1886–1888: (Let Me Take My Soup in Peace: Salomon’s Second Term and the Gathering Storm): At the end of 1885, the Cap was the scene of yet another attempt to…

1886–1888: (Let Me Take My Soup in Peace: Salomon’s Second Term and the Gathering Storm): At the end of 1885, the Cap was the scene of yet another attempt to storm the arsenal — Tirésias Simon Sam, the local commandant, was alert and the attackers were put to flight, with three shot at La Fossette next morning and sixteen arrests subsequently terminated fatally at Gonaïves. Nearly seven years had sped since Salomon took office, but no more than any other Haitian president would the old man utter Nunc Dimittis — instead, the 1879 constitution was handily edited to remove the clause prohibiting self-succession, and on June 30, 1886, Salomon was re-elected for a second seven-year term ending May 15, 1894. Cayes was ravaged by fire in late 1885 and inundated by flood the next August; a heavy earthquake shook the North on September 23, 1887, bringing down the new cathedral at Port-de-Paix. Anténor Firmin described the state of affairs: no security for individual liberty, the press gagged, legislative immunity a vain word, the law giving way before the whim of a tyrant, and internal espionage without precedent carried on with abominable cynicism. On May 23, 1888, Salomon assured the American minister Thompson that everything was perfectly quiet and he knew the malefactors, who were about twenty in number — within less than twenty-four hours Port-au-Prince was in uproar, touched off by the accidental discharge of a soldier’s musket in the market. At the palace, Thompson found the grounds literally crowded with soldiers, a large mitrailleuse beside a heavy cannon menacing the entrance, and the president prepared to shoot everyone in sight. In a moment of weariness the old president said plaintively that he had not been well, that people kept saying he should go, that what he needed was surcease — just let him take his soup in peace and he would get better. But on July 4, the Chamber of Deputies was set afire, and fanned by sea breezes the flames engulfed downtown Port-au-Prince — the Ministry of Interior, the Archives, the law school with its painfully acquired library, Bishop Holly’s Episcopal church, and some 400 buildings were completely gutted, with 12 million francs’ damage. Mme Salomon herself went so far as to inform Mrs. Thompson that the president’s private papers and valuables were packed in a small casket, ready to be sent to the American residence in a moment of danger.