Christophe felt that his assumption of power was but a usurpation, and that so long as his government remained in operation without the formal sanction of the people, his rival at Port au Prince possessed immense advantages over him, inasmuch as he had been made the constituted head of the country by an observance of the forms of the constitution. To remedy this palpable defect, which weakened his authority, he resolved to frame another constitution, which would confirm him in the power he had usurped, and furnish him with a legal excuse for maintaining his present attitude. In accordance with this policy he convoked another assembly at Cape François, composed of the generals of his army and the principal citizens of that province, and after a short session these subservient legislators terminated their labors by giving to the world another constitution of the country, dated upon the 17th of February, 1807. This new enactment declared all persons residing upon the territory of Hayti, free citizens, and that the government was to be administered by a supreme magistrate, who was to take the title of President of the State, and General-in-Chief of the land and the naval forces. The office was not hereditary, but the president had the right to choose his successor from among the generals of the army; and associated with him in the government there was to exist a Council of State, consisting of nine members, selected by the President from among the principal military chiefs. This, like the constitution, which conferred power upon Dessalines, made Christophe an autocrat, though he was nominally but the mere chief magistrate of a republic. The rival government of Port au Prince differed from that of Christophe, by its possessing more of the forms of a republic. With a president who held his power for life, and who could not directly appoint his successor, there was associated a legislative body, consisting of a chamber of representatives chosen directly by the people, and a senate appointed by the popular branch of the government, to sustain or control the president in the exercise of his authority. Hostilities between Christophe and Pétion were carried on for a long time, which led to little less than the enfeeblement of both parties. The black chief, however, established his power on solid foundations in the North, while Pétion succeeded in retaining a firm position in the South. Thus was the Island once more unhappily divided between two authorities, each of which watched its opportunity for the overthrow of the other.