The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-23
Greuin9 telegraph
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1870.

THE SAN DOMINGO RESOLUTION
TIE San Domingo resolution, which passed
the Senate in spite of the bitter opposition of
Sumner by the significant vote of 81 to ., is
very innocent and straightforward PROPOSE
tion to give rise to an extraordinary and angry
debate. 1t simply authorizes the appointment
of three commissioners, who are to proceed
to the island of San Domingo and ascertain
whether the inhabitants of the republic of
Dominica really desire to be annexed TO the
United States, as we'll as the character of the
obligations such annexation would impose
upon this country, and the nature of the ad-
vantages we are likely to derive from the
proposed acquisition.
The President has been assailed in various
quarters for his neglect OF indisposition to
originate a vigorous, positive policy, and he
seems to have selected this San Domingo
affair as the practical answer to these CON-
plants Attacked for his failure to either
extend assistance to the Cuban insurgents or
to improve what seemed promising oppor-
tunity to acquire the Spanish Gem of the
Antilles he has aimed to appease the dissatis-
faction arising from these attacks by obtain
ing, at a small COST an island that may prac-
tioally prove as valuable to us as Cuba. San
Domingo is Grants hobby and since many
people insist that he must have hobby of
some kind to be as grand a President as the
stately rulers of the olden time, it is only
courteous fair, and just that the whole peo-
pie should be instructed as fully as possible
in regard to the resources and condition of
the sable sister that is supposed to be stretch
ing her hands lovingly towards u.s.
Hayti, before the abolition of slavery, and
before her industry had been paralyzed by
succession of wars and revolutions, was one
of the most productive portions of the world
and she yielded immense quantities of the
two articles which, above all Others, we are
compelled to import-coffee and sugar
There is good reason to hope that the expe-
rience gained in our Southern States in the
arduous task of reorganizing industry in a
semi-tropical climate, Immediately. after the
abolition of slavery, and after series of
terrible devastations, would enable
American citizens to industrially reconstruct
San Domingo as Georgia, South Carolina,
etc., have been reconstructed; and if this
hope is we'll founded, the Presidents pet pro-
jeot is worthy of all the friendly care he has
lavished upon it. If we are to acquire terri
tory of any kind, we can have nothing more
desirable than coffee and sugar plantations
conf joined with q naval station commanding
the outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. Such an
acquisition promises to be thousand times
more useful than bleak and distant Alaska,
and to be an immediate and constant source
Of profit. There will be no Indians to fight,
and no seal-fshing contracts to give out; and
if we must send down few regiments of
colored troops to keep the new citizens
in order we can soon extract from our black
Gem of the Antilles money enough to sup
port them At all events, it is due to the
nation that the facts involved III the San
Domingo business should be fully made
known. 1t will matter little whether one or
more impertinent Yankee spectators were
roughly handled by the San Domingo autho-
rites; it is not of much consequence whether
some of Grants original agents did or did
not undertake to improve their private
fortunes by the first negotiations. And we
do not care whether a few hundred negro
banditti do or do not relish the prospect of a
just and stable Government. The real ques-
tion is whether San Domingo is likely to be
worth to us great deal more than the proba-
Ue cost, and if it is, the public will say to the
President what he said to one of his gener ais
on memorable occasion, $50 in."