Did Senator Moise Jean Charles recall this year that the national colors are black and red, in accordance with article 20 of the Constitution of May 20, 1805?
The very first constitution of Haiti, the Imperial Constitution, published on May 20, 1805, ratified a decision taken on September 2, 1804, which made Jean-Jacques Dessalines, until then governor general of Haiti, the emperor of Haiti under the name of James 1st.
We, Henry Christophe, Clervaux, Vernet, Gabart, Pétion, Geffrard, Toussaint Brave, Raphaël, Lalondrie, Romain, Capoix, Magny, Cangé, Daut, Magloire Ambroise, Yayou, Jean-Louis François, Gérin, Moreau, Férou, Bazelais, Martial Besse,
Both in our particular name, and in that of the people of Haiti who have legally constituted us the faithful organs and interpreters of their will,
In the presence of the Supreme Being, before whom mortals are equal, and who has spread so many different species of creatures on the surface of the globe, only for the purpose of manifesting his glory and his power, through the diversity of her works,
In the face of all nature of which we have been so unjustly and for so long considered as the reprobate children, Let us declare that the content of this Constitution is the free, spontaneous and invariable expression of our hearts and of the general will of our constituents. ,
Let us submit it to the sanction of His Majesty the Emperor Jacques Dessalines, our liberator, to receive its prompt and complete execution.
Preliminary statement. Article premier. The people living on the island previously called Saint-Domingue, agree here to form a free State, sovereign and independent of any other power in the universe, under the name of the Empire of Haiti.
Article 2. Slavery is forever abolished.
Article 3. Haitian citizens are brothers among themselves; equality in the eyes of the law is incontestably recognized, and there can be no other title, advantages or privileges than those which necessarily result from consideration and as a reward for services rendered to freedom and independence.
Article 4. The law is one for all, whether it punishes or protects.
Article 5. The law has no retroactive effect.
Article 6. Property is sacred, its violation will be rigorously prosecuted.
Article 7. The status of citizen of Haiti is lost through emigration and naturalization in a foreign country, and through condemnation to afflictive and infamous penalties. The first case carries the death penalty and confiscation of property.
Article 8. The status of Haitian citizen is suspended due to bankruptcies and bankruptcies.
Article 9. No one is worthy of being Haitian if he is not a good father, a good son, a good husband, and above all a good soldier.
Article 10. The right is not granted to fathers and mothers to disinherit their children.
Article 11. Every citizen must possess a mechanical art
Article 12. No white person, whatever his nation, will set foot on this territory as master or owner and will not be able to acquire any property there in the future.
Article 13. The preceding article will not be able to produce any effect either with regard to white women who are naturalized Haitian by the government, or with regard to children born or to be born to them. Included in the provisions of this article are Germans and Poles naturalized by the government.
Article 14. Any meaning of color among the children of the same family, of which the head of state is the father, must necessarily cease, Haitians will henceforth be known only under the generic name of Blacks.
From the Empire. Article 15. The Empire of Haiti is one and indivisible; its territory is distributed into six military divisions.
Article 16. Each military division will be commanded by a major general
Article 17. Each of these division generals will be independent of the others, and will correspond directly with the Emperor or with the general-in-chief appointed by His Majesty.
Article 18. The following islands are integral parts of the Empire: Samana, Tortue, Gonâve, Cayemites, Île à Vache, Saône, and other adjacent islands.
Of the government. Article 19. The government of Haiti is entrusted to a chief magistrate who takes the title of emperor and supreme head of the army.
Article 20. The people recognize as Emperor and Supreme Leader of the army, Jacques Dessalines, the avenger and liberator of his fellow citizens; he is called Majesty as well as his august wife the Empress.
Article 21. The person of Their Majesties is sacred and inviolable.
Article 22. The State will grant a fixed salary to Her Majesty the Empress which she will enjoy even after the death of the Emperor, as Dowager Princess.
Article 23. The crown is elective and not hereditary.
Article 24. The State will allocate an annual salary to children recognized by His Majesty the Emperor.
Article 25. Male children recognized by the emperor will be required, like other citizens, to pass successively from grade to grade, with the only difference that their entry into the service will date in the fourth half-brigade from the time of their birth. .
Article 26. The Emperor designates his successor and in the manner he deems appropriate, either before or after his death.
Article 27. A suitable salary will be fixed by the State for this successor, at the time of his accession to the throne.
Article 28. The Emperor, nor any of his successors, will have the right, in any case, and under any pretext whatsoever, to surround himself with a particular and privileged body as a guard of honor, or under any other name.
Article 29. Any successor who deviates from the provisions of the previous article or from the course that will have been traced to him by the reigning emperor, or from the principles enshrined in this Constitution, will be considered and declared in a state of war against society. Consequently, the Councilors of State will assemble to pronounce his dismissal, and to provide for his replacement by the one among them who will have been judged the most worthy, and if it happens that the said successor wanted to oppose the execution of this measure, authorized by law, the general councilors of state will make an appeal to the people and the army, who will immediately lend them support and assistance to maintain freedom.
Article 30. The Emperor makes, seals and promulgates the laws, appoints and dismisses, at his will, the ministers, the general in chief of the army, the state councilors, the generals and other agents of the Empire, the officers of the army and sea, members of local administrations, government commissioners at the courts, judges and other public officials.
Article 31. The Emperor directs the revenue and expenditure of the State, supervises the manufacture of coins; he alone orders its emission, sets its weight and type.
Article 32. To him alone is reserved the power to make peace or war, to maintain political relations and to contract abroad.
Article 33. He provides for the internal security and defense of the State, distributes land and sea forces according to his will.
Article 34. The Emperor, in the event that any conspiracy is hatched against the security of the State, against the Constitution or against his person, will immediately arrest the authors or accomplices, who will be judged by a special council.
Article 35. His Majesty alone has the right to absolve a guilty person or to commute his sentence.
Article 36. The Emperor will never form any enterprise with the aim of making conquests or disturbing the peace and internal regime of foreign colonies.
Article 37. Any public act will be made in these terms: “The Emperor of Haiti and the supreme leader of the army, by the grace of God and the constitutional law of the State. »
From the Council of State. Article 38. Division and brigadier generals are born members of the Council of State and compose it.
Ministers. Article 39. There will be two ministers and a secretary of state in the Empire:
The Minister of Finance having the Department of the Interior;
The Minister of War having the Department of the Navy.
Article 40. From the Minister of Finance and the Interior. From the Minister of Finance and the Interior: The responsibilities of this minister include the general administration of the Public Treasury, the organization of specific administrations, the distribution of funds to be made available to the Minister of War and other civil servants, the public expenditure, the instructions which regulate the accounting of administrations and divisional payers, agriculture, commerce, public education, weights and measures, the formation of population tables, territorial products, national domains, i.e. for conservation, either for sale, farm leases, prisons, hospitals, road maintenance, ferries, salt works, factories, customs, finally the surveillance and manufacture of coins, the execution of laws and government orders on this subject.
Article 41. From the Minister of War and the Navy: The functions of this minister embrace the raising, organization, inspection, supervision, discipline, policing and movement of the land and sea armies, the personnel and the artillery and engineering equipment, fortifications, fortresses, powder and saltpeter, recording of the acts and decrees of the emperor, their referral to
armed forces and the supervision of their execution; he takes special care to ensure that the emperor’s decisions reach the military promptly; he denounces military offenses that come to his attention to the special councils and supervises the war commissioners and health officers.
Article 42. Ministers are responsible for all offenses committed by them against public safety and the Constitution, for any attack on property and individual freedom, for any dissipation of funds entrusted to them; they are required to present, every three months, to the emperor, an overview of the expenses to be incurred, to account for the use of the sums which have been placed at their disposal, and to indicate the abuses which could have been made. slip into the various branches of the administration.
Article 43. No minister in place or out of office can be prosecuted in criminal matters, for acts of his administration, without the personal consent of the emperor.
Article 44. From the Secretary of State: The Secretary of State is responsible for printing, recording and sending the laws, decrees, proclamations and instructions of the emperor; he works directly with the emperor for foreign relations, corresponds with ministers, receives from them the requests, petitions and other requests that he submits to the emperor, as well as the questions that are proposed to him by the courts ; he returns to the ministers the judgments and documents on which the emperor has ruled.
Of the courts. Article 45. No one may infringe on the right of each individual to be judged amicably by arbitrators of their choice. Their decisions will be recognized as legal.
Article 46. There will be a justice of the peace in each commune; he will not be able to hear a case amounting to more than one hundred gourdes, and when the parties cannot reconcile at his court, they will appeal before the courts of their respective jurisdiction.
Article 47. There will be six courts sitting in the following towns: In Saint-Marc, in Cap, in Port-au-Prince, in Les Cayes, in Anse-à-Veau and in Port-de-Paix. The Emperor determines their organization, their number, their competence and the territory forming the jurisdiction of each. These courts hear all purely civil cases.
Article 48. Military offenses are subject to special counsel and particular forms of trial. The organization of these councils belongs to the emperor, who will rule on applications for cassation against the judgments rendered by said special councils.
Article 49. Special laws will be made for the notariat and with regard to civil status officers.
Worship. Article 50. The law does not admit a dominant religion.
Article 51. Freedom of religion is tolerated.
Article 52. The State does not provide for the maintenance of any religion or any minister.
From administration. Article 53. There will be, in each military division, a main administration, the organization and supervision of which belong essentially to the Minister of Finance.
General provisions. Article premier. The choice, treatment and maintenance of the people who make up their court belong to the emperor and empress.
Article 2. After the death of the reigning emperor, when the revision of the Constitution has been deemed necessary, the Council of State will meet for this purpose and will be chaired by the oldest member.
Article 3. Crimes of high treason, offenses committed by ministers and generals, will be judged by a special council appointed and chaired by the emperor.
Article 4. The armed force is essentially obedient, no armed body can deliberate.
Article 5. No one can be judged without having been legally heard.
Article 6. The home of every citizen is an inviolable asylum.
Article 7. It can be entered in the event of fire, flood, complaint from within, or by virtue of an order issued by the emperor or any other legally constituted authority.
Article 8. He deserves the death that gives it to his fellow man.
Article 9. Any judgment carrying the death penalty or afflictive penalty cannot be executed unless it has been confirmed by the emperor.
Article 10. Theft is punished due to the circumstances which preceded, accompanied or followed it.
Article 11. Any foreigner inhabiting the territory of Haiti will be, as well as Haitians, subject to correctional laws
and criminals of the country.
Article 12. Any property which previously belonged to a white French person is incontestably and legally confiscated for the benefit of the State.
Article 13. Any Haitian who, having acquired a property from a white Frenchman, will have paid only part of the price stipulated by the deed of sale, will be responsible, towards the estates of the State, for the remainder of the sum due.
Article 14. Marriage is a purely civil act and authorized by the government.
Article 15. The law authorizes divorce in the cases it has provided for and determined.
Article 16. A special law will be made concerning children born out of wedlock.
Article 17. Respect for one’s leaders, subordination and discipline are strictly necessary.
Article 18. A penal code will be published and strictly observed.
Article 19. In each military division a public school shall be established for the instruction of youth.
Article 20. The national colors are black and red.
Article 21. Agriculture, as the first, noblest and most useful of all arts, will be honored and protected.
Article 22. Commerce, the second source of the prosperity of States, does not want and knows no obstacles. It must be favored and specially protected.
Article 23. In each military division, a commercial court will be formed, the members of which will be chosen by the emperor, and drawn from the merchant class.
Article 24. Good faith and loyalty in commercial operations will be religiously observed.
Article 25. The government ensures safety and protection to neutral and friendly nations which come to maintain commercial relations with this island, on the condition that they comply with the regulations, habits and customs of this country.
Article 26. The counters and the goods of foreigners will be under the protection and guarantee of the State.
Article 27. There will be national holidays to celebrate Independence, the feast of the Emperor and his august Wife, that of Agriculture and the Constitution.
Article 28. At the first sound of the alarm cannon, the cities disappear and the nation stands.
We, the undersigned agents, place under the protection of magistrates, fathers and mothers of families, citizens and the army, the explicit and solemn pact of the sacred rights of man and the duties of the citizen;
We recommend it to our nephews, and we pay homage to the friends of liberty, to the philanthropists of all countries, as a signal pledge of divine goodness, which, as a result of his immortal decrees, has given us the opportunity to break our irons and to constitute ourselves as a free, civilized and independent people.
And we signed, both in our private name and that of our constituents.
Signed: H. Christophe, Clervaux, Vernet, Gabart, Pétion, Geffrard, Toussaint-Brave, Raphaël, Lalondrie, Romain, Capoix, Magny, Cangé, Daut, Magloire Ambroise, Yayou, Jean-Louis François, Gérin, Moreau, Férou, Bazelais, Martial Besse.
Presented for signature by the Emperor, the Constitution of the Empire was sanctioned by him.
Having regard to this Constitution,
We, Jacques Dessalines, Emperor I of Haiti and supreme leader of the army, by the grace of God and the constitutional law of the State,
Let us accept it in all its content, and sanction it, to receive, as quickly as possible, its full and complete execution throughout the entire extent of our empire;
And let us swear to maintain it and observe it in its integrity until the last breath of our life.
At the Imperial Palace of Dessalines, May 20, 1805, year II of the Independence of Haiti, and of our first reign.
Signed: Dessalines.
By the Emperor:
The Secretary General,
Signed: Juste Chanlatte.
