Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-12-14
it seat from which to send Roman
Catholicism over this continent.

The grandeur of her churches are not
surpassed by those of Spain. 1t is, truly,
a land of crosses they meet you on every
hand, and are respected and reverenced by
the people. They mark places memorable
for important events, for the loss of life
and of graves. There is, however, some
contradiction to their religious reverence,
in their manner of spending Sunday. 1t
is passed in cock-pits, fighting roosters,
and in betting, even the priest may be
seen with rooster under his arm.
As a member OF the commission to
visit Santo Domingo, 1 spent three weeks
in the old oity of Santo Domingo, the
capital of the country, situated on the
south side of the island, with its harbor
studded with forts. It is we'll worth a
voyage to see. The city is we'll laid out
Each house is like the other, "oneness"
prevades all, due somewhat TO the IN
changeable climate, but more to one
church and the eff4cts of the inquisition.
The front doors are of barn door proper
tious, and are used as such, as the Span
iard does not deigu to dismount when en-.
tcrfng the house. THE windows are
placed 90 high as to conceal all but the
head Of the occupant, and are barred ,giv-
ing the houses a prison-like appearance.
The city is surrounded by wall, mount
ed with guns, originally intended for pro-
& Iofo fha TnIsanS
hat useless now. The city, the first built
by Europeans this side of the ocean, the
first metropolis of the western world,
once busy with the hum of industry and
commerce, ia now as qniet as q New Eng
land Sabbath Once the seat and center
nf a vast religions organization and in
6nenoe. it is now cut off from the world.
MANY of the religious edifioes remain, but
the most are now in ruins. One church
the San FrancisGo-onoe marked for
it's splendor and magnifoence is now a
vast ruin. It was built to stand for ever
hut, in less than four hundred years, it
ia gone, and tropical trees andy vegetation
are growing amid its ruins. There are
atill. saveral fine old churches in Santo
D ,minQo hut their fate may DO read in
that of San Francisco. There saems no
energy left to save the old buildings or to
build them up again.
S4nfo Domingo has never parted with
her religious character. Services are
held in her churches by night and by day
and the people g ck to them. Religion
aud morality are, however, not oo-exist-
ant. Their religion is not the guide of
hum IN nature. but guided by it. No
people are more pjous, but none more
torn by social disorder.
Why Ia it that the population is so
-psrse and the civilization so feeble 1t is
heo4usa the island has been field of
hlood aud of every form of war, slavery.
o 1pression. treaohery and calamity. 1t Ia
his and bad government, not the soil and
climate. The old island was more favor
be than the ohristian civilization that
.upDlanted II, The island was wealthy
nd beautiful, but 1t was her misfortune
Nn6 nAu EDius hDO tOt ttldl t|l0 1P
frat aak+d The desire for sudden wealth
induced large immigration. Within 30
years nearly one million of her inhabi
tants persisted, and only aixty thousand
.aved themselves from Spanish rapaoity
nv fleeing to the mountains.
S4nto D ,mingo was also the first to
engage in the slave trade, and the first to
stain the hillows of the sea with Congo
blood. Having exterminated q million Of
the nativea, the Spaniards turned their
rapacious eyes to Africa They were led
bv priest. Las Casas. The negro is bet
ter for his contact with the white race.
and that may be the reason why slavery
was permitted stood on the spot where
the first slaves of my race were landed.
They have been the worst governed
people on the face of the earth. Slavery
killed and destroyed by it's death as well
ss by its life. and S4uto Domingo was the
irst to suffer. More than sixty years
before our rebellion, her mountains were
made to bleed and to turn.
Men may talk about "nO unity of
races" but we all have the same human
nature, and it was developed in Santo
Domingo, in the war between master and
slave. The negro was not more cruel or
brutal than his white master. The blacks
were slow to begin the struggle for their
freedom. 1t was commenced by the null
attoes. The frightful horrors and atroci-
ties, shout which we have heard so mnch,
were not perpetrated uutil after they had
been free for six years. They were then
frigbtful, and do not blame them. Bo-
naparte, the first great Ku,K Klux of the
century, was then endeavoring to re-en-
slave them. Our Ku-Klux may learn q
lesson from this.
The mulattoes of Santo Domingo have
a bad name they are said to hate the
blacks, and are treaoherous and malignant.
They being neither white nor black pos
sessed, ethnologists say, the good qualities
of neither race. Latin Shareholders, un.
like the Auglo-Saxon, would not sell their
own slave children, neither would they
make them equal to their white children.
Being neither perfectly slave or free, they
formed caste by themselves, neither sep
arsted or unitedE by birth end color, with
either side. The true remedy for this has
been found in our own country by the
adoption of the Fifteenth amendment,
which is to weld together sill kindred, ma
tiops and tongues of the country, and,
finally of the whole continent.
went to Ssnto Domingo on the COM
mission, unbiased as to annexation, or, if
biased at all, it was against annexation.
II is due, to my subject as announced and
the expectations of the audience, that L
should state my impressions as to annex
alton.
hold, 1st-That Latin civilization and