American Opinion of Haiti: An Address Delivered in Port-Au-Prince, February 18, 1890
AMERICAN OPINION OF HAITI: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, ON 18 FEBRUARY 1890
Enclosed document in Douglass to James G. Blaine, 20 February 1890, U.S. Legation,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dispatches to the State Department, RG 84, Records of Foreign
Service Posts, State Department, DNA.
On the morning of 18 February 1890, Douglass returned to the Haitian National Palace to present a letter from Benjamin Harrison to President Louis M.
F. Hyppolite. The message concerned the replacement of Stephen Preston as
the Haitian ambassador to Washington, D.C. Douglass reported to Secretary
of State James G. Blaine that Hyppolite had “listened to my remarks with his
usual dignified courtesy” and responded briefly. Hyppolite’s remarks and
Douglass’s dispatch to James G. Blaine are reproduced in Appendixes F and
G. Douglass to James G. Blaine, 15, 20 February 1890, Antenor Firmin to
Douglass, 15 February 1890, U.S. Legation, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dis-
patches to the State Department, RG 84, Records of Foreign Service Posts,
State Department, DNA.
President: I hold in my hand a letter from the President of the United States1Benjamin Harrison. to Your Excellency. It is in response to the letter recalling Mr. Stephen Preston2Appointed the Haitian minister to the United States in spring 1870, Stephen Preston, a mulatto businessman from Port-au-Prince, survived in his post until 1889 despite numerous changes in his nation‘s leadership. Early in his diplomatic career in Washington, D.C., he had lobbied actively against Senate ratification of the treaty, sought by President Ulysses S. Grant, to annex the Dominican Republic. In the mid-1880s, Preston visited European capitals where he successfully dissuaded Britain and France from intervening militarily to seek compensation for damages their citizens had suffered during insurrectionary fighting in Haiti. Early in 1889, Preston rejected demands from Secretary of State James G. Blaine that the Haitians cede a naval station to the United States in exchange for recognition of the government of Francois-Denis Légitime. Preston's support for Légitime during the civil war of 1888—89 ultimately caused his recall as minister by the victorious Louis M. F. Hyppolite. Logan, , 337, 346-49, 383-85, 415-17, 425-26; Heinl and Heinl, 197, 292. from his post at Washington as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Hayti to reside near the American Government.
In presenting this letter to Your Excellency, I am instructed by my
Government to express the high esteem and appreciation entertained for,
and held to be due to, the courtesy and ability shown by Mr. Preston, both
as Minister and as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
In handing to Your Excellency this letter, I may say that I am very
happy to be the medium of such high commendation of a representative of
Hayti at the Capital of the United States.
I am also happy to be able to express the hope that Mr. Preston’s
successor3Stephen Preston‘s replacement as Haiti's minister to the United States was a mulatto merchant from the city of Cap-Haitien, Hannibal Price (c.1842—?). A minor official in the governments of Sylvain Salvane (1867—69) and of Michel Dominigue (1876), Price had spent most of the 1880s in political exile, first in Jamaica and then in Panama. Douglass described Price as “a man of clear intelligence, great industry, and good habits." Price is credited with strengthening the determination of his government not to cede the Mole St. Nicolas to the United States by advising the Haitians that American public opinion would not tolerate military action in the Caribbean. Douglass to James G. Blaine, 9 November 1889; U.S. Legation, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dispatches to the State Department, RG 84, Records of Foreign Service Posts, State Department, DNA; Logan, , 432, 436-38. will be equally fortunate in winning the good opinion of the State Department at Washington and of the people of my country generally.