The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-24
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, JANUARY "a, 1859.


over, and the Haytiens were emerging from their
rickety dwellings to indulge in the luxury of loung-
ing in the sunshine, he won over to his cause the
breechless soldiery of rtau-Prince-a set of
tatterdemalons that would have put FALsrATF's
ragged regiment to shame-caused himself to be
declared Emperor; organised Court created
Princes of Turtle Soup, Dukes of Lemonade and
Marmalade, Counts de Red Terrier and Pumper-
nickel, and in his ludicrous attempts to introduce
the ceremonious observances exacted by European
Potentates played such fantastic tricks as would
have provoked 'the melancholy JAQUEs"
to laughter. His coronation, in 1852, was
the richest piece of burlesque imaginable
The display of cooked hats of portentous
dimensions was absolutely astounding, while the
tinsel ornaments worn by His Imperial Majesty
and his Royal spouse; by those Princes of Dark
ness the members of the blood Royal, and by
what Governor WISE would call the "ebo
Skinned" and oleaginous dignitaries of
the Empire, would have moved the most en-
terprisng of theatrical managers to envy
and admiration. 1t was unquestonably most
extraordinary scene; and when the cannon thun-
dered the Inauguration of Imperial dynasty
across the Bay of Gonaives without kicking the
gunners into the water, and the queer old muskets
of the troops were fired off without doing serious
damage to any body, it may readily be conceived
with what feelings of awe and reverence the Hay
items witnessed pageant that was coupled with
SO imposing q demonstration of military spirit
and valor. For little while they lived in sort
of glorifed atmosphere. 1t seemed scarcely less
than marvellous that SoULoUQUE, who had been the
slave of a French planter, should not only have
risen to the purple, but should have become so
stately, condescending and magniloquent. PreSi-
dents the Haytens had tried, and had found them 10
be very commonplace personages. A little touch
of kingship they had also experienced under
CHRIsToPHE, who organised Court of Dukes,
Counts and Barons, and initiated, as far as pos
sible the old Napoleonic system of government.
But the people of the Southern division of the island
never took kindly to the Monarchy, and when CHRIS
Topic endeavored by force to reduce them to obedi
ence, they routed his troops, and drove him back,
in disgrace to his Capital of San Domingo, where
the popular discomfort at his failure broke out
into an Instruction, which assumed so alarming
a character that he shot himself. There was
however, something grand in the idea of Imperial
rule. 1t is true, that the domain over which Sou
LoUoUE assumed an absolute sovereignty, is rather
limited in extent-heing not quite large as
the State of Maryland-and is, therefore, at
variance with our usual notions of what consti-
tutes an Empire; but he had determined that the
one hundred and seventy miles, by eighty, which
formed the dimensions of the Haytien Republic,
should be an Empire, and nothing else and as he
willed, so it has become. If he had subsequently
discretion, he might possibly have consolidated
the power he had assumed but he soon began to
ride over his subjects rough-shod; butchered all
who ventured to oppose him; appropriated the
revenues to his private uses, and by his despotic
exercise of authority, paved the way for the revo-
luton which threatens to extingush him.
and all his tinsel digniaries 1t is somewhat
remarkable, that the immediate cause of
this popular outbreak is similar TO that
which led to the downfall of CHRIsTopHE, the only
difference being that in CHRIsTorHE's time San
Domingo was the Kingdom, and Hayt the Re-
public; while, at this day, it is San Domingo that's
the Republic, and Hayti the Empire. In 1920, it
was the utter rout of the Dominican forces by the
Haytiens that provoked the instruction in which
CHRIsToPHE fell by his own hand. In 1855, it
the defeat of the Haytiens by the Dominicans that
destroyed the prestige of souLouQuE, and fostered
the growing spirit of discomfort which has recently
displayed itself in the Northern districts of Havti
in an armed opposition to his authority. General
GEFFRARD. muatto, of mature age, and
possessed of more than the average intelligence of
his race, unfured the standard of rebellion at
Gonaves during the Christmas festivities. The
movement appears to have been well planned, and
was certainly boldly executed. Accompanied
only by three persons, GEFFRARD secretly quilted
Port-auPrince in small sail-boat and disem-
barking, on the 22d of December, in the neighbor-
hood of Gonaives, gaoped into the public square of
the town shouting la Republ9ue Being speedily
joined by two ofSoULoUoUE's ragged regiments, and
by the Governor and the civil authorities, GEFF-
RARD was on the following day, soemnly pro-
claimed President of the Republic, and on the
Oath left for ST. Marc, which also surrendered
to him on his approach. The whole of the North
ern districts of the Empire Immediately acknowl-
edged his authority, and, at the last advices pre-
partitions were making by the revolutioniss to
advance in force upon Port-au-Prince. From this
statement of the condition of affairs, it would ap-
pear that the deposition of FAUsTIN L. and the re-
S9tapilshhlSHt vi lHS ItepuuHC, De
with considerable degree of certainty. 1t is not,
however, matter of much consequence, CONNER
cially, whether Hayt is constituted Republic or
an Empire Under every form of government
that the blacks have tried, the staple products of
the island have been gradually declining. More
than fifty years ago, Hayti was noted for its ex-
tensive plantations of sugar. coffee, cotton and
indigo; but they have now almost entirely disap-
peared, with the exception of the coffee planta-
tons, and even the latter have been suffered 10
fall into neglect. In 1890 Hayti exported one
hundred and fifty millions of pounds of sugar, and
one million of pounds of indigo, and the aggregate
value of the exports amounted to forty millions of
dollars. At the present day, the annual value
of the foreign commerce of the Empire does not
exceed five millions of dollars; the cultivation of
the sugar cane and the indigo shrub has entirely
Disappeared; and, in the language of a resident of
Port-au-Prince, 'the island that once supplied one
"half of Europe with Sugar now supplies its
''wants from Jamaica and the UNITED STATES"
No more convincing proof can be cited of the
utter incapacity of the negro for selfgovernment
or of his constitutional proneness to Incidence i'm
providence and waste, than is furnished by COM
pairing the products of Hayti, whilst it wasa colony
of France. with what they have since become under
the rule of the blacks themselves