Môle Saint-Nicolas affair

The United States had been interested in controlling Haiti in the decades following the Haitian Revolution, when the Caribbean nation won its independence from France.

[1] Haitian general Florvil Hyppolite led a revolt against President of Haiti François Denys Légitime in August 1889.

[2][3] Shortly after Hyppolite assumed the presidency of Haiti in October 1889, President of the United States Benjamin Harrison, acting under the advice of Secretary of State James G. Blaine, commissioned Rear-Admiral Bancroft Gherardi to negotiate for the acquisition of Môle Saint-Nicolas with the aim of establishing a naval coaling station there.

[5][6] The New York Times wrote of a supposed "Clyde concession" that occurred in late-1889 into 1890:[4] [Gherardi] was instructed to use his influence and employ his knowledge of Haitian affairs to further the scheme for a line of steamers under the American flag between New York and Boston and Haitian ports, and to pay the owners of this line substantial yearly subsidy.The Clyde Steamship Company was reportedly the steamer line destined to benefit from the deal, which would force the Haitian government to pay $50,000 USD annually for services in a contract lasting ninety nine years.

[4][5][6] By the time Secretary Blaine's letter appointing Gherardi his special Commissioner reached Port-au-Prince, the American squadron had long been in Haiti's waters.

[7] John S. Durham, who had replaced Douglass as Minister at Port-au-Prince and Chargé d'Affaires at Santo Domingo, was instructed to lease Samana Bay for a term of 99 years at a cost of $250,000.

[4] The newspaper instead blaming Frederick Douglass for the incident and describing him as " pitiable ... for a man of his reputation and position, and is one that no amount of explanation and no number of articles in the North American Review can smooth away".