1866-Early: Lord Clarendon, the British Foreign Secretary, provided formal assurances to Charles Francis Adams that Great Britain had no designs on Haitian t…

1866-Early: Lord Clarendon, the British Foreign Secretary, provided formal assurances to Charles Francis Adams that Great Britain had no designs on Haitian territory. He clarified that the actions of the Bulldog were not intended to interfere in the Haitian revolution and that any negotiations for territory conducted by Captain Wake would have been entirely unauthorized. Clarendon went further, stating that even if a direct offer of territory were made to the British government, it would receive “no countenance” from the Queen. This exchange successfully de-escalated a potential Anglo-American friction point regarding the “Gibraltar of the West Indies.”