1862-April-24: During the final Senate debates, Charles Sumner bolstered his case for recognition by having the secretary of the Senate read a letter from Be…

1862-April-24: During the final Senate debates, Charles Sumner bolstered his case for recognition by having the secretary of the Senate read a letter from Benjamin Webb, the American commercial agent at Port-au-Prince. Webb warned that without formal recognition, the United States was at a disadvantage compared to Britain, France, and Spain, who were utilizing their diplomatic status to undermine and potentially destroy American commerce. Sumner argued that acknowledging Haitian independence would provide a necessary “check to distant schemes of ambition” in the West Indies, echoing George Canning’s famous sentiment about redressing the balance of the old world with the new.