On the whole, the weight of evidence is strongly in favor of the Dominican contention. It seems that, in spite of the acts of men, fate has permitted the remains of the Discoverer of America to repose in the principal cathedral of the island he loved. CHAPTER XVIII GOVERNMENT Form of government.--Constitutions.--Presidents.--Election.--Powers. --Executive secretaries.--Land and sea forces.--Congress.--Local subdivisions.--Provincial governors.--Communal governments. From the date of the declaration of independence, February 27, 1844, down to the present time, with the exception only of a portion of the period of Spanish occupation of 1861 to 1865, Santo Domingo has remained in form at least, a republic. Herein it contrasts with its neighbor Haiti, which has experienced several monarchies. Thus Dessalines proclaimed himself emperor in 1804, Christophe assumed the title of king in 1810 and Soulouque had himself declared emperor in 1849; and the latter two instituted pompous black nobilities. And though the Cibao of Santo Domingo and the region south of the Central Cordillera have ever been rivals and often in arms against each other under competing generals, there has never been any tendency to separate and form two states--as occurred in Haiti in 1806 when the northern portion fell under the sway of Christophe for a period of fourteen years, first as a nominal republic and later as a kingdom, while the southern portion became a republic under Petion and finally under Boyer. But although the country has in form remained a republic and the title of the chief of state has never been more pretentious than president or protector, in fact there have been few years when the government was not autocratic and the president an absolute monarch whose powers were limited only by his own generous impulses or the fear of alienating his more influential supporters. Dominican writers have even referred to the constitution as a conventional lie.