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Haiti News Media > Haiti News > Cincinatus Leconte - Haitian President Cincinatus Leconte, Haitian President 
Cincinnatus Leconte (b. Saint Michel de l’Attalaye, September 29, 1854 – d. Port-au-Prince, August 8, 1912)
President: August 14, 1911 – August 8, 1912
General Jean-Jacques Dessalines Michel Cincinnatus Leconte was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He had studied abroad and was thus educated. As a minister in the cabinets of Presidents Florvil Hyppolite and Tirésias Simon Sam’s, he was convicted in the Procés de la Consolidation and later pardoned by President Antoine Simon. Leconte was an important industrialist who exercised considerable influence on the peasants working for him. Concerned that the railroad connecting Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien could reduce that influence , he stirred up the Cacos. After this victory, he was elected president by a Revolutionary committee sitting in Gonaïves, and on August 14, 1911 the legislative chambers ratified that choice.
Compromised in the Consolidation scandal and not well regarded by the people, he very quickly demonstrated, to his political associates’ dismay, a kind of respect for public funds unknown to the country. Peace, honesty, and progress started to return.
The Leconte administration undertook a reform of the army. The Casernes Dessalines were built. Order was reestablished in the public services.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Knox, visited Haiti and was received by President Leconte who gave a splendid reception on his honor.
During his short tenure, anti-Syrian resentment continued. The economic crisis was blamed on those foreigners who in a relatively short time had managed to control most of the small businesses in the capital and certain big cities.
Unfortunately, a little less than a year after his inauguration, on August 8, 1912, a terrible explosion which started in the powder magazine rocked the national palace. President Leconte and tree hundred officers and soldiers of his guard perished.
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