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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 447

dier, promptly and faithfully executing the orders of my superior, and
obeying the will of my government. Our first conference with President
Hyppolite and his Foreign Secretary was held at the palace at Port au Prince
on the 28th of January, 1891. At this conference, which was, in fact, the real
beginning of the negotiations for the Môle St. Nicolas, the wishes of our
Government were made known to the Government of Haïti by Rear-Admiral
Gherardi; and I must do him the justice to say that he stated the case with
force and ability. If anything was omitted or insisted upon calculated to
defeat the object in view, this defect must be looked for in the Admiral's
address, for he was the principal speaker, as he was also the principal
negotiator.

"Admiral Gherardi based our claim for this concession upon the ground
of services rendered by the United States to the Hyppolite revolution. He
claimed it also on the ground of promises made to our Government by
Hyppolite and Firmin through their agents while the revolution was in prog-
ress, and affirmed but for the support of our Government the revolution would
have failed. I supplemented his remarks, not in opposition to his views, but
with the intention of impressing the Go,ernment of Haïti with the idea that
the concession asked for was in the line of good neighborhood and advanced
civilization, and in every way consistent with the autonomy of Haïti, urging
that the concession would be a source of strength rather than of weakness to
the Haïti government; that national isolation was a policy of the past; that
the necessity for it in Haïti, for which there was an apology at the commence-
ment of her existence, no longer exists; that her relation to the world and that
of the world to her are not what they were when her independence was
achieved that her true policy now is to touch the world at all points that make
for civilization and commerce; and that, instead of asking in alarm what will
happen if a naval station be conceded to the United States, it should ask,
what will happen if such a naval station be not conceded? I insisted that
there was far more danger to be apprehended to the stability of the existing
Government from allowing the rumor to float in the air that it was about to
sell out the country than by granting the lease of the Môle and letting the
country know precisely what had been done and the reasons in the premises
for the same; that a fact accomplished carries with it a power to promote
acquiescence; and I besought them to meet the question with courage.

"In replying to us Mr. Firmin demanded to know on which of the two
grounds we based our claim for the possession of this naval station. If it were
demanded, he said, upon any pledge made by President Hyppolite and him-
self, he denied the existence of any such promise or pledge, and insisted that