Bassett to L. Ethéart, April 16, 1872
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Ethéart
Sir: I send this private and unofficial note to say to you that, from the tenor of your dispatch of the 3d instant, I have been in daily expectation of a further communication from you in relation to the affair of Mr. Jastram. The President and your colleagues have been here now for several days, and I suppose you have had every opportunity to familiarize yourself with all the facts complained of in my dispatches of the 25th and 30th ultimo.
If you have investigated those facts, as I suppose you have done, you have, no doubt, found that my statement of them is substantially correct, and that therefore certain unlawful and unjustifiable proceedings were taken by Haytian authority against a consular officer of the United States at Saint Marc. You certainly cannot expect that either the Government of the United States or any other power represented here will stand idly by and allow such proceedings to pass unnoticed. The reparations which I ask of your government are of such a character that it is easy for you to comply with them. It is my sincere desire to avoid all misunderstandings and unpleasant feelings with your government. As a man of the same race as yourself, I have desired and I do still desire to see the Haytian government in success and prosperity. It would be very painful for me to see anything but pleasant relations between us. But while I entertain these sentiments, I do not forget that I must insist upon what comports well with the dignity, honor, and power of the great Government which I represent here. And I submit to you now, in all candor, whether it is not better to make a settlement of the Jastram affair at once on the terms named by me in my dispatch of March 25, 1872, rather than to allow it to become a subject of unpleasant controversy between my Government and yours.
I have done my part in the affair in proposing such easy terms of settlement; it remains for you to do yours.
Expecting to hear from you at once on the subject,
I am, &c.,