25 August to 3 September 1915 · Haitianspan
Haiti answers with a counter draft and the Americans take the customs houses
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Lansing softened the pressure on 25 August with a private message over Beach's signature, offering Dartiguenave full support should he wish to dissolve the assembly and form a government of his own choosing. Dartiguenave replied mildly, asking only for changes of wording that would let the treaty read as an agreement between two states. What the Haitians submitted on 27 August was a general counter draft that removed or hollowed out every clause of the original. The tactic had worked on American envoys in 1914 and again earlier in 1915. It failed now. Within two days Lansing sent word to conclude the treaty as written. Two decisions had already settled the question. From 21 August American naval paymasters took charge of the customs houses, installing themselves as collectors and port captains at Jacmel, Les Cayes, Jérémie, Miragoane, Petit Goâve, Saint Marc, Gonaïves, Port de Paix and Cap-Haïtien, and on 2 September at Port-au-Prince. For an elite that had lived off the public treasury, the loss was immediate and personal.
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