1891-April-21: American businessman William P. Clyde, who had deep commercial interests in Haiti, wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of the Navy Tracy, blaming the stalling of negotiations on Minister Frederick Douglass…

1891-April-21: American businessman William P. Clyde, who had deep commercial interests in Haiti, wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of the Navy Tracy, blaming the stalling of negotiations on Minister Frederick Douglass and his assistant Ebenezer Bassett. Clyde accused Douglass of “vanity and race prejudices,” claiming that the two men had convinced the Haitian government that the “Negro vote” in the United States was more powerful than the State or Navy Departments. Clyde urged the government to show the Haitians that their race would not protect them from American demands.