Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/379

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Corruption
343

daily duties in an unpretentious manner; and this great majority are thoroughly trustworthy. Far from approving of unscrupulous and corrupt officials, the bulk of the people are always ready to give their support to any man of whose integrity they are convinced and who is determined to cause the public funds to be respected; and the delinquents, when brought to trial, are punished with a degree of severity which they have merited by their actions. The public have never failed to show their gratitude to the statesmen who have served them with honesty and fidelity. Such men may have gone through severe trials; for the cause of right, like that of civilization or progress, has its martyrs. But sooner or later those who have not swerved from their duty receive their just reward. It is not right that one should judge by a few individual cases when there is question of forming an estimate of the characteristics of a people. A few functionaries have disgraced their names; but the others, after occupying high positions for years, retire with their integrity unquestioned and in possession of the esteem of their fellow-citizens when they relinquish their authority. These are the men who are in the majority, but pass unnoticed by the foreigners, because they do not noise their honesty abroad, but content themselves with the inward satisfaction of having been faithful in the performance of their duties. In Haiti there are to be found a great number of statesmen, former Ministers, Deputies, Senators, etc., whose moral soundness is equal to that of the best statesmen of the countries which ceaselessly endeavor to slander us.

One must bear in mind that the salary of the President of Haiti is $24,000 a year and that his traveling expenses amount to $15,000. Yet if we stop to consider some facts of recent occurrence which can be easily verified, we find that after nine years of Presidency General Salomon has left his heirs in very modest circumstances; and that the inventory of the estate of General Hyppolite, who died in the sixth year of his Presidency, was a great surprise to many, and proved