It will be seen that while President Canal in this proclamation mildly
deplores the existence of a situation “badly defined,” and of “uncertain
relations equally dangerous for both nations,” and professes a desire for
the maintenance of friendly relations with Santo Domingo, and that while he
speaks with an air of frankness, he at the same time endeavors to justify
the refusal of his government to recognize the treaty of November, 1874,
between the two countries, on the ground that the Corps Lé-gislatif had
annulled the acts of the Dominique Government, and also because it had not
been considered that the “regrettable instability of the public powers” of
Santo Domingo had yet put this government “in face of a government,” in that
country, “offering the guarantees of order, of duration, and of national
independence,” as well as because the treaty’s stipulations were “too
onerous amd without compensation.”
The proclamation is couched in careful language, and I am inclined to think
that it was called out by the note of the Dominican envoys, and and that it
was intended to neutralize any effect which that note might have abroad. It
seems also to betray a reluctance on the part of this government to treat
with President Baëz, if indeed it does not even carry in its soft phrases a
thread or trace of haughtiness and dictation toward Santo Domingo.
At all events, I think it rather confirmatory of the views expressed in my
No. 523, as to the real sentiment which animates and controls the policy of
this government toward President Baëz and toward the Dominican Republic.
[Inclosure in No.
538.—Translation.]
proclamation.
Boisrond Canal, President of Hayti, to
the people and the army:
Fellow-citizens: An important question
preoccupies the thought of two peoples (lts esprits
chez deux peuples) whom nature herself has destined for an
intimate and fruitful union. The question is that of the relations
between our country and the Dominican Republic. One asks himself what
can come of a situation badly defined, of uncertain relations, equally
dangerous for both nations, because of the hopes which these relations
give, and of the support which they seem to promise, to the agitation of
parties (par les espérances qu’elles donnent et Vappui
qu’elles semblant promettre aux agitations des partis).
The government believes that it is its duty to dissipate these
inquietudes in exposing what has been, up to this day, the rule of its
conduct, and what are its designs for the future.
You, fellow-citizens, are not incognizant of the fact that the treaty
signed by the fallen government was struck with the same nullity which
touched the other acts of a power which your justice had condemned. It
did not, however, enter into the spirit of the new government that no
convention whatever should bind together for the future the two
neighboring republics.
The National Assembly and the executive reserved it to themselves to
study and to cause to be known at an opportune moment the modifications
to be introduced in a work that was fruitful in itself, but that the
strange inconsistency of the preceding rule had vitiated in its essence
by stipulations too onerous and without compensation.
Penetrated with this truth, that a treaty can have a solid and durable
basis only as it responds in an equal measure to the interests of each
of the contracting parties, we, the National Assembly and myself,
thought it our duty, without neglecting the maintenance of friendly
relations with our neighbors, to await the moment when we should be free
from the pressing questions of interior reorganization created by a
disastrous past, and when, on the other hand, the end of the regrettable
instability of the public powers among our neighbors should put us in
face of a government offering the guarantees of order, of duration, and
of national independence, which the Dominican Republic as well as
ourselves were right to demand. Such has then been, fellow-citizens, the
double impulse which has dictated the conduct of your great public
powers; on one hand, the ardent and sincere desire of a close union with
the sister republic, but of a serious union based on reciprocal
satisfactions; on the other, the need and the evident necessity of
treating only with a durable government, accepted by all as the sincere
representative of the moral and material interests of Dominicans as the
loyal guardian of their independence.
Yon will recognize with me, fellow-citizens, and all the patriotic minds
among our neighbors will equally recognize, that our attitude in this
question was inspired only by a real solicitude for the happiness of the
two peoples. Nevertheless, the different commissions sent by the
Dominican Government seemed to disown that our reserve had as its basis
a kindly sympathy and friendly tendencies. In placing itself in the
point of view of the strict maintenance of the old treaty, they appeared
less preoccupied with the loyal conditions of a definite alliance than
with the satisfaction of immediate and pressing needs. Neither their
demands, nor our actual condition, nor the decisions of the assembly,
permitted us to subscribe thereto in the conditions in which they
presented themselves.
From this misunderstanding, which does not touch either the question of
alliance, or even that of sacrifices which our country could impose upon
itself in view of a serious union, have issued regrettable and dangerous
interpretations. They have thrown trouble into the minds on both sides
of the frontier, and they have created this uneasiness and these
equivocations from which ambition seeks to profit.
Convinced that the Dominican people could not be less desirous than we
for the maintenance of close and friendly relations, I have endeavored
to restore the facts to their veracities, and I have endeavored to
openly proclaim the intentions of the government in order to dissipate
the inquietude formulated and turned to account by malevolence.
You will appreciate, fellow-citizens, and the Dominican people will
appreciate as you do, the character of our true tendencies concerning
them. They will understand that our apparent reserve, dictated as well
by prudence as by a real sympathy for them, has had but one object: to
assure the alliance of the two countries on definite bases, with
guarantees which safeguard at once their reciprocal interests and their
mutual independence.
[Page 408]
Done at the national palace, at
Port au Prince, the 6th of September,
1877, the 74th year of independence.
By the President:
BOISROND
CANAL.
AUGUSTE MONTAS,
Secretary of War, &c.
F.
CARRIÉ,
Secretary of Finance, of Commerce,
&c.
EM. M. A. GUTIERREZ,
Secretary of Interior and of
Agriculture.
DR. JN. JOSEPH,
Secretary of Justice,
&c.
