The Senate under Daumec sends Pétion its Remontrances, complaining of the handling of the Yayou and Magloire plots, the shielding of Michel, his control of the finances and the trade with Cuba.
Meanwhile the Senate, presided over by Daumec, burst forth with a message dated 28 July, shortly after Pétion’s arrival at Port-au-Prince. Borrowing from the parliament of the old monarchy the title of *Remontrances*, a very humble title, this message was conceived in these terms:
“President of Haiti,
“Although nowhere in the Constitution of the State is there provision for the case in which the representatives of the people should depute their members to the executive power, they have nevertheless, on more than one occasion, made approaches to the Government, tending to maintain the harmony which ought always to reign between the two powers, presuming that by this means the Government, ceaselessly enlightened by the legislative body, would proceed in accord and concert measures which could not fail to place the Republic on a respectable footing. But, alas! how many times have we seen it at the brink of the precipice!
“Today, justly alarmed at the alarming situation of the State, at the incompetence of the means employed in our finances, agriculture, army, and the police of towns and countryside, the Senate believes itself authorized, in accordance with the engagement it has contracted to work for the happiness of a people which has entrusted its destinies to it, to come in a body to explain itself with the head of the executive power, and to ask him at last whether it is possible to forget the powerful motives which occasioned the event of 17 October 1806? God forbid that the legislative body should here wish to impute to the head of the government designs hostile to the sovereignty of the people and to the representative system established by a Constitution for which streams of blood still flow! But can the Senate remain indifferent to the future fate of the country which saw us born, when everything seems to incline toward a total subversion. Without army, without finances, without cultivation and without police, what is lacking to convince us that the Republic is plunged in the blackest chaos? Not far from this sad picture, we see anarchy accompany license, which threatens to confound everything. Insubordination is at its height, and soon senior officers will regard the obedience of their subordinates as a signal favor. Our laws are without vigor and the Republic is in a state of uncertainty that destroys all security.
“In the month of May of last year, the Senate, presuming that from the confusion which existed in our finances there must necessarily arise a frightful deficit in the public coffers, and wishing to forestall everything, the legislative body addressed to the President of Haiti a detailed message, by which it invited him to send it, by way of the secretary of state, the survey of the houses and plantations of the Republic, the names of the lessees, the sums owed to the State by the said lessees, the state of the armed force, and finally that of all war materials, etc., etc.; and this message, which was printed by order of the Government, had no effect, and the legislative body, pressed to seek the means of covering the public expenses, and following only its love of the public good, was obliged to proceed in darkness and without any document that could enlighten it.
“In the month of July last, the Senate, on adjourning, delegated to the executive power a part of its attributions, with injunction to render it an account at the opening of the session of 1808. During the adjournment of the Senate, a great conspiracy broke out: General Yayou was its chief; he was a member of the Senate; and, thanks to the fidelity of the army, this powerful conspiracy was overthrown. The principal authors underwent the punishment due to their crime, and the Senate had no official knowledge of it; it has seen no public act of the Government on this subject; yet one of its members was implicated in the affair.
“During the adjournment of the Senate, the Government, using the powers that had been delegated to it, appointed a secretary of state. The Senate, on resuming the labors of the present session, still had no official knowledge of this important appointment; it has seen no report from the preceding secretary of state.