Nissage says

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Nissage says

Jean Nicolas Nissage Saget (* 1810 in Port-au-Prince , † April 7, 1880 in Saint-Marc (Haiti) ) was a Haitian politician and President of Haiti .

biography

Military career and Acting President 1867

After finishing school, Saget worked as a tailor. He later joined the army and completed a career as an officer, in the course of which he was last in command of the army units in Léogâne . During the reign of President Faustin Soulouque (1847-1859) he was imprisoned for ten years. After the fall of Soulouque, he was freed by his successor Fabre Geffrard and received his previous post as city commander of Léogâne back. At times he was also politically active as a senator .

After the overthrow of Geffrard by a coup by Sylvain Salnave on March 13, 1867, he was chairman of a provisional government and thus provisional president of Haiti from March 20 to May 2, 1867 after a brief government of the Council of State Secretaries and a consultative council . On May 4, 1867, Salnave finally took over the office of President himself after he had previously belonged to a Provisional Government for two days alongside Nissage Saget and Victorin Chevallier.

After the split in Haiti, he was provisional president of the Republic of Northern Haiti from April 25, 1868 to December 1869 . At the same time he was commander of the army units in the arrondissement of Saint-Marc . As early as 1868 the party of the cacos ("parrots") rose under him against the party of the so-called lizards ("lizards") Salnaves. Saget won after two years of fighting , conquered Port-au-Prince in 1869 and had Salnave shot in 1870.

President 1870 to 1874

President election and domestic political events

On March 19, 1870, he was elected President of the reunified republic for four years by the National Assembly in Port-au-Prince . According to the constitution, the official end of his term of office was May 15, 1874.

The Haitian population was still deeply aware of the crisis of the past few years. President Saget did his utmost to uphold the values ​​of the 1867 constitution. However, extensive measures and efforts by the leading Liberal Party soon followed . After the introduction of a parliamentary system , they tried to subordinate the executive to the legislature . Furthermore, in their opinion, those ministers who did not have the sympathy of the members of the Chamber of Deputies should resign from their ministerial offices. Because of the different views, there were soon misunderstandings and differences of opinion with the President.

On the other hand, there were also important innovations such as the law of August 24, 1872, which provided for the repurchase of inflationary paper money . Instead, the silver and gold coins of the USA were issued as the official currency until 1883 after a bond was taken out.

Foreign policy crises

The Vineta Affair

In addition, unforeseeable events led to foreign policy difficulties. During the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871, Haiti showed open sympathy for France . Germany intended to act against these attitudes after the end of the war. Under the pretext of claiming compensation of 3,000 pounds sterling for two German nationals, the covered corvette SMS Vineta anchored on June 11, 1872 under the command of sea ​​captain Karl Ferdinand Batsch in the port of Port-au-Prince, where she was German Should represent economic interests. Apparently, German creditors had lent money, but the repayment was delayed. The Vineta and the SMS Gazelle then occupied two Haitian gunboats in Port-au-Prince without warning and thus without any resistance and thus forced payment. This act sparked long-lasting national outrage.

Tensions with Spain over Cuba

Another serious conflict was caused by Spain . During the Cuban War of Independence against Spain, Haiti showed sympathy for Cuba and offered refugees from Cuba asylum .

At the height of the war under the running flag of the United States standing small steamer Hornet accompanied by two Spanish warships in January 1871 the port of Port-au-Prince on. At that time, the United States Navy did not have the strength it had during the Cuban Revolutionary War of 1898 . The Spanish side claimed that the Hornet was a pirate ship and loaded military contraband for the Cuban rebels. Spain therefore urgently demanded the handover of the steamship. This was followed by the immediate objection of the US ambassador , who described the Hornet as a bona fide American steamship. For this reason, despite the presence of the two Spanish warships and the open threats from the Spanish representatives, Haiti refused to extradite this ship to Spain. The Consul of Spain even went so far as to send an ultimatum to the Haitian Foreign Minister on October 5, 1871, demanding that the Hornet be delivered within 24 hours. This situation became increasingly threatening for Haiti, especially when the US dispatched the warship Congress to Port-au-Prince to relieve Cuba from this matter . This was to escort the Hornet to Baltimore or New York City in a convoy . In January 1872 the Hornet was able to leave Port-au-Prince without further incident, which ultimately led to the end of the conflict with Spain.

Tensions with the US

At the same time there was a strong rapprochement between the USA and the Dominican Republic . US President Ulysses S. Grant sought a treaty for the annexation of the Dominican Republic with its President Buenaventura Báez . However, this led to massive protests and armed uprisings by the Dominican population under the leadership of Generals José María Cabral and Gregorio Luperón , who feared a loss of their independence. The US tried to blame Haiti for these protests. In January 1870, the then US envoy in Port-au-Prince Bassett handed the Haitian government a protest note stating that the US was in negotiations with President Báez and asked Haiti to stay out of Dominican affairs. The Haitian government promised to respect these negotiations. However, this met with disbelief from the US government , so US Secretary of State Hamilton Fish wrote to his envoy Bassett in a letter dated February 9, 1871:

" Mr. Fish To Mr. Bassett. Department of State. No. 58. Washington, February 9. 1871. The assurances offered by the Haitian government towards you that they are completely neutral with regard to the disputes of the Dominican parties led by Generals Báez and Cabral do not appear to be entirely credible in their statements. For a considerable time it has been firmly entrenched in the idea that both the Spanish and French parts of Hispaniola are under the sole rule of Haiti, that their government's policy is not only to reject the independence of the Spanish part of the island, but also to prevent any occupation by a foreign power. Hence, it is impossible to put faith in the assurances of the Haitian government, for the hindrance to Dominican affairs is too obvious. The protest of the Haitians in the renewed attempt to regain supremacy in the Spanish part of Hispaniola is too fresh in public opinion ... "

Fierce opposition to the annexation treaty led in the United States by the influential Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led to President Grant's decision to send a commission to Santo Domingo . On March 2, 1871, the commission around Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade from Ohio , Senator Timothy Otis Howe from Wisconsin and the secretary of the commission, the later US envoy in Haiti, Frederick Douglass, arrived on the warship USS Tennessee in Port-au-Prince . The following day the commission was received by President Saget and this exchange of views led to the clearing up of the misunderstandings that had weighed on the good diplomatic relations between the USA and Haiti.

After the US Senate rejected the annexation treaty signed with President Báez, some Haitians began collecting signatures to honor US Senator Sumner with a gold medal. As a result of his office, Sumner could not accept this, so it was deposited in the library of the State House of Boston . At the same time, a portrait of the senator was hung in Haiti's Chamber of Deputies in July 1871, and President Saget ordered a three-day mourning flag to be displayed on his death on March 11, 1874 .

In 1872, however, the arrival of the screw steamer USS Nantasket under the command of Captain Carpenter in the port of Cap-Haïtien caused concern among its residents. On April 19, 1872, a delegation of the ship went ashore with a howitzer on a carriage without explanation to the Haitian port authorities . A company of Haiti's 27th Regiment immediately began a mission to investigate the reason for this action, whereupon the Americans returned with the howitzer to the USS Nantasket. General Pierre Nord Alexis , who was the commander of the army units in the north , demanded an explanation from the US consul in Cap-Haitien shortly afterwards . The only explanation given was that the time between a landing and the assembly of an artillery piece should be measured. Regret was expressed to the Haitian government, which led to the end of the matter.

Despite these minor incidents with foreign powers, Saget's tenure was largely peaceful.

Term expires

However, towards the end of his reign he found himself in an awkward position. In April 1874 the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate met to form the National Assembly to elect a successor to the office of President. There were two candidates for the post: General Michel Domingue , commander of the army units in the Sud department , which Saget supported, and the Liberal Party candidate, Pierre Monplaisir Pierre. In the legislature , Domingue's parliamentary group was headed by his nephew Septimus Rameau, an MP from Les Cayes , while the leader of the Monplaisir Pierre’s faction was the Port-au-Prince MP, Boyer Bazelais . In the Chamber of Deputies, the validity of the upcoming presidential election by Bazelais was vehemently contested. Soon afterwards he left parliament with his group, so that it no longer had a necessary quorum .

As the official end of his term of office, May 15, drew nearer, the Liberal Party tried to convince Saget to stay in office until a successor was elected. However, he refused persistently, so that the Council of State Secretaries on May 13, 1874 initially had to temporarily take over power. On the day of his resignation, however, Saget appointed General Domingue as commander-in-chief of the army.

Nissage Saget himself retired from politics after retiring and settled in Saint-Marc until his death .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hayti: Election And Inauguration Of Gen. Say As President. In: New York Times. April 1, 1870
  2. ↑ Fleurimond W. Kerns: Insults To The Flag. In: Haiti. A slave revolution. The Haitian Flag - Birth Of A Symbol. May 2003
  3. ↑ Hayti: Official Visit Of Minister Bassett To President Saget. In: New York Times. November 26, 1870
  4. ↑ Papers Relating To The Foreign Relations Of The US ( Memento September 8, 2008 in Internet Archive ) Washington, 1871, p. 566, In: Chapter XX, Haiti History Chapters, in: Haitiwebs.com
  5. ^ The African Race; Correspondence Between President Saget, Of Hayti, And Mr. Sumner. In: New York Times. July 7, 1873
  6. ^ The West Indies: Trouble Threatening In Hayti. In: New York Times. December 23, 1873

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Fabre Geffrard President of Haiti
March 20, 1867–2. May 1867 		Sylvain Salnave
predecessor Office successor
Sylvain Salnave President of Haiti
December 27, 1869-13. May 1874 		Council of State Secretaries
personal data
SURNAME Say, Nissage
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saget, Jean Nicolas Nissage (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Haitian politician and President of Haiti
DATE OF BIRTH 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Port-au-Prince
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1880
Place of death Saint-Marc (Haiti)