1878, March 15: (The Tanis Uprising and the Pattern of Conspiracy): As faction stirred sedition, a less trusting chief than Boisrond would not have decided t…

1878, March 15: (The Tanis Uprising and the Pattern of Conspiracy): As faction stirred sedition, a less trusting chief than Boisrond would not have decided to leave Port-au-Prince for a swing through the South, but on January 18, 1878, that was what he did, leaving the city in the hands of General Louis Tanis, the military commandant. On March 15, word came to Boisrond in distant Jérémie that Tanis — who was a noir — and other high conspirators had tried and failed to storm the Port-au-Prince arsenal the night before and then fallen back on Fort National. By the time Boisrond returned aboard St. Michel, the revolt was over, with Tanis ready to negotiate a stand-down in which the insurgents would take asylum and be eased into exile. No direct evidence of a coordinated nationwide plot was found, but it would otherwise be incredible that within twenty-four hours of the Tanis uprising, revolts erupted in Limonade, La Tannerie near Milot, and St. Raphaël — all three deep in old Caco country, apparently with some support from Nord Alexis in exile — put down within days by two energetic generals, Monpoint-jeune and Séïde Télémaque. That the regime survived its first major challenge may have gone to Boisrond’s head: within ten weeks he asked the Chamber to amend the constitution to enlarge presidential powers and extend his term, evidently forgetting that he himself had commanded the firing squad that shot Salnave on charges of tampering with that same constitution — the deputies’ memory was longer, and they rejected the amendments.