Appendix B. REPLY OF LOUIS MONDESTIN FLORVIL HYPPOLITE TO
DOUGLASS AT AN INTERVIEW ON 14 NOVEMBER 1889 IN
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Enclosed document in Douglass to James G. Blaine, 18 November 1889, U.S.
Legation, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dispatches to the State Department, RG 84,
Records of Foreign Service Posts, State Department, DNA.

Enclosure No. 6

Mr. Minister:

I am happy to receive from your hands the letter of credence which accredits
you as Minister Resident and Consul General of the United States near my Government.

The assurances of cordial esteem and high consideration which His Excellency
the President of the United States expresses to me through you are infinitely
flattering to me, and I pray you to be the medium of expressing to him the same
sentiments on my behalf.

The people of the United States have constantly given to the Republic of Haiti
proofs of their friendship and of their generosity. When they are represented by a
man of your importance, our relations can only become better and better.

The interests of all the peoples of the civilized world are common, for they all
have the purpose of developing themselves by the arts, the sciences, the discoveries
and the inventions which constitute the glory of our time. All nationalities
must concur fraternally in this great work, conserving at the same time their own
individuality: Every nation has therefore the right to be proud of its autonomy. In
the name of the Republic, therefore, I thank His Excellency, the President of the
United States for the desire which he expresses to see Haiti participate fully in this
tendency of the age.

As to you, Mr. Minister, your reputation is known in the two hemispheres.
You are the incarnation of the idea which Haiti is following—the moral and
intellectual development of men of the African race by personal effort and mental
culture.

I can readily return your sentiment. The United States have already given
many proofs of their consideration and their esteem for the Republic of Haiti. But
they can never give to it a higher testimony of interest than that of having sent you
here in the quality of their Minister Resident and Consul General.