I. Arrested, he escaped and organizes a revolt, which led to the fall of the Empire. On 15 January 1859, minutes after the abdication of Emperor Faustin I, he proclaimed the Third Republic and was elected president. Presidency His first act as president was to cut the army in half from 30,000 to 15,000. He also formed his own presidential guards called Les Tirailleurs de la Garde, who were trained under him personally. In June 1859, Geffrard founded the National Law School and reinstituted the Medical School that Boyer began. His ministers of Education, Jean Simon Elie-Dubois and François Elie-Dubois, modernized and established many lycea in Jacmel, Jérémie, Saint-Marc, and Gonaïves. On 10 October 1863, he reintroduced the colonial law that required roads to be built and maintained. He also revived the policy of former rulers Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer of recruiting African Americans to settle in Haiti. In May 1861, a group of African Americans led by James Theodore Holly settled east of Croix-des-Bouquets. However, by 1862, Geffrard began to examine the constitution and eliminated the legislature to his own benefit. He first gave himself a raise, 2 plantations, and paid for his personal luxuries with hospital funds and army funds. In 1863, he reformed the monetary system to that of the present day. Geffrard was a Catholic, which made him renounce any form of the Voodoo faith. He gave orders to demolish altars, drums, and any other instruments used in ceremonies. In 1863, a six-year-old girl was allegedly killed by Voodoo practitioners in a gruesome fashion. Geffrard ordered a deep investigation and a public execution was held. This case became the famous Affaire de Bizoton, which was featured in a British minister's best-selling book. In 1859, Geffrard made the first attempt in negotiating with the Dominican Republic under the regime of Pedro Santana. Unfortunately, in March 1861, Pedro gave his country back to Queen Isabella II of Spain, thus making Haitian officials nervous about having a European power back on their borders. In May of that year, guerilla war broke out in Santo Domingo against Spain. Geffrard sent his personal guards and men to help out the rebels against Spanish troops, but in July 1861, following the execution of Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Spain gave Haiti an ultimatum for participating and supporting the Dominican rebels. In the end, Geffrard agreed to surrender to Spanish demands