1916, May 10 – 1917, December: (The Occupation Is Not As Popular: Caperton Departs, Waller Commands, and the Tone Changes): The policies pursued by Caperton …

1916, May 10 – 1917, December: (The Occupation Is Not As Popular: Caperton Departs, Waller Commands, and the Tone Changes): The policies pursued by Caperton and Beach, even in the most difficult moments, had been those of conciliation — the French minister Girard observed in early 1916 that the engaging style in which the American military authorities wooed Haitian sympathies had not escaped notice, with Caperton accepting invitations to the Cercle Port-au-Princien and flinging small coins along the roadside when he drove to Pétionville. Danache, Dartiguenave’s familiar who detested the occupation and called Americans gross, brutal, and always ready with boot or fist, nevertheless conceded that Caperton and Beach spoke very correct French and had good manners — the admiral, he recalled, was a handsome man for his age, straight as a lightning rod, who irresistibly gained your sympathy, an indefatigable dancer, and people said that after a waltz you could see the print of his buttons on the bosom of his partner. Then one day in 1916, Caperton and Beach were gone — the tactic of American diplomacy, Danache observed, being to deploy representatives of the most refined manners and spirit, or according to the end in view, torturers without scruple. On May 10, 1916, responding to a crisis in Santo Domingo, Caperton moved next door, leaving Colonel Waller, the Marine brigade commander, as viceroy. Two months later Caperton was advanced to command the Pacific Fleet and never saw Haiti again. In his final letter to Admiral Benson, Caperton confided his unease: when he left Port-au-Prince there had existed the warmest cordiality between the occupation and the Haitian government, but judging from his own observations the occupation was not as popular as it was, and this fact was much regretted by the better class of people. Whether Caperton was deluding himself about the better class — who had after all been obstructing him in every way since 1915 — is beside the point: there had indeed been a change of tone, and in the disillusioning climate of mid-1916 following Dartiguenave’s dissolution of the Senate, a soured atmosphere was inevitable. Waller soon cabled Washington a differing assessment: the government had failed in all its solemn promises, denied making them although they were repeated in English and French, Borno controlled and dominated the cabinet, and after months of intimate association it was his duty to report that the government was insincere, unstable, and most unpopular. Caperton and Waller were both right — and de la Batie, in unknowing echo, described the Marine commander as so disgusted by Dartiguenave’s duplicity he no longer accepted his word on a decision and demanded written engagements on each promise.