1807–1811: (Pétion’s Republic: Betrayal, Dissension, and the Cromwellian Turn): The main problems confronting Pétion were to administer the republic under ar…

1807–1811: (Pétion’s Republic: Betrayal, Dissension, and the Cromwellian Turn): The main problems confronting Pétion were to administer the republic under arrangements he knew better than anyone were unworkable and to wage the civil war that now existed between the two divisions of Haiti. To fortify his position with the mulâtre aristocrats of the South and the anciens libres planters who had owned land even in colonial times, Pétion quickly got the Senate to annul Dessalines’s despoliations, reimburse owners for crops lost during expropriation, and repeal the 25 percent share on every crop ordained by Toussaint, replacing it with a crop-subsidy policy whereby the government would buy surplus sugar and coffee in years of low prices. However, Gérin — ungovernable and rancorous — organized an opposition bloc in the Senate allied with doctrinaire Jacobins who opposed virtually any government strong enough to be effective, targeting Bonnet, the principal administrator who had lobbied Gérin out of the presidency. Pétion endured his Senate obstructionists until 1808, then, showing an unexpected streak of Cromwell, he ranged his soldiers about the legislative building, declared the Senate adjourned when a quorum of senators hesitated to force their way through the bayonets, blandly assumed its powers, and kept it adjourned until 1811. In 1810, Pétion threw Bonnet to the wolves and with him the uncomfortable notion that honesty was a requirement in the fiscal affairs of the republic, remarking with gentle cynicism: “All men are thieves.”