Les Cayes. A Commission of inquiry into Acaau’s conduct establishes itself there.

The charges against general Acaau were overwhelming; the Council was therefore agreed, unanimously, to have him handed over to a special military council. But the citizen Honoré Féry was of the opinion that he should be tried for all the acts of which he was accused since his taking up of arms in April; and the citizen J. Paul, secretary of state for the Interior and Agriculture, gave a less rigorous opinion, proposing to divide the offenses and crimes imputed to Acaau, and to try him only on those he had committed after the notification that had been made to him of the accession of general Guerrier to the Presidency. Acaau’s taking up of arms, which had contributed so much to the overthrow of Rivière Hérard, was regarded as an extenuating circumstance of the highest importance. The opinion of the citizen J. Paul was shared by the citizen Hyppolite. The citizen Laudun siding with Féry, the Council found itself divided into two opinions that would make each other no concession whatever; there was even bitterness in the discussion on both sides, and they parted without having decided anything. The next day, 22 July, President Guerrier himself presided over the Council and voted in the sense of the citizens J. Paul and Hyppolite, more favorably still toward the accused; it was therefore decided that general Acaau would be tried only on the acts that had followed his adherence to the government of 3 May. The government had already ordered an inquiry to be made at Les Cayes by a Commission, which established itself there on 22 July. Eight days later, on 30 July, general Acaau was arrested, imprisoned and held incommunicado in the cells of Port-au-Prince, and the special military council that was to try him was formed.