Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-20
Negro Nature.
From the st. Louis Republican,

Hayti is about as unsettled as Mexico. OF
too rebellions, for the first quarter of the
present year, one has succeeded. The first,
ON the 22i of February, was a flash in the
pan. Tue revolt on that occasion took place
at Port au Prince; the insurgents pene-
trated into the inclCsure of the palace and
fired on the Government house. They
were, however, beaten back, with some loss
of life, including that of their leader. Not
long after, the port of ST. Mares was Wis
tied by an English vessel, which brought
in from Turks Island a band of malcontents
who had been refugees. These men imme-
diately proclaimed against the government
and were Joined by a large number of the
inhabitants. President Geffrard was in
Inundated, and sent flag OF truce to the
insurgents with the announcement that he
would surrender the government to them
aud quit the country. Of course, the reb-
els were not slow in approving such terms.
The Haytien Legislature was convened.
GeHraru sent in his resignation, and on the
13Ch of March embarked with his family in
French man-of-war for Jamaica, to which
che fallen potentates of Hayti usually re-
sort when they take their departure from
their own country.
The blacks aud {" colored" men who
make up the population OF Hayti have, for
the sixty years since they revolted from the
French rule, tried a variety of forms of
government and INDUCED in a dozen revo-
Iutions, besides rebellIOns, Instructions
and emeutes without number. Sometimes
they have set up government which has
| dominated the whole island of st. Domingo,
/ but for the most part of the time have had
control OF only portion of it. About 1920,
| when Boyler became President of district
in the southern section of the island, there
were two other States there, one of them a
| Kingdom under Christophe and the other a
republic under Petion. King .Christophe
dying and Petion's republic breaking to
pieces, Boyer got possession of the whole
| island. He managed to keep himself in
power, but with a great deal of difficulty,
twenty years. This government professed
TO be republican,, but was nevertheless
overturned by the~"radicalsn of that party,
and the President sent on his travels.
In Hayti there is perpetual teud between
the black and t'colored" elements of the
population. The mulattoes and other
lighter shades are more revolutionary than
the full-blOoded negro and more republi.
can. The emperors of Hayti have been
generally sustained by the blacks. Chris
Tophe was as black las the ace of spades.'
The blacks are generally accounted less
sharp wItted than their ''colored" brethren
aud these last, it is conceded, are better in.
formed. The blacks are even, in Hayti
charged with barbarism; and the rura
black population is about as savage as theil
ancestors in Africa. "a
| After Bower had been expelled the coun-
try, there was good deal of confusion, vi.
t l. as the fruit of an intri que set OH foot by
those who might have been supposed wiz
ling to labor in the interests of constitu-
tional rule, Souloque was made Emperor
But the men who made him found out thai
they could not use him. Then they rebeIl-
ed, but were severely punished, and KEEP
in terror by him for several years. There
were high old imperial times and apish i'm
itations of monarchial institutions under
l kn1 LII
ity. His administration of the finance was
as splendidly audacious as any demonstra.
tion from the King of Dahomey. His min.
lister of finance one day notified him tha
the State strong-box was empty, and asked
the Emperor what he should do. do,
replied his sable majesty, print more" The
Iorder was obeyed with such powerful eff
fects that in no long time Souloque dollar
was worth three cents.
Finally, Soulouque was toppled down BY
a revolution aud fled the country, first halt
ing at Jamaica, the customary stopping
place of deposed dgnitaries from Hay I'll
and afterwards taking up his abode il
France, where he died. To him succeeded
Geffrard, a mulatto, with SO-called repub
Ilic He promised very fairly, aud talkeC
fluently (where is the mulatto who can
not?) about the grand and multifarious re
forms which he was going to institute
But he was inefficient in action, being, lik
his race, more distinguished by big word
than great acts. Like so many of his race
too, he was much under the dominion O
animal passions, and given to the indul
gence of sensual appetites. Notwithstand
ing the impurity of his private life, he wa
rather better than the average of Haytie
rulers. But his administration was asSaile
in the Haytien style. There was plot afte
plot to take his life. On one occasion tn
assassins shot down his daughter by hi
cida in tho qttpOlDt lat h0np tO iii
him, though it was reported at the tim
that both father and daughter were aimee
at. Wecannot undertake to say how man,
Instructions and rebellions have been sc
agoing against Geffrard before this las
which has driven him from power.