The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-24

The colony was in this condition when
in 1887 Louis XVI. promised to con-
woke the States-General. 1t was l7S
years since a similar concession had
been wrung from a French monarch:
the thirteenth Louis in 1914 Was
San Domingo to be represented In the
popular ConvoCation? The island arts
tocrats greatly desired 1t and petitioned
for the privilege. The Council of state
was opposed to colonial participation
in this mass meeting. 1t wa not a
legislature hut a meeting of the ma
ton to address its kindly Condesceud-
ing rulers. The ISLANDERS would only
add to the difficulties of the statesman
engineers In the island itself dissen-
sion grew alarmingly. The revolution
aries'in France regarded the negro with
an idealism as far from the facts of
nature as the harsh creed Of the slave
driver that his field hand is nothing
more than an exceptionally useful, eX-
ceptionally dangerous brute beast The
idealists had a machine for their prop
uganda in the Societe Amis des Noirs,
which resolutely opposed admttance
Of the Representatives of slavery The
san DOMINICAN minority ins.stent upon
Il was also well organized. When the
politics was successful in securing the
aduiittanCe Of delegates
The revolutionary propaganda famed
the flame of hatred between the poor
whites" and the rich mulattoes Of the
colony The poor whites taking adj
vantage of the sadly dsorganized state
Of the colonial Government grabbed
the local offices and used their power
10, a., Those horn
and brought up to amcnity to the re-
strctions of color lire" would not
submit to this new tyranny and re-
hclled; an uprising the more alarming
because Of their customary adherence
to the royal Government Alliance be-
tween this Government, the united
planters and the muiattoes would. says
Mr. Stoddard. have avertcd revolution
I'm San Domingo But every social
force was descriptive i'm influence and
effect. In the complexity of conflicting
elements it was each class for itself
against every other class.
At last matters came to such pass
that the colonial question could no
longer he begged: legislation upon slav-
cry was imperative. Although it was
authoritatvciy pointed out that tho
existence Of san Domingo as dividend
paving property Of the nation was alb
soletely dependent upon slavery and
that a straight choice must he made
between it and Pronunciation of the
colony. SO great was the pressure that
in May. 1891. the National Assembly
conferred the right of suffrage upon
all, including the mulattoes born Of
free parents The restriction limited
the gift Of the franchise to a
group OF mulattoes Numbering not more
than 400. but say the author. this
decree was just that symbolic act
which. if accepted 10y the beaten side,
insured the others complete victory"
Acceptance was the last thing in the
minds Of the island whites.
In the following year the colony was
allame with instruction. The negroes
rose in the north, the mulattoes in the
/ west. The revolutionary current, tenn
! porarily checked 10y the need of con-
centration upon the suppression of these
; internal disturbances was released and
REINFORCED 10y resentment Of the Jacobin
/ Jaw of April. 792 directing the election
4 Of colonial and parochial assemblies, en-
} franChisiug the people of color and free
| negroes and qualifying them for cleo
! tive office. and naming three commits
sionerS to enforce the decree In san
/ Domingo. These JuCobin commissioners
/ carried the revolution to the island.
The news Of the storming Of the Tuile-
/ rieS made the white rabble putty to their
purposes. The roNaists We're full Of
fear and fury: what the mob of Paris
. had done Yesterday the mob of lie Cap
would surely do tomorrow" After an
other year Of Civli war complicated by
Spanish attacks from the east and an
English Intervention. the Assembly
early in l19l, decreed the abolition oi
| slavery in French colonies and recalled
the commissioners under accusation as
responsible for the devastation Of San
Domingo. And here that remarkabl,
negro TousSaint Iouverture enters the
story with the beginning of his publ,
career. at the end Of which the white
man was driven out ana the troubled
history Of the Black Republic of Hayt
began.
TpuSsalnt I.ouVerture was nearly >,
years old IN 1871. \ coachman, unedu
Gated, he had precis, ly the qualitie,
needed for black leader of blacks
Cruel and crafty. he knew how to max,
fattery play into treachery's hand
Enemies he could not beat i'm the fiel,
I've won over to his own side. He wa
Iduplcity personfied. When war betweeI
France and Spain broke out in 1898 h,
east his lot with the Spaniards. Whel
the republican cause i'm the colony wa
at its lowest ehh he had the acumen e
discern in it the best opportunity 70
gratifying his eager personal ambition
lust for power among his people: H.
would bc the great negro republican
Pretending loyalty to Spain up To tn
very moment of his detection, he mas
sacred his Spanish troops in the nigh
and took his negro followers over to tn
republican side. As England, Spain an
, France became more deeply involved il
I, European war the conflict I'm san Do
mingo became dcCreasingay "A whit
mans affair, and finally settled into
> contest between the blacks and tn
mulattOes for supremacy.
The Directoire sent commissioners a
4 the Assembly had done. They, nstea
! of using the mulattoes as a counter
poiSe 10 Toussaints power, preferre
To deal with the black leader. A mis-
2 take, the author calls il; but perhaps tn
commissioners thought to wait Will
I TuuSsaint disposed of the "peopleS q
4 Il. a