The policy of President Canal, who will profit by the experience of his
predecessors, evidently is to march in harmony with the legislative body at
any cost, and the danger, if any there be, seems for the present to be that
in adhering strictly to this policy he may allow the executive to run into
an inactivity which in this country may beget a species of contempt for its
authority. This controlling idea in President Canal’s policy runs through
the message and crops out at almost every paragraph.
Every question and every matter is referred to the legislative body for its
decision, though the executive sparingly promises to avail itself of its
constitutional prerogative of taking the initiative in regard to certain
measures of public importance.
The introductory remarks (inclosure A) are the key-note to the message. The
assurance of the obedience of the executive to the legislative power; the
picturing of the truly deplorable condition of the country, due, it is
claimed, to the preceding administration; the announcement of a new and more
acceptable procedure in regard to political offenses; happy suggestions as
to internal advancement, especially as to agriculture; the favoring of
immigration, of lightening the burdens of taxation to the producer, of
inculcating a patriotic regard for the public welfare, are all rapidly, but
in an intelligent, liberal spirit, touched upon in the introduction. And
then comes the chapter on foreign affairs, in which, of course, centers the
chief interest of the message. I send herewith inclosed (B) a careful
translation of that chapter, and I respectfully commend it to your
perusal.
The chapter, after referring to “numerous difficulties, the greater part of
which still await a just solution,” in flattering terms to the conduct of
the foreign representatives accredited here, in contradictory phrase but
pleasing spirit to good relations with other powers, favorably to the
augmentation of the foreign diplomatic and consular corps, to the exchange
of letters with chiefs of states, without, however, making mention of the
letter of his excellency the President of Liberia, comes to an explanation
relative to the French debt, and to the so-called law declaring null and
void the acts of the Domingue Government. (See my No. 476, of January 28,
1877.) A brief defense of that so-called law, and the executive’s proceeding
touching it, is advanced, and much to my satisfaction, care is taken to make
prominent the leading idea expressed in Department’s No. 288, of February
21, 1877.
Then the important subject of the misunderstanding with France, growing out
of the loan contracted by this government at Paris in 1875, is taken up. The
details given under this head are not only interesting, but they fully
confirm the statements of my Nos. 477, 483, and 490 to the Department.
President Canal, fully recognizing that the difficulty is a real one,
ventures delicately to put the responsibility for it upon the legislative
body, and to express the hope that it may be shown that “good faith and
honesty are not yet banished from Hayti.” The references to the greater of
two English reclamations (see my No. 469 of September 9, 1876) are somewhat
spirited, and lead to a proposal for an international arbitration in regard
to it.
Occasion is taken in speaking of the case of a vice-consul of Denmark and the
Netherlands to read a lecture on the rights of consular officers, and the
chapter ends with a lengthy statement on the relations between Hayti and
Santo Domingo. The statement is well worthy of perusal, on account of the
degree of apparent frankness with which it traces Hayti’s policy toward
Santo Domingo.
It is claimed that the idea of Haytian domination over the whole of this
island has given way to that of inalienability of territory; that Hayti
wishes for good relations with the sister republic, to see her progress in
prosperity and civilization, and that she respects the independence of that
republic; but at the same time Hayti, without consulting the wishes of her
neighbor, has taken it upon herself in effect to declare null and void the
treaty of November 9, 1874, between the two republics, on the ground that it
was concluded and signed with the Domingue, administration; and now the
message proposes to consider the revision of the treaty, as if Hayti alone
could at her sole will throw off and take up again with Santo Domingo
obligations which as much concern the latter as the former. In my opinion
Hayti has never yet fairly abandoned the idea of being able in some way to
influence or control to some extent the politics and destinies of the
neighboring republic. But notwithstanding the views just expressed, the
allusion to “knowledge of the men that are in power in the east,” the
invocation to “let our attention constantly bear upon the government
established in Santo Domingo,” the proposal to “extend to it a fraternal
hand if it is desirous as we are to maintain in their fullness these great
principles of territorial inalienability which we proclaim”, and
notwithstanding it is written with an air of frankness which, in my opinion,
the conduct of this government toward that republic does not justify, there
is a vein of good sense, candor, and friendliness running through this part
of the chapter on foreign affairs which upon its face would commend it to
favorable consideration.
Interest in the message naturally drops as it leaves the chapter on foreign
affairs. But there are some few points worthy of attention in the chapter on
finance and commerce which follows. Therein are discussed several
propositions for opening institutions of credit, and notably for the
establishment of a national bank, upon which point President Canal wisely
remarks that as soon as the true financial obligations of the republic are
known, and the method fixed upon for paying such of them as may be
recognized to be legitimately due, this unequivocal attestation of the
national good faith will inspire confidence and sound the hour for the
establishment of a bank. In regard to the French debt, it is stated that
after the end of the present year there will remain of the debt to be paid
$46,863.28 for each quarter during the years 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, and
1882, and $41,823.63 for each of the quarters of the year 1883, making
together as the sum that will be due to France after December 31, 1877,
$1,157,899.75.
Touching the sinking fund (caisse d’amortissement; see inclosure I to No.
496, to the Department), the statement is made that the sum
[Page 302]
encased to that object from December 1, 1876,
to April 26, 1877, was $289,728.86, against which have been drawn—
leaving at the date last named a balance of $99,081.78. This
last sum was to be allowed to augment until June 1, 1877, and then the
second disbursement among the creditors is to be made. It is proposed to
replace the 20 per cent, additional duty on exports by an additional duty on
imports, which will produce a corresponding revenue, to cause all the
customs duties hereafter to be paid promptly in cash, and to have the
state’s employés punctually paid their salaries. President Canal also
promises to make to the legislature at an early day some special
recommendations to improve the financial situation. But, on the whole, the
chapter is neither as explicit as it might be, nor very satisfactory.
The remaining chapters on war and marine, on the interior, on agriculture, on
public instruction, on justice, and on worship, possess less of interest
even than the one on finance and commerce.
But, under the head of agriculture, mention is approvingly made of contracts
entered into for the building of a bridge and a wharf at Cape Haitien, and
for the construction of a railway in Port au Prince audits environs (see my
No. 419 of January 19,1876), both of which represent American interests. And
in the chapter on worship the subject explained in my No. 501, of the 10th
instant, is quite frankly spoken of.
There are some other points in these chapters which may prove somewhat
suggestive, and to which I may have occasion to invite your attention in
these dispatches.
A custom of this country requires that the National Assembly (the two houses
of the Corps Législatif in joint session), to whom the message is addressed,
should make a response thereto. It is expected that this response will be
made during the first week in June proximo. When it shall have appeared in
print, I shall not fail to put you in possession of such portions of it as
may seem to be worthy of your notice.
[Inclosure A in No.
503.—Translation.]
Message of the President of Hayti.
The President of Hayti to the National Assembly:
Messieurs les Sénateurs, Messieurs les Députés:
When a chief of state, on the occasion of his election, has had, as I,
the favor of the freest and least-sought vote that comes from a
political assembly; when faithful to his origin he continues to draw his
strength from the enlightened sympathy of the citizens, he sees, without
embarrassment and without trouble, take place these solemn meetings,
when the mandatories of the nation enter into communication with
him.
I shall never consider it as a cause of weakness or irksomeness to my
government, it shall be, contrarily, its title of honor always to be
attentive to the authorized word of the National Assembly.
The circumstances of the moment, in default of a fixed conviction in the
efficacy of the parliamentary system in Hayti should commend this line
of conduct, which is altogether in conformity with the principles of the
constitution of 1867.
[Page 303]
More than one personal government has already sorrowfully marked its
passage in affairs, but the last one—a self-styled instituter of
progress—which has just fallen under the weight of the contempt of the
nation, seems to have lost the spirit of government, in that it was
without counterbalances and without control. To repair the evils which
it caused to the country public opinion rightly demands the loyal essay
of a government of legality and of free discussion.
The wisdom of the National Assembly, as well as my respect for its
constitutional prerogatives, will contribute to the realization of this
national wish.
The question is to find solutions, which may not be expedients, to the
painful problems placed before the nation by a political and financial
disorder of twenty months; new charges figuring by the millions; nearly
all the social existences overthrown, and this overthrow creating a
misery of which it would be wise to anticipate the enervations or the
despondencies; the victims of despotism asking for help; particular
interests injured, formulating demands of indemnities amounting to
hundreds of thousands of dollars; a mass of litigious questions to be
examined; frauds and extortions to be unmasked; processes to be
commenced or shunned; all the public services disorganized; a
considerable deficit in prospect, caused by the decrease of production
and consumption; the public treasury involved; the state more miserable
and more sued than ever; such is our situation!
It redounds only to the shame of those who are the authors of it. It has
ruined our public credit. It has inflicted upon us the regret of a
diplomatic difficulty with the government of the French republic.
The National Assembly, soon enlightened on the question of the loan, will
take a decision based upon respect for international law, and by the aid
of which my government may renew relations with the government of a
great nation whose friendship and kindness toward the Haytian people
have never failed.
In such a moment of trials for the nation, partisans of the fallen
government who remained in Hayti on the faith of the clemency of the
revolution have not hesitated to concoct plots against the republic. It
is to their perfidious propaganda and to their instigations that must be
attributed the first attempt by main force, which took place December
25, 1876, at Cape Haïtien. It completely failed before the attitude of
the military authorities and the population.
At the capital the conspirators were a long while prepared, and, always
on the lookout for a favorable occasion, they thought to have found it
in the evening of February 23. The military authorities, although
without uneasiness as to the results of a conflict, could not give up
the capital to the painful emotions of a conflict in the streets. They
preferred to notify the conspirators in arresting them.
At Cape Haïtien, as well as at Port au Prince, all the legal forms were
observed, and the accused were delivered to their proper judges.
In the portion of the message relative to the department of justice,
other explanations will be made on these arrests and on the procedure of
which they were the object.
I will observe that my government, less as an act of generosity than as a
consequence of the liberal principle to which it obeys, to-day gives the
guarantees of that which in other times, and yesterday also, was denied
to the accused, an arrestation without violence, a preventive detention
without torture, the liberty of the defense, the impartiality of the
judgment, the independence of the verdict.
It is not to be dissimulated that the scrupulous observance of legality
leaves professional conspirators sometimes unpunished, trained as they
are in the tactics of legal interrogations; but what is such an
inconvenience in comparison with the necessity of forming the political
education of the people, by accustoming them to see sound principle
respected even by those who have always heretofore crushed principle
under foot?
My government, notwithstanding that it has been preoccupied with the care
of maintaining order and of facing the financial embarrassments, has not
the less given its attention to the grand question of organization.
Nearly all the administrative services need reforms. Celerity and the
spirit of intelligent labor must be introduced where routine has
developed a force of inertness and a bureaucratic indifference which are
the stumbling-blocks of good purposes.
The army will be reorganized on a plan which realizes two good things, an
economy in expense and a solid military instruction.
It is proper from the present to think of ameliorating and augmenting bur
production. Let us occupy ourselves, then, with the productor
himself.
The reform of our system of taxation would render his position better;
but while entering resolutely on this path, we must abstain from
diminishing the receipts, which hardly suffice for the expenses already
obligated.
Why should we not endeavor to render the national labor more intelligent,
and, in consequence, more powerful and productive?
Let us assure the future of childhood and of youth by good schools, among
which
[Page 304]
can be counted practical
schools of agriculture in the country, and of arts and of trades in the
cities.
As for the laborer of mature age, as for the grown-up man, who can no
longer sit on school-benches, a practical institution can be found in
model farms, where, under his eyes, can be put in operation the best
agricultural processes.
Let us favor among us the introduction not only of agricultural
immigrants, but of capitalists disposed to establish vast rural
cultivation. This would be an increase of material and of intellectual
capital.
The view of the happy effects of an improved agriculture and contact with
men of a more advanced civilization would open to the circulation of new
ideas the intelligence of the working classes, while good roads would
facilitate the circulation of their products.
I would secure to the people the benefit of some handsome and powerful
creations favorable to their advancement. I invite to such a work all
citizens who have a good idea to express. It seems to me that in this,
and in many other things, the initiative of the state should be exerted
to excite to action the intellectual and moral energies of society and
not to divert citizens from all effort and from all foresight. Such are
the true conditions of modern liberty.
Also, my government is far from being contrary to the institutions which
assure and protect local liberties. It will give its help to the
municipal councils and to those of arrondissements. And if it succeeds
in making the public good the grand affair of everybody, it will have
found the true foundations of order, and have shut up the era of sterile
revolutions.
The message, by the ministerial departments, will put the National
Assembly in the possession of other important facts, as well as of the
details of different branches of the public service.
[Inclosure B in No.
503.—Translation.]
Chapter on foreign affairs of the message of the president.
An illegal and arbitrary government does not impose itself on a country
without leaving grievous marks of its passage in affairs, or without
contributing to create for the future litigious questions whose solution
has a considerable influence on its relations of peace and of good
friendship.
The department of foreign affairs has cruelly felt the effects of this
truth. My government, at a time when its solicitude ought to be applied
to the relief of our miseries, has often been obliged to suspend the
study of its interior situation in order to study that of numerous
difficulties, the greater part of which still await a just solution.
conduct of foreign
representatives.
It must, however, be recognized and acknowledged that the spirit of
reconciliation and moderation which animates the agents of foreign
powers accredited among us, in the discussion of the interests which
they are charged to defend, manifests itself highly, and all like their
governments recognizing upon whom must rest the responsibility for the
difficult situation created to the country, have declared that They were
ready to examine with justice and impartiality the reclamations of their
countrymen, while showing great consideration for the embarrassments of
the new administration.
From this point of view it may be permitted to say that good harmony has
not been altered between us and our powerful friends beyond the sea.
Their kindness and sympathy being always assured to us, there will
necessarily follow in the near future a resuming of those good relations
of peace and of friendship so necessary to a young people who ask to be
sustained in the efforts which it makes as well for the consolidation of
its credit as for its march upward in the way of progress and
civilization.
augmentation of the foreign diplomatic
and consular corps.
Since the triumph of the revolution the diplomatic corps has been
augmented by a new member in the person of the honorable Dr. B. Graser,
accredited near our republic by the empire of Germany. The kingdom of
the Netherlands has appointed Mr. H. Peters to be its consul-general,
and one of those states of Central America of our great family of
republics, Salvador, has accredited near my government Dr. Martin de
Castra, in the quality of consul at the residence of Port au Prince.
Eleven new consular agents have been appointed in different cities of the
republic. It must be expected that the extension of these relations will
be profitable to us in more than one sense.
letters to chiefs of state.
I notified my elevation to the Presidency to the powers who have agents
accredited,
[Page 305]
among us. Her
Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and
Empress of India, His Majesty the King of Italy, the President of the
Republic of the United States, and the President of Santo Domingo have
responded to my letters of notification.
The pomp with which I surrounded the recital of their dispatches proves
the importance that I attach to our good relations and my desire to
maintain them on an honorable and satisfactory footing.
The Holy Father was pleased also, in responding to my letter of
notification, to send me his apostolic benediction.
the french debt.
On the 19th of July last, I took before you the oath prescribed by
article 110 of our constitution, and immediately after, my government
preoccupied itself, as it ought to do, with the situation of our
exterior double debt toward France, “indemnity and loan.”
I knew that the fallen administration left for us, up to March 31, 1876,
the arrear of 2,051,096.97 francs to be paid, and that the provisional
government had at its charge the sum due for the quarter ending the 30th
of June, amounting to 643,950.40 francs, which carried the figure due on
the debt to 2,695,047.37 francs.
Negotiations undertaken in the view of obtaining from our interior
commerce values with which to face a part of these engagements did not
end satisfactorily, and the department of foreign affairs was obliged to
place itself in communication with the minister plenipotentiary of
France, so as to make known to him the situation and to consult as to
the means of egress therefrom.
The installments to be paid at the end of the fiscal year of 1875–’76 and
during that of 1876–’77 amount to the sum of 1,776,118.01 francs, which
brings the total amount of the debt to be paid up to September 30, 1877,
to 4,461,165.38 francs.
On the 28th of July the French minister plenipotentiary announced to the
secretary of foreign affairs that he gave his adhesion to the
propositions made by my government for the payment of the double debt.
These propositions consisted principally as follows:
The government of the republic engages to remit at the end of each month
to the French minister at Port au Prince 40 per cent, of the fixed
export duties collected by the different custom-houses of the republic
and received at the general treasury, in drafts at 90 days’sight on
Europe.
These sums thus paid should be reckoned as a deduction from the amount of
the double debt, comprising therewith the interests due at 5 per cent,
for the time that there may have been an arrear and according to the
amount of the arrear.
The first payment should be made from August 28, and so on from month to
month, until the account of the debt is brought up to date, which would
permit the payment of the future installments to be resumed, conformably
to the convention of 1870.
There was not in this a new convention concluded with France; there were
simply facilities and longer terms which she accorded to us to cancel
obligations already due, and the immediate payment of which she could
exact from us.
The arrangement made between the French minister and the department of
foreign affairs was not long in receiving the assent of the government
of the French Republic, and Mr. De Vorges informed my secretary of state
of the same by his dispatch of the 29th of September.
This combination, which keeps us henceforth free from all inquietude in
regard to the arrear due to France, has permitted us to pay to her—
|
Francs. |
| August 26, 1876 |
99,587.18 |
| September 27 |
136,872.31 |
| October 27 |
105,701.05 |
| November 27 |
204,078.84 |
| December 27 |
284,727.85 |
| January 26, 1877 |
447,182.64 |
| February 26 |
376,933.02 |
| March 26 |
344,924.63 |
| By anticipation the same day |
320,101.19 |
| By anticipation April 26 |
176,211.08 |
| In all |
2,496,319.79 |
The arrear of the fallen government is then more than covered, that of
the provisional government is partly paid, and before long, it must be
hoped, we can resume the service of the double debt according to the
terms of the convention of 1870.
protest against the law annulling
domingue’s acts.
Last year, messieurs, there was communicated to you in secret session the
collective note of the French and British ministers, of the Dominican
chargé d’affaires, and of the
[Page 306]
Spanish and German consuls, protesting principally against the law of
September 19, 1876, which establishes a central commission of inquiry
for the verification of the debts of the fallen government. You know in
what a spirit of conciliation that note was written, notwithstanding the
reserves formally expressed in it against the measures which in their
application concern foreign interests. You know how my government has
been obliged to defend the law in question, and to set forth the
imperious necessity in which the nation found itself in acknowledging
and appreciating the sum of its engagements, so as to acquit them
according to the measure of its resources. Without a decree of
suspension of payment of the debts of the fallen government, it has
said, and without a thorough examination which is the necessary
corollary thereof, we set at defiance all the principles of morality and
justice, for we confound in the same category, without any previous
examination, all the titles of an administration whose immorality and
bad faith are doubted by no one; we establish no line of demarkation
between obscure and vicious credits and those showing a certain
character of integrity.
To these principles which we have tried to make known to the signers of
the protest, there have been opposed considerations of another order,
springing from international jurisprudence. It is only in considering
de facto governments, whose bases appear to
be solid and durable, and which are recognized by the great powers of
the globe, that one has disputed our arguments, in favor of exceptional
measures which the imperious law of our political and social existence
commands us to take.
In mingling its voice with those of the other powers, the American Union
expresses the desire that a sister republic will not insist any longer
on the application of principle s which are in contradiction to
international law, and of a nature to injure the credit and the elevated
sentiment of a government for which it wishes the happiest future.
If I am permitted here to translate to you the thought of a great
statesman who has recently ceased to be in affairs, it is that I desire
to show you under what reserves and in what spirit of moderation the
protests against us are conceived, and by how many high sympathies Hayti
is surrounded. On my part I am proud of it.
I shall have occasion to return to the response made by the department of
foreign affairs to the collective note of the diplomatic corps, which
was, as you know, soon followed by that of the French minister alone,
concerning the loan contracted in France by the fallen government.
misunderstanding with france in
consequence of the loan.
You reserved to yourselves the last word on this important question which
you have confided to a parliamentary commission which has not ceased,
during the interval of the two legislative sessions, to collect
documents and to study them with the care which they merit. Its report
will permit you to pronounce upon the subject, and will prove, I hope,
that good faith and honesty are not yet banished from Hayti.
If our country desires to know its true charges; if it wishes to give up
to the pillory of public opinion men who have strangely abused a power
filched by fraud and violence, in the sole intention of satisfying their
insatiable thirst for gold; if it wishes to clearly show their frauds,
it is in an object which interests its honor, its future, as well as the
public morality of all states. One cannot be charged with bad faith when
one is disposed to pay what one owes and nothing more than one does owe.
However, I must not conceal from you that evil reports, diffused since
some time in Europe, to the effect that there was a question among us of
annulling the loan of 1875, have in quieted bearers of the titles of
this loan, and moved the Government of the French Republic to such a
point that it has not up to the present moment officially recognized my
government.
Of our three diplomatic agents abroad, the one in France alone has not
been able to remit the letter which notifies my coming to power to the
President of the French Republic, so that our legation at Paris found
itself in a difficult and abnormal situation, it being simply recognized
in a non-official sense.
The concern for the country’s dignity, which I am bound to preserve
intact, had often suggested to me the thought of relieving the
difficulty by the recall of our chargé d’affaires. But I could not
forget that I had considerations to observe toward France which has so
often honored us with its benevolence, that France for which we have so
much sympathy, and where the intelligent youths of our country every day
derive the knowledge which must serve to raise us up and give us a place
in the civilized world. I was therefore hesitating, when an unhappy
circumstance seemed to favor us. At the same time when our chargé
d’affaires made known to the government strong reasons (for his
retirement), based upon considerations as to his health, the department
of foreign affairs thought best to put an end to his mission. In
communicating this determination to the French department of foreign
affairs, my secretary of foreign affairs candidly exposed the causes of
such determination. He said that, in consequence of events which had
occurred in Hayti, the personnel of our legation
being reduced to our sole chargé d’affaires, the government was
momentarily placed in
[Page 307]
the
necessity of awaiting a more propitious time to name a successor to Mr.
Laforesterie in a country which certainly has a right to all the
sympathies of the Haytian Government and people. Every propriety was
observed. Thus it will be recognized, not by passionate men, desirous of
finding errors and faults everywhere outside of the sphere within which
they themselves act, but by impartial and serious men, who
disinterestedly regard the situation and know how to remedy it.
The recall of our chargé d’affaires took place on the 26th of December;
of this fact I gave notice to the French minister plenipotentiary on the
28th, at the time at which the French mail was leaving with our letters.
One month later the government devoted itself to a combination which
proves what esteem we desire to show to France, and what importance we
attach to the good relations to be maintained between that country and
our own.
On the 10th of February letters were sent to our chargé d’affaires at
London, Mr. Charles Villevaleix, which accredited him near the French
Government in the quality of envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary. His mission was to renew the thread of our affairs
unhappily interrupted with the French Government, and it was enjoined
upon him to put himself at the disposition of the parliamentary
commission of inquiry who asked us for an official agent to furnish it
with copies of all documents deposited at the legation relative to the
important questions of the loan.
By a happy coincidence, which I may be permitted to signalize, Mr.
Charles Villevaleix was making the first necessary steps for the opening
of the negotiations with which he was charged, nearly at the same time
that Dr. Lacascade, member of the French Chamber of Deputies, presented
himself to my government. The Duke Decazes profited by his voyage in the
Antilles and of the offer that Mr. Lacascade made to him, to give him a
knowledge of the instructions given to the French legation in Hayti in
regard to the settlement of our financial difficulties. It is in the
sense of these instructions that Mr. Lacascade is to use his personal
influence to bring about an amicable settlement.
The minister plenipotentiary of France has gone to Europe en congé. He left in charge of the French
legation in Hayti, according to his government’s orders, Mr. Hut-tinot,
recently returned from St. Domingo. It was Mr. Huttinot who communicated
to the department of foreign affairs the letter of the French minister
of foreign affairs announcing to him the mission of Mr. Lacascade.
My government will necessarily await until you pronounce on the question
of the loan, before arriving, if there is occasion, at official
negotiations based on the determinations that you shall have voted.
two english reclamations.
Last year the department of the interior had the honor to deposit in the
bureau of the house the reclamation produced by Her Britannic Majesty’s
Government in favor of the person who took the engagement to conduct
water from Turgeau to the capital, together with the new contract that
it proposed to sign with him in the name of the government. It was
during the last days of the legislative session; the house of
representatives had not the necessary time to study the question and
give it a solution. This same department will therefore have to submit
it again to the high appreciation of the legislative body, and to agree
upon the indemnity accorded to the undertaker of the works for the
losses that he sustained by the forced suspension of his works.
I come now to one of the most important reclamations submitted to the
government; it figures by hundreds of thousands of dollars; I will say
more exactly, by a demand for an indemnity of $6S2,602.44, the
absorption of a quarter of our fixed annual revenues, a new charge to be
put to the account of the ignorance and insatiability of our last
governors.
You understand that it concerns the island of La Tortue, whose
concession, after having passed into different hands since 1862, came
lastly to Madame Maunder, née Faubert, a British
subject.
Numerous letters exchanged between the English minister and the
department of foreign affairs have come to no result, and finally, after
taking knowledge of all the correspondence on this subject, you will
easily convince yourselves that the question, as it is understood by the
two parties, can never be resolved by them.
The exaggerated pretensions of the grantee, in the opinion of my
government, are sustained by the British minister. Neither of the two
parties is disposed to make concessions; each one of them relies on the
force and justness of its arguments; an understanding becomes
impossible, and it appears wise and prudent, I believe, to confide the
solution of this question to an international arbitration.
Two nations, the one great and powerful, the other small and feeble, will
honor themselves in adopting this line of conduct. The first will not
abuse its power to impose law; the second will not from its feebleness
try to dictate conditions.
Moreover, this is not a new manner of coming to an understanding. It is
thus in international law that it is agreed to proceed to settle
differences of a secondary order, especially those which must be solved
in money damages. And in the history of peoples,
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we could mention, in support of our opinion, more
than one example of this just and equitable manner of proceeding.
The good offices of a friendly power are not to be disregarded. I will
say more; this is the only solution of the question from the stand-point
at which we have arrived, the English minister having declared to the
department of foreign affairs that he would not again write on the
question, and that he would await the answer of my secretary of state in
order to refer it to his government.
To the arbitration that I have therefore proposed, I will await the
answer which shall be made, and if my proposition be accepted, I will
have the honor to submit to the sanction of the assembly the convention
which will follow upon it.
You will understand, gentlemen, all the gravity that this question
carries with it for a country whose finances are exhausted, whose credit
is ruined, and which is in the obligation of defending to the utmost the
last breath of life which still rests with it.
the island of navassa.
The government is in the intention of renewing, through its minister at
Washington the negotiations concerning the island of Navassa,
interrupted since two years. The first steps attempted in this respect
date from the empire. Suspended by the government which followed it,
they were resumed at the commencement of 1872, and gave rise to an
exchange of long correspondence between us and the United States.
On the demand of the senate of the republic, the department of foreign
affairs was to remit to it, last year, all the documents relating to
this question. Arbitration had been proposed to solve it. This was a
proposition that came from the House of Representatives of the American
Union itself, authorizing the President to act to this end; but the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, taking up this project of law, made a
report concluding in its rejection, and Congress separated without
pronouncing itself thereon in a definite manner. Such is, in a few
words, the condition of this affair, which already dates back twenty
years ((qui remonte dćjà à vingt ans).
two american reclamations.
As I said at the commencement of this chapter, numerous reclamations are
deposited at the department of foreign affairs and await a solution. In
what concerns the republic of the United States, I will call your
attention to the finishing and to the payment of the Pantheon, and to a
supply of arms furnished to the fallen government, assimilated,
according to the minister resident of the Union, to a case of
spoliation.
There will be communicated to the two houses, when the moment shall
arrive, those of the foreign reclamations on which they are called to
pronounce.
protest of mr. moravia.
I must not pass in silence the incident relating to Mr. Moravia,
vice-consul of Denmark and the Netherlands, at the residence of Jacmel,
under the fallen government, and placed under accusation by the
provisional government at the triumph of the revolution. The protest of
Mr. Moravia, which concluded by demanding an indemnity in his favor of
twenty thousand pounds sterling, in reparation for the wrongs and
damages to which the above-mentioned decree subjected him, was lying
dormant in the portfolio of the bureau of foreign affairs. It was not
thought necessary to give an immediate answer to this strange act, in
which Mr. Moravia speaks of a most flagrant violation of the law of
nations in respect to him, and of the gratuitous insult offered to His
Majesty the King of the Netherlands, and to the flag of that power.
proceedings relative to a danish and
dutch vice-consul’s protest.
The honorable consuls-general of Denmark and of the Netherlands having
expressed to the department of foreign affairs their desire to be able
to give information to their respective governments in relation to Mr.
Moravia’s position, my government hastened itself to accede to this
desire too natural to be contested.
It has furnished the proof, in remitting certified copies of important
documents, that Mr. Moravia had, under the preceding administration,
participated in the execution of certain works, which were not
accomplished, notwithstanding the large sums of money drawn in advance
from the public treasury. It further proved that Mr. Moravia actively
occupied himself, as agent of that administration, in the political
affairs of the country. Was this the conduct to be observed by a
consular agent appointed by two friendly nations?
If the government of a country owes a special protection to the consuls
of foreign powers who reside therein and whose functions and
prerogatives are limited, are they not in return obliged to abstain
completely from all interference in the interior affairs of that
country? And, in case of civil troubles, are they not compelled to hold
the most perfect neutrality? These principles cannot be contested.
In order to put an end to all difficulties in the future, my government,
in giving
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these explanations
to the agents of Denmark and of the Netherlands, remitted to them a
counter-protestation, and exposed to them how much, in its opinion, the
replacing of Mr. Moravia as vice-consul at the residence of Jacmel would
be of a nature to procure happy results and to tighten the bonds of
friendship which unite us to those two countries.
It was necessary to give weight to similar facts, to completely put them
under your eyes in all their details, so as partly to show to you how
much the department of foreign affairs is to-day overburdened with care
caused by the events which have occurred in Hayti and the numerous
reclamations, just or unjust, that are necessary consequences
thereof.
santo domingo.
The question of our relations with the Dominican Republic interests in
such a high degree our political future, that I think it necessary to
lay particular stress upon it, and to pray you to make this point the
important object of your most serious meditations.
During twenty-two years the Haytians and the Dominicans formed one and
the same people, living under the same laws and the same government, the
only one in Hayti that realized the unity of the territory.
When certain reasons, whose appreciation is now of the domain of history,
brought our brethren of the East to separate from us and to occupy the
vast territory to-day called the “Republic of Santo Domingo” the
governments of Hayti could not reconcile themselves to this separation
(se résoudre à cette séparation), in it they
saw in the future an incessant peril for the national independence
gained at the price of so much blood and sacrifice; they saw it menaced
at each instant, if a powerful nation, absorbing the Dominican people,
should, by conquest or otherwise, thus establish itself at our
doors.
“The island of Hayti one and indivisible;” such was the constant
principle of our politics.
After conciliatory measures, appeal was made to force of arms; but their
efforts against the persevering will of the Dominicans failed.
In 1859 the return of republican ideas was the starting-point of a new
policy.
It was rightly thought that the independence of Hayti would be
sufficiently guaranteed, if the Haytians and the Dominicans would engage
themselves never to cede any part of their respective territories. From
that time the spirit of conquest and of domination gave place to the
happy idea of the union of the two peoples on the bases of the
acknowledgment of the republic of Santo Domingo and of the principle of
inalienability, substituted for that of territorial indivisibility.
It is this principle that my government desires to affirm to-day highly,
without reticence and without reserve, certain to find on this point a
communion of ideas with us. It is the sole solution of the question
which occupies us, a solution dictated by the reason and conformable to
the real progress of the Haytian and the Dominican peoples. It was it
that provoked, in 1868, the first attempts of a convention from which
came six years later the treaty signed the 9th of November, 1874, struck
by the revolutionary idea, and which the legislative body invalidated by
the law of October 6, 1876.
This is the occasion to examine in what manner international law and
political wisdom command us to apply the measures dictated by this law
in what concerns our relations with our neighbors of the east.
Already the dispatch written in answer to the collective note of the
diplomatic corps, signed by the chargé d’affaires of the republic of
Santo Domingo, caused to be sounded the idea of the government
“concerning the treaties which have been, concluded between certain ones
of the states which you represent and the administration of General
Domingue.” Said my secretary of foreign affairs, “the government is
truly in the intention of having re-examined by authority competent in
the matter the part of those conventions which could occasion
disbursements of money; for it can escape no one that these treaties, in
what concerns such stipulations, have been concluded with a lightness
which sensibly affects the material interests of the state.” Since that
time troubles have succeeded with such rapidity in the east, that it was
impossible to find a favorable moment for the opening of negotiations
between the two republics.
Two governments have been overthrown after a few days of existence, and
to-day it is General Baez who is president of the Dominican Republic. At
his coming to power, he sent a special commission near my government to
assure me of his good intentions and to strengthen more and more the
bonds that unite us together. I answered him that I am animated by the
same sentiments; and in an interview which took place between his
special commission and the secretary of foreign affairs, the latter did
not fail to set forth the necessity that there was for the two states to
definitely settle the important questions concerning the reciprocal
welfare of the two republics.
The question of the validity of the treaty of 1874, of its revision,
naturally then presents itself as the order of the day.
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During this session, we will have to study the most efficacious means of
arriving at a good settlement of the boundaries, at the fixing of just
indemnities to be accorded from one party to the other for advantages
which may be determined upon; to examine with all the care that they
merit the dispositions of the treaty relating to our coasting trade, to
our public interior rights; we will have, finally, to put it (the
treaty) in complete accord with the laws that govern the two countries,
so as to give to it that force, that power which it lacks, and to permit
it to contribute, by a long existence and a severe and exact observance
of its prescriptions, to the glory and to the advancement of the
republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo.
At the very moment when this message is being written, my government
could not, without a profound and just astonishment, read the message of
the President of Santo Domingo to the National Assembly of that
republic. It seems to render us responsible for the interior troubles of
that country, accuses my government, of fomenting them, whilst copies of
orders from Dominican authorities have reached us provoking and
authorizing disorder on the frontiers, even within the Haytian
limits.
My secretary of foreign affairs, in answer to a dispatch of the chargé
d’affaires of Santo Domingo, which demanded of him the immediate
expulsion from Haytian territory of certain Dominicans, declared that
the government was disposed to turn them back into the interior in order
to neutralize their proceedings; the demanded expulsion being supported
by no document justifying this extreme measure so contrary to the code
of humanity. He profited by the occasion that was offered to him to
remind the chargé d’affaires of the point of view under which my
government regarded the Dominican question in what concerns the treaty
concluded and signed with the fallen government. He, moreover, announced
to him that he would have soon to confer with him on the message of
General Baez, which had just been communicated to him.
Mr. Cárlos Nouel declared to us that it was not his mission to treat
these questions; that he was about to refer them to his government, and
demanded his passports. The government remitted them to him; but,
endeavoring to show its firm desire to preserve the best relations
between Santo Domingo and Hayti, it did not consider this demand as a
rupture, and asked to know the person left in charge of the Dominican
legation during Mr. Cárlos Nouel’s absence.
I have said enough on the state of our relations with Santo Domingo, so
that you may form a just idea of them. Knowledge of the men that are in
power in the east, and a narrative of facts that took place there,
suffice to put the question in its true light.
Notwithstanding, if some incidents independent of the will, distorted
even for the most part, have been produced, which have exercised a happy
influence on the relations of Haytians and Dominicans, my government
proposes to bring them to a common satisfaction of the two countries,
counting on the patriotism and good sense of the Dominican population.
It hopes that these clouds will very soon disappear after loyal
explanations, and that the two republics, understanding that it is their
common interest to unite and understand each other, will re-establish
and strengthen those ties so far as to gather all the fruits of
happiness and satisfaction possible. As for us Haytians, whatever they
may say or do, we must try to preserve and cement peace with our sister,
Santo Domingo.
It would be puerile to defend ourselves from the idea of conquest or of
domination, which are reproached to us. Such accusations fall of
themselves. We have no interest in fomenting troubles among neighbors,
whose independence we respect as well as we cherish our own.
Let our attention constantly bear (se porte) upon
the government established at Santo Domingo, and, if it is desirous, as
we are, to maintain in their fullness these great principles of
territorial inalienability which we proclaim, let us extend to it a
fraternal hand, and, by a frank and sincere union, march with it to the
conquest of progress and of civilization.
