1915, October 3 – November 29: (Not One Cent: The Senate Holdout, Caperton’s Ultimatum, and the Modus Vivendi): If Dartiguenave had made truce with necessity…

1915, October 3 – November 29: (Not One Cent: The Senate Holdout, Caperton’s Ultimatum, and the Modus Vivendi): If Dartiguenave had made truce with necessity, the National Assembly had not — it was the Assembly that had to ratify before the treaty could take effect. While the assembly stalled, Dartiguenave, increasingly strapped for operating expenses including salaries, asked the Americans to let him have money — the answer was: ratify the treaty. On October 3, after Dartiguenave had for the second time threatened resignation, he was told by Davis that not one cent of revenue would be released — particularly for overdue salaries of députés and senators, cabinet ministers, and president — until both houses had ratified. Within seventy-two hours, defiantly attaching to the treaty a unilateral interpretive commentary, the députés capitulated 75 to 6. Caperton privately wrote Benson that these were the most deceitful graft seekers on earth and he really believed at times that the president’s cabinet were all against him, but they saw the Americans were there for keeps — the House of Delegates was with the president because he convoked an extraordinary session of two months, meaning $600 gold apiece, while the Senate got nothing extra and was therefore on the fence. Captain Beach was even ordered back from the bedside of his dying wife and set to work lobbying the Haitian politicians. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on November 5 adversely reported the treaty and urged that a new treaty be negotiated from the ground up. Now it was November 11 and time had run out — flanked by Beach, the admiral went to the palace and told Dartiguenave and his cabinet that treaty or no treaty, the United States intended to retain control over Haiti, and would mete out to those offering opposition the treatment their conduct merited — this time there was no velvet glove. The Senate was sitting when word of Caperton’s ultimatum arrived, and at 5:50 P.M., after passionate oratorical fireworks, the senators duly ratified the treaty 27 to 6. One step remained — negotiation of a modus vivendi, which Louis Borno delayed for nearly three weeks until Paymaster Conard suggested a simple formulation that all parties accepted. The date was November 29, 1915: now the United States was in Haiti to stay and the Haitians knew it.