Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/240

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
220
Haiti: Her History and Her Detractors

that it would be difficult to lend entire credence to the assurances given by Haiti.[1]

The energetic opposition against the treaty of annexation, led in the United States Senate by the Honorable Charles Sumner, made President Grant decide to send a Commission to Santo Domingo. Two of the Commissioners, Senator Wade and Doctor Howe, accompanied by Mr. Frederick Douglass, their secretary, arrived at Port-au-Prince on the 3d of March, 1871, on board of the United States man-of-war Tennessee. On the following day they were received by the President, and the exchange of views which took place between them tended to dispel the misunderstanding which was about to alter the good relations existing between the two countries. At the end of the interview Dr. Howe mentioned that he was a personal friend of Senator Charles Sumner, whereupon President Saget warmly shook hands with him and told him to transmit that handshake to the Senator from Massachusetts as coming from the whole Republic of Haiti.

On the refusal of the United States Senate to approve the treaty signed with President Baez, some Haitians started a public subscription with the object of presenting Senator Sumner with a gold medal. Owing to his office the Senator could not accept the medal, which was therefore deposited in the Library of the State House

  1. Mr. Fish to Mr. Bassett.
    "Department of State, No. 58.
    Washington, February 9, 1871.

    "Sir: … The assurances offered to you by the Haitian Government as to its disposition to keep wholly neutral in the contest between the Dominican parties, severally headed by Baez and Cabral, do not seem to be expressed in a way to inspire perfect confidence in their sincerity. If it be borne in mind that, for a considerable period, both the Spanish and the French parts of the island of San Domingo were under the sole dominion of Haiti, that it has been the policy of that government not only to oppose the independence of the Spanish part of the island, but to prevent its occupation by a foreign power, the difficulty of lending entire credence to any assurances which that government may give as to its indisposition to interfere in Dominican affairs will be apparent. The protest of the Haitians against the recent attempt of Spain to regain her foothold in that island is fresh in the recollection of the public.…" (Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the U. S., Washington, 1871, p. 566.)