1941, May 15 – 1942, February 23: (Another State of the Union: Lescot’s Iron Hand, the Anti-Voodoo Campaign, the American Bishop at Les Cayes, and the Suspen…

1941, May 15 – 1942, February 23: (Another State of the Union: Lescot’s Iron Hand, the Anti-Voodoo Campaign, the American Bishop at Les Cayes, and the Suspension of the Constitution): The inauguration cost 10,000 gourdes more than budgeted because of wartime prices for French champagne. The suave and patrician mulâtre who had become president was born in 1883 at St.-Louis-du-Nord of a respected Capois family — his mother had been lady-in-waiting to the Empress Adélina, his grandfather lifelong magistrat communal of the Cap. Raconteur, bon vivant, seldom without a fine Havana cigar, Lescot was, save for that one peccadillo — the golden cord, the Trujillo connection — a Haitian of impeccable distinction. As early as 1934, Armour had spotted Lescot as a future president, remarking that from Trujillo’s point of view he would be the perfect choice, a true son of the North where the Christophe tradition of discipline and the iron hand still persisted. Lescot’s political formula was simple: secure the loyalty of the Garde, emasculate the legislature, profit by wholehearted loyalty to the United States, and rule Haiti with an iron hand. On June 6, 1941, he assumed title as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, placing both Garde Présidentielle and Port-au-Prince police under his direct control while leaving the chief of staff merely an administrative functionary. During summer 1941, a heavy-handed campaign was mounted against Voodoo — ounfò were raided and smashed along with drums and other sacred objects. Dissatisfied with the French clergy, whom he considered political and Vichy-oriented, Lescot asked Welles to suggest an American ecclesiastic for the vacant diocese of Les Cayes, and in February 1943 installed Msgr. Louis Collignon, an American Oblate Father, over obdurate opposition from the archbishop and nuncio. On September 13, 1941, the United States agreed to close out the fiscal representative’s office. On October 14, Lescot abolished the prefectural system and created six regional délégués wielding sole local authority as in the olden time. After Pearl Harbor, Haiti declared war on Japan on December 8, followed by declarations against the European Axis and on Christmas Eve against Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. On January 14, 1942, the legislature conferred extraordinary powers on the executive for the duration of the war, and on February 23, Lescot simply suspended the constitution, instructing the Garde that saboteurs and arsonists should be tried, condemned, and promptly shot.