9 to 11 August 1915 · Haitianspan
Washington states a preference and the assembly is called to a music hall
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On 9 August the State Department instructed Caperton that Haitians could hold their election whenever they wished and that the United States preferred Dartiguenave. Josephus Daniels later wrote that this amounted to America making the president. Bobo's committee played its last card. Crowds filled the streets on 10 August calling for him, and the next morning the capital woke to a printed decree dissolving the National Assembly, declaring the committee a provisional government with power to rewrite the constitution, and ordering the chamber sealed. Beach summoned the committee to the legation and dissolved it on the spot while Marines pulled the notices off the walls. That day the whole legislature, 39 senators and 102 deputies, was invited to the Théâtre Parisiana. Beach announced the committee's end to loud applause. Then the American chargé, Beale Davis, read the terms: Washington would uphold the Haitian congress, and expected in return practical control of the customs and whatever financial control over Haitian affairs it judged necessary.
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