3 December 1914 · Haitian
A foreign minister says Haiti needs a foreign master
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On 3 December 1914 the Haitian foreign minister Joseph Justin stood before the Senate to explain what the United States was demanding and why the government could not simply refuse. He said the charge that the country was unable to govern itself had been made for a long time, that the finances were in ruins, and then he said that what Haiti needed was a foreign master. The chamber came at him, shouting for liberty, armed with canes, knives and revolvers. Justin took several blows. Other members of the cabinet got between him and the crowd, which is the only reason he lived. The next day, with the accusation circulating that he had proposed to sell the country to the blan, he resigned. Haiti's material position required outside money. Its political culture, formed in 1804 and hardened by the indemnity of 1825 and by every foreign warship since, made accepting that money a capital offence. The sentence that described the trap could not be spoken in the chamber that had to solve it.
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