New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-03-31

The cry 81 am an Ameficon citizen" was
nothing to Baez, nothing to Caseneau,
nothing to Babcock. The young plenipo-
tentiary heard the cry, and answered mot:
Annexation was in peril. Annexation co1ld
not stand the testimony Of Hatch, who
would write in New York papers; therefore
he was doomed to . prison.
The ships Of our navy were used to mon
ace the town of Puerto Plata, and to protect
Baes and his agents at al points ON tho
coast. The treaty was rejeeted in June last,
and no pretext remained for Intervention,
but the navy continued to interfere. On
July q Commander GreerrePorted that in
at once to . revolution. In September there
vas danger Of an outbreak in San Domingo,
and troops were sent to support Baes from
our fleet.
Many other proofs arc afforded by docu-
ments that nothing but IN armed force of
the United States has sustained Baez.
In. February, 1870, Admiral Poor ap-
peared with the dictator and Severn ct
Port M Prince, and declared therefore If
any attack should be made upon Dominic.
ans, meaning the usurper Baez), during
said negotiations, under the Haytien or any
other flag, it would be regarded as an act
of hostility to the United States flag, and
world provoke hostility in return. Such
was his language in the executive mansion
to the President. The rear admiral re-
ports the dignifed reply Of the President
and Secretary of State, who said: sThat
while they were aware Of their weakness,
they knew their rights, and would main
tain them and their dignity a. far - they
to be the judges of their own policy" or
words to that effect. In fact, the rear
admiral told the Haytien President that if
any sails under Hsytie1 or any other flag
were found in Dominican waters, he would
sink or capture them.
Quoting the exclamation of the Duke Of
wellington, There can be no such thing,
my Lords, a. . little Wal" . Senator has
asserted there may be war without battle;
without shot, but its presence in Hayti and
Dominica was war. ~
Mr.. Sumner then minutely reviews the
testimony to this effect, furnished by the
State and Navy Departments, from which it
appears that the very agent who signed
the treaties, officially reported that the
usurper was maintained in power by our
guns.
But Intervention in Dominica 10 only one
part Of the story. Even according to the
reluctant confession of the Navy Depart
ment, in the effort to secure tho much
coveted territory, our government, not con-
tent with maintaining the usurper (Baez) in
power, occupying the harbors of Dominica
with war ships Of the United States, sent
other war ships, being none other than our
powerful monitor Dictator, with the frigate
Severn IS cOnsort, and with YET other moni-
tors in their train, to menace the black re-
public Of Hayti by an act Of war. An Ameri-
can admiral was found to do this thing,
and an American minister, himself of African
blood, was found to aid the admiral. The
dispatch of the Secretary Of State at Wash
ingtOn insisting on this act of war, is not
communicated to the Senate; but we are
sufficiently enlightened by that of Mr.. Bas-
sett, our Minister resident at Port au Prince,
who, under date Of February II, 1870, in
forms the State Department at Washington
that he had transmitted to the Haytien gov
ernment notification that the United
States asked and expected it to observe strict
neutrality in reference to the international
affairs of San Domingo.
This assault upon the independence and
equality of the black republic, Mr.. Sumner
adds, appears more fully in the report Of the
Navy Department, which is an authentic
record of acts fragrant and indefensible.
Mr.. Sumner proceeds to show that this
conduct is q gross violstion OF internationa!
law and of the constitution of the United
States, and every employment of these war
powers in pursuance Of this assumption was
usurpation, and that the assumption in
the San Domingo treaty is exceptional and
abnormal, being absolutely without prece-
dent. But, continues Mr.. Summer, even ad-
hitting some remote, infnitessimal sem
blance Of excuse or apology during the PEN
dency of the treaty, all of which insist is
absurd beyond question, though not entirely
impossible in a quarter unused to con-
stitutiOnal questions, and needing them
little, conceding that the. assumpsit
inserted in the treaty by the Secretary
of State had deceived the President
into the idea that he possessed the kingly
prerogative Of declanng war at his own
mere notion, and wishing to deal most
gently even with an undOubted usurpati0n
Of the kingly prerogative so long as the
Secretary of State, the sworn counsellor Of
the President, supported the usurpatiOn
land you will bear witness that have done
nothing but state the case), it is hard to hold
back when the same usurpati0n is openly
prolonged, after the Senate had rejected the
treaty on which he exercises kingly pre-
rOgative was founded, and when the as
sumpsit devised by the Secretary of State
had passed into limbo of things lost on
earth here, sthere is no remote infnites-
sinai semblance of excuse or apology. No
thing, absolutely nothing. The usurpatiOn
pivots on nonentity, always excepting the
kingly will of the President, which cOnsti-
tutiOnally is nOnentity. The great artist
of Bologna, in much admired statue,
sculptured Mercury rs standing on q puff
of air; the President has not even putt OF
air to stand on.
Congress has the sole right to declare
war; that is to say, majority OF both
houses and the President must concur in
it, The President has set this principle at
naught He covenanted ON the treaty that
was rejected as follows: ''The people of the
Dominican republic SHALL in the shortest
possible time, express in manner conform
able to their laws, their will concerning the
cessi0n herein provided for, and the United
States shall, until such expression shall be
had, protect the Dominican republic against
foreign interposition, in order that national
expression may be free"
Now nothing can be clearer than that this
provision, introduced ON the authority of
the President alone, was beyond his powers,
and therefore brMtwmf fsslmes,. mere wooden
gem, until after the ratification of the treaty,
otherwise the President alone was without
an act of COngress-doing indirectly what
ing that special safeguard, placing what
Story justly calls this highest sovereign
prerOgative under the guardianship of Con-
gress. But the treaty-making power itself
belongs to the President with twO-thirds OF
the Senate. The President alone can not
make treaties, and his treaty promising the
use of the war power without the consent Of
Congress, was unconstitutional and void;
and now the same xsurpatiOn is openly pro-
lOnged after the Senate has rejected the
treaty on which The exercise of the kingly
prerogative was founded.
Mr.. Sumner concluded: In the evidence
adduced have confined myself carefully
to public documents. On this unanswerable
oo1S pt