Ebenezer D Bassett to L. Etheart, September 16, 1876

No. 177. Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.

Sir: Inviting your reference to my No. 457 of the 21st of June last, which related to a proposed termination of our treaty with Hayti, I have the honor to state that, on the 18th of August ultimo, I addressed a note (inclosure 1) to the Haytian minister of foreign affairs, calling his attention to the dispatch of April 4, 1876, (see inclosure A to my No. 448 of the 10th of that month,) from his department, and to another dispatch of June 10, 1876, (see inclosure A to my said No. 457,) from his immediate predecessor, the former notifying me of this government’s wish and purpose to terminate our treaty, and the latter denying that such was either the wish or the purpose of the then existing provisional government, and asking him to be pleased, now that a definitive government is established, to give me explicit and reliable information, on the subject.

To my note I have just now received the minister’s acknowledgment, (inclosure 2,) from which it will be seen that he not only announces to me that “the disposition of the actual government of the republic (of Hayti) is to continue the observance of the treaty,” and at the same time states that it is prepared to conform itself to the forty-second article of the treaty, but also expresses a readiness to defer to our wishes in the matter of any further treaty provisions,

I may observe that the minister’s dispatch, as well as inclosure A to my No. 457, seems fully to confirm the idea advanced in my No. 448, seems also to be satisfactory as to this government’s desire for the continuance of the treaty, and to open the way for the concluding and signing of the consular convention authorized by your No. 122 of October 18, 1872.

I am, &c.,