72

446 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

however, the advantage, so far as I was able to believe anything so anoma-
lous, of preparing me for the advent of my successor, and of softening the
shock of my fall from my high estate. My connection with this negotiation,
as all may see, was very humble, secondary, and subordinate. The glory of
success or the shame of defeat was to belong to the new Minister. I was made
subject to the Commissioner. This was not quite so bad as the New York
agent had prepared me to expect, but it was not what I thought I deserved
and what my position as Minister called for at the hands of my Government.
Strangely enough, all of my instructions concerning the Môle came to me
through my newly constituted superior. He was fresh from the face of our
Secretary of State, knew his most secret intentions and the wants and wishes
of the Government, and I naturally enough, received the law from his lips.

"The situation suggested the resignation of my office as due to my
honor; but reflection soon convinced me that such a course would subject me
to a misconstruction more hurtful than any which, in the circumstances,
could justly arise from remaining at my post. The Government had decided
that a special Commissioner was needed in Haïti. No charges were brought
against me, and it was not for me to set up my wisdom or my resentment as
a safer ruler of action than that prescribed by the wisdom of my Government.
Besides, I did not propose to be pushed out of office in this way. I therefore
resolved to cooperate with the special Commissioner in good faith and in all
earnestness, and did so to the best of my ability.

"It was first necessary, in furtherance of the mission of Admiral Gherardi,
to obtain for him as early as possible an interview with Mr. Firmin, the
Haïti Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with His Excellency Florvil
Hyppolite, the President of Haïti. This, by reason of my position as Minister
and my good relations with the Government of Haïti, I accomplished only
two days after the arrival of the Admiral. Not even my accusers can charge
me with tardiness in obeying in this, or in anything else, the orders of my
superior. In acting under him I had put aside the fact of the awkward position
in which the officious agent had placed me, and the still more galling fact
that the instructions I received had not reached me from the State Department
in the usual and appropriate way, as also the fact that I had been in some
degree subjected to the authority of an officer who had not, like myself, been
duly appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate of the United
States, and yet one whose name and bearing proclaimed him practically the
man having full command. Neither did I allow anything like a feeling of
offended dignity to diminish my zeal and alacrity in carrying out his instruc-
tions. I consoled myself with the thought that I was acting like a good sol-