Are there still men like that who can boast or mock themselves being Haitian?
Show yourself.
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Here is a letter of refusal from Anténor Firmin to the United States’ request to lease the Saint-Nicolas Pier.
Letter of refusal from Anténor Firmin to the United States’ request to lease the Saint-Nicolas Pier.
Before we begin, I would ask you to note the first name of this great man. Joseph.
It is unfortunate that this name has been misused in our country, where there were at least ten Josephs, first names or surnames who held government positions or had succeeded one another.
Once, I counted nearly ten at the same time.
They were called: Martelly, Lambert, Joute, Claude, etc.
Was it by pure chance that this group was formed. At least, that’s what I superstitiously believed; we would finally find a way out of the impasse we found ourselves in, but apparently, instead, we landed in a bottomless abyss into which we fell headfirst. A game of fate, I must admit.
As none of them seemed to measure up to:
Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin
What a great man!
Port-au-Prince, April 22, 1891
Dear Plenipotentiaries,
I have the honor to acknowledge receipt, Your Excellencies, of your dispatch of the 21st of this month, by which you were kind enough to send me an official copy of the document signed by His Excellency the President of the United States, vesting you with full powers to confer with all persons vested with the same powers by Haiti, in order to negotiate a convention between the two governments. Upon examining this document and referring to the interview I had the honor of having with Your Excellencies on the very day I received your dispatch, I must infer that your full powers relate to the request made on February 7th to the Government of Haiti by the Honorable Admiral Gherardi, in his capacity as Special Commissioner of the United States, to express his consent to granting the Government of the American Union the lease of Môle Saint-Nicolas for the purpose of establishing a coaling station for the ships of the United States Navy.
Indeed, by its letter of February 10th, this department had expressed to the Honorable Admiral the desire of the Government of Haiti to have, prior to any deliberations:
“1° the details or conditions of the desired lease;
2. A copy of the full powers conferred upon him by His Excellency the President of the United States, the original of which would be presented, if necessary, at the time of signing the farm lease that is the subject of his request. The honorable Admiral did me the honor of providing me, in his letter of February 12, with all the desired details, leaving me a certified copy of the instructions he had received from the State Department in Washington, and, after an interview we had the same day, it was agreed that he would write to his government to obtain full powers. It is therefore this document that you received jointly and that has been communicated to me, so that the government of Haiti is in a position to respond to Your Excellencies in accordance with all due process. As I had the honor of telling Your Excellencies in our interview yesterday, as soon as I learned of the arrival in the harbor of a new squadron of the American Navy, and that I learned that full powers were being sent to you, I sent a very detailed dispatch to the President of Haiti and to the Council of Secretaries of State on tour in the Southern Department. The President of Haiti and my Colleagues, assembled in the Council of Secretaries of State, have ordered me to reply to you as follows: Having carefully considered the conditions under which the Government of the United States desired to obtain the lease of Môle Saint-Nicolas for the establishment of a naval station there, they would perhaps have no objection to make, if your instructions did not contain the following clause: “With a view to the preservation and strengthening of the relations (of the two countries) the President desires that, so long as the United States may be the lessees of Môle Saint-Nicolas” – if it is to be leased – the Government of Haiti shall not lease any port or other portion of its territory or otherwise dispose of it, nor accept any special privilege or right of use therein to any other power, State or Government. »
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Acceptance of your request with such a clause would, in the eyes of the Haitian government, be an outrage against the national sovereignty of the Republic and a violation of Article I of our Constitution; for, by renouncing the right to dispose of its territory, it would have consented to its tacit alienation.
In his letter of February 12, the Honorable Admiral Gherardi cited France, Brazil, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Hawaii, Portugal, Italy, Japan, and other nations that have, at one time or another, granted coaling stations to the United States Navy.
The government of Haiti is no less well-disposed toward the American Union than these various nations, but it finds itself bound by our internal public law, which it cannot violate without rendering null and void any commitment made under such conditions. These considerations are of such importance that Your Excellencies will undoubtedly be the first to recognize the impossibility of the Haitian government granting the lease of Môle Saint-Nicolas to the United States government, under the conditions the latter desires. But to this constitutional difficulty must be added political considerations that are of the utmost importance to the Haitian government.
The arrival at this port of two American squadrons containing the most powerful warships in the United States Navy has made a most unfortunate impression on the entire country, which is either alarmed or worried by it. Even assuming that the national constitution were not an obstacle to the acceptance of the request presented by Your Excellencies, on behalf of the President of the United States, the Haitian government will hardly be able, in the present circumstances, to enter into negotiations for the leasing of Môle Saint-Nicolas, without appearing to yield to foreign pressure and compromising, ipso facto, our existence as an independent people; and all the more so since several American newspapers, with this unguessable aim, are making false propaganda, tending to make people believe that there are signed commitments between the President of Haiti and the United States of America, for the cession of this same bay of Môle Saint-Nicolas which His Excellency President Harrison wishes to have as a naval station for the use of the American Navy. Deeply confident in your loyalty and your sense of fairness, I dare to hope that Your Excellencies will fully understand that the refusal to grant the United States the lease of the Môle Saint-Nicolas for a naval station is not, on the part of the Haitian Government, an act of defiance or ill will. It is the consequence of a double impediment before which our lively sympathy and our sincere attachment to the most glorious and generous republic of the New World and perhaps of the modern world had to bend.
Please accept, Plenipotentiaries, the assurances of my highest consideration.
A. FIRMIN, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
The Honorable FRÉDÉRIC DOUGLASS
Minister-Resident and Consul General of the United States
BANCROFT GHÉRARDI, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy
To understand my approach to this name, we must look at the esoteric planisphere, where we see Joseph in the sign of:
SAGITTARIUS: THE ARCHER
This constellation, in its symbolic aspect, represents a dual nature, as it symbolizes retribution and all outdoor sports. We find it depicted as a centaur with a bow and arrow ready to fire. This is why it was frequently used to refer to the autumn hunt.
The Centaur is a symbol of authority and worldly wisdom. The sign Sagittarius signifies the thighs of the Great Man.
It represents the muscular foundation of the seat of locomotion in humanity. It is the emblem of stability, foundation, and physical power.
This sign also represents the physical, external centers of authority and command.
Sagittarius, on the esoteric planisphere, is occupied by Joseph. “His bow remained strong,” said the patriarch, “and the arms of his hands grew strong. He represents the powers of ‘Church and State’ and the necessity of legalized codes. He points us to the organizing powers of humanity and the absolute necessity of the ‘powers that be.’ We see in Joseph, the Egyptian ruler and lawgiver, a true type of authority.
A concrete example that jumps out at us these days:
DJT The occupant of the White House who does not pass a single day without signing an order, and who manages to triumph over the highest judicial body of this great nation, despite widespread protests.