77

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 451

being free from the conditions specified in the old one, the question arose
between the Admiral and myself as to whether or not we should begin our
new negotiations, under our new commission, separate and entirely apart
from all that had been attempted under the instructions contained in the old
letter. On this point I differed from the Admiral. I took the position that we
should ignore the past altogether, and proceed according to the instructions
of the new letter alone, unincumbered by any terms or limitations contained
in the old letter. I felt sure that there were features in the conditions of the
old letter which would be met by the representatives of Haïti with strong
objections. But the Admiral and his able lieutenant insisted that the present
letter did not exclude the conditions of the old one, but was, in its nature,
only supplementary to them. and hence that this was simply a continuation
of what had gone before. It was therefore decided to proceed with the nego-
tiations on the basis of both the old and the new letter. Under the former
letter of instructions our terms were precise and explicit; under the latter we
were left largely to our own discretion; we were simply to secure from the
government of Haïti a lease of the Môle St. Nicolas for a naval station.

"The result is known. Haïti refused to grant the lease, and alleged that to
do so was impossible under the hard terms imposed in the previous letter of
instructions. I do not know that our Government would have accepted a
naval station from Haïti upon any other or less stringent terms or conditions
than those exacted in our first letter of instructions; but I do know that the
main grounds alleged by Haïti for its refusal were the conditions set forth in
this first letter of instructions, one of which is expressed as follows: 'That so
long as the United States may be the lessee of the Môle St. Nicolas, the
Government of Haïti will not lease or otherwise dispose of any port or harbor
or other territory in its dominions, or grant any special privileges or rights of
use therein, to any other power, state, or government." This was not only a
comprehensive limitation of the power of Haïti over her own territory, but a
denial to all others of that which we claimed for ourselves.

"But no one cause fully explains our failure to get a naval station at the
Môle. One fundamental element in our non-success was found, not in any
aversion to the United States or in any indifference on my part, as has often
been charged, but in the Government of Haïti itself. It was evidently timid.
With every disposition to oblige us, it had not the courage to defy the wellknown, deeply-rooted and easily-excited prejudices and traditions of the
Haïtien people. Nothing is more repugnant to the thoughts and feelings of
the masses of that country than the alienation of a single rood of their terri-
tory to a foreign power.