hérissé were using their official influence, as was alleged, to prevent the election of Deputies who would vote for Salomon to be President; and when it was discovered that they were planning the arrest and removal of Salomon, in order to render his election impossible, the soldiers vied with the people in earnest protest against such conduct, and demanded that such persons be immediately relieved of their positions, arrested, and imprisoned for trial.
It was in view of these circumstances that General Duperval, left by Canal in charge of the military forces of the capital, at present in charge of the department of general police of the government, issued an address, published in the “Moniteur” of the 4th ultimo; and General Salomon was called to the position of secretary of state, of finance, commerce, and foreign relations, made vacant by the deposition of Lamothe. And it was immediately thereafter that the army signified its readiness to General Salomon to declare him President at once; when he showed his good sense and patriotism by declining such favor, saying that if he ever became President of his country it must be in the manner prescribed by the constitution.
I am, &c.,