No. 393.
Mr. Langston to Mr. Evarts.
Port-au-Prince, December 20, 1879. (Received Jan. 3, 1880.)
Sir: The citizens of this Republic as to complexion are divided into two very distinct classes.
No reference is made here to the fact that, according to the constitution of the country, only Haytians, Africans, and Indians and their descendants are or can become citizens; but allusion is made to the fact that as to those who compose the population and who constitute the body-politic, while all enjoy fully and equally civil and political rights and powers, there is a very decided line of difference discoverable between the black, and the mulatto and mixed classes.
This condition of things had its origin in that peculiar status of the latter class as compared with the former, when slavery existed in French colonial times and the French father recognized and educated his colored son born of his black slave woman; and thus, although this white father could not confer upon such son the rights and dignities of citizenship, [Page 620] he did give him social place above the ordinary black, slave or free.
As this class multiplied in numbers and influence, it constituted a sort of aristocracy as compared with the one below it, and was regarded and treated accordingly. Besides, whe,n the very first movements were had with reference to the bestowal of civil rights upon the Haytians, under French authority, Ogé made his demand in the name of the colored class which he personally represented, circumscribing and limiting his demand by lines of color and condition. Subsequently, it is true, the movement which he inaugurated resulted, after many bloody struggles, great waste of human life, and destruction of property, in the common freedom of all the black and colored classes of the isiand, and even in the independence of the people.
But the color line, established and impressed as indicated, has even to this day continued to exist and to disclose itself in the feelings, the prejudices, and the predilections of the people—with marked distinctness in the society and the politics of the country.
In the two political parties of the country, one will find colored and black men; but when the liberal party is in power, it is understood that the colored portion of the community is in control of affairs; and when the national party is in power, as at present, it is understood that the black portion of the community is in control. When Canal was in authority, it was particularly noticeable how many of the colored class occupied conspicuous and influential positions in connection with his administration. Indeed, at no time during the last two years of his administration did he have in his cabinet more than one black man of the four composing that body; and the number of the colored class filling other subordinate places was noticeably large. The black class is already largely represented in official place under the present administration; and that class, as it shows itself, in the corps legislatif, the national assembly, the cabinet, and the army, demonstrates its consciousness that it is in power.
In no case, however, is either class wholly or entirely excluded by the party in power. For, as has already been intimated, there are colored men in the national party and black ones in the liberal; and it would therefore seem impracticable, in either case, to make an entire exclusion. Moreover, the feeling existing between these classes does not seem to be one of positive hatred or ill-will. It seems, where it exists so as to be definable, in society especially, to be rather a suspicion or mistrust, slight on the part of the black, towards the colored man; and on the part of the latter towards the former, a manifest sense of mental and social superiority.
However, no special damage either to general society or the government will ever occur as the result of this condition of feeling; for there is no moral power in it on either hand which can ever produce the coherence essential to make the one or the other class continue to wield its power and influence against the other. In fact, the philosopher and statesman, when they come to investigate and consider this feeling as existing on the one or the other part of the Haytian people, will treat it as harmless, practically, and surely, though gradually, passing away, as intelligence and virtue are more generally established among the people.
In this connection it is to be remembered that a very large portion of the people of the Haytian Republic are black—that the number of the mulatto and colored class is comparatively small. And, while it is true that the latter class has, from the beginning, exerted a broad and [Page 621] general influence in the country, the other class has never organized or countenanced any common movement against it or exhibited toward it any general or persistent feeling of malice or ill-will.
All classes of the people are quick to apprehend threatened or probable danger to the republic, and they unite earnestly and courageously, in the promptest manner possible, against a common enemy or a policy which menaces their national independence. This statement finds the fullest confirmation in that part of Haytian history which records the struggles—the united and desperate struggles—of the entire population against the French, the English, and the Spanish, made to secure popular freedom in the first place, and, finally, national independence and self-government. It is sustained, also, by the fact that the opposition to the annexation of Santo Domingo to our own country, as proposed some years since was, as far as the Haytian people were concerned, solid and firm, animating and influencing every class and condition of the community. Annexation was regarded by all as the first step toward the annihilation of Haytian independence.
Besides all classes seem proud of their common African or negro origin, or extraction, and appreciate the common destiny which awaits them and their posterity. Hence, were no account made of considerations of justice, right, and law, in their influence upon either the black, or mulatto and colored classes, in their conduct towards each other, the two circumstances just named, of themselves, will always serve to keep them in close social, political, and friendly relations.
The fear, therefore, which is sometimes expressed that these classes in this country, may, at some future day, reach a misunderstanding which will result in permanent social and political separation—separation, even bloody and desperate—is wholly without foundation.
I have, &c.,