1915, August 12: (Dartiguenave on the First Ballot: The Armed Assembly, the Freedom to Shoot Themselves, and Bobo’s Flight to the British Legation): The fina…

1915, August 12: (Dartiguenave on the First Ballot: The Armed Assembly, the Freedom to Shoot Themselves, and Bobo’s Flight to the British Legation): The final message was indeed perfectly clear: the U.S. would allow Haiti to hold a free election subject to the one condition that the election hypothecate to Washington the freedom of Haiti. The election proceeded without objection or delay — Marines were at every street intersection and cordoned the assembly. At their own urgent request, Caperton permitted senators and deputies to carry arms to the meeting with the understanding, the admiral wrote, that they would be free to shoot themselves while in session but not others. Marines, who netted in the process still another wagonload of weapons, frisked friends coming to the galleries, while Captain Beach enjoyed the freedom of the floor and mingled easily. As Dartiguenave saw it and later wrote, the fullest freedom was assured to the National Assembly — not a senator, not a deputy was subjected to any act of pressure or coercion, each voted with perfect independence. The assembly voted as Washington wished: Dartiguenave on the first ballot with 94 votes, Bobo 16, the remainder scattered among lesser candidates — a third of the members felt free to vote for others than the U.S.-favored winner. French Minister Girard, reporting next day to the Quai d’Orsay, said Bobo found partisans only in the low elements of Port-au-Prince and had against him the great majority of those who had to decide the issue. How profoundly Dr. Bobo misread events and American purposes was measured by the fact that as soon as Dartiguenave was elected he dashed for the British legation and implored asylum — Captain Beach immediately called and found the doctor in a small cabin in the grounds, quite disheveled, hastily drawing on shoes and his Prince Albert coat, continuing to refer to himself as President of Haiti, insisting he was surrounded by enemies seeking to kill him. A few days later, moving at night for fear of enemies he still professed to see at every hand, Bobo, escorted at his own request by Marines, slipped aboard a French steamer, never more to return.