Istwa Nou

Soon after taking office in 1913, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan asked John Allen of the Banque Nationale to come and explain Haiti to him. Bryan said he was very interested in the place and asked who the people were, then stopped and asked where it was. Two hours later, as Allen was leaving, Bryan shook his head over the discovery that there were Black people who spoke French. American policy towards Haiti for the next two years was built on that foundation. The Roosevelt and Taft administrations had held that small republics could be steadied by customs control imposed from Washington. Woodrow Wilson added instruction in democracy, remarking of Mexico that he meant to teach the Latin Americans how to elect good men. Bryan's information about Haiti came almost entirely from Roger Farnham, a vivid talker who ran the National City Bank's interests there. The occupation was assembled out of ignorance, condescension and a banker's balance sheet, which hold together far better than malice.

Vilbrun Guillaume Sam entered Port-au-Prince three days after Davilmar Theodore sailed. Hannibal Hilaire and Charlemagne Peralte, who had the men to fight him, took his 50,000 dollars in gold instead and joined in proclaiming him head of the executive power. A National Assembly was got together by 4 March and ratified what the guns had already settled. On 9 March 1915 Guillaume Sam took office to cannon fire, a Te Deum and a reception at the Casernes Dessalines. The gourde, which had slid to 12.5 cents gold in Theodore's last hours, came back to 17.5. Caperton watched for a day or two, took the Washington to Guantanamo to coal, and steamed west for Veracruz. The same 50,000 dollars had already passed from Simon Sam to Guillaume and now went from Guillaume to Hilaire and Peralte. One sum of money financed each turn of the same wheel, and what it bought was the right to collect from a treasury with nothing left in it.