No. 312.
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.

No. 365.]

Sir: Referring to my No. 364, of the 8th instant, and especially to its inclosures A, D, E, and F, which relate to the asylum sought and obtained in the legation by persons under pursuit by the authorities of this government, I have the honor to state that I have had further correspondence and personal conference on the same subject with the minister of foreign affairs and his colleagues; that I have been successful in obtaining permission to embark, and have already embarked for foreign territory, Messieurs Alerte, Modé, and Iacinthe, named in the inclosure F above referred to, also a Mr. Floriot, one of the supposed associates of General Boisrond Canal, and in connection with my colleague of Great Britain, Ex-Minister Ethéart, and Ex-Senator Duval, and that there are now left in asylum under our flag here only General Boisrond Oaual and his younger brother.

Under date of the 8th instant the minister sent me a dispatch, (inclosure A,) in which, denying my right to extend asylum to General Canal, he insists that I should deliver him up, and notifies me that in case I cannot agree to the view of his dispatch, his government is decided to refer the question to Washington.

To this I returned Answer (inclosure B) on the 12th instant, assuring him that I differed with him as to the application under existing circumstances of the view he had expressed, and that I maintained the tenor of my previous dispatches on the subject, which would of course call into operation his expressed purpose to refer the question to you, and by consequence, it seemed to me, suspend further official correspondence relative thereto between this legation and his government until his appeal could be heard from.

* * * * * * *

Accordingly, on the 14th instant, the minister addressed me another note, (inclosure C,) rather mildly worded, saying that his government had charged him to express to me anew, before submitting the question to Washington, its desire that I should deliver over General Boisrond Canal to “justice.” I acknowledged receipt (inclosure D) of this note on the 17th instant, repeating the view expressed in my dispatch of the 5th instant, (see inclosure F to my No. 364,) and seating that no departure would for the present be made from any ground which we had heretofore taken on the subject.

It was while this correspondence was going on that I secured, by friendly personal representations to the minister and his colleagues, permission to embark my refugees other than General Boisrond Canal and his younger brother, and that my colleague of Great Britain also succeeded in obtaining a like permission to em bark General Loyer Barreau, who was especially named in one of the government decrees with General Canal. These permissions were obtained in the face of a decree from the minister of interior announcing that all persons here included in the decree of banishment who did not quit the country within twenty-four hours would be considered outside of the law, and every citizen would be invited to shoot them down at sight.

I am not unaware that the ground taken in my several dispatches, marked as inclosures D and F to my No. 364, and B and D herewith sent, may not be in accord with the requirements of public law, as it is [Page 697] recognized by states perfectly constituted and established; nor am I ununmiudful of the views entertained by the Department as they are expressed to me in your No. 24, of December 16, 1869, but circumstances seemed to crowd in upon me without warning, and in such a way as to leave me almost no choice. Men maddened by passion, inflamed, as I am credibly informed, by rum, and elated by consciousness of armed power, were pursuing their fellow-countrymen with red-handed violence. To have closed my door upon the men pursued would have been for me to denythem their last chance of escape from being brutally put to death before my eyes. I thought it my duty under the circumstances to do what I could to protect them from such a fate and to guard them until passion might cool and violence spend its force.

There are other grounds also for the tenor of my said dispatches. The right of asylum has never been renounced by this government. On the contrary, each successive administration has clung to that right, and practically, once or twice formally, refused to assent to its discontinuance. Only lately, as I had the honor of stating to you personally, when I was at the Department in November last, the work of completing our consular treaty with this government was arrested because the Haytian plenipotentiary would not agree to having the exercise of this right taken away from even our consulates in the inferior ports. And besides, no foreign power represented here has ever withdrawn the right from its legation in this country. Great Britain alone has formally prohibited the exercise of the right in its vice-consulates in this island, but it did this only after bombarding Cape Haytian in 1865 and humiliating Santo Domingo in 1873, in vindication of its perfect right to act solely according to its own pleasure as to the continuation of the practice of granting asylum in those consulates. It was partly in view of such facts as these, it may be supposed, that you instructed me in your No. 32, of February 4, 1870, that “since the custom is tolerated by the other great powers, the Department is not disposed to place the representative of the United States in an invidious position by positively forbidding him to continue the practice.” I note also in the same dispatch your admonition to be discreet in exercising this tacit permission for its continuance.

Moreover, any weaker ground than that which 1 took in my said dispatches to the Haytian minister, would, in my opinion, have probably led to the invasion of my residence, violence against men under our protection, and a consequent humiliation of the American flag, unless, yielding in a cowardly manner to intimated menaces, I had delivered the men up. This may be called acting upon expedients rather than upon the full requirements of rigid law. But I am faithfully stating to you facts.

I firmly maintain all that is said in the last pages of my No. 364, in reference to * * * charges of conspiracy upon which men are persecuted, exiled, and outlawed, and in reference to General Boisrond Canal and his alleged associates. I do not think he, who is sought for with so much passion and ill-concealed desire for vengeance, is a criminal. * * * He is a man who, as far as I can learn, is without a personal enemy, although known everywhere in this country, both for his own manly character and as the grandson of General Boisrond Tonnerre, secretary to the Emperor Dessalines and the author of the declaration of Haytian independence.

* * * * * * *

The same method was adopted with me here in 1869 and 1870, when I protected numbers of Salnave’s friends from violence, and had under [Page 698] our flag, men who were then, as this man is now, charged with crimes, and declared outside of the law. It was adopted against Ex-Minister Haentjens, and more recently against Ex-Minister Lamothe, when each of these found refuge in the British legation; and I predict that it will continue to be adopted against every prominent man who, pursued by government wrath, may find himself under a foreign flag in this country.

* * * * * * *

Now this government has, it seems, taken an appeal to you, through Minister Preston, as to the case of General Boisrond Canal, just as it has recently appealed to Her Britannic Majesty’s government in the case of Her Majesty’s vice-consul at Port au Paix, (see my No. 360 of the 17th ultimo,) just as it wished to, and some way did make the same appeal in the case of Ex-Minister Lamothe, (see my No. 355, of April 9, 1875,) and as it appealed in 1873 to the French government in regard to the action of the French chargé d’affaires, on the claims question. I speak after a conscientious balancing of all the evidence within the reach of my six years’ residence here, and a full knowledge of all these men, their habits of thought and action, after careful consultation with my diplomatic colleagues, who may be supposed to be in this case impartial men, when I say that I sincerely hope that my action in behalf of General Boisrond Canal may not be disapproved, that this government may receive no encouragement to look lightly upon our legation flag, and no encouragement to vent any instincts it may have against au honest man and worthy citizen who finds himself, certainly without any wish or desire of mine, under the protection of our flag. I do not wish to see our flag lowered before the eyes of foreign representatives here.

* * * * * * *

I beg you to believe also that if we were to accede to the demand to deliver up General Canal, this people, including the very men who make the demand, would despise us at heart, and inwardly execrate our conduct for being the first ever to yield to such a demand under any circumstances.

It has been the universal custom, in this country, to allow persons who have found asylum under the flag of a foreign representative, without regard to the charges or prejudices against such persons for the time being, to embark for foreign territory, or more rarely to return quietly to their homes. I know of no single instance where this rule has been departed from, by the government of Hayti, the affair at Cape Haytian in 1865, not falling strictly without this rule, and we certainly ought to be allowed to avail ourselves of it in the case of General Boisrond Canal. I would respectfully suggest, if you will permit me to do so, that an intimation to this effect be given to Mr. Preston, should he make his government’s appeal to you in the matter.

I have trusted that my good personal relations with all the members of this government, and with all my colleagues, who feel naturally enough a lively interest in the question, would enable me to calm down passion, so that I might make the embarkation; and while still hoping to be able to accomplish this end, I must say that I have never found the chief of state more obstinate in any case than in this. He receives my representations about it in the most friendly manner, but says he must insist on the delivery over to the government of General Boisrond Canal, never mentioning his associate, General Calice Carrié, who is quietly in refuge at the British consulate. My premises are still surrounded by hundreds of armed men, watching every movement within, filling with fear and anxiety my household, giving us all no inconsiderable [Page 699] annoyance, and rendering us liable at least to accident at any moment.

I think the friendly presence of one of our national vessels would add moral force to my representations to the authorities in these rather trying circumstances, as the presence of such vessels of Great Britain and Spain has already added to similar representations of my colleagues from those countries.

I am, &c.,

EBENEZER D. BASSETT.
[A.—Inclosure 1 in No. 365.—Translation.]

Mr. Excellent to Mr. Bassett.

Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive the letter which you addressed to me on the 4th instant, by which, in answering my dispatch of the 3d of this month, wherein I requested you to give me a list of the persons who had taken refuge at your house in consequence of recent events, you expressed to me your regret at not being able to accede to my demand because those persons are, according to you, upon the territory and under the protection of the United States.

My government. Mr. Minister, cannot place itself upon the same stand-point as that which you have taken in the appreciation of this matter. Its view is, that if the right of exterritoriality insures to the representatives of foreign powers the inviolability of their persons and residences, it does not acknowledge their power to give asylum to and to protect any category of criminals belonging to the country where they are accredited.

On the contrary, and more particularly, the treaty of extradition concluded between Hayti and the United States of America, on the 20th of August, 1865, by virtue of articles 38, 39, and 40, leaves no room for the admission that this asylum and this protection can be accorded to persons placed in the condition of General Boisrond Canal and his accomplices, who are sought out for criminal acts, and not on account of political offenses, for which alone the 41st article of the said treaty might be invoked.

Under these considerations, my government believes itself to have good grounds for insisting, as it does insist, that in the interest of public security, (de la sûreté de l’état,) you should deliver up to it General Boisrond Canal and his accomplices, and it is its desire in this matter that I transmit to you by the present dispatch.

Be pleased to accept, Mr. Minister, the renewed assurance of my hi oh consideration.

EXCELLENT,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

P. S.—If, against the expectation of the government, it should happen that we cannot agree in our views relative to the subject with which we are occupied in this correspondence, I am charged by the government to announce to you its intention, now already resolved upon, to submit the question to the appreciation of the Government, at Washington, (Cabinet des États-Unis.)

EXCELLENT.

Mr. E. D. Bassett,
United States Minister-Resident.

[B.—Inclosure 2 in No. 365.]

Mr. Bassett to Mr. Excellent.

Monsieur: I have had the honor to receive your dispatch of the 8th instant acknowledging receipt of mine of the 4th instant relative to persons who may have taken refuge under my flag. I regret that the pressure of work on hand for the packet which has only left this noon, and my poor health, have prevented me from giving you a more prompt response.

[Page 700]

I do not propose to follow you in your discussion of the points of public law which you raise in your dispatch. I beg leave to differ with you as to the application, under existing circumstances, of the view which you express, and to maintain the tenor Of my previous dispatches on the subject.

I take due note of the intention of your government, in this circumstance, to refer the case to the Government at Washington. This procedure will, necessarily, suspend further official communication on the subject between the legation and your government until some result of your appeal to Washington can be heard from.

I have the honor to be, Monsieur, your obedient servant,

EBENEZER D. BASSETT.

Monsieur Excellent,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

[C.—Inclosure 3 in No. 365.—Translation.]

Mr. Excellent to Mr. Bassett.

Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 12th instant; in response to mine of the 8th of this month relative to persons who have been able to find refuge with you, (chez vous.)

Before the government submits to the appreciation of the Cabinet at Washington the case of General Boisrond Canal, it charges me to express to you anew its desire to see you deliver over to it this general, who, finding himself within the scope (sous le coup) of articles 33 and 39 of the treaty of extradition concluded between Hayti and the United States of America, as I have had the honor to announce it to you previously, renders well founded the demand which the government has addressed to you in respect to him, in the object of giving him over to justice.

The government is well persuaded, Mr. Minister, that after a new examination, which it prays you to be pleased to make, of the case, you will recognize the legitimacy of its demand and accede to its desire, convinced, as you will be, that the American Government will not view the case differently.

Be pleased to accept, Mr. Minister, the new assurances of my verv high consideration.

EXCELLENT,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Mr. E. D. Bassett,
Minister-Besideht af the United States, Port au Prince.

[D.—Inclosure 4 in No. 365.]

Mr. Bassett to Mr. Excellent.

Monsieur: Asking your special reference to your dispatch of the 8th instant and to mine of the 12th instant in reply thereto, I have the honor to state that the respect which my Government and myself entertain for your government, and especially for President Domingue, impels me to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 14th instant, in which you announce to me that your government, before it submits to the appreciation of the Cabinet at Washington the case of General Boisrond Canal, has charged you to express to me anew its desire to see me deliver over to it this general.

In the dispatch which I addressed to you on the 5th instant I had the honor to ask your attention to the fact that the right of asylum has been uniformly exercised by foreign representatives of every grade in Hayti since the foundation of Haytian independence. In no country on this hemisphere has this right been more frequently exercised or more fully consecrated than in Hayti during the past seventy years. And yet in no single instance during all that number of years has such a request as you make ever been complied with, either in Hayti, or, as I am inclined to believe, in any other country in the world. Is it possible, in view of’these facts, that you should expect this legation to be the first to set the example of delivering up before the civilized world any one who has once found an asylum under its flag? We have a friendly disposition toward your government. We shall be happy to comply with its well-founded desires [Page 701] on all suitable occasions. We wish to oblige it. But I beg you to believe us that no departure will, for the present, be made from any ground which we have heretofore taken upon the subject to which your note of the 14th instant relates.

I am, &c., &c.,

EBENEZER D. BASSETT.

Monsieur Excellent,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.