Haiti, after seventy-five years of maintaining itself as firm and invulnerable as its own Citadel, was now torn and weakened by civil war. Six years before, a provisional government had been set up under a General Légitime. Gradually Légitime assumed control, and two years later France recognized his government as official. But for reasons of their own, business interests in the United States preferred dealing with General Hyppolite’s opposing forces, who termed the present régime that of “the usurpers of Port-au-Prince.” President Cleveland had listened to their advice and not recognized any government in Haiti. That left everything wide open. The U.S.-West Indies Line and the Charleston & Florida Steamship Line tackled shutting out the rival British Atlas Steamship Company, and the dire need for coaling stations was stressed in certain circles. At long last the United States had high hopes of locking up the narrow Windward Passage, one of the strategic routes on the world’s highway system of commerce. Meanwhile Stephen Preston, Haitian Minister, was in the United States pleading for his country’s recognition. Blaine played a cat-and-mouse game, putting the anxious Preston off from week to week, yet according him every ceremonial privilege as a minister and assuring him that the matter of official recognition only awaited its turn before the new President--Benjamin Harrison. So matters stood in the latter part of May, 1889. Then Secretary Blaine made two moves. He told Preston his terms for recognition: a naval station in Haiti and representation of Haiti in European capitals by the American ambassador to those countries! The Haitian’s olive face paled. He murmured a few words, bowed and departed. The Secretary then sent to President Harrison the names of an “investigating commission” to go to Haiti. It was to be headed by Colonel Beverley Tucker of Virginia. Out of a clear sky, with no word of warning, Blaine’s papers still lying unsigned on his desk, President Harrison recognized the Légitime government in Haiti. At the same time he appointed the most widely known Negro in America “Minister Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of Haiti and chargé d’affaires to Santo Domingo.” “A pretty kettle of fish!” stormed the shipowner. Secretary Blaine struggled to maintain his dignity. “A little premature, perhaps,” he temporized. “But our President has gone on record as favoring the development of commerce with Latin America, and we have no reason to believe that Frederick Douglass will not co-operate in carrying forward the clearly expressed policies of his government.” “You are a fool!” snapped the shipowner. The Secretary’s face flushed, and a vein throbbed at his temple. “You forget,” he said evenly after a moment, “or perhaps you do not know, that Frederick Douglass was Secretary of President Grant’s Santo Domingo Commission; and Douglass had no part in its failure.”