1807, January 8 – March 9: (The Failure at Port-au-Prince and the Two Haitis): By the time the army of the North was again in hand outside Port-au-Prince, Ya…

1807, January 8 – March 9: (The Failure at Port-au-Prince and the Two Haitis): By the time the army of the North was again in hand outside Port-au-Prince, Yayou had thrown together a defense line at the Portail St. Joseph, the northern gate to the city, overlooked by Fort National, and Lamarre — proscribed after the fall of Dessalines — was delivered from prison still wearing his rags to seize a sword and lead his old command, the 24th Demibrigade, in prodigies of valor. Like Dessalines before him in Santo Domingo, Christophe had marched south without artillery, and his only recourse was a series of headlong assaults — all of which failed against the Port-au-Prince defenses. On January 8, 1807, frustrated and furious, Christophe withdrew unpursued to St. Marc, leaving flame and pillage in his wake, and once secure at the Cap he lost no time regularizing his position on terms more agreeable than those proffered by Pétion’s Senate. On February 17, 1807, Christophe’s advisers created a new “State of Haiti” and turned Pétion’s constitution on its head, denominating Henry as lifetime president with virtually the identical powers Pétion and Boyer had vested in the Senate at Port-au-Prince. Less than three weeks later, on March 9, 1807, the Senate met in Port-au-Prince to choose a president: the hotheaded Gérin destroyed himself by an outburst against a brother senator, whereupon Guy-Joseph Bonnet — Pétion’s respected henchman and a widely influential Mason — lobbied the members for Pétion, who was handily elected.