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Chapter 6: Royal Council (1842), and the Presidency of Jonathas Granville (1843-1853)
“Time that everything destroys, is respecting his tomb
It will grow for thee the most beautiful Laurel
If death, as they say, is a terrible mystery
As the future unfolds, it will break through the Earth!”
-Words Engraved Upon the Jonathas Granville’s Tomb (1857)
As the Christophe dynasty lay crushed under a pile of rubble, and even the capital bearing its name Cap-Henry lay in ruins, an emergency “Royal Council” was convened in Port-au-Prince. This council would be known as the Haitian Constitutional Convention. Sitting at the head of this “Royal Council” would be none other than the man instrumental in weakening the monarchy in the first place, Jonathas Granville.
The Rise of Jonathas Granville
From a young age, it seemed to most people that Granville was destined for greatness, few could’ve expected just how far he would rise. Born to Simon Peter Granville, and Marie-Thérèse-Anne Labrosse in a wealthy borough of Port-de-Paix. His father had been a tutor for future revolutionary Toussaint Louverture's sons. Sent to Paris as a teenager, Granville arrived during the fall of the French Directory, and the rise of the Triumvirate, he was deeply attracted both to the liberal ideals spreading through the city, but also to the strong order and stability that Napoleon Bonaparte had brought.
While attending the National Institute des Colonies, Granville sat out the Haitian Revolution, instead becoming a skilled swordsman, poet, orator, and diplomat. Joining Napoleon’s army, Granville would see the final collapse and end of the Napoleonic Empire, with Granville himself narrowly avoiding death during the Battle of Leipzig.
Hanging around in France after the restoration of the Monarchy, and the Hundred Days Campaign, the now older Jonathas Granville had decided his taste for combat was largely satisfied. Returning to the new Kingdom of Haiti, Granville’s knack for diplomacy, and wealthy familial background quickly saw his rise through the ranks of politics in the Kingdom. Eventually earning a seat in the Senate for the Port-au-Paix region, right next to Cap-Henry this was considered by many an affront to the Afro-Haitian Monarchy.
Even before the earthquake, Granville had been among the prominent men in the entire nation and had actively played a role in weakening the monarchy. Echoing his time serving under Napoleon, Granville lambasted the tyranny of absolutism, and unassailable leaders, pointing to it only bringing a nation to eventual destruction. Quietly, Granville actively campaigned for the end of the monarchy, and the shift to an entirely democratic republic, based upon equal representation for both Mixed-Race and Afro-Haitians. Despite these idealisms, Granville was pragmatic, unlike many of the more radical members of the Chamber of Deputies, he pushed for the slow undermining of the monarchy through the development of the socio-political consciousness of the average Haitian. Even then, he was still not opposed to keeping the monarchy, especially when the late King Henry II, agreed to relinquish massive amounts of legislative, and executive power to the Haitian Parliament, and Prime Minister, a role which Jonathas Granville would soon secure for himself.
With the 1842 Cap-Henry Earthquake, all of Granville’s careful politicking, and coalition building were shattered as now a bickering royal council of businessmen, liberals, nobles, pretenders to the throne, and conservatives now found themselves attempting to wrest power.
The King is Dead, Long Live the Republic! (1843)
Later histories and paintings would show a gallant and united Council, united in purpose to end the tyranny of King and restore the rights of man that had been so long denied under the oppressive Code Henry [1] the truth, as is always the case, is far more opaque. In fact, during the initial opening days of what would become a 6 months long convention, it was unclear if the monarchy would be overthrown at all, or merely replaced with the last living heir of the Christophe dynasty.
Thomas de Belliard would present a very strong case for himself to be put on the throne. A military general, who had recently crushed La Trinitaria, even while being largely given under armed, and undermanned units. De Belliard would make a rather large mistake when presenting his case to the Royal Council. He would lay out a plan to repeal the 1841 Compromise, reinstitute total royal prerogative, and reform the nobility system to open the ranks to new businessmen, and entrepreneurs. He also advocated further entrenchments of the forced labor system, geared towards new infrastructure to connect both halves of the islands more efficiently. He would be railed against by Jean-Jacques Acaau’s liberal faction, as well as Granville’s own “colorist” faction. Both refused vehemently to allow the 1841 Compromise to be repealed after spending so much time, and political capital to push the compromise forward. De Belliard would attempt to walk back his demands; however, the Liberals would refuse any discussion on maintaining the monarchy, and Granville deeply distrusted Belliard’s imperialist ambitions, believing it to be an imitation of Napoleon, and that any deal made would merely press his power.
With De Belliard’s faction swept aside, both Acaau, and Granville agreed to completely, and dismantle the monarchy, seeing no alternative monarch to choose, and not trusting the imperialist faction. A new Republic of Haiti would be formed, keeping the Westminster-style system that Henry had instituted. Instead of a Monarch, a President would be chosen by direct vote. The powers of the President were left mostly vague; however, Granville believed the President should be relatively powerless and a figurehead. The so-called colorist system would give equal seats to each racial group, splitting the island halfway down the middle, with often little regard for the large amounts of mixed-race Creole living in southwestern Haiti, and Afro-Haitians living in eastern Haiti. A provision for universal suffrage would almost immediately be tabled by Granville much to the chagrin of his liberal opposition.
The Haitian Constitution of November 8, 1842, would be signed by members of the Parliament, most importantly Granville, Accau, and reluctantly de Belliard. In preliminary elections, Granville would be chosen as the First President of the Republic of Haiti. For Prime Minister, despite many demands, Charles Rivière-Hérard, another military general turned politician, had a fierce military, and then political rivalry with the liberal Accau.
Abolishment Forced Labor (1843 - 1860)
One of the most despised elements of the rule of the two Henry's was the forced labor system. Sugar harvesting and processing was still an immensely dangerous system, but its maintenance was one of the only reasons Haiti’s economy had been able to survive and grow post-revolution. Nonetheless, this system could not be held together forever, especially as Haitians grew increasingly agitated and hostile toward the government.
In 1843 as his first pledge, President Granville signed the Abolition of Forced Labor Act, under this act the process by which forced labor was used in dangerous work like sugar processing, and other refinement tasks would be gradually scaled back before being fully abolished.
The most difficult issue was how to keep the economy afloat, and to maintain the French debt repayments. The first way Haiti would approach this was to incur further debts. Starting around 1845, processing using multiple-effect-evaporators would enter into working production. While the initial blueprints dated back to 1820, it wasn’t until nearly 25 years later Norbert Rillieux managed to get his patent used in factories. Granville, using up considerable cash reserves, would purchase these multi-effect-evaporators to help ease sugar harvesting and processing. More importantly, large farms which often processed the harvested sugar needed less manpower, and could switch to cheaper wage labor. Major factories like those in Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo, and the recently rebuilding Cap-Henry would also adopt mechanization, and while dangerous, produced far fewer casualties than previous methods of forced labor. To appease the elites who often owned these large plantations, and by the extent stood to lose the most from labor loss, machinery was given to them at low-to-no cost.
For the average farmer though, Granville would propose a simple change. Lifting French colonial laws that banned indigo, smaller farmers would be encouraged not only to produce subsistence crops, but also their own small easily produced cash crops like Indigo, or Coffee, which Haiti was still among the largest producers of. Haitian peasants would also be allowed to keep the lands they had been allotted during the periods of forced labor. Meanwhile, in Santo Domingo, the government would invest massively into protecting and expanding support for the cattle ranching that was taking place, especially along the coasts.
Progress would be slow, delayed by later troubles in the Haitian Republic, but by 1860, an adequate if not completely comparable solution to the issue of forced labor, and economic stability was found.
The Non-Partisan President
While President Granville had cultivated his faction and swept most of the Senate, he did not; however, wished for the Presidency to be a partisan position. Renouncing any affiliations to the developing Liberal Party of Haiti, National Party of Haiti, or the so-called Loyalist Party of Haiti (de Belliard’s monarchists), Granville positioned himself as above petty party politics, instead making deals with both Liberals and Nationals to pass the necessary legislation.
Unfortunately for Granville, his idealized non-partisan presidency would not long outlast him, nor would his weak figurehead ideas. As in the next decades, power would centralize increasingly in the President, leading to the creation of what has often been compared by political scientists as an Imperial Presidency or elected autocracy.
1st Great Migration (1840-1854)
A crowning achievement of Granville’s tenure would be the so-called 1st Great Migration. During his time, freedmen from the United States, especially intellectuals, poets, and other upper-caste African Americans were encouraged to move to Haiti.
While the Great Migration began in the later years of Henry II, it began to pick up steam after his death. Granville would open the floodgate to immigration-shattering restrictions, and ignore the fears of the elites in Haitian society, many of whom feared a new educated class of liberal idealists flooding into Haiti.
Stylizing itself as a liberal democratic beacon of liberty for all men, the Haitian Republic attracted thousands of freed African Americans who could afford to make the journey south. While many had high ideas they soon were hit with blunt reality. Racial tensions, class divide, and segregated voting had not merely been done away with because everyone in the nation had a darker skin tone. Instead, Haitian society pitted new distinctions based on skin tone and wealth. Some African Americans returned home, bitter, penniless, and without hope. Others struck it rich using their proportionally wealthier upbringings in the United States as a way to dominate the Haitian market, men like Andre Saintil, and Robert Victor would turn into wealthy factory owners.
Haiti accepting an increasing number of African Americans spurred some amount of debate in the halls of the United States Congress, and among abolitionists. U.S. President John Tyler, while an ardent supporter of Slavery, and slave owner who upheld previous decisions to not recognize Haiti, turned a blind eye to the abundance of Haitian goods that came from their ports. Further, Tyler believed the exodus of freedmen from the north would defang abolitionism, and give a much-needed win to the cause of slavery, especially as they had suffered a brutal humiliation after their embargo was defeated in a congressional senate vote.
The Fight for Universal Male Suffrage
Granville’s greatest failure, and indeed the one that consumed most of his presidency would be the cause of universal suffrage. From early on, President Granville had ardently fought against the elitism inherent in the Haitian social structure, much of which was a holdover from the days of the old French colony.
Only landed, and literate Haitians possessed the ability to vote meaning many Afro-Haitians, and Mixed Spanish-Haitians were denied the ability to have their voices heard politically. While the idea of universal suffrage was extremely popular in Haiti among the average person, most elites and even liberals hated the idea. Two main arguments would present themselves, the appeal to paternalism, and the appeal to profits.
The appeal to paternalism would follow this general line: “While yes, it would be nice to allow every male Haitian to vote, are the people ready to? Our people are largely illiterate, and could easily be swayed by populist rhetoric, or radicalism. So, voting only based upon those who can read is by far a better system, instead of allowing everyone to vote we should instead focus on improving access to education.” This argument appealed heavily to liberals. While many had high ideals about creating an equal, and just society they did not believe the average Haitian had the mental acuity, or competence to be able to vote, and needed the guiding hand of enlightened intellectuals to lead them to their eventual securing of the right to vote.
Among those concerned about profits, and their power there was an entirely different line of thinking. On the floors of the Senate, they delivered fiery speeches denouncing “The idealistic European liberalism, and utopian socialism of the Granville Presidency. Why should we allow those who have not achieved, and have not carved out their positions of power, and prestige the right to have their vote weighted to the same degree as us, the best of society?”
Trapped between the two, was Granville, and one surprising ally, Thomas de Belliard. The now-growing elderly statesman had shifted his monarchist Loyalist Party from open monarchist elitism to Bonapartist anti-elitism. Reluctantly Granville was forced to make deals with de Belliard, even going as far as to promote him to a Minister without portfolio. Despite this uneasy alliance, both Granville and de Belliard were unable to see the Universal Suffrage Act passed through Parliament. The failure of the act would swell supporters of the Loyalist Party, increasing monarchist sentiments, especially among Afro-Haitians who still were a large underclass within Haitian society.
Resigned to Defeat
With perhaps his biggest hope to transform and create the Haitian Republic into a true egalitarian state dashed upon the rocks, Jonathas Granville would announce his final act. He would resign after 2 full terms in office. Already 68 years old by the end of his last term in office, Granville would attempt to set a new precedent. No President of Haiti should serve more than 2 terms.
Granville would not live long to see his Haitian Republic break apart and descend into the fires of civil conflict. Dying only 2 years after he left office, just before his 71st birthday. Perhaps it was for the best, already left a broken man by his pitfalls, Granville would remark that he had been a failure, and had made Haiti weaker as a result.
In his restrained presidency, Jonathas Granville had attempted to mark himself as a just, and democratic ruler. Instead, his restraint led to a less democratic, and equal Haiti. His compromises kept Haitians in forced bondage for another 7 years after his term, and his compromising with radical elements like Thomas de Belliard would lead his beloved nation into the fires of war, and dictatorialism.
Today, Jonathas Granville is seen as a man ahead of his time. An enlightenment thinker, poet, and gentleman warrior, his life would be heavily idealized after his death. Subject to poems, plays, and movies, Granville has transcended his arguably mediocre presidency, into a hero of modern Haiti, a second founding father.
Notes
[1]Code Henry was an expansive series of criminal and civil legal structures laid out by Henri Christophe during his divided Kingdom period IRL. With no overthrow, this expansive legal system would see a far more widespread implementation across the entire island.
From Cape Tiburon to Cape Samaná - A United Hispaniola Timeline
Chapter 7: The Haitian Civil War, A War of the Bastards, Reconstruction (1853-1863)
“That was the beginning of the civil war. Many years have gone by and blood keeps running, soaking the soil of Haiti, but I am not there to weep.”
- Isabel Allende, Island Beneath the Sea, 2009
No matter how long the Henrys lay dead, it seemed Haiti was unable to escape the long shadow Henry, and the Christophe family left behind. Among those many issues was the many illegitimate children Henry left behind. The most influential, and perhaps the only Henry himself ever recognized was Thomas de Belliard. Even Henry’s true son, Henry II was constantly overshadowed by his erstwhile half-sibling, who constantly plotted against, and undercut his rule. Even with the death of the monarchy, and de Belliard’s advanced age, his scheming never stopped. This chapter in Haitian history would be forever known as “The War of the Bastards”
An Unpopular Election (1853)
The sudden announcement by Jonathas Granville that he would not stand for a third term would send shockwaves through the Haitian political establishment. While many had expected Granville to retire after his second term, his refusal to choose, or prepare a successor created a great deal of confusion and chaos in the political establishment. Anger spun like a seething mass among the Haitian populace, as many marched, and protested that the government fulfill Granville’s demands, of universal male suffrage for all Haitians above the age of 25. As the government cracked down upon these civilian protests, the election was held on April 1, 1853, with both the Liberal Party, National Party, and Loyalist Party all running candidates.
The Liberal Party as always ran Jean-Jacques Acaau, who by now was an extremely old, but experienced hand in Haitian politics. Even so, Acaau was a firebrand, and political outsider, who even in his old age and prestigious career managed to ruffle the feathers of the Haitian elites.
The main opposition to Acaau was the National Party which ran the conservative mixed-race Spanish-Haitian general José Antonio Salcedo y Ramírez. A relatively moderate compromise candidate, Ramirez would pull from both the Liberal and National Parties promising to institute moderated reforms that balanced both social and economic needs for all Haitians.
Finally, the Loyalists put the elderly Thomas de Belliard as their candidate, once again advocating for Bonapartist monarchism, anti-elitism, and universal male suffrage. This made de Belliard the most popular candidate based purely on public opinion, but the least favorite among the actual voting base of landed elites.
With such an existential threat to their power, both the National and Liberal parties would unite behind a united ticket. José Antonio Salcedo y Ramírez would serve as the President, while Jean-Jacques Acaau would achieve his long-coveted position of Prime Minister. The unity ticket delivered a humiliating blow to the Loyalists sweeping around 90% of the eligible seats. The result, despite being largely expected, still enraged the Loyalists who became increasingly fueled by the growing public discontent towards the denial of universal suffrage.
Royalist Coup, and Republican Counter-Coup (1853)
The new unity ticket laid out a comprehensive plan to reform Haitian society. This included a more rapid dismantling of forced labor, discussions of expanding suffrage and expanding access to education. For a moment it seemed as if Haiti may pull itself back from the brink of chaos. Popular opinion began to cool towards the radicalism of the Loyalist Party, and de Belliard became anxious. Perhaps his final chance to restore the monarchy, and write his name in the history books was disappearing. Beginning to plot with his other allies, most notably another of Henri Christophe’s illegitimate children, and his younger half-brother Pierre Nord Alexis, the Loyalists would make their move.
With a force of veteran soldiers and Loyalist civilian supporters, Thomas de Belliard would seize the National Assembly building in Port-au-Prince on May 21, 1853. Here he would capture and order the surrender of the Haitian government including President José Antonio Salcedo y Ramírez, and Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Acaau. While Ramírez would surrender without issue, Acaau refused to yield, leading to Acaau committing suicide in his office in the National Assembly building. After only a single month in power, the unity ticket was now shattered and scattered to the winds by de Belliard.
Thomas de Belliard would declare his intention to restore the Haitian monarchy, wearing the crown of Henry I, and II, and adopting the title of Prince-President Thomas Christophe de Belliard. Almost immediately the nation was split along racial lines. While many Afro-Haitians were supportive of the new regime, Mixed-Race Haitians, and especially Spanish-Haitians outright rejected this new development.
Rallying behind a young general named Sylvain Salnave, the Haitian Republican Army would launch a counter-coup only 12 days after Thomas de Belliard had taken power. Unfortunately, de Belliard had caught wind of the changing atmosphere in Port-au-Prince and had moved himself and his supporters to Cap-Henry. Quickly getting the cooperation of local Afro-Haitian elites, and governors, de Belliard took over the states of Latibonit, Nòdwès, and parts of Nò. The Battle lines were drawn, and the Haitian Civil War began.
Haitian Civil War (1853-1855), Haitian-Spanish War (1854-1855)
The Haitian Civil War would be the first true test of the Republic’s convictions not only to democracy but to its sovereignty. With Europeans meddling from abroad, and the Haitian Kingdom pushing its propaganda, the Republic teetered on the edge of anarchy.
Now the sworn-in President in Port-au-Prince, Sylvain Salnave set about mobilizing as many Haitians as he could to the fight. In a bold declaration, made with the backing of his nobles, Salnave promised that any Haitian who fought for him would be granted land and the vote. The subsequent recruitment wave washed over the nation like a tsunami. So many men applied, that riots broke out in several cities after the government closed recruitment offices.
Even within a crushing numeric disadvantage, the self-professed Kingdom of Haiti, and its King Thomas I, had their advantages. Mainly most of Thomas’ forces were old veterans. These men had counter-insurgency training and were used to fighting undersupplied, and undermanned as they had in the mountains of Eastern Haiti.
Early battles consisted of mainly skirmishes with Thomas’ forces testing the Haitian Republican Army. Early on at the Battle of Hinche, the elite forces of Thomas’ army clashed with the Haitians under conservative Charles Rivière-Hérard. Newly recruited, under-trained, and excited for battle, the Haitian Republicans rushed forward in anticipation, quickly losing organization as they clashed against the veterans of Thomas’ army. Leading from the front the old pretender held the line, encouraging his men to stand, and hold fast, calmly bringing down the Republicans as they rushed forward. By the time some men reached and charged the Loyalist line, they were exhausted and in many cases already wounded. Thomas would order his men on a counterattack, demolishing Rivière-Hérard and killing the old general in the panicked retreat. Hinche would fall to the Loyalists, as the Republican Army regrouped, and prepared for a new offensive.
Sensing blood in the water, the Spanish Empire under Isabella II would launch a punitive expedition into Eastern Haiti in an attempt to reestablish their hold over Santo Domingo which they had never recognized as independent or ceded to the Haitian state. Launching a military expedition, Spanish forces landed in Santo Domingo. Spain had imagined retaking the east from the so-called barbaric Haitians the Spanish would be met as heroes. The reality they faced was near-constant uprisings the moments their boots hit the ground in Santo Domingo.
Garrisoning Santo Domingo required immense amounts of Spanish effort, so they turned to a native collaborator hoping this would calm the situation. Enter a disgruntled Spanish Haitian named Pedro Santana y Familias, who passed over multiple times for promotion, after seeing the failure of the Haitian Republican Army to defend his home of Hinche, Santana agreed to defect and become the Spanish governor of Santo Domingo, and eventually the leader of the colony if restored. Putting a native Spanish-Haitian did little to help endear the Europeans to the wider populace. Many, while not fond of Afro-Haitians, saw themselves nationally as independent, and a part of the Haitian Republic, and not subjects of an occupying force, as had been a common feeling in the early years of annexation. The Haitian Republican Army of the East under the command of Gaspar Polanco Borbón would encircle and hold Santo Domingo under a state of siege, beating back several attempts by the poorly supplied, and low morale Spanish, and conscripted Spanish Haitian forces from breaking out of the city.
After a year of holding the city, Spanish forces grew increasingly mutinous, especially after facing near-constant protests, and riots from the city's inhabitants itself. Pedro Santana the supposedly great general struggled under ever deteriorating conditions in Santo Domingo, and these conditions hampered efforts to make an offensive outside of the city. In May of 1855 Spain slowly began to withdraw, uprisings in Barcelona against forced conscription, and taxation, as well as the general unfavorability of the conflict caused Spain to quickly abandon its attempted foreign adventure. Pedro Santana would flee the city spending the last decade of his life in Madrid.
Gaspar Polanco Borbón for his part would enter in Santo Domingo a hero, and be given the title of Marshal of Haiti, one of the first Spanish Haitians to bear such a prestigious title of the Republic.
Fall of the Mummer King (1855)
Oftentimes when people speak of the Haitian Civil War they speak of Battles of Hinche, or Gonaïves; however, no major battle truly brought the rebellion, instead, it was the betrayal of King Thomas against his half-brother and the populace as a whole.
A life being scorned, and slighted left Thomas cold, and hateful. The moment he touched power, he did not give into the populace’s demands that he had so carefully played on to encourage revolt. Attempts to secure voting rights, or even protest would be met with brutal crackdowns, and massacres in the streets of Cap-Henry, and forced labor was strengthened and intensified to build fortifications, and roads for soldiers to move. This forced conscription created increasing hostility towards Thomas who most felt had betrayed their trust, as he had reneged on every promise he had made to them.
The first discussions of removing Thomas came in early 1855, while the front with the Haitian Republican Army remained relatively static, many defected politicians and nobles began to plot to put Pierre Nord Alexis on the throne. While Alexis’ exact knowledge of the plotting, or if he agreed to it is unknown, Thomas responded swiftly and brutally, capturing and executing the plotting nobles, and stripped Alexis of his titles, and prepared to have him arrested.
Choosing to strike first, Pierre Nord Alexis declared his loyalty to the Haitian Republic and split from the Kingdom. Defecting and bringing several hundred soldiers with him, President Salnave would graciously accept Alexis back to the Republic.
Leading his small detachment, Alexis would prove himself an able commander, at the Second Battle of Hinche, Alexis would break ranks and lead his small detachment shattering the Loyalist army's flank, causing them to flee, allowing the Republicans to retake the city.
Promoted to the head of his army, Alexis and his soldiers would oversee the final march on Cap-Henry. Choosing to meet him head-on, King Thomas sallied forth from the city and made a head-on attack. Outnumbered, and divided, some Haitian loyalists immediately switched sides upon seeing Alexis. Nonetheless, Thomas would push forward, leading a charge in what became known as “The Battle of the Bastards”, in which Alexis and Thomas would directly face each other in combat. After hours of intense back and forth, Thomas’ army would retreat into the city.
Doggedly pursued by the Haitian Republicans, and unwilling to let himself be captured by Pierre Nord Alexis, King Thomas Christophe de Belliard chose to commit suicide, shooting himself with his father’s famous silver pistol. Cap-Henry and soldiers across the now fallen Kingdom would throw down their arms, surrendering to the Haitian Republicans. Most Afro-Haitian nobles would use their relative wealth to secure passage out of the Kingdom. Most ended up in Cuba, or Jamaica where despite their wealth they were discriminated against, and persecuted by colonial officials, and Europeans.
A Most Radical Reconstruction (1855 - 1863)
President Sylvain Salnave now sat as the undisputed ruler of Haiti, yet the Haiti he now presided over was immensely broken. The Afro-Haitian elites had betrayed the nation, and many wanted revenge.
Extreme racial hatred had been born from the conflict, with some Mixed-Haitian elites believing Afro-Haitians to be naturally traitorous, and prone to betrayal. They argued any Afro-Haitian lands should be divided and given to respectable groups like White or Mixed-Haitians.
Rejecting these pulls of the nation towards racial extremism, President Salnave would begin a process of national reform, and reconciliation. Cities like Hinche, Gonaives, and Cap-Henry which had been devastated by artillery fire, and heavy fighting would be rebuilt. When it came to the issue of what to do with the now unowned lands that many Afro-Haitian planters and elites had abandoned, or were now considered forfeit, Salnave decided to simply put the land under National control. From there the land would be divided and handed out to private planters, or communal Afro-Haitian villages. This land tenure program would create a new Afro-Haitian middle class and greatly weaken the power of elites in that area of the Republic of Haiti. On the downside, this would intensify and put pressure on the Haitian government later to institute land reform throughout the whole nation.
Fulfilling his promise, all soldiers who had fought for the Republic gained parcels of land, and the ability to vote in elections. While it would not soothe everyone’s desires, especially Afro-Haitians who would be excluded from being granted the vote for military service, this step would slowly begin the move for eventual full universal male suffrage.
After two of the most tumultuous terms since the Haitian Revolution, President Salnave would choose to resign and not seek a third term in office. Despite coming in on the back of a coup, Sylvain Salnave would be beloved as a savior of the Haitian Republic. Immortalized in Haitian history and culture as the Haitian Cincinnatus, a warrior who grabbed the reins of the Republic to save it from monarchism, and barbarity. After his retirement, he would become a beloved socialite and political theorist within the nation. After the U.S. occupation of Haiti, he would leave Port-au-Prince, retiring to the countryside until his death at the age of 84, in 1910.
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Chapter 8. Fabre Geffrard/Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal: The Rise of the Mixed-Race Oligarchy “Mulattocracy” (1863 - 1873)
"A rich black is a mulatto, a poor mulatto is a black.”
- Haitian Proverb
As Haiti fell back into a state of normalcy after the Civil War, it was clear something in Haitian society had changed. The balance of power, which for many years had favored the Afro-Haitian populace and elites, had been in one fell swoop, shattered. The election of 1863 would show the rise and stranglehold the Mixed-Race Haitians had secured over both reconstruction and wider Haitian society, the “Mulattocracy” as it would later be known had begun.
The Election of 1863
The elections of April 1863, would show a thunderous rise of the National Party of Haiti, and the weakening of the Haitian liberals who had dominated mixed-race communities since the integration of Spanish Haiti.
Initially, many Mixed-Race elites had supported the liberals, as they had been a way to secure further rights for Mixed-Race Haitians against the domination of the Afro-Haitians under the rule of the Henrys, and Jonathas Granville. It should be noted, that even during this early time, Mixed-Race Haitians did not vote as a block, with a small but noticeable minority siding with the National Party, due to beliefs that the liberal's push for wider social, and political reform would lead to the loss of privileges, and status held by elites of both races. When the Haitian Civil War and the subsequent Radical Reconstruction under President Sylvain Salnave began, the Mixed-Race Haitian elites fled the Liberal Party en masse. Granting voting rights to veterans, and the redistribution of land from Afro-Haitian elites to peasants, and villages was seen as a massive existential threat to the power of elites in Haitian society. The ball to Universal Male Suffrage had started rolling, and now there was nothing the elites could do to stop it.
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to say the reforms had hurt the Mixed-Race Haitians. This would be wholly incorrect. Giving voting rights to soldiers, and the flight of many Afro-Haitian elites had ensured that the majority of Haitians who could vote for President or the Legislature would be Mixed-Race Haitians. Afro-Haitian soldiers who fought for Thomas de Belliard were not granted the right to vote, and in many cases had lost their land. Some Afro-Haitians had been given land during Salnave’s redistributive campaigns, but even then much more of the land went to Mixed-Race Haitians or communal villages.
Even still, the potential future threat of a future demand for land reform in Mixed-Race Haitians dominated lands, and the now increasing likelihood of universal male suffrage in a decade, largely squandered any potential good faith once shared between the Liberal Party and elites. This meant that by the 1863 election, the National Party’s candidate Fabre Geffrard swept the electoral stage, running on a platform of anti-populism, normalcy, and national stability. His Vice President Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal, a younger, and more idealistic candidate pulled in numerous intellectuals, especially those of the burgeoning whitening movement.
An Unexpected Friend
While Haiti had been embroiled in her civil war and reconstruction, the United States of America had descended into her own American Civil War in 1861. Initially, Haiti was skeptical and worried about its neighbors falling into a Civil War, especially when one of the factions was a slaving, imperialistic “nation” known as the Confederate States of America.
These fears would be replaced by potential profit, and hope, as in 1861 American President Abraham Lincoln would formally recognize the Haitian Republic as an independent nation, securing the long-elusive recognition from its largest neighbor.
Now, under President Geffrard, Haiti would reap the rewards of this new relationship, as American industries still hungered for cotton, indigo, tobacco, and coffee that it was now being deprived of by the Confederate States. This would create a nearly decade-long economic boom known as the 1860 Haitian Surge (1863-1872).
This economic boom would see American businesses make their entrance officially into the now-recognized Haitian Republic, especially American fruit companies. The influx of wealth and capital would allow Haiti to bankroll its beginnings of industrialization, and from the civil war, it would soon push well beyond its initial pre-civil war economy.
Bankrolling the Future
When people often think of 1800s conservatism and racial democracy, they do not often think of advancement and reform. While this is often true for many politicians, Fabre Geffrard was different. He had bold dreams of industrializing Haiti and joining the modern world that was developing around the state. To this end, a large amount of capital would be needed. The state still held large amounts of land from the end of the war. Much of this land was agriculturally still viable, and just lacked new ownership, after the flight of many Afro-Haitian elites.
To bankroll new industrial subsidies and ventures, Geffrard would sell off excess government land to those who could afford it. While some private small landholders and even leftover Afro-Haitian elites managed to claim land, most of this government-owned land was sold off to primarily Mixes-Race Haitian elites. This effectively cut the throat of the Afro-Haitian power in the region, as their dominance weakened, and became ever eroded, as they were disadvantaged by the state.
The money made from the sale of government land would be poured directly into the industrialization of the economy.
Burgeoning Industrialization
With a heavy focus on industrialization, the state of the Haitian economy would also change. While free market trade had in general always been the norm in the Haitian economy, it often left local industries outcompeted, and more funding pushed towards agricultural pursuits.
Geffrard would fund local industries through subsidization, rather than hardline tariff policies, embraced by more mercantilist members of the Haitian Parliament. Instead favoring non-invasive methods to grow the Haitian economy.
Of course, it should be noted these loans, and subsidies would massively favor the Mixed-Race Haitian elites, and disadvantage small business owners, especially Afro-Haitian ones. Factory conditions in growing urban centers like Port-au-Prince, Cap-Henry, and Santo Domingo would be exceptionally poor, with industrial accidents skyrocketing.
Haitian writers, especially those of the marginalized Afro-Haitian communities, would compare these factories to the old slavery of the past, with similar high mortality, and injury rates, for low pay and no benefits. Haitian soil once again became slick with the blood of poor Afro-Haitian workers while Mixed-Race and White Haitians would reap most of the benefits. It was fair to say, that by the end of President Gefrard’s rule the economic portion of the “Mulattocracy '' had firmly calcified.
Haitian railways would also grow during this period with rail lines running from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince rising. Mortality as with everything in Haiti remained exceptionally high, with thousands dying to see the construction of the pan-island rail line.
Death of the Elder Statesmen (1872)
For 9 years, Fabre Geffrard had guided the nation through its industrialization with a strong mix of conservatism, and a free market approach to economics. As December approached, President Geffrard became increasingly sluggish, ill, and tired. On December 31, 1872, President Fabre Geffrard would suffer a heart attack, and die.
The nation immediately entered into a state of mourning, especially among Haitian elites who had lived under the economic golden age of his careful hand. His funeral procession was said to be miles long and paraded through the streets of Port-au-Prince. His successor, Vice President Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal delivered a touching tribute, paying homage to the late President, whom he called the father of modern Haiti.
Fabre Geffrard for decades after his death would be looked up to as a modernizing figure of Haiti. Respected, and cherished by the Mixed Race establishment, he would be downright reviled by Afro-Haitians, socialists, communists, and intellectuals. A more nuanced, and modern view of history should acknowledge that while Geffrard did play an important role in guiding Haitian industrialization, he also did so on the backs of a massive underclass that were deliberately excluded from avenues of social mobility. It is unfair to solely put the development of the so-called “Mulattocracy” or rule of the mixed race, it should be noted that he directly shattered the previous attempts at reconciliation and tolerance created by his predecessors.
Geffrard, Mixed-Race Elites, and the National Party’s actions would doom their nation to racial, and social strife which would warp the people of Haiti’s perceptions forever.
The Theorist In Charge - Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal Presidency (1872-1873)
Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal started off his career in Haitian politics as a political commentator and theorist. Few would've ever expected him to rise to the ranks of Vice President, let alone now sit at the highest office in the Haitian government.
However, it would just so happen that Boisrond-Canal and his theories were in the right place, at the right time. Pushing forward the ideas of what would later be called Blanqueamiento in other Latin American countries, Boisrond-Canal believed in the inherent superiority of Mixed-Race Haitians purely by being more European.
While initially a more fringe belief, it gained increasing prominence after the Haitian Civil War in which the inherent inferiority of Afro-Haitians was pointed to as the reason for their uprising and betrayal of the republic, for “barbaric autocracy.”
After producing numerous feverish works, advocating for his insane view of the world, Boisrond-Canal had become elevated to among the highest members of Haitian intellectual circles. This brought him onto the radar of the National Party, and Fabre Geffrard who was looking to pad the presidential ticket with a younger, and intellectually appealing member of high society. Even so, Boisrond-Canal was never never meant to lead in any real capacity. Idealistic, and inexperienced, Boisrond-Canal was largely kept out of running the Geffrard administration, at one point commenting sardonically, “I am but a show pony, trotted out every time the President requires the support of an intellectual class he is too out of touch with to secure on his own.”
Frustrated, and perhaps rightfully so, it is surprising that when Fabre Geffrard died, Boisrond-Canal deeply and publicly mourned him. Delivering an unexpectedly powerful eulogy, the now President of Haiti, admonished his now unenviable task, believing he was barely half the president or statesmen Geffrard had been. While many modern historians often adopt a more cynical lens, especially when talking about someone as morally reprehensible as Pierre Boisrond-Canal, most Haitians at the times believed this eulogy and his outpouring of grief to be genuine as the new President was applauded in even the most cynical Haitian press.
Despite being sidelined, and treated as a “show pony”, it seems there was at least some genuine respect between the late President and his Vice President. Now the uncertain burden of rule fell to the unprepared Boisrond-Canal alone.
The Rise of Mulattocracy: Universal Suffrage?
Despite being a racialist and far-right by modern definitions, for his time President Boisrond-Canal was an important piece of forward-thinking legislation. It would only be unfortunate that it would be done in service of creating a racial caste system.
The issue of male suffrage plagued the Haitian nation for decades. The new President would bite the bullet but in an extremely racial way. Voting rights would be extended to all Haitian males above the age of 25, who could pass a literacy test. Of course, the difficulty of the test would be fixed to the racial makeup of the person. White Haitians could expect a purely verbal confirmation of if they could read. Mixed-race (Afro-White, and Native-White) Haitians could expect a small children’s book to read, or even simple questions on a test. Mixed-race Haitians of “darker complexion” (Afro-Native), could expect a harsher literacy test, with much more scrutiny. Afro-Haitians for their part were almost entirely barred from voting, and literacy tests often done in old French or Spanish, with deliberately vague or difficult questions.
Wealthy Afro-Haitians could, as the old saying went, buy their way into mulatto status, either giving enough money to the government, bribery, or paying their way to vote. But they were a very small minority. From the years 1863 to 1946, over 70% of the eligible population (Afro-Haitians, women, “illiterates”, poor Mixed-race Haitians) would be entirely prevented from voting. Boisrond-Canal’s legacy was now etched in hate and fanatical devotion to racial pseudoscience, and it would leave its stain on Haitian history forever.
Retirement, Death, and Legacy (1873)
With only around 4 months left in his term, Pierre Boisrond-Canal would largely dedicate himself to further development and promotion of his sickening ideology.
Schools would receive and be mandated to teach texts related to Boisrond-Canal, and his works. His seminal work, Towards a New Haiti, would become commonly mandated reading materials. This ensured his intellectual pollutant dragged down generations of young Haitians, damning the nation's soul as badly as the President himself.
When his term was up, Boisrond-Canal announced he would retire. A pseudo-intellectual through and through, the President would attempt to emulate the great Cincinnatus and Jonathas Granville, retiring now that the great “racial and social crisis has been answered.”
Returning to his large farm in rural Haiti, Pierre Boisrond-Canal would continue to peddle filth into the world, including books on Rome, and Greece, and even delving into the growing world of pseudo-history like Atlantis. Among his more spurious claims attempted to pin African Empires like Mali, Kanem-Bornu, and other great states as an outgrowth of white immigration. Eventually, when the U.S. Occupation arrived in Haiti, Boisrond-Canal became a loud and ferocious supporter, being among those advocating for unity with America. This would sour the old President, even to those who had eaten his racial philosophy, and pseudo-history as American occupation was universally unpopular, even among those who profited.
Eventually, in 1905, Boisrond-Canal died at the age of 72. While his public popularity would remain mixed until the fall of the “Mulattocracy” in 1946, afterward, he would be widely reviled and hated. His ideas towards “whitening” would poison the Haitian Republic, and lead to the growth of counter-racial nationalism in the form of Noirisme. Today his books are banned in Haiti, beyond academic usage, with many being destroyed in the fires of 1946.
That is true indeed. I kept most of the USA stuff similar. I'm pretty bad at butterflies and stuff, so I chose somewhere rather small, and stuck to changing people within Haiti itself rather than nations outside.
That is true indeed. I kept most of the USA stuff similar. I'm pretty bad at butterflies and stuff, so I chose somewhere rather small, and stuck to changing people within Haiti itself rather than nations outside.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
-William Butler Yeats
Under the rising tide of racial apartheid, and social stratification, the Liberal Party would make their last gasp. Perhaps the final chance to save the First Republic of Haiti, the failure of the liberals to stop the cracks forming in the Haitian system, or patch the growing divide between Afro-Haitians and Mixed-Race Haitians, and end the ideals of Boisrond-Canal, would signal the final death knell for moderate politics for the next hundred years. In front of Haiti lies autocracy, oligarchy, and suppression. The death of liberalism is all that lies in front of us, and the Presidency of Gregorio Luperón.
A Life of Exclusion
Oftentimes when we think of a Mixed-Race Haitian in the 1870’s we think of the Mulattocracy, racial privilege, and oppression of the Afro-Haitians. For Gregorio Luperón, this mantra does not hold. Born to a white father, and an Afro-Haitian mother in the northern provinces of what was the newly annexed Spanish Haiti, in 1839, Luperón was refused by his father who did not wish to lower his social status by living with an Afro-Haitian woman, and still clung to old Spaniard views of race and ethnicity. Despite living in the dying days of the Haitian Kingdom, many white Haitians in Santo-Domingo did not wish to mingle their lines with Afro-Haitians and tended to believe in the burgeoning theories that would later develop into Pierre Boisrond-Canal’s poisonous ideology.
Expelled from even his father’s recognition, Gregorio took the surname of his mother, Duperron. Suffering under the poor conditions that faced a single mother in 19th century Haiti, Gregorio would work from a young age, just to help put enough food on the table for him and his mother. It would be these early experiences that shaped him and molded him into his later liberal beliefs.
A self-made man, he would teach himself to read at age 14, starting a small merchant business when he turned 16, under the name Luperón seemingly in a deliberate move at self-affirmation. By age 20, Luperón would become a wealthy bourgeois in his town of Puerto Plata. Avoiding the Haitian Civil War, he would instead focus on expanding his wealth, and power into Santo-Domingo, and the newly destroyed city of Hinche, coming in on the ground floor of its reconstruction.
This reconstruction, and his relative willingness to hire, and care for Afro-Haitians whom many Mixed-Race Haitians viewed as inferior, and traitors, even if not intended served as a powerful political statement, especially during the racist policies of Pierre Boisrond-Canal, and Fabre Geffrard. Coming into the view of the Haitian Liberal Party, reeling from its mass defections, the Liberal Party desired to use Luperón as a young, charismatic, and Mixed-Race face to hopefully walk back the Haitian Republic from the brink of racial segregation.
Election of 1873
Clinging on for a few months, Pierre Boisrond-Canal achieved his horrifying desires. Racial segregation, stratified voting, literacy tests, and pseudo-scientific education. With these 5 months of cruelty inflicted, Boisrond-Canal perhaps mercifully called for elections, drunk off of his success.
Gregorio Luperón ran a fierce campaign. Naturally a gifted orator, he had a knack for politically promising reform but kept exceptionally quiet about what he planned on reforming. Vague pandering to the populist desires of Haitians for “reform”, and “advancement” the young Luperón served as a stark, and hopeful contrast to the National Party. The incumbent National Party ran the old, conservative, and boring Lysius Saloman. Uncharismatic, and anti-populist, Saloman ran on a platform of enjoying the economic boom, preserving the system, and stopping any new reforms. Even as unpopular, and uncharismatic as Saloman was, it was still expected he would win. With only around 25% of the population able to vote, many of them being middle and upper-class Mixed-Haitians, many of whom benefitted from the economic boom of the previous National Party government, many expected the young and untested Luperón to be delivered a crushing electoral loss, and end this upstarts political career.
Overconfidence and underinvestment meant few Haitians turned out for the election, becoming the least voted for election in Haitian history. So perhaps it should have been unsurprising when the young firebrand managed to energize his base enough to go out and vote at the polls. In an extremely narrow margin, Gregorio Luperón would defeat Lysius Saloman in a massive upset.
This would be the easy part of Luperón’s entire political career, as President he would face a Parliament stacked with conservatives, and even liberals bought by conservative money. Any reform he would make would be shot through with compromises, and hand-wringing that would leave any reform act full of loopholes, and with toothless enforcement. The slow death of Haitian liberalism would now begin.
Failure to Reform “Universal” Male Suffrage
A major belief held by Luperón would be the unfairness of the so-called universal male suffrage passed by the previous National Party government. Undoing this would prove a monumental challenge, and one Luperón was unfit to muster.
Immediately when putting forward a piece of legislation calling for the removal of literacy tests, and poll taxes, the National Party MPs led by Paul Tirésias Augustin Simon Sam would rip the act apart. Calling Luperón everything from a “race traitor” to promoting “degeneration of the national character”, the naive Luperón had expected most of the Haitian Parliament to be in favor of the act. He would deliver numerous speeches pointing towards the years of service Afro-Haitians had brought to Haiti, and how the original revolutionaries were Afro-Haitian slaves.
Perhaps, in a fantasy world, these powerful speeches would have worked. In a better world, it may have bridged the racial divide and brought Haitians together. Sadly, that is not the world we live in. Despite delivering popular addresses, and genuinely rallying popular support around him, President Luperón was not arguing to win over the populace. He was arguing against Haitian money, and in that arena, the National Party, and Simon Sam eviscerated him. Bribing everyone in the Liberal Party they could, and blackmailing the rest, when the vote finally came, only 12 people voted for the passage of the act. President Luperón delivered his first, but not his last humiliation.
Outside of the Haitian Parliament, resentment rose, the populace had seen their democratic will suppressed by moneyed interest, crushed underfoot by the relentless pursuit of capital, and the supposed necessity of a servile and passive underclass not so different from the French rule of nearly 70 years ago. This resentment would take the form of riots, forcing Luperón to order the Haitian police to put them down. Numerous people would die in what the National Party press would call “Luperón’s Riots”.
Even with riots suppressed, something had changed in Haiti, not only did people defect from the center, believing the nation could no longer be saved by traditional means, the waves of radical movements like Noirsme would begin to grow among the Afro-Haitian populace.
A Small Victory - Secularism in Haiti
Few victories can be positively attributed to the so-called “Last Liberal” as Luperón would later be known. But the triumph of secularism would be among those few that left a lasting impact on the Haitian nation.
Unlike in Mexico, or even the United States, Haiti existed in a form of limbo with the Papal States and the Catholic Church. Upon their independence during the Haitian Revolution, the new Republic of Haiti would receive no recognition from the Papacy. This left the Haitian Catholic Church in a state of schism with the Holy See and the Vatican. Functionally, the Haitian Catholic Church would be weakened, cut off from the support of the wider Catholic world, and any outside aid.
Weaker than their contemporaries in Mexico, or the rest of Latin America, Gregorio Luperón would more easily pass a law calling for the establishment of an entirely secular state, separating the Haitian Church and State. Furthermore, Luperón would amend the Haitian constitution, in effect disallowing any member of Parliament from being a priest and blocking them from running for office. Finally, the Haitian government was given supreme authority over allowing, or disallowing religious institutions, and would maintain a degree of influence in disallowing illegal activities being carried out by any religious body. Education too would become nationwide secular. Notably, Luperón would avoid harsh anti-clerical laws, allowing churches to remain tax-exempt, and not forcing the sale of land to the state. This in effect avoided many of the Church's fears, and avoided the harsh rebellions against the state, as seen in Mexico from their 1857 Constitution.
Conservatives would initially rail against this secularism, with Simon-Sam calling it a travesty, and slide towards “Napoleonic tyranny”, wise to their tricks; however, President Luperón would keep his party in line, and appeal to the nationalistic sentiments of many in the National Party, pointing to how the Papacy refused to recognize Haiti, so why should Haiti bend their great nation to the Catholic Church’s rule. This would be enough to cobble together enough support, ensuring the act passed, and even future governments would uphold the relatively lenient terms. The Haitian Catholic Church, already in schism with the Papacy, was relatively unaffected by the change many benefited from the legal tax immunity, and protections of their private church property, the government provided.
The most enduring part of his legacy, the Luperón 1875 Constitution would ensure the beginnings of a long tradition of secularism and even irreligion in Haiti. Even when the Vatican approached Haiti about the recognition of Haitian independence in 1888, Luperón’s old rival, Lysius Salomon would refuse to cede any authority, grant political or economic power to the papacy, perhaps in a show of respect, or consolidate nationalism. It would not be until the end of the First Haitian Republic, and the U.S. occupation that the Vatican would officially recognize the independence of Haiti.
The Ride Ends - The End of the Haitian Economic Boom
All economic booms must come to an end. Even in Haiti in what seemed like a glorious return to the pre-revolution golden age for the planters, the economy eventually became too bloated, and lazy for its good. From the end of the United States Civil War, commodity crops like sugar, coffee, indigo, and tobacco would enter into a steady decline. As new colonies were exploited and pushed into Asia, and eventually Africa, Haiti’s principled position as the primary source of the globe commodity goods began to decline.
Even the move towards industrialization of the harvesting and processing industry by former President Fabre Geffrard could not offset the massive decline in prices. As governments often do, the Haitian government had continually reinvested profits into the Haitian agrarian economy, from harvesting to food processing. Putting every egg in the proverbial basket, the Haitian economy would stagnate, and when faced with the growing influx of cheap foreign sugar begin to wither, and die. Of course, it would take many more decades for the economy to shift and change, but except for a brief “Dance of the Millions” in 1920 and the 1974 Arab-Soviet rush, the “Age of Sugar” was over.
It would be entirely unfair to blame President Luperón for this, had it been a National Party President, nothing would have changed. Nothing changed under his successors, or anyone else until the 1960’s. Nonetheless, the President’s seeming apathy in the face of changing economic circumstances, or perhaps lacking the political capital, failed to act, and Haiti would be blown under the waves for another century.
A side-effect of the Haitian economic decline would be the opening of its land and markets to insidious American fruit companies. While the Haitian government would keep their most aggressive, and violent tendencies restrained, the fact the weakened Haitian economy could now be more easily preyed upon by foreign companies, would soon have disastrous consequences for thousands of farmers.
More Failure, and the End of the Luperón Presidency
With the economy in shambles, and the government blocking his most major reform, many expected President Luperón to sit on his laurels for the rest of his presidency and attempt to not rock the boat until he had secured a second term. These people did not know President Luperón would attempt to pass his final piece of legislation through to the Parliament. The Land Reform Act of 1877 would attempt to establish low-cost loans and subsidies for small farmers being adversely hit by the changes in the global market, and allow them to expand their small holdings, also allowing new peasants to own their land which was previously often under landlords, or communal villages.
This bill would send the Haitian Parliament into a seething rage. Luperón would be named the Communard President, a deliberate jab and comparison of him to the failed Paris Commune of 1871. Even many of the President’s allies would desert him during this bill leading to Luperón delivering an ominous prediction:
“For I have given you all a chance to save your land, and your hides. Instead, you have chosen your greed and arrogance. History will damn us all to the fires of hell for our failures today. They will damn me for my failure to force this bill through, and you all for your obstinacy.”
Once again beaten in Parliament, President Luperón would largely resign himself, believing not only was the National Party doomed, but the Liberal Party as well. Society and the so-called Mulattocracy were more caught up in protecting their privileges, and land that they would openly forego sane, and rational economic and social policy.
Declining to run for a second term, Gregorio Luperón, largely sat out his last year as President. Delegating his responsibilities to Prime Minister Fernando Arturo de Meriño, who had already been largely bought by the National Party, and their deep pockets.
While it would be a foregone conclusion the National Party would reclaim its mandate to rule, the President largely did not care. Whether Liberal or Nationalist, Haiti was now on a crash course for suffering, and eventually disaster, and no matter how much he shifted the wheel, he could not avert the ship from the rocks.
Predictions Come True - Retirement of Gregorio Luperón
Leaving office on April 17, 1878, turning over the keys to the Presidency to the resurgent National Party, Luperón would return to Puerto Plata which he had long since cursed himself for leaving in the first place.
Despite his failures as President, Gregorio Luperón would be beloved by the Haitian people whom he had tried and failed to champion during his time in office. This only seemed to have deepened Luperón's depression as he had failed to achieve anything for the people who had trusted, loved, and put their hopes in. As the economic and social situation continued to decline in Haiti, Luperón and his wife Ana Luisa Tavárez retired, selling his business off, and moving temporarily to the island of St. Thomas, living off of his massive savings from years as a successful and forward-thinking businessman.
When Ulises Hilarión Heureaux eventually became President, Luperón would initially vocally support, and encourage his followers to support Heureaux, who he saw as a tough if brutish reformer that could drag Haiti from the muck and mire. Their cordial relations would soon sour, as the increasingly dictatorial Heureaux would seek a third term in office. Denouncing him as a dictator, and believing he was at fault for the continuing decline of Haitian politics, Luperón would entirely retreat from public life.
Only when the Republic finally fell in 1891, would Luperón leave his self-imposed exile, publicly mourning the death of the nation, and admonishing his fault in leading it to the social, and economic collapse that allowed foreigners, and puppet dictators to occupy the nation. Eventually, in 1898, Gregorio Luperón would become bedridden, and seemingly be on the verge of death. In his final moments, the former President would whisper out his final words:
“Men like me, should not die lying down”
While attempting to lift his head, Luperón would pass away, a final failure, on top of all the others.
Legacy of the “Last Liberal”
Never again would the liberalism of Luperón ever rise in Haiti. Even when democracy came to everyone in Haiti in the 50’s, it would not be a liberal democracy. Instead, it is the cold dominant party competitive authoritarianism we see today. Anti-radicalism, and anti-discrimination, under the cold pragmatism of a singular party. Each Haitian Prime Minister and President look to Luperón, not as a source of emulation, but to avoid. Luperón became a source for strongmen, and a justification for dominant party democracy, and the uselessness of populism.
Still, even to call Gregorio Luperón entirely a failure which every politician should avoid would be far too cruel to the man’s legacy. While yes, he served as an important reminder of the dangers of populism, and the necessity for pragmatism in the halls of Parliament, he also served as a source of unity among the populace as a whole, who upset the system to sweep him into power.
Even legislatively while Voting Reform and Land Reform failed, being shot apart by his party alongside the vicious machinations of the National Party, and entrenched economic interests, Secularism, a so cherished institution of the Western World, would never have found itself instituted in Haiti without his wise guidance and leadership skills. In a Haiti where so often money equaled power, and influence, Luperón used nationalism to overcome the senses of even the most greedy Haitian politician.
While not ruling with malice or cruelty, his ineffectualness proved to be as disastrous as dictatorialism. Yet, in a few short decades, everyone in Haiti would look wistfully back towards his reign, begging to turn back the clock towards a simpler time, or the poor idealistic, but well-meaning, President Gregorio Luperón.
