Mr. Bayard to Mr. Preston.
Washington , January 4, 1889.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of two communications signed by you, bearing date of the 2d instant, by the first of which you acquaint me with the issuance, on the 10th ultimo, by the National Constituent Assembly, of a decree provisionally closing to foreign commerce [Page 513] the ports of St. Marc, Gonaïves, Port de Paix, and Gape Haytien, and suppressing the privilege of touching at Grande Saline, Mole St. Nicholas, and Fort Liberté as ports of call (d’échelle), and with the second of the notes referred to you transmit a copy of another decree of the same Assembly, dated the 16th ultimo, purporting the election of General François Denys Légitime as President of the Republic of Hayti for the term of seven years.
Intelligence of the issuance of the two decrees in question had by our official channels already reached this Department.
As part of the coincident history of events in Hayti, it seems fitting to inform you that I have just received, under the date of December 13 last, dispatches from the consul of the United States at Cape Haytien, communicating the information of an organization at Gonaïves assuming to act as the Government of the Republic of Hayti, of which General Hyppolite has been elected provisional president, together with a council of ministers of five members and a council of state of fifteen members to advise the president when required.
I communicate the substance of the consular reports, in order that you may be enabled clearly to realize the attitude necessarily occupied by the United States and the logical expectancy with which this Government is compelled to await the issue of events in the domestic strifes in Hayti.
With a sincere hope that these strifes may soon be composed and that a well-established government of laws may soon be created by the citizens of the Republic of Hayti, I beg you to accept, etc.