liberal; so much so in fact that he was soon at odds with the legislative body, which thought that the time had come to establish the parliamentary system. On the 11th of October, 1867, the rupture with Congress was complete, caused by an interpellation of the Cabinet by the House of Representatives concerning the arrest and imprisonment of General Leon Montas. About that time the peasants had taken up arms at Vallière against Salnave; and the General was charged with being the instigator, if not the leader, of the uprising. The members of the Cabinet openly accused the House of Representatives of being in connivance with the rebels; whereupon the mob invaded the House on the 14th of October and drove out the Congressmen. This ill-considered act of violence was followed by grave consequences. In the mean time, the President had left for Gonaives with a view of subduing the insurgents at Vallière, who had assumed the name of "Cacos."
By forcibly ejecting the members of the House of Representatives, Salnave had suspended the Constitution; yet he affected to believe that the opposition he met with was due to his limited authority. Accordingly, on the 22d of April, 1868, he committed yet another blunder by permitting the officers and non-commissioned officers of his army, whose headquarters were at Trou, to form a petition requesting the suspension of the Constitution and dictatorship for the head of the Executive Power. Thus Salnave reestablished the Presidency for life and arrogated unlimited power.
Nissage Saget, who was at that time Commandant of the arrondissement of Saint-Marc, took up arms against this usurpation. Once more frustrated in the hopes of having a government founded on legality and liberty, the country reached one of the most critical periods of its existence, as the insurrection soon became general. Pétion Faubert at Léogane, Normil at l'Anse-à-Veau, Domingue at Aquin, and Boisrond Canal at Pétionville and Croix-des-Bouquets, all rose up against the dictatorship assumed by Salnave, who was being besieged at Port-au-Prince. The insurgents from the South had
