The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-12-17

and its decisions have been received
atul the Department of State. The
heretofore. recognized government of.
the United States ofVenezuela has
been subyerted, a provisional govern
ment having been, instituted under
circumstances which promise durabili-
Lty. = 1t has beenqformally recognized.
% have been reluctantly obliged to
ask explanation and satisfaction for
national injuries committed by the
President of Hayti. The political and
social conditions of the republics of
Hayti and st. Domingo are unsatis-
factory and painful. The abolition of
slavery, which has been carried into
effect throughout the Island of St. Do
mingo and the entire West Indies, ex-
cept the Spanish Island of Cuba and
Porto Rico, has been followed by a
profound popular conviction of the
righttulness of republican institutions
and an intense desire to secure them.
The attempt, however, to establish re-
publics there encounters many obsta-
cles, most of which may be supposed
to result from long induiged habits of
colonial supineness and dependence
,upou monarchieal powers.
pr While the United States have on all
occasions 'professed decided unwil-
Iingness that any part of this continent
or its adjacent Islands shall be made a
theater for a new establishment of
i monarchial power. too little has been
done, on the other hand, to attach the
communities by which we are sur
rounded, to our own country, or to
lend even a nloralsupport to the efforts
they are so resolutely and so constant
i ily making to secure republican insti-
tutions for themselves. diti' b ..'.1 H.
1t is indeed question of grave
consideration whether our recent and
present example is not calculated to
check the growth and expansion of
free principles and make those COM
munities distrust if not dread q gov
ernment which consigns to military
domination States that are integral
parts of our Federal Uuion, and while
ready to resist any attempts by other
nations to extend to this Hemisphere
the monarchical institutions of Europe,
assumes to establish over a large por-
ton of its people a rule more absolute,
harsh and tyrannical than any known
to civilized powers. H .-s-...-
r sEWARD'S LAND SPECULATIoNs.
The acquiaition of Alaska was made
with the view Of extending national
Jurisdiction and republican principles
in the American hemisphere. Believ-
ing that further step could be taken
in the same direction, last year enter
ed into treaty with the King of Den
mark for the purchase of the islands of
St. Thomas and St. John. on the best
terms then attainable, and with the ex-
press consent of the people of those
islands. This treaty still remains un-
der consideration in the Senate. A
NEW Convention has been entered into
with Denmark, enlarging the time
fixed for final ratification of the origin
al treaty. Comprehensive national
policy would seem to sanction the ac-
QUESTION or incorporation into our
Federal Union the several adjacent
continental and insular communities
as speedily as it can be done peacefully
and lawfully, and without any viola
ton of national justice, faith or honor.
Foreign possession eP- control of those
communities has hitherto hindered the
growth and impaired the influence of
the United States. Chronic revolution
and anarchy there would. be equally
injurious. Each one of them when
firmly established as an independent
republic, or when Incorporated into
the United States, would be a new
source Of strength and power. Con-
forming my administration to these
principles, have ON no occasion lent
support or liberation to unlawful eX-
lpeditions set on foot upon the plea of
Republican propagandism, or of ma
tional extension or aggrandizement.
The necessity, however, of repressing
| 10 NJ nj
dicates the duty which rests upon US
lofadapting our Legislative action to the
new circumstances of the decline of
European monarcial power and inf1u-
ence, and the increase of American
republican ideas, interests and sympa-
thies. 3l3
ANNEXATION OF ST. DOMINGO.
| 1t cannot be long before it will be-
come necessary for this government
to lend some effective aid to
the solution of the political and
social problems which are continually
kept before the two Republics of the
island of st. Domingo, and which are
now disclosing themselves more dis
tinctly than heretofore in the island of
Cuba. The subject is commended to
your consideration with all the more
earnestness, because l am more salts
| fed that the time has arrived when
even so direct proceeding asa propo-
sition for annexation of the two Re-
publics of the island of st. Domingo
would not only receive the consent of
\ the people interested, but would also
give satisfaction to all other foreign
1 nations. / am aware that upon the
: question of further extending our
possessions, it is apprehended, by some
4 that our political system cannot sue
eessfullybe applied to an area more
extended than our continent; but the
conviction is rapidly gaining ground
in the American mind that, with the
! increased facilities for intercommu-
4 hfcatiofl between: all portions of the
!, earth, the principles of free govern
ihehty as embraced in our Constitution,
4 faithfully maintained and carried
: out, would prove of sufficient strength
4 and breadth to comprehend, within
their. sphere and influence, the civil
lied nations of the earth. ss'g
RECIPROCITY WITH THE SANDWICH
=" ISLANDS. '-
4 The attention of the Senate and of
Congress is again respectfully invited
I to the treaty for the establishment of
commercial reciprocity with the Ha-
;. waiian Kingdom, entered into last
year and already ratified by that gov
. ernment. The attitude of the United
States towards these islands is not
very different from that in which they
stand towards the West indies. 1t is
known and felt by the Hawaiian gov
ernment and people that their govern
y ment and institutions are feeble and
precautions; that the United States be-
ing so near neighbor, would be un-
willing to see the island pass under
foreign control. Their prosperity is
continually neutrality-suspicious.
and alarms of unfriendly political pro-
ceedings, as we'll from the United
States as from other foreign powers.
A reciprocity treaty, while it could
Z. :; .;s;L A..