in jeopardy. And yet since the much to be regretted reprisals which followed the war of independence, the most hitter foes and detractors of the Haitians have never been able to quote a single case of foreigners having been killed during the political disturbances which have from time to time shaken the country. Nowhere do foreigners find greater protection and security than that which is granted by Haiti. There are instances in the United States when Italians and Austrians have been put to death by an infuriated mob. The closest examination of the history of Haiti and the events of daily occurrence will not reveal one instance of foreigners having been killed either by reason of their nationality, the color of their skins, of on account of the rivalry more or less great between them and the natives.
I do not mean to infer that Haiti has attained to perfection. Like other nations, she also has her imperfections. I am only trying, and I cannot repeat it too often, to lay before my readers the unjust treatment she has up to the present time met with. She does not deserve the needless calumnies with which she is overwhelmed.
Everything is made a pretext for turning Haiti into ridicule; even the number of her Constitutions brought forward as a subject of derision; whilst it appears quite natural that France, for instance, should have enacted the following twelve Constitutions from 1791 to 1875: the Constitutions of 1791, of the year I (1793), of the year III (1795), of the year VIII (1800) modified in 1802, of the year X (1804); the Charter of 1814; the Additional Article of 1815; the Constitutions of 1830, of 1848, of 1852; the imperial Constitution of 1852; the Constitution of 1875 modified in 1884.
From 1804 to 1889 Haiti was under the successive rule of the Constitutions of 1805, 1806, 1816, 1843, 1846, 1849, 1867, 1874, 1879, and 1889. Most of these Constitutions proceeded from two prototypes the Constitution of 1816, which organized a strong Executive Power, and the liberal Constitution of 1843; all others were
