No. 676.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Thompson.
Washington, November 16, 1888.
Sir: I transmit herewith for your information copy of a note* received from Mr. Preston, the Haytian minister in this country, with its inclosure, being a ceremonial letter addressed to the President of the United States by General Légitime, touching the latter’s elevation to the executive power of Hati, and also copy of my reply,† deferring the reception of such a missive by the President until the course of events shall have given reasonable stability to General Légitime’s government in that Republic.
This course was rendered necessary by the fact that the titular Government of President Salomon has been forcibly overthrown and that claim to recognition on the part of any successor must await events.
The position of the United States in this regard is well presented in an instruction, sent March 9, 1863, to the representative of the United States at Caracas, and called forth by a condition of affairs in Venezuela not unlike that now existing in Hayti, as follows:
This Government has, and it must insist on, the right to determine for itself when new authorities, established in a foreign State, can claim from it a formal recognition of them as an established power.
This Government has at the same time, under the law of nations and by treaty, a clear right to have its properly appointed agents residing in Venezuela, although the authorities with which it has heretofore treated have been subverted more or less completely, and to communicate with the new authorities upon international matters affecting either the Government of the United States or its citizens. During the period, which, in case of any domestic revolution, may be either short or long, the agents of this Government have a right to confer upon such matters with the actual authorities who are conducting the affairs of Venezuela, and while the agent is bound to avoid all interference in the domestic questions of that State, he is entitled to bo heard as the representative of the United States, without a previous recognition of the existing authorities in place of those which have been either more or less effectively supplanted.
During the events of the winter 1886–’87, when Peru was under the control of a provisional government, pending the action of the people upon the rival claims of Generals Iglesias and Cáceres, this Government, while continuing intercourse with the authorities in possession, deferred formal recognition until it became evident that the assent of the Peruvian nation had been indicated.
You have already been instructed to steer a careful course, and your discretion is relied upon not to interfere in Haytian domestic affairs or take sides in the internecine struggles in which the people of Hayti are now unhappily engaged. Your business intercourse with the local authorities, so far as the interests of this Government and its citizens are concerned, will be necessarily with the party de facto in control, but such action on your part can not imply any determination or the expression of opinion on the part of this Government as to the question of formal recognition.
We now await reports from the commander of the Boston and yourself, after the reception of which you will again receive instructions.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,