The Senate named Bruno Blanchet secretary of state to hold the executive power during the interim, and Pétion set out with the army from Port-au-Prince.

The presidency of the Republic was therefore vacant in fact: the Senate remedied this on 19 January by raising Bruno Blanchet to the office of Secretary of State, a dignity whose holder was to occupy the executive power, under the terms of the constitution, in case of an interim.

Bruno Blanchet had been the principal drafter of the constitution; endowed with an energetic soul, he knew how to show himself worthy of the temporary but difficult mission that had just been conferred upon him (1).

The Senate, almost immediately after this first act of authority, assuming a vigor worthy of antiquity, revoked Paul Romain, Magny, Toussaint-Brave and Charairon from their senatorial dignities, for having taken part in the insurrection of Christophe.

The army of the Republic burned at that time with the desire to carry the war in its turn into the North. Gérin above all, more impetuous than ever, promised to stop only at Cap. No doubt one might have pushed on as far as Saint-Marc, then stripped of troops, invaded the plain of the Artibonite, and encamped at Marchand. But Pétion, more moderate, pointed out to the other senators that the capital of the Republic, once the army had been set in motion, would find itself in the same position as Saint-Marc, exposed: could not Christophe, by a bold countermarch through the hills of the Crochus, or through those of Pensez-y-bien, or by the Morne-à-Cabrits, or even by the heights of the Vérettes, fall once more upon Port-au-Prince and seize it?

In spite of this explicit opinion, the Senate, which on 18 January raised Pétion to the command of the department of the West, and Gérin to the command of that of the South, resolved, in the same sitting, that the former “should put himself in possession, in the shortest possible time, of the limits of the department he commanded (1).”

Pétion therefore set out, on the 19th, from Port-au-Prince: the first division, commanded by Yayou, was composed of the 11th, 12th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th demi-brigades; the second, commanded by Gérin, was composed of the 3rd, 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th demi-brigades.