EBENEZER D. BASSETT.
One of the ablest diplomats the Negro race has produced is the Honorable Ebenezer D. Bassett, for nearly nine years the Resident Minister and Consul-General from the United States to Hayti. He was born and educated in the State of Connecticut, and for many years was the successful Principal of the Institute for Colored Youth at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a classical scholar and for proficiency in the use of modern languages he has few equals among his race.
Returning to this country, after years of honorable service abroad, he was promoted by the Haytian Government to the position of Consul at New York City, and at present is serving the Republic of Hayti. As an evidence of the high esteem in which he was held as an officer the following documents attest:
(COPY.)
Department of State, }
Washington, October 5, 1877. }Ebenezer D. Bassett, Esquire, etc., etc., etc.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 529, of the 23d August last, tendering your resignation of the office of Minister Resident and Consul-General of the United States to Hayti, and to inform you that it is accepted.
I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing to you the appreciation of the Department of the very satisfactory manner in which you have discharged the duties of the mission at Port au Prince during your term of office. This commendation of your services is the more especially merited, because at various times your duties have been of such a delicate nature as to have required the exercise of much tact and discretion.
I enclose herewith a letter addressed by the President of the United States to the President of Hayti, announcing your retirement from the mission at Port au Prince, together with an office copy of the same. You will transmit the latter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and make arrangements for the delivery of the original to the President when your successor shall present his credentials.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
(Signed.) F. W. SEWARD, Acting Secretary.
(TRANSLATION.)
Boisrond Canal, President of the Republic of Hayti,
To His Excellency the President of the United States of America.
Great and Good Friend: Mr. Ebenezer D. Bassett, who has resided here in the capacity of Minister of the United States, has placed in my hands the letter by which your Excellency has brought his mission to an end.
In taking leave of me in conformity with the wishes of your Excellency, he has renewed the assurance of the friendly sentiments which so happily exist on the part of the Government and the people of the United States toward the Government and the people of the Republic of Hayti.
I have not failed to request him to transmit to your Excellency, the expression of my great desire to maintain always the relations of the two Countries upon the footing of that cordial understanding.
It is for me a pleasing duty to acknowledge fully to your Excellency, the zeal and the intelligence with which Mr. Bassett has fulfilled here the high and delicate functions that had been entrusted to him.
I have, therefore, been happy to be able to testify to him publicly before his departure, in the name of my fellow-citizens, the esteem and sincere affection which his talents, his character, his private and public conduct have won for him, as well as the particular sentiments of friendship and gratitude I personally entertain for him.
I pray God that He may have your Excellency always in His Holy keeping.
Given at the National Palace of Port au Prince, the 29th day of November, 1877.
Your Good Friend,
(Signed) BOISROND CANAL.
Countersigned.
(Signed.) F. Carrie, Secretary of State.
COLORED SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN.
UNITED STATES SENATORS.
Hiram R. Revels, United States Senator from Mississippi, was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, September 1, 1822; desiring to obtain an education, which was denied in his native State to those of African descent, he removed to Indiana; spent some time at the Quaker Seminary in Union County; entered the Methodist ministry; afterward received further instructions at the Clarke County Seminary, when he became preacher, teacher, and lecturer among his people in the States of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri; at the breaking out of the war, he was ministering at Baltimore; he assisted in the organization of the first two Colored regiments in Maryland and Missouri; during a portion of 1863 and 1864 he taught school in St. Louis, then went to Vicksburg, and assisted the provost marshal in managing the freedmen affairs; followed on the heels of the army to Jackson; organized churches, and lectured; spent the next two years in Kansas and Missouri in preaching and lecturing on moral and religious subjects; returned to Mississippi, and settled at Natchez; was chosen presiding elder of the Methodist Church, and a member of the city council; was elected a United States Senator from Mississippi as a Republican, serving from February 25, 1870, to March 3, 1871; was pastor of a Methodist Episcopal church at Holly Springs, Mississippi; removed to Indiana, where he was pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at Richmond.