From Cape Tiburon to Cape Samaná - A United Hispaniola Timeline
11. Ulises Heureaux, End of the First Republic of Haiti, and the Start of the 20 Years Humiliation (1889 - 1891)
“Yes, I may fall here, but the liberty of Haiti will never be extinguished. As long as people yearn for the days in which they once again are free from the control of dictators, and European empires, they will buck against your rule. Gentlemen, you may revile me today, and you may speak ill of me tomorrow, history will prove me right, and will cast you all down into the pits of hell.”
-Ulises Heureaux before being executed (1891)
The villain of the First Republic, Ulises Heureaux has been mischaracterized, misattributed and deliberately lied about for decades. Painted as a power-hungry tyrant, among the many infesting the rotting corpse of the Republic like maggots, Heureaux was for much of modern Haitian history among its most hated leaders.
Much like Henry II, and Paul Simon Sam, recent history has made a more concerted effort to recontextualize and parse the truth from nearly 50 years of propaganda. While a dictator in practical terms, Heureaux never saw himself as one, still styling himself as a Caretaker President of Haiti, operating under the provisions of emergency rule, and a genuine mandate from the Parliament.
If he lived in a different age, perhaps Heureaux might be remembered as a Ceasar or Cinncinatus, but instead, he lived in the dying days of a Republic that had been moribund for decades.
“I Did What I Had To”
Up until now, Heureaux had largely existed in the background of Haitian political, and military life. Joining the military a few years after the end of the Haitian Civil War, Heureaux rose through the ranks of the military that had largely been hollowed out by nearly 5 years of conflict both internally, and externally.
Becoming a lieutenant, Heureaux met and befriended future President Gregorio Luperón, the two became close friends, and when Luperón started his political career, lieutenant Heureaux would avidly campaign for his fellow liberal populist Luperón. When he was eventually elected in 1873, Luperón would ensure his friend was well rewarded, with Heureaux being elevated to the rank of General.
While a naked display of clientelism, General Heureaux would prove himself an able leader. Beloved by the soldiers under his command, and keeping his nose out of the political scene, Heureaux kept his image clean, especially when the National Party came back to power in the aftermath of the collapse of the Liberal Party. Long dissatisfied with his old allies' inability to pass meaningful reforms, Heureaux had abandoned his belief in democracy as a path to political reform in the face of continuous failures. Changing his skin, he was among the first Spanish Haitian liberals to switch sides and throw his support behind the ascendant National Party, all but assured a place in the new administration.
Keeping himself aligned with the new government, Heureaux followed orders, standing down when Paul Simon Sam refused to fight the German Empire, though his popularity would soar after loud declarations affirming his belief the Haitian Army was ready and able to drive the German menace back into the ocean if needed. Heureaux stood aside as the political crisis led to the fall of Simon Sam, he was even prepared to sit idly by and watch as Haiti fractured in the corruption scandals that rocked the presidency of Lysius Salomon.
After over a decade of watching; however, Ulises Heureaux saw his chance to strike forth and seize the initiative. President Lysius Salomon would order Heureaux to march his army into Port-au-Prince and crush the rioters, in effect protecting the self-coup Salomon had just launched. Instead, General Heureaux would launch a coup against Salomon leading to the would-be dictator's death, from an unknown assailant's wound to the chest.
Taking the mantle of Caretaker President of Haiti, Ulises Heureaux unknowingly became the last President of the First Republic of Haiti, in a special address, Heureaux would justify his actions as necessary to protect the Haitian Republic and save the institutions of the state.
“But Perhaps I Did Not Do Enough”
President Heureaux faced Haiti in a state of total collapse. Reckless spending by the previous 5 governments, had increasingly ballooned the debt of Haiti, the nation that had just recently finished paying off French creditors, and now was massively in debt to German, American, and British bankers.
The Haitian government struggled to make payments on its loans leading to a spiraling economic crisis. This brought the government under the ire of the American government, and more worryingly American Imperialist policies. U.S. President Benjamin Harrison looked upon Haiti with growing hunger, and even worry. If Haiti refused or was unable to pay back its loans, European empires may have a necessary casus belli to justify an invasion, putting colonial empires not only back on the continent, but in America’s backyard, pressing a knife right on the nation’s exposed underbelly of Louisiana. Unable to find a reasonable course to justify a war in 1888, Harrison would soon find his justification from his admirals.
President Heureaux for his part was a military man. While he understood war, organization, and appealing to his soldiers, he did not understand economics. To make matters worse he was surrounded by sycophants and political grifters who used their proximity to reap the rewards of his rule.
Internal resistance to the President’s rule was rife. Parliament demanded the restoration of elections, government ministers demanded reform, and the populace wanted alleviation of their economic burdens. Radical politicians promised land reform, child labor laws, and even voting rights to Afro-Haitians. These radicals pulled at the fabrics of an already fraying society, as Heureaux’s only recourse was to crack down upon their demands.
Even when Heureaux did open dialogue with protestors, and began to hear their concerns, he was met with opposition from right-wing reactionaries who considered any changes to the economic system, or voting rights as tantamount to treason.
The only way President Heureaux managed to keep hold of power during these 4 years was to turn back to a trusted ally, clientelism. Taking massive loans, Heureaux paid, and bought every ally, and supporter he could. Even as the train approached the cliff, the President kept funneling in money, pushing his nation, and the economy closer, and closer to the brink of bankruptcy, entirely because he could not stop, if he stopped printing money, he could no longer pay his supporters, if he could not afford bribes he’d lose support, if he lost support he’d be replaced by someone who would promise to pay them. Haiti had entered into an economic death spiral.
By 1890, the Haitian economy was entirely tapped. There were no new loans to take out, no creditors willing to do business, and no aid from any nation without humiliating vassalage attached. Heureaux turned to something illegal, and something that would doom his entire career. The President would print 10 million unsecured Haitian Gourde, virtually ruining every merchant in the country overnight. The Haitian economy would finally collapse by 1891, with no signs of salvation.
“Those Who Would Prey Upon Our Misery”
The Americans watched the collapse of Haiti with growing concern, and also excitement. Benjamin Harrison, a largely forgettable President by American standards, was about to become the most reviled man in Haiti. Finally having a casus belli for invasion, the President would order rear guard admiral Bancroft Gherardi, to sail into Port-au-Prince. There he would deliver a simple ultimatum to the Haitian government, sell the U.S. the port of Môle Saint-Nicolas, Frederick Douglass, who had been named American ambassador to Haiti would begin to exert immense pressure against Heureaux to negotiate the transfer of the desired American port, and numerous other concessions that would establish an American economic and steamship monopoly over Haiti.
Douglass attempted to get Haiti to recognize the dire financial straits it was in, and realize that selling the port would be of economic and trade interest to Haiti, revitalizing the island's trade. The arrival of American gunships further put pressure on the situation. Blame has been passed around for years over the reason for the failure of negotiations. Douglass asserted the arrival of Bancroft Gherardi scared the Haitians away from the negotiating table, while the American military blamed Fredrick Douglass’ passiveness towards the Haitians. Either way, negotiations broke down, Douglass was expelled, and Heureaux prepared for war.
Without money, a tired, and broken populace, and crumbling governmental institutions it was unlikely the Haitian Army could effectively stand against the United States; however, Harrison agreed with Douglass that a full-scale invasion would be costly, and likely provide little in the way of tangible benefit. Instead, of giving Douglass a final chance, the ambassador was ordered to find someone more amenable to the American cause.
Frederick Douglass would find this person in Florvil Hyppolite, a general, and underling to President Heureaux. Often accused of being sympathetic to American interests, Hyppolite had been evicted from his position by Heureaux when the Môle Saint-Nicolas Affair
started. Douglass would reach out, promising that if Heureaux could form enough opposition, and lead an armed uprising against the government, the United States would provide help in the “occupation and reconstruction of the Haitian nation.”
Accepting the American offer, Hyppolite had little difficulty in securing support. Merchants despised Heureaux for throwing them into economic ruin; the military and political allies of Heureaux had long since found the bribes they had been paid were useless due to rampant inflation. Gathering a large rebel force, Hyppolite would meet the Heureaux forces near Jacmel, Heureaux’s armies suffering from massive desertions would be greatly outmatched by the Haitian rebels who had received generous American support. The Battle of Jacmel would be a crushing defeat, with the President barely escaping being captured.
Retreating to Port-au-Prince, Heureaux was captured by American marines who had recently landed in the city to little opposition. The last President of the First Republic of Haiti was captured attempting to escape the capital under the cover of darkness.
Dragged before an angry crowd, Ulises Heureaux gave his final statement:
“So you people of Haiti wish to see me dead? Despite the vitriol you now level against me, I did what I had to do. Surrounded by you all now, your traitorous faces, I see perhaps I did not do enough to prevent the coming storm. Now, the Americans, and those who would prey upon our misery have arrived to feast upon our dear lands. To my fellow Haitians, I apologize that I failed you all. To those of you who took arms against me under your little caudillo, yes, I may fall here, but the liberty of Haiti will never be extinguished. As long as people yearn for the days in which they once again are free from the control of dictators, and European empires, they will buck against your rule. Gentlemen, you may revile me today, and you may speak ill of me tomorrow, history will prove me right, and will cast you all down into the pits of hell.”
On July 28, 1891, Ulises Heureaux was executed by firing squad in front of the National Assembly. With him the First Haitian Republic ceased to exist as Florvil Hyppolite was propped onto the throne, naming himself “Dictator (Caudillo) of the Haitian State.”
“History Will Prove Me Right”
As soon as Heureaux’s body hit the ground he was descended upon by the angry crowd. Surging forward, after 4 years of worsening hardship, the populace took to the now corpse as an object of hate and ridicule. The former president's corpse would be mangled and dismembered by the mob. The only thing stopping the carnage was eventually a supposedly “wild woman” named Aline Casseus beseeched the crowd to stop, which by this point was mainly angry youths.
Casseus has been a deep admirer of President Heureaux, and upon finding what little remained of him, gathered his body into a sack. In perhaps a final show of respect, or attempted benevolence, Florvil Hyppolite would sponsor Aline Casseus’ trip to Puerto Plata, where she returned Ulises Heureaux’s remains to his wife Catalina Flan.[1]
For the next half-century, Ulises Heureaux would be subject to immense besmirchment on the part of the U.S.-backed dictators, and Rafael Trujillo. Portrayed as a traitor, and corrupt pilferer of the Haitian economy, the entire collapse of the First Republic was placed solely upon his shoulders. While the Caudillos of Haiti escaped criticism.
When the period of Caudillos ended in the 1940’s, Haiti would reevaluate Ulises Heureaux and his rule. While yes he had been corrupt, spending millions on bribes, and bankrupting the Haitian economy, it was not solely his fault. The previous administration's reckless spending had brought Haiti to its knees, so it would be unfair to pin the blame on Heureaux. More importantly, while some had claimed Heureaux was a despotic tyrant, who seized power, most neglected the fact, that he had taken power from the corrupt, and dictatorial Lysius Salomon, who had nearly brought down the Haitian Republic due to his own bruised ego. Had the coup not happened, it’s likely Haiti would’ve broken into a second civil war and ended up occupied anyway. Nowadays, Heureaux is seen as a tragic hero, a final attempt to hold back the chaos and stem the tide. Sadly, he never really had a chance. The Haitian Republic was gone, the so-called “Twenty Years Humiliation” had begun under the traitorous Caudillo, and American marines that were now marching their boots in Port-au-Prince, and Santo Domingo.
Notes
[1] This whole series of events is the fate that befell Jean Jacques Dessalines after he was assassinated irl. A crowd dismembered him, with kids being the final defilers until a supposed mad woman managed to gather his remains and bury them with the support and patronage of one of those men who plotted against him, Alexander Pétion, the irl and in this timeline rival of King Henri.