by the standing government, and Firmin left Haiti for St. Thomas in 1902. Support for Firmin as
a presidential hopeful, however, remained alive even after his departure.
Brenda Plummer explains that “Firminism” as it is now known had actually begun in the1870s with writers such as Edmond Paul and Demesvar Delorme who favored liberal capitalism,
reducing the size of the army, and inaugurating other bureaucratic, civilian, and tax reforms.
Firmin, like his predecessors, opposed “opportunistic use of foreign nationality” and, as minister
of foreign relations during Hyppolite’s administration, Firmin had some fraudulent French
naturalizations canceled. He is most known by current scholars for his support of Pan-
Americanism and for an Antillean confederation, ideas which, Plummer points out, meant he had
more in common with Caribbean scholars of the mid twentieth-century. In his political writings,
Firmin had predicted that Haiti would again be occupied by a foreign power if it did not begin to
embrace many of the ideas he was advocating.^304
In contrast to Firmin, Nord Alexis who had defeated him in a bid for the presidency in1902, has been described as anti-intellectual and anti-noiriste, being accused by opponents as
being a puppet to the mulattos and their agendas.^305 He had begun military service in Haiti at
the age of 15 and believed in strong militarism in government. As president, Alexis claimed to
be pro-American, and, staunchly nationalistic, “he sought not Haitian aggrandizement but
Haitian survival,” using military force to demonstrate his control both domestically and
internationally, at times brutally repressive in his attempts to squelch any hint of political
dissention.^306 By 1906, ordinary civil liberties and been suspended, and as elections appeared on
the horizon in January 1908, Alexis was attempting to manipulate his own re-election. Not
(^304) Plummer 28.
(^305) Nicholls 111.
(^306) Plummer 109.