News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-07-26
THE BLACK REPUBLIC.
How Hayti is Governed by President
Solomon.
from the New York Times.1

vantage of a tolerably extensive acquaint
, ance with this republic and its peoDle
: having frequently visited the principa
+ ports during the last five or six wears
i and having during the winter of 1888
remained at Port au Prince five month.
+ watching the development of the serious
) revolution, the suppression of which b.
, Solomon, the present ruler, cost manJ
lives and the destruction of two thirds o.
the city of Port au Prince, but which
established the President firmly on his
seat for second term. He has also en-.
joyed q more or less extensive acquaint-
ance with the European and American
business men of the capital and many
prominent Haytians conrs4cted with the
Government, including President Salo-
mon and his personal staff.
At the time of the Napoleonic wars
the western part of this island was
governed by France as o slave colony.
The island IS extremely fertile, and at
that time was SO extensively and thor
oughly cultivated as to produce one-half
the sugar consumed in Europe and one
third the revenues of France. Selling
a fortunate opportunity when the
French were bard pressed by an English
fleet, the black slaves, assisted by the
free mulattoes, threw off their yoke and
established their independence. Speak
ing the French language they naturally
adopted the form of the French Repulic
in all its details-a system far in ad-
vance of their intellectual and social
condition. Naturally it would not work.
With all the forms of republican
government it has always been and still
remains miserable despotism. One
President after another, ousting his pre-
decessor by a bloody revolution, has
declared himself Emperor, or, without
the title assumed and exercised all the
powers of an absolute ruler. Corrup-
ton, crime, and revolution have been
the history of each administration, end
ing in the assassination, suicide or exile
of the tyrant.
There has never been any serious at
tempt made at honest government. The
! principle that "to the victors belong the
spoils" reigns supreme and is the sole
| issue in Haytian politics. The effect has
been most disastrous. No material and
consequently no moral and intellectual
advance has been possible, and there is
reason to believe that there has been ac-
tual retrogression until quite recent
times. The magnificent sugar and cOf-
fee plantations of the French, with their
systems of irrigation, have been allowed
to go to ruin, and are now indistinguish-
able from the surrounding forests. The
island is almost in a state of nature, ex-
cept in the immediate neighborhood of
the seapOrts. The exports are the spon-
taneous production of the amazingly fer
tile soil, principally dye and cabinet
woods and the coffee pickings of the old
plantations. All exports and imports
are taxed to the extreme limit-iust
short of prohibition. Still, not q single
article Is manufactured by the Haytians.
The governing classes, residing in Tho
eapCrtS-thCre are 10 inland towns
have reached only a most IudiCrOus eN- 4.
ternaI imitation Of French civilization. +.
They alone are interested in their reyo-
IutIonaTy pol les AL as Tar a. they are /
concerned ar5 not dangerous except to /
each other. But Ci1ey comprise small |
part of the population, the large ma /
iority, the pure blacks, descended from |
the smaller slaves, live IN the interior IN
state of deplorable, moral and intel
lectual degradation- AS slaves they
were not taught Christianity, it being
considered n sin to hold Christian in
bondage. They were simply beasts OF
burden, condemned to bltterest toll by |
their white masters and left to their ig
norance and british superstitions. Such |
were the wretched people for whose in
dependence Toussaint POuverture laid |
down his life. Too ignorant to pursue |
the arts of civilization and left without !
guidance and encouragement, they have
inevitably relapsed into o social and
moral state little better than that OF their
ancestors in Africa.
From their association with the |
French they retain only blind and dis
eliminating hatred of every white face;
and this is the element that renders |
Hayti dangerous place of residence.
Haytian laws forbid q white man
holding a title to land; nevertheless, the |
bulk of the mercantile business is car |
ried on by German, French and Amerl- !
can companies. The wealthy Haytians |
derive their revenues from ground rents |
in the cities and the spoils OF office, con-
sequently they have comparatively little
to lose by revolution, which is their oc-
cupation and amusement. BY the black
savages of the interiora revolution IS al
ways welcomed with fierce Joy. 1t Is
their opportunity to loot and burn the |
stores of the hated whites. They are
ever present in the Imagination OF the |
white resident as fierce, irresponsible |
horde, ready at the first note OF alarm
TO pour into the towns by thousands,
and, maddened by rum, commit every
imaginable excess. In times OF mild
politica' excitement, and especially on
Saturday night when thousands OF these
people attend market with perhaps a
few vegetables and few quarts OF wild
coffee, q mere accident, an ordinary
shooting affair, or fire, may plunge the
city into one of these frightful scenes. |
a, - lost Of hIc lIIA
that the capital, though in undisputed
was nearly destroyed in September,
1883, the soldiers taking hand in the
looting
during the past month that induced the
foreign representatives here. after delib-
Grating together, to ask their respective
Governments for the protection of men
of-war. An English gunboat from
Jamaica, Spanish corvette from San
tiago de Cuba, an American man -of-war,
and French corvette from St. Thomas
were Immediately dispatched and arrived
in the order named
In 1884 President Solomon put down
the revolution thoroughly and merci-
lessl sly-eXecuting many of the leaders
and, having succeeded, added to the
navy two effective men of war, one q steel
ram, under the efficient command of the
Haytian Commodore Mason Cooper,
formerly an officer in the United States
Navy. This strengthened his position
so thoroughly that so long rs there were
no signs of his failing health there was
little danger of revolution. But for the
last year or so the old man, who is in his
seventy-ffth year, has been subject to
severe illness and the possible successors
have been alert.
Salomon is remarkable man in many
ways. His personal appearance is strik-
ing. He is about six feet five inches,
with massive, we'll proportioned, and
erect frame, an intelligent though in
tensely black and poclz-marl1ed face,
gray hair, and strong, white teeth. He
has the polished manners of an educated
Frencbman, and the dignifed address of
practical statesman and foreign repre-.
sentative. AS for his political methods,
they are probably as good as his turbulent
subjects allow him to use.
In the event of his death, which can
not be far distant, revolution is almost
inevitable, and a complex and danger
GUS one at that, for while the two parties
contend for the Government there will be
bitter fight in each party for the leader
shin