Page:Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892).djvu/734

726 eventually." "It is recognized that were the United States to possess a coaling-station in Haïti. . . would intervene to end the petty revolutions that distract the country."

Thus we had Admiral Gherardi at every turn of Haïtian affairs. It was at his suggestion that a new minister was appointed. It was he who made American influence paramount in Haïti. It was he who was to conduct the negotiations for the naval station. It was he who counseled the State Department at Washington. It was he who decided the question of the fitness of the American Minister at Haïti. In all this I am not disclosing Cabinet or State secrets. This and much more was published in the New York papers. The comment that I have to make upon it is, that no better way could have been devised to arouse the suspicion of Haïtian statesmen and lead them to reject our application for a naval station, than to make such representations as these coming from the decks of the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Gherardi.