There has been much debate about whether the United States should send aid to Ukraine. The United States Senate recently approved a $40 billion aid package for foreign countries impacted by the conflict, marking the sixth spending package since the conflict began in February. While the package passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, it raised many questions about the United States’ role in foreign conflicts.
Such debates stretch back to the earliest days of the republic, when the United States grappled with supporting two major world powers as well as another young nation amid its own war of independence. The foreign policy views of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson may provide insight to Americans asking the best course to take … or avoid.
In the late 18th century, Americans struggled with how to respond to three world-changing revolutions, including their own. Each revolution toppled a corrupt regime. Each revolution involved foreign intervention. Each revolution thrust a young America into the geopolitical fray.
Lincoln supported French in Revolution; Adams did not
We all know how the American Revolution pitted the fledgling Patriots against the mighty British Empire. Much of the American success can be attributed to support from the French monarchy, which sent arms, vessels, and over 12,000 soldiers, including about 800 black soldiers from the French colony of Saint Domingue, modern Haiti. Largely forgotten by Americans today, the “Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue,” were a mixture of free people of color, freed slaves, and possibly even enslaved blacks who fought with distinction alongside Americans.
The next revolution, this time in France, elicited starkly different responses from Americans, especially among the Founders. Thomas Jefferson supported the French in their revolution against monarchy and despotism. The roots of his Francophilia came largely from his experiences as American Minister to France from 1784-89, where he enmeshed himself in French philosophy, cuisine, architecture, music, and salon life.
John Adams also served as an American diplomat in France and endured a starkly different experience: he felt alienated by his fellow diplomat Benjamin Franklin’s popularity and behavior, did not admire the work ethic of the French aristocracy, and even worse, did not speak French.
Although these men no doubt valued French assistance during the American Revolution, they remained at odds over the French Revolution, as well as what it meant to be a former member of the British Empire.
Haiti first country to get aid from U.S.
But it was the third revolution, one that created the second republic in the Western Hemisphere and became the first country to receive foreign aid from the United States, that best displayed Adams’ and Jefferson’s differing foreign policy views. That revolution was of course, the Haitian Revolution. And it would surprise many Americans to hear that Haiti was the first recipient of US foreign aid.
Between 1791 and 1804, the enslaved people of Saint Domingue overthrew their French colonial masters and forged the world’s first anti-slavery black republic. Many of the revolution’s leaders, including the eventual first king of Haiti, Henri Christophe, served France and fought to liberate the United States of America at the disastrous Franco-American siege of British-held Savannah in 1779, suffering heavy losses while covering the retreat of the combined French and American forces. These French colonials-turned-founding fathers of Haiti prided themselves on their American tour of duty, which bolstered their military and political prestige when they later helped liberate Saint Domingue under the heading of “Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité.”
That pride and service was met with American support. In December 1798, a white Haitian emissary named Joseph Bunel met with Secretary of State Thomas Pickering to forge a trade agreement that ultimately bolstered Haiti’s fight against the French, who not only attacked American ships in the ongoing “quasi-war” but also banned any country from trading with the island. Pickering, Adams, and the U.S. Congress ignored the French ban on trade, and over the course of the next two years, hundreds of American merchant ships traded with Haitians and played a central role in sustaining Haitian General Louverture’s military might.
Cynics might quibble that American merchant shipping does not qualify as “foreign aid,” though they would be hard-pressed to ignore the direct military aid the U.S. gave to Haiti: U.S. consul-General to Saint Domingue Edward Stevens and Adams’ Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert sold supplies and weapons to Haitian General Toussaint L’Overture’s army and sent U.S. warships to fight alongside Louverture’s navy against the French.
Jefferson didn't support Haiti
The election of Thomas Jefferson doomed U.S.-Haitian relations and thus foreign aid in any form. As a slaveholder who recognized the precedent of continuing such a relationship with Haiti, Jefferson felt no compunction toward avoiding any alliance that would offend France. Ironically enough, Haiti’s successes against the French under Napoleon allowed Jefferson to make the Louisiana Purchase possible in 1803. Jefferson responded to Haitian independence in 1804 by encouraging Congress to ban trade to the island, an embargo that lasted from 1806 through the 1820s. The U.S. would not formally recognized Haiti until 1862, not coincidentally after the secession of the slave South.
While the short-lived diplomatic relationship forged between the Adams administration and L’Ouverture is all but forgotten today, one can appreciate how the founding principles of both countries reinforce each other. The pride which the founders of Haiti placed in fighting for “Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité,” first in the United States and then in Haiti itself, matched the pride that Americans have felt since 1776 as they work towards Jefferson’s words “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
As Americans continue to grapple with sending aid aboard, they might remember how these debates permeate our history and represent our constant struggle to achieve and protect our Founding ideals.
Read Full Article »
