|
|
Description and Holding Information
|
|
|
1868, Msg. from President Johnson, Pelletier Case against Haiti
|
|
Message from the President of the United States transmitting information relative to the imprisonment and destruction of the property of Antonio
Pelletier by the people and authorities of Hayti: n.a., 40th Cong., 2nd Sess., Ex. Doc., No. 260, Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, n.p.,
n.d., 1868?(The message, published under Pres. Andrew Johnson, transmitted the papers related to the Pelletier Case that were assembled under the
authority of William H. Seward, Secretary of State. Pelletier, born in France, was a naturalized American citizen and a well-known slave trader. In 1861 he
was apprehended in the harbor of Port-au-Prince for a scheme to entice Haitians aboard his ship under the pretext of employing them for work, but with
the hidden intent of kidnapping them and selling them into slavery. He was tried and sentenced to death by a Haitian court in 1861, but that verdict
was overturned by the Haitian Supreme Court. In a second trial he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. In 1863 he escaped prison and fled to
Jamaica. These papers relate to his attempt, for some time with the help of the U.S. Government, to receive compensation from Haiti for his imprisonment and
the seizure of his ship. The case dragged on for years and eventually, in 1889, an arbitrator awarded Pelletier $57,200. However, in an honorable
denouement to a sordid story, Grover Cleveland’s then Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard, put aside the award on the grounds that: firstly “Haiti had
jurisdiction to inflict on him the very punishment of which he complains, such punishment being in no way excessive in view of the heinousness of the
offense, and secondly, because his cause is of itself so saturated with turpitude and infamy that on it no action, judicial or diplomatic, can be
based.”
|
|
|
Title:
Antonio Pelletier : message from the President of the United States transmitting information relative to the imprisonment and destruction of the property of Antonio Pelletier by the people and authorities of Hayti.
|
|
|
OCLC Number:
875013575
|
|
|
|
|
|
Available Volumes
|
|
| Name | Fiche Count | Online | Paper Backup |
| Vol. 1 | | Yes | No |
|
|
|