New-York tribune., 1870-02-04
HOLDING FAST TO SAN DOMINGO

HOLDING FAST TO SAN DOMINGO
To every appearance our Government has
resolved to make good its hold on San Do
mingO. War vessels of the United States are
even now in Samana Bay to permanently
occupy it, and the bargain for which our agents
have paid a deposit of S150,000 or less has
been taken possession of before ratification by
our Senate. Neither have the Dominican peO-
pie as yet approved the alienation of their
territory, in direct violation, as they contend,
of their Constitution. The terms of the Sa-
mana treaty do not bind us to consult the
Dominican people at all. So far as we have
been able to discover, this important element
has been suppressed altogether, or tacitly left
to the mysterious mercies of President Bacz,
Mr.. Perry on the one hand, and Mr.. Gautier
on the other only provide at most that the
Baez Republic does not cede its right of the
free navigation 'of Samana waters, and give
no hint that the Domincans will be called
to pass upon such plain business matter as
the leasing for fifty years of valuable part
of their territory Accordingly our Govern
ment, by the presence of its war vessels, treats
them to a foretaste of that Protection which
is one of the still unratified terms of the
Annexation Treaty. In one point of view.
this is San Domingo with the DOminicans
left out.
But what have the people of Baez and Ca
bral themselves to say? The leasing of Sa-
mana Bay is not the irrevocable alienation of
their territory; and what needy administration
of San Domingo would not have been ready to
have made the same bargaing The leasing of the
Bay has been, we suspect, traditional and
;fv &C al baf
Luperon, and Pimentel may say against it.
Did not Gen. Cabral himself propose to alien
ate the Samana territory, and was he not 0Js
posed by no less a person than Mr.. Bonaven-
tura Baezf Should Gen. Cabral again attain
to power, might not his sovereign necessities
tempt him to sell and might not Mr.. Baez or
some other worthy be patriOtcally forced to
denounce him Z We do not say that this would
certainly be the case, for President Baez is
rich enough, we hear, to fOrego the tempestu-
Ous honors he has been accustomed to, and
Messrs. Cabral, Luperon and Pimentel may
come to be less contrary minded than they
arc now. But we confess that our hopes are
not very sanguine. Nr. Baez had once gen
cral who declared that he would shoot Mr.
Baez himself if he dared to sell OF lease Sa-
mana; and now, exclusive of the three
anti-annexationists we have named, we can
count the names of fourteen generals who
share the views of Cabral But this is not
quite the end of our difficulty for the pro-
testing DomncaDs charge that Mr.. Baez has
hypOthecated the valuable mines and woods of
Samana to benefit the Hartmont- Hcrzberg loan.
What shall we dof BY all means let us
know the people of San Domingo. 10 il not
enough that we can treat with Baez, who can
put his people conveniently aside, or drum up
his partisans to the polls as he pleases 1t is
not enough to take it for granted that all elec-
tions in San Domingo are manipulated to suit
the mind of the ruling dictator and are hence
wretched farces. IL will not serve us to say
that Mr.. Baez is the only government VIC can
get hold of, and that We must have San Do
mingo, even il we have to grasp it. so to
speak, by the hair of its head to savo it from
drowning in its revolutions. We ought to
make, so far as we can, the acquaintance of
the Dominicans at large. We should obtain |
the most certain information of the degree of
stability enjoyed by the Baez Government |
We should stand fast to our platform that |
Annexation can only be acceptable TO us with |
the consent of a majority of the Dominican |
people. We ought to know the views of their |
leaders-Cabra and Luperon as well as Baez |