3 October to 29 November 1915 · Haitianspan
Haiti's legislature is starved of salaries until it ratifies the treaty
›Read the full entryClose
The treaty still needed the National Assembly, and the assembly refused. Dartiguenave, short of money for salaries including his own, asked the Americans for funds and was told to ratify first. On 3 October, after he had threatened resignation for the second time, Davis informed him that no revenue whatever would be released, above all no back pay for deputies, senators or ministers, until both houses had voted. The lower house capitulated within seventy two hours, 75 to 6, attaching its own interpretive commentary to the text. Caperton wrote to Admiral Benson that the deputies had followed the president because he had called an extraordinary session worth 600 gold apiece, while the Senate gained nothing and stayed on the fence. Beach was recalled from his dying wife's bedside to lobby them. On 5 November the Senate foreign relations committee reported against the treaty and asked for a new one. On 11 November Caperton went to the palace and told the cabinet the United States would keep control of Haiti with or without a treaty. The Senate ratified that evening, 27 to 6.
A code like HT-WIB-000044 is a bates number. It marks one page of our stamped scan of the book, so the same page can be found again by anyone working from the same copy. Open one to see every entry drawn from that page.