L. Ethéart to Bassett, June 5, 1872

Mr. Ethéart to Mr. Bassett.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of May 31, ultimo, in which you call my attention to the one which your addressed to me on the 25th of March, relative to the affair of Mr. Jastram at Saint Marc.

The verbal communications which I have made to you have informed you of the difficulties which have prevented the inquiry that was to have been made; and at each time that the occasion has offered itself I have not failed to express to you how much my government had it at heart to give every satisfaction to yours in a question which interests to such a high degree the honor and the dignity of the great republic which you represent.

The inquiry above referred to not having yet attained its end, after a delay of two months in spite of all the efforts that I have made to bring it to a satisfactory result, I can now form a conception of the solicitude manifested in your dispatch of the 31st ultimo, and I acknowledge that it is but equitable to subscribe to the just reparations formulated in your dispatch of the 25th of March. I offer this, then, Mr. Minister, as a new proof of the desire of my government to preserve the good harmony which exists between our two countries, a harmony, we must render you the justice to say, you contribute to maintain by all the means in your power.

In consequence, my government makes it a duty to declare to yours that it regrets very much that Mr. Jastram has had cause to complain of the conduct of the authorities of Saint Marc, on the occasion of the arrest of General Batraville. My government would not fail to respond to the wish that you express, to have censured, or punished, the superior officer of whom Mr. Jastram complains, if this general, who, I think, did not commit with premeditation this wrong on the American agent, had not since that time paid, in his own person, the last tribute to nature.

The United States legation in Hayti, with whose high functions you are invested, Mr. Minister, will recognize in this sincere expression of regret how much my government has at heart to surround with respect and consideration the representatives of foreign powers: and it hastens to seize this circumstance to give you the assurance that in future every measure shall he taken to command for the American agents the respect that is due to them, and to prevent all further inquietude on their part in regard to proceedings outside of the exact forms prescribed by the law. The exequaturs given by my government to these agents command the local authorities to observe toward them such a course of action. I hope, Mr. Minister, that you will appreciate this declaration, the loyalty of which is of a nature to dissipate all misunderstanding, every cloud of doubt, which might tend to obscure the good relations subsisting between the great republic that you represent and my country. I will not terminate this dispatch without consigning therein the assurance with which, his very particular regret, the President of the republic charges me to express to you.

“The affair would have been explained, and every satisfaction would have been given to the American minister,” said the chief of state, “if I had been at Saint Marc when he went there about two months since.”

I pray you to accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of my very high consideration.