Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/565

 HAYTI 551 latter being elected by direct vote of all male citizens for a term of three years, while the senators are appointed by the deputies for two years. The executive power is vested in a president elected by the people for four years, and who must have completed 35 years of age. A president can be reflected only after a lapse of four years from the expiration of his term of office. Four ministers, of finance and for- eign affairs, justice and public instruction, inte- rior, and war, aid him in the administration of the republic. The judicial power rests in a high court of cassation, being the highest tribunal of appeals, with superior courts in the capitals of departments, and subsidiary and primary courts in the arrondissements and communes. The laws are founded on the civil code of France. The Koman Catholic is the religion of the people, under the jurisdiction of an archbishop. There are four colleges in Hayti, and each commune has a number of common and grammar schools. Hayti was discovered by Columbus in December, 1492, and here, at Isabella on the N. shore, was founded the first Spanish colony in the new world. Santo Do- mingo was founded Aug. 4, 1496. For nearly half a century these settlements received much attention and rose to great prosperity ; but as other parts of America were discovered, the population was drawn off, and the natives having been extirpated, the island became al- most a waste. In 1585 Admiral Drake seized Santo Domingo city, for which he received a ransom of 25,000 ducats. About 1632 the French took possession of the W. shore, and their numbers (increased in a certain measure by the buccaneers who had established them- selves on the island of Tortuga and on the N. W. coast of Hayti) multiplied so rapidly that the Spaniards were unable to cope with or banish them ; and by the treaty of Kyswick, Sept. 20, 1697, the western portion of the isl- and was guaranteed to France. Cultivation in Hayti (as the French now called their part of the island) rapidly extended under the new rule ; a large proportion of the cotton and su- gar consumed not only in France, but in all Europe, came toward the end of the 18th century from Hayti, which by that time had become one of the most valuable possessions in the new world. The boundaries between the two colonies were not fixed till 1777. In the mean time the eastern or Spanish portion made little or no progress. In 1790 the popu- lation of the western colony numbered about 500,000, of which number 38,360 were of Eu- ropean origin and 28,370 free people of color, the remainder being negro slaves. The free people of color were mostly mulattoes, and some of them had received a liberal education in France and possessed large estates; still they were excluded from all political privileges, and were not eligible to positions of authority or trust. The great revolution in France was heartily responded to by the whites of the colony, who sent deputies to the national as- sembly at Paris, and proclaimed the adhesion of the colony to the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The application of these principles, however, it was intended should be confined exclusively to the whites. But the mulattoes demanded their extension to themselves; and this appeal being treated with contempt and indignation, they resolved to resort to arms. Accordingly some 300 of them rose in insurrection in October, 1790, under one Vincent Og6, who had been edu- cated in France ; but he was defeated, captured, and with his brother broken on the wheel, and 21 of his followers were hanged. Much indignation was expressed in Paris against the colonists, and by the influence of the society of les amis des noirs, the national assembly, May 15, 1791, passed a decree declaring that the people of color born of free parents were entitled to all the privileges of French citizens. This decree did not touch slavery or meddle with the slaves, but it excited to the highest pitch the jealousies and apprehensions of the plant- ers, who forced the governor of the colony to suspend its operation until they could appeal to the home government. The refusal of their rights caused much commotion among the mu- lattoes, and civil war again appeared inevi- table, when a third party, little considered by either of the others, unexpectedly interfered. The slaves on the plantations rose in insurrec- tion, Aug. 23, 1791. The whites in alarm con- sented (Sept. 11) to admit the mulattoes to the civil rights granted them by law, and for a time there seemed some prospect of the resto- ration of peace. But on Sept. 24 the national assembly at Paris, moved by the remonstrances which had been received from the white colo- nists, repealed the decree of May 15. The mu- lattoes now flew to arms, and the civil war continued with increased ferocity on all sides for several years. Commissioners were repeat- edly sent from France, but could effect nothing. The whites themselves were divided into hos- tile factions, royalist and republican, the French part of the island was invaded by the Spaniards and by the English, and the insurgent blacks and mulattoes under able chiefs held strong positions in the mountains and defied all efforts to subdue them. The French commissioners, involved in difficulties on every hand, at length decided to conciliate the blacks, and in August, 1793, proclaimed universal freedom, in appre- hension of an English invasion, which took place in the following month. In February, 1794, the national convention at Paris confirmed this act of the commissioners, and formally guaran- teed the freedom of all the inhabitants of the French colony. Meantime the English con- quered the whole western coast of the island, took the capital, Port-au-Prince, and besieged the governor, Gen. Laveaux, in Port de la Paix, the last stronghold of the French, who were reduced to extremities by famine and dis- ease. At this juncture the blacks, led by Toussaint 1'Ouverture, relying on the procla-