Whether the political condition of the island of Hayti shall be brought
at all into discussion at the meeting may be a question for preliminary
advisement. There are in the political constitution of Government of
that people circumstances which have hitherto forbidden the
acknowledgment of them by the Government of the United States as
sovereign and independent. Additional reasons for withholding that
acknowledgment have recently been seen in their acceptance of a nominal
sovereignty by the _grant_ of a foreign prince under conditions
equivalent to the concession by them of exclusive commercial advantages
to one nation, adapted altogether to the state of colonial vassalage and
retaining little of independence but the name. Our plenipotentiaries
will be instructed to present these views to the assembly at Panama, and
should they not be concurred in to decline acceding to any arrangement
which may be proposed upon different principles.
The condition of the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico is of deeper import
and more immediate bearing upon the present interests and future
prospects of our Union.
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