Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/368

332 elected President of the Republic for seven years and the constitutional laws were enacted in 1875. However, intrigues for the restoration of the monarchy did not cease; they resulted first in the dissolution of the House of Representatives (1877) and then in the resignation of the President of the Republic (January 30, 1879). Jules Grévy, who succeeded Marshal McMahon, had to resign before the expiration of his second term; Sadi-Carnot, who succeeded him, was assassinated, and Casimir-Perier, who was elected on the 27th of June, 1894, resigned on the 14th of January, 1895. The foregoing events serve to prove that after nineteen centuries of existence France spent almost the whole nineteenth century seeking for the political régime best suited to her needs. In order to secure this political régime she had to change her Constitution twelve times, to go through civil wars, disorder, confusion, and such terrible crises as at times caused her best friends to despair of her future. Yet this nation still exists and is moreover still respected and powerful. By recalling the tribulations, the painful episodes of the history of Germany, Great Britain, and France before they arrived at their present political stability and at the high place they occupy in the world, it is not my intention to infer that for centuries to come Haiti must remain a prey to civil strife and discord. By relating what may be termed historical fatalities I intend simply to establish that she does not deserve the anathemas launched against her; I want principally to show that the question of race has nothing to do with the disturbances which from time to time have agitated her. Few countries have progressed without bloodshed and fierce struggles. Haiti did not escape the consequences of this fatality to which all nations seemed doomed in the beginning; she is no exception to the rule. Her detractors are aware therefore that they are acting in bad faith when they affect to believe and cause others to believe that her civil wars are due solely to the so-called incapacity of her people to govern themselves;