raystwo@webtv.net (Raymond Speer) wrote in
news:14774-4B6037C0-55@storefull-3253.bay.webtv.net :
>
> Iume the postumes that Charles' flotilla sails into the Bay of
> Port au Prince in the first year of JQ Adams' Administration. Further,
> those ships do not evacuate in a week but they stay at least during some
> fighting.
>
> Is there a chance that Adams will announce that the whole Monroe
> Doctrine is nothing but a mouse's roar and the USA actually is never
> going to resist any European Power that wants to conquer any country in
> either America?
No. He will just say nothing about it, and everyone will know the reason
why--Haiti is different from the rest of Latin America because it is black
and the product of a slave revolt. If the French impose onerous terms on
a nation whose independence we have not recognized, that's none of our
business. JQA got enough grief from Southerners for sending delegates to
the Panama Congress where it was feared that Haiti *might* be on the
agenda.
As Senator Hayne of South Carolina put it: "Our policy, with regard to
Hayti, is plain. We can never acknowledge her independence. Other States
will do as they please--but let us take the high ground, that these
questions belong to a class, which the peace and safety of a large portion
of our Union forbids us even to discuss..'"
http://books.google.com/books?id=wSQPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA427
Or as Thomas Hart Benton put it: "Our policy towards Haiti, the old San
Domingo, has been fixed for three and thirty years. We trade with her, but
no diplomatic relations have been established between us. We purchase
coffee from her, and pay her for it; but we interchange no consuls or
ministers. We receive no mulatto consuls, or black ambassadors from her.
And why? Because the peace of eleven States in this Union will not permit
the fruits of a successful negro insurrection to be exhibited among them.
It will not permit black consuls and ambassadors to establish themselves
in our cities, and to parade through our country, and give to their fellow
blacks in the United States, proof in hand of the honors which await them,
for a like successful effort on their part. It will not permit the fact to
be seen, and told, that for the murder of their masters and mistresses,
they are to find *friends* among the white people of these United
States..."
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA69&id=6HAPAAAAYAAJ
The US refused to do anything that could be interpreted as a step toward
recognition of Haiti, even when there were good commercial reasons to do
so:
"In 1817, Septimus Tyler, an American agent, was appointed to attempt the
collection of $132,000, a sum U.S. merchants believed Haiti owed them due
to a number of ship seizures that had occurred in the previous several
years. Tyler failed because his letter did not acknowledge Haiti's current
ruler, Henri Christophe, as the recognized sovereign. In 1820 a group of
American merchants again requested government action in order to collect
the claims, but John Quincy Adams, now Secretary of State, informed
Congress on March 27, 1820 that 'A formal recognition of the kingdom of
Hayti not being deemed expedient, no further measures have been found
practicable on the part of the Executive in the case'...Although Adams did
not specify the reasons that recognition was not expedient, the concurrent
debates over the admission of Missouri and the bitterness of many
Americans on the subject of slavery thus revealed may have had a great
deal to do with his response.
"Meanwhile, the continued struggle of the Spanish-American colonies for
independence raised questions for U.S. policy-makers similar to those
connected with Haiti. The circumstances were essentially the same, except
for the question of race. In 1817 and 1818, the United States began
recognizing the independence of many of these former colonies and formed a
commission charged with strengthening commercial ties with them. Those who
spoke on the matter, however, skillfully avoided any mention of Haiti.
Even Henry Clay, in his notable speech of March 22, 1818, could refer to
the traditional policy of the U.S. to recognize de facto governments
without any reference to the one Latin American nation whose independence
had been established through revolutionary struggle long before the others
had even begun their efforts...
"The Monroe administration was no more inclined to acknowledge Haiti's
independence. In the crucial year of 1823 when the Monroe Doctrine was
formulated, the president felt compelled to restate the official policy.
Senator Holmes had recently advanced a resolution seeking information
about the status of relations with Haiti and a fresh request for
recognition had just arrived from President Boyer. In a special address
to Congress on February 25, 1823, he again categorically refused to afford
recognition to Haiti. For John Quincy Adams's part, his role in
formulating the refusal is unknown but on the subject of the Holmes
proposal he speculated that it was a 'trap' set to endanger his chances of
securing the Democratic nomination for president in 1824...Adams had
clearly tempered his views on Haiti significantly since his Senate
opposition to the embargo of 1806, or at least came to view more clearly
the political inexpediency of taking a firm stand on Haitian
recognition...
"Pressure for recognition continued in the commercial sector. Northern
merchants like Caleb Cushing and John Dodge published eloquent defenses of
Haitian recognition and expressed the hope that the importance of mutual
trade would soon override the prejudices that stood in its way.110 When
their appeals had no effect, Haitian president Boyer sent a direct request
for recognition to John Quincy Adams. 'The Haitian people,' he wrote, 'do
not think that the American people, who in another epoch found themselves
in the same situation and felt the same need, can refuse them the justice
that is due them.' He then reverted to a much more vulnerable argument,
asserting that while 'there is no similarity of color between the sons of
America and those of Hayti, there is between them the similarity of
feeling and will'... As might be expected, the president directed that
the letter not be answered....
"In 1832 Boyer attempted to induce President Andrew Jackson to change the
title of the commercial agents operating in Haiti to that of consul,
thereby securing a kind of implied recognition. In exchange, Boyer was
willing to remove the additional ten percent duty imposed on American
imports. According to William Miles, the American commercial agent at Les
Cayes at the time, the naval commander carried the provisional agreement
'soon returned with its quietus from Washington. The sore spot was
color.'"
http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Bosscher%20Jonathan%20E.pdf?acc_num=bgsu1214265490
--
David Tenner
dtenner@ameritech.net
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