9011: Stamp/Letter to Postmaster 10/86 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>


					October 23, 1986


Mr. Preston Tish
Postmaster General
475 L'Enfant Plaza
Washington, D.C. 20260-9998

Sir:
	
	In July 1976, the Republic of Haiti issued a commemorative stamp
celebrating the 200 years of an independent United States. On that stamp,
Haiti recalled that about 600 black Haitians had participated in the U.S.
wars of independence, notably at the American victory in Savannah in 1779,
under the French military officer, Count d'Estaing.

	Less than one generation after the United States had declared its
freedom, Haiti proclaimed its independence from the French in 1804. In
Eighteen years, [now 3 years] Haiti shall be 200 years old. I want to be
the first to call upon your office [a similar letter was sent in 1976] to
issue a stamp for that occasion.

	Major historians, among them Henry Adans, W.E.B. DuBois, C.L.R.
James and Rayford W. Logan have recognized the debt owed by the United
States to Haiti. The fact of Haitian independence, according to these
historians, ended Napoleon's dream of a North American empire that would
have jeopardized this country, and led to the Louisiana Purchase that
doubled the national territory. Furthermore, it strenghtened anti-slavery
forces in the United States and influenced the decision to end the slave
trade.
	
	I hope that the United States Postal Service will respond
favorably to this suggestion and, in a very small way, strenghten the
historical relationship which has existed between the two republics since
the 18th century.
	
			Yours sincerely,
	
	
			Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Ph.D.