Page:Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892).djvu/732

American taste. It was not charged, as perhaps it well might have been, that I was unfit for the place by reason of inexperience and want of aptitude to perform the duties of the office; but the color argument was relied upon. It was that I was not rightly colored for the place, although I matched well with the color of Haïti. It was held that the office should be given to a white man, both on the ground of fitness and on the ground of efficiency,—on the ground of fitness because it was alleged that Haïti would rather have in her capital a white minister Resident and Consul General than a colored one; and on the ground of efficiency because a white minister by reason of being white, and therefore superior, could obtain from Haïti concessions which a colored minister could not. It was also said that I would not be well received by Haïti because I had at one time advocated the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States, a measure to which Haïti was strongly opposed. Every occasion was embraced by the New York press to show that my experience in Haïti confirmed their views and predictions. Before I went there they endeavored to show that the captain of the ship designated by the government to take me to my post at Port au Prince had refused to take me on board, and as an excuse for his refusal, had made a false statement concerning the unseaworthiness of his vessel, when the real ground of objection was the color of my skin. When it was known that I had not been fully accredited in due form to the Government of President Hyppolite and that there was a delay of many weeks in my formal recognition by the Haïtian government, the story was trumpeted abroad that I was "snubbed" by Haïti, and in truth was having a hard time down there. After I was formally recognized and had entered upon the duties of my office, I was followed by the same unfriendly