No. 218.
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.
[Extracts.]
Legation of
the United States,
Port au
Prince, Hayti, June 10, 1872.
(Received June 24.)
No. 131.]
Sir: Referring to my dispatches, Nos. 119 of
March 25, 123 of April 8, and 129 of May 16, 1872, I have the honor to
state that the Haytian minister of foreign affairs, under date March 27,
addressed me a lengthy answer to the dispatch, (see Inclosure F to my
No. 119,) in which I recorded the grievance that was felt at the
proceedings taken by the Haytian authorities at Saint Marc, on the 20th
of March, against our consular officer there, and formulated to him the
reparations which I thought due to us from the Haytian government. In
this answer (see accompanying inclosure No. 1) the minister displays a
feeling not altogether conciliatory in the case, and gives a fair
illustration of the Haytian faculty for special pleading. But
anticipating the position he would assume, I had taken the precaution in
my dispatch to convey to him the
[Page 275]
idea that whatever construction he might put upon my statements, I
should remain satisfied of their substantial correctness, and continue
to feel that we had cause for complaint.
Under date March 30, I replied (see inclosure No. 2) to the minister’s
dispatch, by expressing some degree of surprise at his speculations upon
a point in the case, upon which he had twice said to me that he had no
information, and by inclosing the statements of Messrs Jastram, De
Lande, and Lota, the consular officers of the United States, Great
Britain, and France, respectively, (see inclosures B, D, and E to my
119.)
The minister, April 3, sent me an acknowledgment (see inclosure No. 3) of
this dispatch, admitting still again that he had no knowledge of the
assault on Mr. Jastram, and saying that as a question had been raised
which it became him to investigate, he would prosecute the inquiry with
all expedition, to the end that he might give me early cognizance of the
result.
Having waited under this promise until a few days after the return of the
President and the three ministers of state who had been with him on his
tour in the north, I wrote the minister, on the 16th of April, a
non-official and private letter, (see inclosure No. 4.) I intended this
letter to be friendly and candid in tone, and to give him an expression
of my desire to see the affair settled, but at the same time to,
intimate to him that there would be no receding from the position which
this legation had already taken in the case.
* * * * * *
On the 31st of May, ultimo, I wrote the minister a dispatch (see
inclosure No. 8) which called to his mind his repeatedly expressed
desire to investigate for himself the circumstances of the affair
complained of at Saint Marc, and that although a courier can pass
between Port au Prince and Saint Marc in one day, yet the sixty days
that had passed since the date of my dispatch of the 25th of March had
brought me no reply thereto. He is again assured that the assault on Mr.
Jastram, under the circumstances detailed to him in my said dispatch,
was conceived to constitute an international grievance, for which the
Government of the United States would expect just reparation. And I gave
him my impression that the terms of reparation named in the dispatch
just alluded to would be acceptable to that Government, and say to him
that unless a favorable answer to my demands be sent to me within a
reasonable time, I shall feel obliged, in consideration of the sixty
days’ delay already incurred, to regard further unreasonable delay as
evidence of an indisposition on his part to afford the reparation
customary in such cases, and to make it the subject of unfavorable
representation to the United States Government.* * * The minister came
up to my residence in the mountains just after sunrise, on the morning
of the 2d instant, the dispatch having been laid before him in
translation on the 1st. He excused himself for this early visit, and
invited me to call next day at his office “to talk over the Jastram
affair, and bring it to a conclusion.” When I called on him, according
to his request, he expressed the warm desire of the President himself,
and his colleagues, to arrange the affair at once, and to our
satisfaction. He took up my dispatch of the 25th of March, and read in limine the terms of settlement there proposed,
and asked me in what way he could record the compliance of his
government with them. Of course I told him that I could not instruct him
about that. “Well, then,” said he, “I will draw up my dispatch, and come
to you to-morrow morning sans façon to show it to
you.” Accordingly next morning he came to me with the draught of the
dispatch in his own handwriting. I glanced over it, and told him I
thought the
[Page 276]
Government of the
United States would appreciate the spirit of friendship in which he was
placing upon record the expression of regret on the part of his
government at the occurrences complained of, and would attach due regard
to his disposition to accord us a just and satisfactory atonement for
them. I added that I thought I could, therefore, venture to say to him
that his dispatch, as he had written it, would, in my opinion, be
acceptable to my Government.
Inclosure No. 9 is this dispatch, and you will remark in it a fair
compliance with the terms of adjustment which are named in my dispatch
to the Haytian Government, dated March 25. And besides it occurred to me
that the animus which seemed to have been
instilled into them, and with which they acted after it had been laid
before them, might of itself almost be taken as an atonement in part for
the grievance that we complained of.
I sent him, under date of the 7th instant, an acknowledgment (see
Inclosure No. 10) of his dispatch, repeating the substance of what I had
said to him at our interview on the 4th instant, and suggesting that he
cause special orders to be issued to the local authorities at Saint
Marc, charging them to see to it that the consular officer of the United
States be treated with all the respect due to his official
character.
The next day the minister responded (see Inclosure No. 11) to my last
note, announcing the pleasure it had given his Government to gather from
my dispatch that, in my opinion, the compliance which his Government had
made with my demands would be acceptable to the Government of the United
States, and declaring that the special orders which I had suggested for
the authorities at Saint Marc had already been forwarded.
However much the transactions which took place on the 20th March last
against our consular officer there are to be regretted, I think the firm
stand which this legation, under your orders, has taken and maintained
in this circumstance, has done something to convince this government
that the Government of the United States does mean to assert its rights
and maintain its dignity abroad as well as at home.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett.
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, Hayti,
March 27, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of the 25th instant.
If the investigation, for which you have just been to Saint Marc, has
revealed to you some facts of a nature to put in evidence the
improper proceedings employed by the agents of my Government against
Mr. Jastram, when General Batraville, aîné, was arrested, it is my
duty to say to you that the circumstances which accompanied this
arrest, and upon which I furnish you by this dispatch all the
necessary information, supported by authentic documents, prove,
without a doubt, that the Haytian authorities conducted themselves
on that occasion conformably to all the usages and according to all
the forms prescribed by the laws of nations.
Indeed, General Batraville was not taken from the United States
consulate at Saint Marc. I had the honor to relate to you, at our
first interview, the circumstances of his arrest, and it is easy to
prove by the documents that I hold that it was at the house of Mr.
Edmond Martelly, a Haytian citizen, who voluntarily opened his doors
to the Haytian authorities, where the said general was arrested. The
minutes of the justice of the peace at Saint Marc, of which I send
you a copy under this cover, (inclosures A and B,) prove this fact
superabundantly.
I regret, as you do, that, in the absence of the President of the
republic from Saint
[Page 277]
Marc,
you did not have all the facilities of prosecuting a serious inquiry
into the facts of this arrest, upon which, evidently, you would have
been enlightened in a manner more satisfactory. But since you do not
dwell thereupon, and waive this question, you will permit me, Mr.
Minister, to do as you have done, in analyzing the principal point
which forms the base of your reclamations.
You establish: 1st, that in consequence of the arrest of General
Batraville some improper means were employed against your consul,
Mr. Jastram, who received some violence on the part of persons in
the service of my government; 2d, that the British vice-consul, the
French vice-consul, and some other persons, eye-witnesses of these
facts, agreed in saying that Mr. Jastram had been attacked, seized
without any legal form by a band of armed men, under the command of
a Haytian officer, who ordered them to conduct him to prison; 3d,
that Mr. Jastram was dragged through the streets, in the midst of
violent menaces and injurious epithets uttered against him and his
colleagues, while his house was surrounded and threatened by this
same band of armed men.
You do not in any manner doubt the veracity of these facts, Mr.
Minister, which have been confirmed to you by the British and French
vice-consuls, by eye-witnesses; facts, without doubt, you would have
been able to better verify, if the authorities of Saint Marc had
furnished to you the means of doing it. You have expressed to me
your regret that this was not done, and I have not failed to partake
this regret with you.
The information that I have upon these facts which accompanied the
arrest of General Batraville are in all points in disaccord with
yours. Permit me, Mr. Minister, to place them under your eyes in
citing to you the names and the documents in support of my
assertion.
I must inform you that when the Haytian authorities went to General
Batraville, to arrest him, he had declared himself to be in open
rebellion. This fact drew to his house a good number of persons,
among others Mr. Jastram and the English vice-consul of Saint
Marc.
Does it not seem to you, Mr. Minister, that that was not the place
for persons who seemed to be invested with an official character?
Should they not have avoided going to General Batraville’s at the
moment of his arrest? And when, some moments afterward, General
Batraville rushed into Mr. Jastram’s to seek shelter, ought not the
Haytian authorities to have been a little moved at this
proceeding?
Yet they remained calm, as it became them to be. The commander of the
department, General Acoune Jean, addressed a first dispatch to Mr.
Jastram (inclosure C) to invite him in the name of public order,
gravely menaced in the country, to surrender to him the said
Batraville. And immediately that he learned that Batraville had
taken refuge in Mr. Martelly’s, a Haytian citizen, was it not with
all the forms of politeness used in similar circumstances (inclosure
D) that ho prayed Mr. Jastram to send to him the first dispatch?
Convinced, then, of the place where the said Batraville had taken
refuge, the authorities took the necessary measures, and it was then
that the justice of the peace at Saint-Marc, upon the demand of the
secretary of state for justice, who was previously informed by the
commander of the place, ordered a search of the house of Mr.
Martelly, (inclosures E and F.) I have already stated, Mr. Minister,
what was the result, is there anything therein, I ask, of improper
proceedings, of violence, of an attack, of an illegal seizure, of an
order to conduct Mr. Jastram to prison, or an argument to prove that
he had been dragged through the streets, in the midst of violent
threats and of injurious epithets? And the letter of General Saint
Elia Cauvin, (inclosure E,) addressed to the secretary of state of
justice, does it not say that General Luc, wishing to enter into Mr.
Jastram’s to seize his escaped prisoner, was violently prohibited by this latter person?
But this is not all, Mr. Minister. Mr. Jastram, who complains so
bitterly to-day that the Haytian authorities did not have any
regard, any proper respect, for him: that the said authorities had
caused him to be dragged through the streets to be incarcerated in
prison, in exposing him to the insults of the populace—Mr. Jastram
did not say a single word of all this in his protest sent to the
commander of the arrondissement of Saint Marc. He only protested
against the insult which was made to the American flag in taking by
armed force General Batraville, who had voluntarily taken refuge
under the protection of the said flag, (inclosure G.)
This method of procedure must appear strange to you as it does to me,
and you know the human heart too well—the just susceptibilities of a
foreign agent—to suppose that Mr. Jastram would have hesitated a
single instant to complain with energy in the exasperation that
conduct so reproachable, on the part of the authorities which owe to
him a certain regard and consideration, would have dictated to
him.
And yet, I repeat it, Mr. Jastram is silent in his protest upon all
the deeds now laid to the charge of the Haytian authorities.
No, Mr. Minister; you have said yourself that there is not any
instance where any officer of the republic of Hayti has ever
conducted himself in such a reprehensible
[Page 278]
manner toward a foreign agent, and I do not
see any motive that one of a friendly power, of a great republic,
our elder sister, which gives to us each day incontestable proofs of
sympathy, should not be surrounded with every regard and every
consideration.
You will doubtlessly acknowledge, by the sincere recital that I make
to you, by the perusal of the documents that I submit to you, that
some evil-disposed persons have taken pleasure in distorting the
facts which it has been my duty to expose to you in detail, in order
to place you in a position to take a fair and impartial view of the
same.
You are too much the friend of truth not to recognize the fact that
it is on the side of my government.
Be pleased, Mr. Minister, I pray, to accept the renewed assurance of
my very high consideration.
L. ETHÉART,
Secretary of State of
Foreign Affairs.
[Inclosure A.—Translation.]
Liberty–Equality–Fraternity.
republic of hayti.
On the twentieth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and
seventy-two, we, Decime Target, associate justice of the peace of
the police-court in this city, assisted by our clerk, on the demand
of the general commanding the arrondissement of Saint Marc, went to
the bureau of this locality, where we found the citizen Edmond
Martelly, merchant of this place, who had been called to give
information about the refuge of an accused person under arrest who
had escaped and entered the house occupied by the firm, G. Jastram
& Co. In consequence the said citizen, Edmond Martelly, upon our
invitation, consented voluntarily to accord to us admission to the
apartment occupied by him, for the purpose of making a domiciliary
visit, which might enable us to discover the accused party who had
escaped.
In testimony whereof we have drawn up the present act, which, having
been read, we have signed the same with the citizen Martelly, the
month, day, and year above written.
- ED. MARTELLY.
- DECIME TARGET.
- B. LEWIS.
[Inclosure B.—Translation.]
On the twentieth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and
seventy-two, we, Decime Target, associate justice of the peace of
the police-court of Saint Marc, assisted by our clerk, in pursuance
of the authorization given to us by the citizen Edmond Martelly to
enter in his house, to take the accused Batraville, aîné, who had
taken refuge there, which authorization is contained in the annexed
act, drawn up on even date. Accompanied by Mr. Martelly we have
entered by the corridor in the yard, where a door at the entrance
was opened by the said Edmond Martelly, which door is situated at
the foot of a staircase. In entering there we found the said
Batraville, aîné, crouching under the said staircase, when we
proceeded immediately to his arrest, in presence of the said citizen
Edmond Martelly.
In testimony whereof we have drawn up the present act, and after
reading of the same we have signed it, the day, year and month above
written.
- EDMOND MARTELLY.
- DECIME TARGET.
- B. LOUIS.
[Page 279]
[Inclosure C.—Translation.]
Mr. Jean to Mr.
Jastram.
Saint
Marc, March 20, 1872, 69th year of Independence.
No. 39.]
Liberty—equality.
republic of hayti.
Acoune Jean, Major-General commanding the department of the
Artibonite.
Sir: General Batraville, aîné, arrested for
political disorder, has just escaped from the hands of the
authorities, and has taken refuge in the American consulate, where
he is at the present moment.
In the name of public order, gravely menaced in the country, we
invite you, Mr. Consul, to surrender this citizen.
Knowing the interest that you have, as well as we, to see the
tranquillity of Hayti, we have the firm conviction that yon will
accede to our demand.
In this hope I renew to you the assurance of my high
consideration.
[Inclosure D.—Translation.]
Mr. Jean to Mr.
Jastram.
Saint
Marc, March 20, 1872, 69th year of Independence.
No. 40.]
Acoune Jean, Major-General commanding the department of the
Artibonite.
Sir: In writing to you my preceding
dispatch, to invite you to deliver General Batraville, aîné, to the
authorities, I thought that he was under the protection of the
American consulate. But knowing now that this general is at citizen
Martelly’s, who is a Haytian, I pray you to be so kind as to return
me my letter, in order that I may take other steps.
I salute you very cordially,
[Inclosure E.—Translation.]
Mr. Cauvin to
Mr. Rameau.
Saint
Marc, March 20, 1872, 69th year of Independence.
No. 45.]
Liberty—equality—fraternity.
republic of hayti.
Saint Elia Cauvin, Major-General of the Armies of the Republic,
aid-de-camp of the President of Hayti, commander ad interim of
the commune of Saint Marc.
Sir: I hasten to bring to your knowledge
that, according to an order which I received from the commission of
inquiry, transmitted through the commander of the arrondissement,
for the arrest of a person named Batraville, aîné, I sent the
general officer, Luc Jean Michaud, with a guard, for the arrest of
the aforesaid person. An instant after, the said superior officer
came to announce to me that while he was conducting the aforesaid
person under arrest to the bureau of the arrondissement, he,
(Batraville,) in passing before the store of Messieurs. Jastram
& Co., in feigning to hand a paper to Mr. Jastram, who was
standing before his door, leaning against one of the posts, rushed
into the interior of the store.
General Luc also wishing to enter immediately behind him to re-take
him, this general was violently prevented from doing so by the said
Jastram, and Mr. De Lande, who was present there.
I make this report, Secretary of State, in order that you may take
such steps as may be necessary under such circumstances.
I pray you to accept, Mr. Secretary of State, my distinguished
salutations.
[Page 280]
[Inclosure F.—Translation.]
Mr. Rameau to Mr.
Target.
Saint
Marc, March 20,
1872.
Sir: The commander of this locality has
just announced to me by his letter, No. 45, of this date, that in
conducting to prison a person named Batraville, aîné, under
accusation for political offenses, the said Batraville, while
passing the store of Messrs. G. Jastram & Co., rushed
therein.
I invite you to proceed immediately to the premises to demand the
opening of the house by those who dwell therein, and to cause the
accused, who has taken refuge there, to be seized. If this demand is
refused you will then fulfill all the formalities required under
such circumstances, and will act in such a manner as to have force
remain on the side of law.
I salute you very cordially,
[Inclosure G.—Translation.]
Mr. Jastram to
Mr. Luvieux.
United
States Commercial Agency,
Saint Marc, March 20,
1872.
I, the undersigned, vice-commercial agent of the United States,
residing at Saint Marc, declare that I protest in the most energetic
manner, in the name of the American flag, against the insult that
has been offered to me in taking by armed force General Batraville,
aîné, who voluntarily placed himself under the protection of the
said flag.
After this insult I hold myself subject to the orders of the United
States minister resident at Port au Prince.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 131.]
Mr. Bassett to
Mr. Ethéart
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, March 30, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of the 27th instant, relating to the
occurrences which took place at Saint Marc on the 20th instant
between the Haytian authorities and the United States consular
officer at that point. It was not, however, altogether without a
shadow of surprise that I read those portions of that dispatch which
relate to the assault on Mr. Jastram. For, at the first conversation
which I had with you on the subject, I understood you to say,
clearly and unqualifiedly, that you had no information further than
what I said to you at all bearing upon this assault; and at our last
interview on the 25th instant, both Captain Carpenter and myself
understood you not only to re-affirm this statement, but to add with
equal frankness that in view of the fact that you had no information
on this point, you felt that it would be necessary for you, before
responding to my propositions, to obtain from Saint Marc for
yourself evidence of the facts which were alleged in this regard. I
infer from the terms of your dispatch that perhaps you have not yet
made the proposed investigations.
The other portions of your dispatch refer to the occurrences other
than the assault upon and arrest of Mr. Jastram. These, as I stated
to you in my dispatch of the 25th instant, I propose neither to
discuss nor to refer to at present. It is not unknown to you that I
went to Saint Marc myself, and there made careful personal
investigation into all the circumstances and all the proceedings in
this affair. I was assisted in this work by the United States naval
commander, who accompanied me. As a result of this investigation, I
submit to you herewith inclosed three statements, one made by Mr.
Jastram, (marked A,) one made by Mr. De Lande, Her Britannic
Majesty’s vice-consul, (marked B,) and one made by Mr. Lota, French
vice-consul, (marked C.) In addition to what is said in these three
papers, I may state the fact of the assault upon and arrest of Mr.
Jastram seemed to me to be, at Saint Marc, a subject of common
speech and notoriety. I have, therefore, Mr. Minister, only to
re-affirm to you the terms of my dispatch addressed to you on this
subject on the 25th instant.
I am, &c,
[Page 281]
[Inclosure 3 in No.
131.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett.
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, April 3, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of the 30rh of March, which came to hand
the afternoon of Monday, April 1, instant.
I am still ready to confirm what I said to you in our two interviews,
that I have no details in reference to the vexations that Mr.
Jastram claims to have been subjected to by the Haytian authorities
at Saint Marc. That it was only through you that I learned the fact,
since all the dispatches concerning that affair which I have
received, both from the President of the republic and from my
colleague, the secretary of state of justice, as well as all the
documents, of which I have sent you certified copies, say not one
word about it.
The inclosures A, B, C, found under cover of your aforesaid dispatch,
have claimed all my attention, as you have well imagined, and I have
hastened to cause copies of them to be prepared to be expedited to
Saint Marc, in order that the authorities of that locality may
enlighten me on the subject.
It is now a question to enter into a cross-examination, since, as you
know, all the information that has reached me does not say a single
word about the arrest of, and attack upon, Mr. Jastram. In order
that the quickest possible dispatch may be given to this procedure,
I write directly to the President of Hayti, who will give special
orders to this effect.
I will, therefore, have the honor very soon to communicate with you
again in reference to the facts charged against the authorities of
Saint Marc.
I pray you to accept, Mr. Minister, the renewed assurance of my very
high consideration.
[Inclosure 4 in No. 131.]
Mr. Bassett to
Mr. Ethéart
[Non-official.]
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, April 16, 1872.
Sir: I send this private and unofficial
note to say to you that, from the tenor of your dispatch of the 3d
instant, I have been in daily expectation of a further communication
from you in relation to the affair of Mr. Jastram. The President and
your colleagues have been here now for several days, and I suppose
you have had every opportunity to familiarize yourself with all the
facts complained of in my dispatches of the 25th and 30th
ultimo.
If you have investigated those facts, as I suppose you have done, you
have, no doubt, found that my statement of them is substantially
correct, and that therefore certain unlawful and unjustifiable
proceedings were taken by Haytian authority against a consular
officer of the United States at Saint Marc. You certainly cannot
expect that either the Government of the United States or any other
power represented here will stand idly by and allow such proceedings
to pass unnoticed. The reparations which I ask of your government
are of such a character that it is easy for you to comply with them.
It is my sincere desire to avoid all misunderstandings and
unpleasant feelings with your government. As a man of the same race
as yourself, I have desired and I do still desire to see the Haytian
government in success and prosperity. It would be very painful for
me to see anything but pleasant relations between us. But while I
entertain these sentiments, I do not forget that I must insist upon
what comports well with the dignity, honor, and power of the great
Government which I represent here. And I submit to you now, in all
candor, whether it is not better to make a settlement of the Jastram
affair at once on the terms named by me in my dispatch of March 25,
1872, rather than to allow it to become a subject of unpleasant
controversy between my Government and yours.
I have done my part in the affair in proposing such easy terms of
settlement; it remains for you to do yours.
Expecting to hear from you at once on the subject,
I am, &c.,
[Page 282]
[Inclosure 5 in No.
131.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett.
[Non-official.]
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Fort au Prince, April 17, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your private and non-official dispatch of yesterday’s
date, the contents of which I have noted with care.
If, up to the present moment, I have not made known to you the result
of the inquiry instituted at Saint Marc, in reference to the charges
alleged against the authorities of that city growing out of the
affair of Mr. Jastram, it is because the dispatch that I addressed
to the President of the republic on the subject crossed him in going
to its destination as he was returning to the capital; and it is
only since his arrival here that orders have been given for the
prosecution of this inquiry, by sending to Saint Marc the documents
relating thereto. I therefore pray you to await yet a few days
longer, to obtain a definite solution of this affair.
Your sentiments, my dear Mr. Bassett, toward the Haytian people and
my government, as well as the sentiments of the great republic which
you represent so honorably, for a young nation which has need of
being sustained and encouraged, are known to me; and I can assure
you that all my efforts will tend to maintain and to consolidate the
good harmony which exists between the United States and Hayti.
I pray you, my dear Mr. Bassett, to accept the sincere expression of
my fraternal sentiments.
[Inclosure 6 in No. 131.]
Mr. Bassett to
Mr. Ethéart.
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, May 2, 1872.
Sir: In your dispatch of the 3d ultimo you
state your intention to cause all celerity to be given to your
investigation of the Jastram affair, in order that it might be
terminated. Again, in your unofficial note of the 17th ultimo, you
inform me that the dispatch which you had addressed to His
Excellency the President had missed him while he was in the north,
and you ask me therefore to await a few days longer in order that
the result of the affair might be reached.
You will observe that a month has now passed since the date of your
dispatch, and that two weeks have elapsed since I last heard from
you on the subject. It occurs to me that you have, therefore,
probably had the time which you deemed necessary for making your
investigation. And I presume that you have found, from your
investigation, that my statement of the facts, as to the assault on
Mr. Jastram, is substantially correct.
I therefore have now the pleasure to await your answer to my dispatch
of the 25th of March.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 7 in No.
131.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, May 3, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of yesterday’s date, relating to the
Jastram affair, the contents of which dispatch I hastened to
communicate to the council of secretaries of state.
My colleague of the department of interior, who is charged to order a
new inquiry into this affair, will not fail to obtain the result of
this investigation, which he expects to receive on the arrival of
the post from the north, due here at this moment; in which case I
will have the honor to respond in a definite manner to your
aforesaid dispatch.
Be pleased, Mr. Minister, to accept the renewed assurance of my high
consideration.
[Page 283]
[Inclosure 8 in No. 131.]
Mr. Bassett to
Mr. Ethéart
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, May 31, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to ask your attention
again to the dispatches which I addressed to you on the 25th and
30th of March last, relative to the affair of Mr. Jastram at Saint
Marc. In those dispatches the details of the assault on Mr. Jastram,
and of the violation of his consular office, are given. In your
dispatches on the subject to me you have expressed the desire to
investigate for yourself the substance of these details at Saint
Marc. But it is now two months since those dispatches were sent to
you. Saint Marc is within easy communication of Port au Prince. A
courier can pass between the two cities in a single day. And yet the
sixty days that have passed since my dispatches reached you have
brought me no answer to the demands made upon your government in
these dispatches.
I have now the honor to make it known to you that the Government of
the United States feels, as I have already intimated to you, that an
international grievance has been committed in the assault on Mr.
Jastram, and in the violation of his consular office at Saint Marc,
on the 20th of March last, by persons in the service of your
government, and my Government will insist upon due reparation for
the offense. The terms of reparation stated in the dispatch which I
addressed to you on the 25th of March last will, I think, be
acceptable to the Government of the United States.
I beg you also to observe that unless I receive a favorable answer to
that dispatch within a reasonable time from this date—more than
sixty days having already passed since it was placed in your hands—I
shall feel constrained to take such delay as evidence of an
indisposition on the part of your government to make the reparation
which I have asked and which is customary in such cases, and I shall
also feel it my duty to make it the subject of unfavorable
representation to the Government of the United States.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 9 in No.
131.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett.
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, June 5, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of May 31, ultimo, in which you call my
attention to the one which your addressed to me on the 25th of
March, relative to the affair of Mr. Jastram at Saint Marc.
The verbal communications which I have made to you have informed you
of the difficulties which have prevented the inquiry that was to
have been made; and at each time that the occasion has offered
itself I have not failed to express to you how much my government
had it at heart to give every satisfaction to yours in a question
which interests to such a high degree the honor and the dignity of
the great republic which you represent.
The inquiry above referred to not having yet attained its end, after
a delay of two months in spite of all the efforts that I have made
to bring it to a satisfactory result, I can now form a conception of
the solicitude manifested in your dispatch of the 31st ultimo, and I
acknowledge that it is but equitable to subscribe to the just
reparations formulated in your dispatch of the 25th of March. I
offer this, then, Mr. Minister, as a new proof of the desire of my
government to preserve the good harmony which exists between our two
countries, a harmony, we must render you the justice to say, you
contribute to maintain by all the means in your power.
In consequence, my government makes it a duty to declare to yours
that it regrets very much that Mr. Jastram has had cause to complain
of the conduct of the authorities of Saint Marc, on the occasion of
the arrest of General Batraville. My government would not fail to
respond to the wish that you express, to have censured, or punished,
the superior officer of whom Mr. Jastram complains, if this general,
who, I think, did not commit with premeditation this wrong on the
American agent, had not since that time paid, in his own person, the
last tribute to nature.
The United States legation in Hayti, with whose high functions you
are invested, Mr. Minister, will recognize in this sincere
expression of regret how much my government has at heart to surround
with respect and consideration the representatives of foreign
powers: and it hastens to seize this circumstance to give you the
assurance
[Page 284]
that in future
every measure shall he taken to command for the American agents the
respect that is due to them, and to prevent all further inquietude
on their part in regard to proceedings outside of the exact forms
prescribed by the law. The exequaturs given by my government to
these agents command the local authorities to observe toward them
such a course of action. I hope, Mr. Minister, that you will
appreciate this declaration, the loyalty of which is of a nature to
dissipate all misunderstanding, every cloud of doubt, which might
tend to obscure the good relations subsisting between the great
republic that you represent and my country. I will not terminate
this dispatch without consigning therein the assurance with which,
his very particular regret, the President of the republic charges me
to express to you.
“The affair would have been explained, and every satisfaction would
have been given to the American minister,” said the chief of state,
“if I had been at Saint Marc when he went there about two months
since.”
I pray you to accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of my very high
consideration.
[Inclosure 10 in No. 131.]
Mr. Bassett to
Mr. Ethéart.
Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince, June 7, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch of the 5th instant, relative to the affair
of Mr. Jastram at Saint Marc. I take pleasure in stating to you that
the friendly spirit in which you have recorded the regret of your
government at the signal indignity offered to Mr. Jastram, at Saint
Marc, on the 20th of March last, the disposition to accede to my
request that the persons in the service of your government who took
part in the proceedings against Mr. Jastram should be made sensible
of its displeasure, and the guarantee that in future no inquietude
shall be given to consular officers of the United States in Hayti,
outside of the exact forms required by law, will, I think, be
acceptable to my Government.
As I have ordered Mr. Jastram to return at once to his post of duty,
I would suggest that, if you have not already done so, you cause
special orders to be issued to the authorities at Saint Marc,
instructing them to see that he is treated with all the respect due
to his official position. I make this suggestion because I have
learned that there is some unfriendly feeling toward him at Saint
Marc in consequence of the occurrences which took place there in
reference to him on the 20th of March last.
I have. &c,
[Inclosure 11 in No.
131.—Translation.]
Mr. Ethéart to
Mr. Bassett.
Department of State of Foreign Affairs,
Port au Prince, June 8, 1872.
Sir: I had the honor to receive your
dispatch of the 7th instant, acknowledging the receipt of the one
which I addressed to you on the 5th.
The satisfactory thought in which you leave my government, in
announcing to it that your Government will accept the expression of
regret that I conveyed to you in reference to the Jastram affair,
imposes upon me the duty of informing you that orders have been
transmitted to the authorities of Saint Marc, to the end that the
American consular agent shall be treated with all the respect due to
his official position.
Be pleased to accept, Mr. Minister, the renewed assurance of my high
consideration.
