over 100 guns and 2,000 men were sent to support the parleys. This array of force produced an effect very contrary to that which had been expected; it provoked instead the loud protest of the whole country, thereby compelling President Hyppolite to assume an attitude all the more firm through the fact of his having been suspected of being in sympathy with the Americans. From his flag-ship, the Philadelphia, Rear-Admiral Gherardi addressed his demand to the Haitian Government; his letter contained the following proviso: "So long as the United States may be the lessee of the Môle Saint-Nicolas, the Government of Haiti will not lease or otherwise dispose of any port or harbor or other territory in its dominions, or grant any special privileges or rights of use therein to any other Power, State, or Government."[1]
Rear-Admiral Gherardi was in so great a hurry to win that which he imagined would be an easy success, that he did not think it necessary to secure the cooperation of Mr. Frederick Douglass, who was at that time United States Minister at Port-au-Prince; he alone signed the letter. Mr. A. Firmin, then Haitian Secretary of State for Exterior Relations, availed himself at once of this blunder to request the credentials of the Rear-Admiral, who, not being provided with any, was obliged to write to Washington for them. When President Harrison's letter appointing Bancroft Gherardi his special Commissioner reached Port-au-Prince, public opinion was in such a state of excitement by the protracted sojourn of the powerful white squadron in Haitian waters, that it would have been impossible for President Hyppolite even so much as to attempt to grant the slightest advantage to the United States. The Secretary for Exterior Relations clung tenaciously to the Constitution, which forbids the alienation of any portion of the territory. This ended the matter.[2]
- ↑ The North American Review, October, 1891—Haiti and the United States, by the Hon. Frederick Douglass.
- ↑ Frederick Douglass was wrongly held responsible for Rear-Admiral Gherardi's failure; he was replaced by Mr. Durham. No man would have succeeded; for the people of Haiti are always ready to resort to extreme measures in order to preserve the integrity of their territory or their sovereignty. The foreign Power which shows no regard for this sentiment by trying to take possession of a portion of the country must prepare to face a merciless struggle, to wage a war of extermination.
