Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/189

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Pétion and Simon Bolivar
171

my name in any of your documents; and for this purpose I reckon on the sentiments which characterize you. …"[1]

After leaving Cayes[2] on the 10th of April, 1816, Bolivar landed at Carupano on May 31. Defeated on the 10th of July by the Spanish General Morales, he fled again to Haiti. Pétion once more gave him his sympathy and assistance, furnishing him with large supplies of arms, ammunition, etc. On the 26th of December, 1816, Bolivar left Haiti and this time succeeded in ridding his country of Spanish domination. He expressed his gratitude once more in the following letter which he wrote before embarking, to General Marion, Commandant of the arrondissement of Cayes:

"Port-au-Prince, December 4, 1816.

"General: On the point of starting with a view to return to my country and strengthen its independence, I feel that it would be ungrateful of me were I to miss this opportunity of thanking you for all your kindness to my countrymen. If men are bound by the favors they have received, be sure, General, that my countrymen and myself will forever love the Haitian people and the worthy rulers who make them happy. …"[3]

Pétion was successively reelected President on the 9th of March, 1811, and on the 9th of March, 1815.

On the 2d of June, 1816, the Constitution of 1806 was modified. The authority was divided between the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary Powers. A Supreme Court (Tribunal de Cassation) was created; and henceforth the Legislative body was to consist of a Senate and a House of Commons. The President of Haiti, elected for life by the Senate, had the right to appoint all the civil and military functionaries and also to direct the exterior relations.

  1. Expédition de Bolivar par le Sénateur Marion ainé", p. 43 (December, 1849).
  2. The capital of the Southern Department.
  3. And a few years later Bolivar refrained from inviting Haiti to the Congress of Panama!