Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-10
CRUSHING HIS FOES.
Minister Douglass Talks on the
Slaughter at Port Au Prince.
HIPPOLYTE MADE AN EXAMPLE,
Calculated to Be Lasting, and He Was Sue
cessful in So Doing.
THE QUESTION OF WHITE MINISTER'S

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.1
NEW YORK, July 9.-An interview with
Minister Fred Douglass concerning Haitien
affairs will be published in the New York
Age colored organ, tomorrow. In it Mr..
Douglass says:
at must be noted that Port au Prince, tine
capital of Haiti, was never cordial to the
Hippolyte Government, and he mas had
much occasion to doubt the loyalty of its
people. They were warm adherents to
President Legitime, and it is evident
that the sentiment in favor of this
exiled functionary has grown stronger
rather than less strong with a year and q
half of the present Government Aware of
this, President Hippolyte has been vigilant
in observing and dilligent in providing for
emergencies. He has on several marked oc-
casions in his speeches reminded the people
of Port au Prince that he knew not only of
their adverse sentiments. but of the freedom
with which these sentiments were be-
ing expressed. He warned them in
emphatic language that should their
and in breaking the peace he should resort
to very stringent measures, assuring all OF
protection to peace and good order while
the people kept themselves within just
limits of the law: but that he would suppress
with an iron hand any violence on their
part.
The Attack on the Prison.
every evidently the attack on the prison
was well timed. 1t was fete day, likely to
take large class of the loyal people to the
churches. The President himself, it was
known, would be there. Thousands of young
men, women and children were at the large
prison was begun. President Hippo
1yte himself was at the cathedral
when the firing began. On the firing
of the first few shots on the prison, the great
III
and counseled the audience to calmness and
at once retired to the scene, openly expos
ing his person to the danger of assassina-
tion while endeavoring to suppress the in
surgents.
"The whole thing did not last more than
30 minutes; but within that time the prison
was broken open and all descriptions OF
prisoners, those for common crimes as well
as those for political reasons, were liberated,
and most of the insurgents had betaken
themselves to the woods on the mountain
tion was quickly put down it was more
severe in the loss of life and the tremor it
inspired than any one of its several prede-
cessors. President Hippolyte, man nat
urally humane and just, under this tre-
mendous provocation, was changed almost
from lamb into lion. He also endeavored
to make an example which would be i'm
pressive and lasting, and in this he was cer-
tainly successful"
White Men as Ministers.
of our big dailies to argue the virtue of send
ing white men as Ministers to the posts now
occupied by colored men2"
''That idea is based evidently upon the as
sumption that more can be won from the
fears of Haiti than can be obtained from the
reason and good will of Haiti, and on the
still further assumption that white man
will command compliance with his demands
upon black man more readily than black
upon one of his own kind. 1t is born of the
thought that black man stands in awe of
the white, and is confined more to our ex-
perience as a slave-holding people than to
facts as they really exist.
"Haiti has shown that she cares no more
for white man than she does for black;
that she doesn't scare worth a cent. They
demonstrated by the assertion of fndepen-
dence that they could look a white man
squarely in the eye, and never lower their
chin an inch. There is nothing in it.
Haiti has a half dozen white diplomats
in her capital to one colored, and She has
yet to show one hairsbreadth of Difference
more to a white man than to colored man.
There is nothing that any white man has
asked of Haiti, or is likely to ask of Haiti, in
behalf of the United States, that will not be
as readily granted if demanded by q colored
man."