Le Cap. Made the seat of the Government and the Capital by Pierrot’s order of 1 November.
The Riviériste seditions and revolts that had broken out in the Department of the West determined President Pierrot to withdraw for good from Port-au-Prince, which he considered an essentially hostile town, and to transfer the Capital of the Republic to Cap-Haïtien. He was particularly encouraged in this design by general Hyppolite, president of the Council, a native of Le Cap and steeped in the traditions of Christophe, under whom he had served. He would have acted better in the common interest and in his own by coming to Port-au-Prince, the center of the Republic, whence he could have stretched one arm over the North and the other over the South, and kept a clearer eye on everything. But the traditions of the era of Christophe, the narrow spirit of locality, clouded the judgment of those about him, while general Riché, a man of wider intelligence, was already conspiring and preparing to profit by the very grave political errors that were being committed. Riché’s doings at Port-au-Prince and at Saint-Marc remained most secret; and what he made plain to view was the taming of his fierce and savage nature, as he made himself sociable and even affable toward a population full of prejudice against him because of the cruelties he had practiced in 1812 at the Môle, at Jean-Rabel and at Port-de-Paix. At length the transfer of the Capital to Cap-Haïtien was ordered by the following act:
ORDER.
JEAN-LOUIS PIERROT, President of Haiti:(b)
“Considering that, in the circumstances in which the country finds itself, all the efforts of the Government must tend toward the restoration of the unity of the territory, and that it is with this thought that the Head of State has felt bound, until contrary decision, to fix his residence at Cap-Haïtien;
“Has ordered and orders as follows:
“The seat both of the Council of the Secretaries of State and of the Council of State is transferred to Cap-Haïtien.
“Given at the National Palace of Cap-Haïtien, 1 November 1845. Louis Pierrot. By the President: The Secretary of State for War, the Navy and Foreign Relations, president of the Council, Hyppolite.