The Cecil Whig., 1871-04-15
General Grant and San Domingo.

The New ork Herald asks, and very
aptly answers, the following question:
Why did he (the President) ask of Con-
gress authority to send down to st. Domingo
this exploring expedition if it was not for
the puspose of pushing on the annexation
scheme?
The answer is substantially that the
express object of the expedition was the
refutation of certain serious charges and
insinuations made in the Senate against
the President in connection with this annex
alton project. What We're these charges
and nsinuations? They were the charges
and innuendoes advanced by Mr.. Sumner,
chairman of the Senate Committee on For
eign Relations, against the President in
connection with this Dominican enterprise
Thus, according to Mr.. Summers indict-
ment, General Grant has been guilty in
this business of usurpation of the war
power of Congress in his employment of
the navy; guilty of the design and of the
attempt to appropriate the territory of an
independent State upon usurpations and
false pretences, and i'll opposition to the
wishes of the people concerned :. guilty of
a design to fomcnt Il war as pretext for
the subjugation and seizure of the African
Republic of lIayti; guilty of a disgraceful
copartnership with gang of unscrupulous
speculators in scheme to divide the spoils
from the annexation of Dominica in certain
appropriated lots and lands, which, under
the Government of the United States, it
was believed, would become exceedingly
valuable; guilty of employing offices of
the United States navy as confederates of
this aforesaid gang of annexation specula-
tors. In short, according to Mr.. Sumner,
General Grant, in this annexation project,
has played the ignoble part of the inter
ested tool and copartner of a "ring" of
reckless adventurers in 4 monstrous Job,
regardless Of the consequences to Domi-
MICA or Hayti, or to the Treasury or good
name of the United States.
The St. Domingo Commission, after a
careful investigation under the instructions
embodied in the resolutions of Congress,
having vindicated the President against all
these charges, insinuations, and denuncia-
tions, General Grant is content to turn over
the annexation scheme to the discretion of
Congress. In other words, having spiked
the guns Of Mr. Sumner, the General rctires
from the field. He has gained his point
lie has the honest soldiers sense of honor,
and he has made it good. President John
son, in the Stanton War Department i'm
broglio, accused the General of deception
and falsehood, and we know the conse-
quences that followed to johnson. Mr..
Sumner, in his turn, has already felt some
thing of the reaction against similar charges
touching the honesty of General Grant
and with all his pompous, ponderous, and
laundering philippics we expect the Sena-
tor, by the simple facts of the St. Domingo
Commissioners report, will be reduced to
mere bag of wind full of sound and
fury, signifying nothing" 1t is remark
able, too, that after his unbounded admi-
ration of the Alaska annexation scheme
and after carrying through that delightful
purchase of icebergs and white bears, at
an outlay of seven millions in gold to Rus
sia and two hundred thousand to the lobby
it is, indeed, very remarkable, that Mr..
Sumner should regard the annexation of
| Dominica at less than one fourth the cost
of Alaska, as a scheme of war, bankruptcy
and all sorts of national disasters.
The opposition of the Dominican scheme
is not surprising for General Grant in this
idea is stealing Democratic thunder. Nor
are we amazed at the horror concerning
the project of those radical Republicans of
| the old Puritan school, who fought to the
last ditch against the annexation Of Texas
but Mr.. Summers hostility to General
Grants pet measure, after all, we fear, is
mainly due to his mistaken estimate of his
own Importance as the Magnus Apollo of
! the Republican party. At all events he is
silenced upon San Domingo, and, with
Schurz and the other Republican mutincers
against General Grant, Mr.. Sumner must
now seek some other point of assault, or
! give up the fight to cut him out and cut
him off as the Republican candidate for
the succession. g Where there is a will
there is way" and we apprehend that
/ the troubles of most of these disaffected
and disappointed Republican leaders lie
! deeper and nearer home than San Domingo.