1874, August–1875, May: (The Domingue-Rameau Constitution, the French Loan Scandal, and the Fête d’Agriculture Trap): Within two months, by August 6, 1874, R…

1874, August–1875, May: (The Domingue-Rameau Constitution, the French Loan Scandal, and the Fête d’Agriculture Trap): Within two months, by August 6, 1874, Rameau had a new constitution based on the 1816 model — an eight-year presidential term and a vice-presidency seized of plenary executive powers, which of course went to Rameau himself. Six days later the assembly authorized a loan of 3 million gourdes, but before this could be floated it was absorbed in a more spectacular transaction: to establish a national bank, Rameau arranged a French loan whose exact terms remain historically confused, but whose associated payoffs, commissions, and douceurs mounted so outrageously that in 1881 even the usurers of Paris felt impelled to remit 15 million francs back to Haiti — a scandal so monstrous it horrified even politicians and the elite. Under pretext of the traditional Fête d’Agriculture parades on May 1, Lorquet — an old hand at such arrangements — deployed the Port-au-Prince garrison into three task forces to arrest Generals Brice, Momplaisir Pierre, and Boisrond-Canal, whom Domingue and Rameau feared most. Brice was at his desk when the soldiers arrived; seizing revolvers, he dispatched his secretary to warn Boisrond while holding off the troops — but the hero of Jérémie, aged thirty-four, was shot down and mortally wounded as he gained the safety of the English legation. Momplaisir Pierre, better armed and equally resolute, killed seventeen soldiers and wounded twice as many before a cannon was dragged up and blew him to pieces in his doorway. Warned by Brice, Boisrond rallied a handful of friends and made a dash for the American minister’s residence at the top of Turgeau, and luckier than his fellow victims, made it — sparking a five-month siege of the U.S. legation by up to 1,200 soldiers.