Bassett to Evarts, September 3, 1877

No. 172. Mr. Bassett to Mr. Evarts.

Sir: In my No. 527, of the 17th ultimo, I had the honor to invite your attention briefly to a ministerial crisis which was then here existing, and which had been brought on by a vote in the Chamber of Deputies declaring the conduct, in a circumstance named, of two of President Canal’s ministers anti-patriotic and blamable. It is the purpose of the present dispatch to give a fuller account of the proceedings attending the crisis.

It was stated in my said No. 527 that the minister of the interior, Mr. Thoby, had already withdrawn from the cabinet in consequence of the vote of the chamber, and it was presumed that the minister of finance and foreign affairs, Mr. Ethéart, would be forced to retire also. The presumption proved correct, for the chamber, finding that Mr. Ethéart was in no way disposed to retire before its vote declaring his conduct unpatriotic and blamable, refused to hold any further communication with him, and he was thus forced into retirement.

The circumstances of the retiring of MM. Thoby and Ethéart were such as to lead President Canal to encounter no inconsiderable difficulty in finding others at once capable and willing to take the responsibility of entering into his cabinet; for experience had clearly shown that any cabinet officer was liable at any moment to be blamed, forced into retirement, and held up to public disfavor, at the mere pleasure of the Chamber of Deputies.

But on the 23d ultimo, after the cabinet had remained incomplete for nine days, President Canal issued what is here called a “decree,” announcing that Mr. Felix Carrié had been appointed to be minister of finance and foreign affairs, and Mr. A. Gutierrez to be minister of interior. The entry of MM. Carrié and Gutierrez into President Canal’s cabinet appears to have given a fair degree of public satisfaction, for Mr. Thoby was notoriously unpopular, and Mr. Ethéart, though a man of experience and some ability, was a person whose activity was all of a purely negative character. How to avoid facing or settling any public question seemed to be his sole inquiry in almost every instance.

I had the honor to state in my No. 527, already referred to, that the proceeding which provoked the vote of the Chamber of Deputies against MM. Thoby and Ethéart was that they had caused to be inserted in Le Moniteur a project of law proposed by the Executive to increase the salaries of government employés, together with the announcement of the fact that this project of law had been “adjourned” by that body. In response thereto the Chamber of Deputies accompanied its vote against MM. Thoby and Ethéart by a preliminary statement (inclosure A), which I commend to your convenient perusal, inasmuch as it throws some light upon both the revenues of the country and the disposition which it was proposed to make of them, as well as upon the temper of the chamber itself.

Inclosures B, C, D, and E, are translations of correspondence had (1) between President Canal and the deputy whose influence in the chamber had brought on the ministerial crisis, and (2) between President Canal and the chamber. I venture to commend them as worthy of perusal. They seem to me to presume a delicate sense as to the parliamentary system of government which has never yet existed and is not now fully established here, and they do not, it is thought, make President Canal appear to any material disadvantage.

But the real fact is that there is in Hayti, to a very great extent, a lack of patriotic devotion to the interests of the country. There appear to be no doubts cast upon President Canal’s integrity and patriotism. But the leaders of the Corps Legislatif are generally thought here to be working in their own political interests to cast reflections upon the Canal government. The whole republic would seem certainly to be under sufficient embarrassment to induce all its citizens to work in harmony for its well-being. * * * * *

I am, sir, &c.,