MEMORY ASSIGNMENT
Letter of refusal from Anténor Firmin to the United States’ request to lease Môle Saint-Nicolas
Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin, Minister of External Relations of the Republic of Haiti
Port-au-Prince, April 22, 1891
Gentlemen plenipotentiaries,
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt to Your Excellencies of your dispatch dated the 21st of this month, by which you kindly sent me an official copy of the document signed by His Excellency the President of the United States and investing you with full powers to confer with all persons vested with the same powers by Haiti, in order to negotiate an agreement between the two governments.
By examining this document and referring to the interview that I had the honor of having with Your Excellencies on the very day of receipt of your dispatch, I must infer that your full powers relate to the request made on February 7 last to the government of Haiti, by the honorable Admiral Gherardi, as special commissioner of the United States, to express his consent to grant to the government of the American Union the leasing of Môle Saint-Nicolas for establish a coal station for ships of the United States Navy.
Indeed, by its letter of February 10, this department had expressed to the honorable admiral the desire of the government of Haiti to have prior to any deliberation: “1° the details or conditions of the desired leasing; 2° copy of the full powers which would have been conferred on him by his Excellency the President of the United States and the original of which would be presented, if necessary, at the time of signing the farm lease which constitutes the subject of his request. The honorable admiral did me the honor of providing me, by his letter of February 12, with all the desired details, leaving me a certified copy of the instructions he had received from the Department of State in Washington, and, after an interview we had the same day, it was agreed that he would write to his government to have full powers. It is therefore this document that you received jointly and which was communicated to me, so that the government of Haiti is able to respond, in all rules, to Your Excellencies.
As I had the honor of telling Your Excellencies, in our interview yesterday, as soon as I learned of the arrival in the harbor of a new squadron of the American navy, and that I had learned that full powers were sent to you, I made a very detailed dispatch to the President of Haiti and to the Council of Secretaries of State on tour in the Department of the South.
The President of Haiti and my Colleagues meeting in the Council of Secretaries of State, ordered me to respond to you as follows: After having carefully considered the conditions under which the government of the United States wished to obtain the leasing of Môle Saint- Nicolas to establish a naval station there, they would perhaps have no objection if your instructions did not contain the following clause: “With a view to the preservation and strengthening of relations (of the two countries) the President desires that, as long as the United States can be the farmers of Môle Saint-Nicolas” — if it is to be leased — the government of Haiti does not lease any port or other portion of its territory or otherwise dispose of it, nor does it accept any special privilege or right of use to any other power, State or Government. »
Acceptance of your request with such a clause would, in the eyes of the government of Haiti, be an outrage on the national sovereignty of the Republic and a violation of Article I of our Constitution; because, by renouncing the right to dispose of his territory, he would have consented to its tacit alienation.
In his letter of February 12, the honorable Admiral Gherardi cited France, Brazil, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Hawaii, Portugal, Italy, Japan and other nations who have granted, at one time or another, from coaling stations to the United States Navy. The government of Haiti is no less well disposed towards the American Union than these various nations, but it finds itself bound by our internal public law which it cannot violate, without rendering null and void any commitment made under such conditions. These considerations are of such importance that Your Excellencies will, without doubt, be the first to recognize the impossibility in which the Haitian government finds itself to grant to that of the United States the lease of Môle Saint-Nicolas, on the conditions that the latter desires. But to this constitutional difficulty must still be added political considerations which are of the utmost importance for the Haitian government.
The arrival in this port of two American squadrons containing the most powerful warships of the United States Navy, made a most unfortunate impression on the entire country which is alarmed or worried about it. Even assuming that the national constitution was not an obstacle to the acceptance of the request presented by Your Excellencies, in the name of the President of the United States, the Haitian government will hardly be able, in the present circumstances, to enter into negotiations for the leasing of Môle Saint-Nicolas, without appearing to give in to foreign pressure and compromise, ipso facto, our existence as an independent people; and all the more so since several American newspapers, for an undeniable purpose, are carrying out false propaganda, tending to make people believe that there are commitments signed between the President of Haiti and the United States of America, for the cession of this same bay of Môle Saint-Nicolas as itself: Excellency President Harrison wishes to have as a naval station for the use of the American navy.
Deeply confident in your loyalty and your sense of fairness, I dare to hope that your Excellencies will understand perfectly that the refusal to grant the United States the leasing of Môle Saint-Nicolas for a naval station is not, on the part of the Haitian Government, an act of distrust or ill will. It is the consequence of a double obstacle in the face of which our keen sympathy and our sincere attachment to the most glorious and generous republic of the New World and perhaps of the modern world must have weakened.
Please accept, Gentlemen Plenipotentiaries, the assurances of my highest consideration.
The Secretary of State for External Relations: A. FIRMIN
Honorable FRÉDÉRIC DOUGLASS
Minister-Resident and Consul General of the United States.
BANCROFT GHERARDI Rear Admiral of the United States Navy
MEMORY ASSIGNMENT
