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After Domingue's departure the Constitution of 1867 once more came in force. According to this Constitution Boisrond Canal was elected President of Haiti for four years on the 17th of July, 1876. The new ruler was beset with innumerable difficulties resulting from the financial measures taken by his predecessor. He was principally exposed to the ill-will of France, which, with a view of imposing a settlement of the loan known as the Domingue or the 1875 loan, went so far as to refuse to recognize his Government officially. Yet at Paris it was a well-known fact that Haiti had not received the amount of money the responsibility for which France was trying to force upon her. In Europe and in the United States people clamor unceasingly as to the alleged corruption and unscrupulousness of Haitian statesmen, declaring that without the assistance of foreign Powers they are incapable of honestly managing their finances. However, whenever a financial scandal occurs in Haiti, among the guilty parties there will always be found, either as the inspirers or the accomplices of the misdeed, those very foreigners who loudly denounce Haitian corruption whilst claiming for themselves the monopoly of virtue and integrity.

As it was, the Haitian people, who have never repudiated a legitimate debt, flatly refused to accept the responsibility for the frauds which had been committed in the floating of the Domingue loan, and the National Assembly undertook to investigate the matter. This important inquiry proved that there could not exist the least doubt as to the well-founded attitude assumed by Haiti; it was found out that she owed neither the 58,000,000 of francs which were originally claimed, nor the 40,000,000 which France wanted her to acknowledge as the amount due. By Decree of July 11, 1877, the National Assembly admitted, in the name of the country, a debt of 21,000,000 francs, bearing interest at 6 per cent per annum. In this manner the Haitian Republic incontestably proved her desire to safeguard her interests without sacrificing those of her legitimate creditors.

Consequently, France, which had in the mean time been brought to a clear understanding as to the true facts of the case, resumed her official relations with Haiti by sending in December, 1878, a Minister Plenipotentiary to Port-au-Prince. The cordial intercourse which formerly existed between the two nations was restored and the Haitians were enabled to come to a just and reasonable agreement with the bond-holders.

The Autran Incident

Whilst Boisrond Canal's government was in the midst of its difficulties with France it was suddenly threatened with graver complications with Spain, which, being unable to subdue the Cuban insurrection, seemed bent on making Haiti her scapegoat. On the 3d of December, 1877, the man-of-war Sanchez Barcaiztegui anchored in the harbor of Port-au-Prince; her Commander, Antonio Ferry y Rival, was commissioned to make an inquiry as to the legality of the sentence passed on one Jose Santisi by the Haitian criminal court. She left the port without having caused any trouble. But a few days later, on the 14th of December, Commandant Jose Maria Autran arrived on the man-of-war Jorge Juan, and at once gave rise to a situation fraught with much danger. On the 17th he sent an ultimatum to the Secretary of Exterior Relations of Haiti allowing seventy-two hours for the settlement of the alleged grievances of Spain. The sentence imposed on Jose Santisi was made a pretext for this haughtily aggressive attitude; but what in reality annoyed Spain was that the unfortunate Cuban refugees found a safe asylum on Haitian territory. (After a trial by jury Jose Santisi was found guilty of arson and sentenced to death. He had set fire to the ice factory of Port-au-Prince, which was under his management, with a view of defrauding the French Insurance Company Le Globe. This was the man on whose behalf Spain was trying to bully Haiti.) In his ultimatum ("The conduct pursued by the Haitian Government is inconceivable, and I have the assurance that circumstances would never have arrived at the extreme in which they now are if the Cuban insurrection had not existed. Those separatists of the Greater Antilles who do not find in their breasts sufficient breath to meet the charge of the Spanish bayonets are scattered in the nearest foreign places, with the object of creating at every step international difficulties and to lend aid to those who have risen in arms. … "But where those sympathies have cast deep roots and caused the perpetration of unheard-of wrongs, has been without dispute in the Republic of Haiti." … (Letter of Commandant Autran to the British Consul, December 17, 1877. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1878, p. 424.)) Captain Autran affected to see an insult to his country in the fact that the sentence inflicted on Jose Santisi, a Spaniard, having, on account of a technicality, been annulled by the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation), the prisoner had not at once been set free. He at the same time, however, declared that Haiti had offended Spain in not having enforced a sentence passed upon a Cuban, Manuel Fernandez, which had also been declared void by the Supreme Court. Jose Santisi and Manuel Fernandez were both Spanish subjects, Cuba at that time not being an independent State; they were therefore entitled to the same protection from Spain. The judgments severally rendered against them having been reversed, they had, according to Haitian laws, to be tried again. Nevertheless, Captain Autran did his utmost to compel Haiti to discriminate; for, whilst demanding that Santisi be immediately set free, he insisted on the rigorous execution of the sentence against Fernandez. This contradictory demand did not prevent him from affirming in his letter to the British Consul at Port-au-Prince that his country was the faithful depositary and jealous guardian of justice and right.

Captain Autran also requested the arraignment of those persons who were charged with crying aloud. "Down with Spain!" and "Vive Cuba libre!" whilst passing before the Spanish Consulate at night; other grievances mentioned in the ultimatum were that the Spanish flag had been trampled on by unknown persona and had also been insulted by one Despeaux.

Haiti refused to admit the contention of Spain concerning Santisi and Fernandez and insisted on applying the same treatment to both; she denied also all responsibility for the alleged cries of defiance heard at night before the Spanish Consulate by unknown parties and for the non-specified insult to the Spanish flag.

The diplomatic corps at Port-au-Prince tendered its good offices, and on the 19th of December the matter was satisfactorily ended by an exchange of salutes between the Jose Juan and the Haitian man-of-war "1804."

In his letter of December 17, 1877, to the diplomatic corps at Port-au-Prince, Captain Autran had stated that the Cuban insurgents enjoyed also great sympathy in Jamaica, Nassau, etc. It is worthy of notice that Spain refrained not only from sending any ultimatum to Great Britain, but did not even venture to make any remonstrance to this Power, whilst toward Haiti her manner was most offensively overbearing.