As a matter of fact, the trade with Haiti was very important during this period. By the report of the Register's Office, 1825, Haiti ranked twenty-ninth in the list of countries trading with the United States.[427]
The actual presentation of the question to the country as a whole grew out of an invitation to attend the Panama Congress. In 1825, General Bolivar, leader of the South American revolutionists, invited the states north and south of the Isthmus to send delegates to a congress which would assemble at Panama. Formal invitations to attend the congress were received from Mexico, Guatemala and Columbia and others. The following suggestions were made as to questions to be considered: the interference of European powers in America, the recognition of Haiti, the slave trade and the formation of an American league.[428] That the recognition of Haiti was one of the objects of consideration is so stated among the lists of subjects in the Official Gazette of Columbia. The congress was to determine on what footing should be placed the political and commercial relations of those portions of our hemisphere, which had obtained their independence, but whose independence had not been recognized by any American or European power, as was for many years the case with Haiti.[429] Other evidence is found in a letter of the Columbian minister, Salazar: "On what basis the relations of Haiti, and of other parts of our Hemisphere that shall hereafter be in like circumstances, are to be placed," said he, "is a question simple at first view, but attended with serious difficulties when closely examined. These arise from the different manner of regarding Africans, and from their different rights in Haiti, the United States and in other American states. This question will be determined at the Isthmus, and if possible, an uniform rule of conduct adopted in regard to it, or those modifications that may be demanded by circumstances."[430]
A special message was sent to Congress by President Adams on December 26, naming the delegates to this congress, and asking for an appropriation for expenses. Both Clay, then Secretary of State, and President Adams wished to extend the commercial power of the United States over the Americas, and they welcomed this opportunity. They disclaimed any desire to enter any league, but left poorly defined the objects which would be considered.[431]
The southern point of view, as expressed in the debates on this question, was that disaster awaited the Southern States, if the United States should send delegates to a congress in which Haitian representatives would sit, and which would consider the separation of Cuba and Porto Rico from Spain and the cessation of slavery. This viewpoint was expressed by Benton of Missouri, saying: "We buy coffee from her, and pay for it; but we interchange no consuls or ministers. We receive no mulatto consuls or black ambassadors. And why? Because the peace of eleven states in this Union will not permit the fruits of a successful Negro insurrection to be exhibited among them.... Who are to advise and sit in judgment upon it? Five nations who have already put the black man upon an equality with the white, not only in their constitutions but in real life; five nations who have at this moment (at least some of them) black generals in their armies and mulatto Senators in their Congresses."[432]
The same attitude was expressed by Hayne of South Carolina. "With nothing connected with slavery," said he, "can we consent to treat with other nations, and least of all, ought we to touch the question of the independence of Haiti, in conjunction with revolutionary governments.... You find men of color at the head of their armies, in their legislative halls, and in their executive departments. They are looking to Hayti, even now, with feelings of the strongest fraternity and show, by the very documents before us, that they acknowledge her to be independent."[433] So far as the mission itself was concerned, these arguments were farfetched and served rather to delay the time of departure than to hinder it. The Senate confirmed the nomination and the House voted the expenses. The delegates arrived after the close of the sessions of the congress. Another session was to be held at Tacubaya, but because of dissensions this congress did not assemble. Therefore, the Panama Congress served only to excite debate on the slavery issue and the recognition question, and this last became a rallying cry for the opponents of the administration.
During the intervening years between 1825 and 1860, many memorials, petitions and recommendations were made to Congress respecting the recognition of Haiti. In June, 1838, a petition was received by the Senate from "certain citizens of the United States praying that a diplomatic representative be sent and commercial regulations be entered into with the Republic."[434] This, as others, was laid on the table. While this session continued, petitions were repeatedly presented. John Quincy Adams was the champion of this cause, as of that against the Gag Resolutions, and, again and again, it was through him that the memorials were presented.
Objections were frequently made to the presentation of these memorials. On December 19, Legaré of South Carolina said: "As sure as you live, Sir, if this course is permitted to go on, the sun of this Union will go down—it will go down in blood and go down to rise no more. I will vote unhesitatingly against nefarious designs like these. They are treason."[435] In 1839, while the House was considering an outfit for a chargé d'affaires to Holland, Slade of Vermont began a speech in favor of appointing a diplomatic agent to Haiti. He spoke until the House refused to hear the continuation of his remarks.[436] A resolution was offered later to appoint a commercial agent to Haiti, but it was ruled out of order.[437] In the same year, the Committee on Foreign Affairs asked to be discharged from the "further consideration of sundry memorials asking for the opening of international relations with Haiti."[438] In spite of this request, the next year, 1840, petitions urging the recognition were continued.[439] That Garrison was active in this agitation of the abolition period is shown by the statement of Wise, of Virginia: "it is but part and parcel of the English scheme set on foot by Garrison, and to bring abolition as near as possible...."[440]
In 1844, the Committee on Foreign Affairs made a report on the subject of commercial intercourse with the republic of Haiti. Ten thousand copies were ordered to be printed.[441] As a result of this report, and the agitation of years back, a commission was appointed to Haiti in 1844 and again in 1851.[442] In the latter year, an invitation was made to the United States Government to join France and England in an offensive interference in Haiti.[443] The correspondence and the reports of one of the American Commissioners, Robert Walsh, was made public in 1852, and they were widely discussed.[444] The reports were unjust and unfair estimations even of the Haitian commercial situation. A reliable estimate of the trade of Haiti with the United States, at this time, places the trade as equal to the total trade of Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, the Cisalpine Republics and Peru with the United States. Mexico, with more than sixteen times as large a population as Haiti, exported from the United States in 1851, $330,000 less than Haiti and used for the purpose 26,000 tons less of shipping.[445] And yet these countries were recognized as independent republics, while Haiti was denied that right.
European countries were not as slow as the United States in granting recognition to Haiti. England formally acknowledged the Republic in 1825, and sent a Consul-General.[446] An imperfect recognition was granted by Charles X of France, by sending Baron Mackau as his representative.[447] Its independence was recognized fully in 1838, after thirty-four years of independence. Two treaties were negotiated, one of them political, by which the independence of the republic was recognized; the other financial, by which the claims of the French colonists were reduced to sixty million francs.[448] This debt made Haiti almost a dependency of France for over sixty years.[38] Before 1860, all important countries had representatives in Haiti. Great Britain, Spain, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Hanover and Austria were all duly chronicled in the Almanach de Gotha.[449] In the language of Frederick Douglass: "After Haiti had shaken off the fetters of bondage, and long after her freedom and independence had been recognized by all other civilized nations, we continued to refuse to acknowledge the fact and treated her as outside the sisterhood of nations."
By act of Congress in 1819, the colony of Liberia was established. During the years following, groups of colonists left America for this shore.[450] The decade after 1832 was marked by the action of the independent State colonization societies. In 1847, the people of Liberia undertook self-government, which was adopted by popular vote. A later convention drew up a declaration of independence, and a new constitution modeled on that of the United States was adopted, July 26, 1847. In September, it was ratified by the people, and President Roberts took office, January 3, 1848.[451]