Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/240

 that it would be difficult to lend entire credence to the assurances given by Haiti.

The energetic opposition against the treaty of annexation, led in the United States Senate by the Honorable Charles Sumner, made President Grant decide to send a Commission to Santo Domingo. Two of the Commissioners, Senator Wade and Doctor Howe, accompanied by Mr. Frederick Douglass, their secretary, arrived at Port-au-Prince on the 3d of March, 1871, on board of the United States man-of-war Tennessee. On the following day they were received by the President, and the exchange of views which took place between them tended to dispel the misunderstanding which was about to alter the good relations existing between the two countries. At the end of the interview Dr. Howe mentioned that he was a personal friend of Senator Charles Sumner, whereupon President Saget warmly shook hands with him and told him to transmit that handshake to the Senator from Massachusetts as coming from the whole Republic of Haiti.

On the refusal of the United States Senate to approve the treaty signed with President Baez, some Haitians started a public subscription with the object of presenting Senator Sumner with a gold medal. Owing to his office the Senator could not accept the medal, which was therefore deposited in the Library of the State House