1888-10-16: (François Légitime Elected President With French Backing, Immediately Opposed by U.S.-Backed Florvil Hyppolite, Haiti’s Internal Politics Now a P…

1888-10-16: (François Légitime Elected President With French Backing, Immediately Opposed by U.S.-Backed Florvil Hyppolite, Haiti’s Internal Politics Now a Proxy Arena for European and American Imperial Competition): On October 16, 1888, François Légitime was elected president of Haiti following Salomon’s resignation and Boisrond-Canal’s brief provisional presidency. Légitime, a career military officer born in Jérémie in 1841, was supported by France. The United States, however, backed Florvil Hyppolite, and sent Frederick Douglass, the legendary abolitionist, to serve as minister resident and consul general in January 1889. The U.S. Navy appeared off the coast of Port-au-Prince to intimidate Légitime’s government. Légitime’s presidency lasted less than a year. Marred by political violence and unable to resist American pressure, he abandoned the presidency on August 23, 1889. The episode demonstrated that Haiti’s sovereignty existed only insofar as the great powers permitted it, and that Haitian presidents now rose or fell on domestic support and on the calculations of foreign governments with warships anchored in Port-au-Prince harbor.