Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-09
SOME HAYr1EN PRESIDENTS.
Spectacle OF the AGED NOrd Alexis In
His Flight.
New YORK Sun

New York Sun.
old Nord Alexis, with a French flag
wrapped about his shrunken figure as an
aegis, struck at by a vengeful negroes
with a knife. pommelled by one OF his
black subjects, and leaving a box OF gold
behind on the wharf I'm his panic, Is a
grotesque picture OF fallen greatness, but
he Jared better than some of his predeces-
sors In the chair Of state.
The exiied president in his time has seen
a good deal OF history made in Hayt,. IL
the brawling and blood letting of It's pollti-
clans in that pays de barbares." as Ma
poleon III called Il. can be called history
Most Of its rulers have been ignorant,
vain' brutal. despotic, sordid and corrupt.
but not all of them. II Nord Alexis verges
on 80, as they say, he was born In the
administration OF a clean handed. patriotic
and energetic president, Jean Pierre Boyer,
who ruled from 1878 to 1898, and well on
the whole bowling to inevitable and saving
himself by embarking on the British sloop
Of war Scylla- Boyer, surrounded by Of
flee holders OF twenty-five years tenure
like himself. succumbed TO the young
bloods, leaving ~$1,oOO.OOO in the treasury,
an infirmity that makes him a marked
man in the annals of Hayti.
For color, so, to speak, Jean jacques
Dessallnes, the only native governor gen.
eral, has had scarcely a peer among Hay
tan administrators. An ex-slave and a
red-handed veteran OF the war of indie
pendence, Dessalines was naturally unre-
fined. mRsterful, bloody minded and i'm
moral. His rule began with a decree of
massacre, his subjects being encouraged to
enjoy THE luxury of shedding the blood
OF those in whose presence they had
formerly trembled." He took a hand in
the business himself, and the only sur
vivors were some French priests and
physicians whose usefulness was recog-
nized. Dessalines plundered the treasury,
but was liberal, To a favored subordinate
he said: "Piumez la poule, mails prenez
grade qu'elle ne crie.' He was crowned
emperor when Bonaparte elevated him
self to the throne, but would nave no
nobility about him. To a general who sug-
gested the thing he said, 81 am the only
noble in Hayti." AS a murderer and po-
lygamist there have been few statesmen
as remarkable as Dessalines. He persisted
Dy the sword, or by a musket shot, in a
rising In the suburbs OF Port au Prince.
Inc presidency of Hayti really began
with Henri Christophe, also an ex-slave,
VINO had been king in the northern prov
lhce OF Cap Haytien, where he built the
palace of San Souci, whose ruins are still
the wonder of travellers, Declared consti-
tutional president OF Hayti In 1906 Chris
topne I'VE years later proclaimed himself
King Henry I. created a nobility and set
up a court hat became famous for bar
barrie display. A revolution ended Chris
topic and he went into exile.
Fustin ~Soulouque, a very black and
l DlaCKer heartad nraafdnnt r-kz 4I
on March 1, 1s47. did not suit them as well.
ne could endure the presidency for five
years only, when he made himself en-
peror' bought A crown for $40, 900 and re-
gala for $4,000, and created four princes.
among them Bobo. later condemned nv
MIN as a conspirator. fifty-nine dukes, and
as many marqueses, counts and barons as
there were Haytian generals. soulouque
ruied with "a rod of iron, had his chief
Judge and other troublesome subjects shot,
but was gracious to foreigners. In nuttino
down revolutions he waded through blood
to peace, destroying captured insprpent
leaders In squads, but in the end he had
to accept sanctuary from a British trans.
port captain and retired to Jamaica In
1859. "
or this incomplete list of the earlier
Hayttan presidents only Boyer and Geff-
rard were respectable figures and deserved
well of their country. Their successors
nave occasionally been men of the TYNE ot
Souiouque and Salnave--there were. for in.
stance, the brutal Dominique, a man ~
AFRICAN birth, and General Solomon-bu
more often men of some patriotism and
much native energy. like NissaEe-Saget
6oisrono-Canal. Simon Sam and the late
departed Nord Alexis,