Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-03-03
THE WILMINGTON JOURNAL
WILMINGTON. N. c..
FRIDAY, MARCH 3. 1871.
:. =. Dom,ueo CommissioH.


sion. The voyage was an unpieaSah' on
and the Commission arrived a' '0ani"n'
Raw on tho morning OF the oath January
IT, town of Santa Barbara de Saman'
.onto;ns about three hundred inhabltans
;nc1ndinp five or six whites, and the re-
nnainder OF all colors, down to the "oS
sootv. The population of the peninsula
az which It is the Capital, is about twenty
ava hundred blacks and mulsttoes'
Az aeon az anchor was dropped the
,vbola narty proceeded to business PEI.
mon The scientist put after bugs ano
crustacea-the commissioners
tale testimony Of Baez's negro 1unc'loh
aries on the matter of what they though
and what the people thought about an,
roxation. and. of course, they Thought al
r;obt Sieel and Fred. Douglas uh"oi
force OF ten days repressed eloquence,
-r.bad ashore and harangued Ii tie crowd
of SANTANA negroes in German ara HnellS 4.
for an hour or two, after which they put IL
IN vote whether the hearers wanted annex.
alton. but as only three hands were nelo
mn. Sigel swore that they "no underS'an
IA onestio..." and as neither he nor the
nsero Douglas could "speak un ini' 'no
Spanish, il was verleetle ASH better 10 SaS
noting at all.
The correspondent of the New York o'f"
saws that he put ashore quietly ana ln'c',
t;oota5 nm his own account. He says ne
discovered that upon the establishment "
the Dominican Government, IL c'alineo
and took possession of all the ola opAniSn
land grants on the island, and has pursued
the policy of leasing lands for the last hve
wears. renewable at the expiration OF the
lease, if the payments have been maze ;
and that every pinch of the property ao-
vantapeousIy situated around SANTANA pay
is so leased by parties in New York.
Being the only one of the party VINO
could speak Spanish huently, ne talAeo
freely with the people, ard observed their
condition. He says:
The morals of the inhabitants OF the Town Oh
sants Barbara are rather below par, II the paoTe
Knows ANYTHING about it. He told me peoPle
generally are averse to marriage, tnat duIlng
his ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS years-he mArrIeu on4 ,
and that he knew over 40 couples living IN o
state of "concubinage" in the 1mmeoiete !lci1 a.
tv, I am inclined to think that the opJec5lon 10
enter The marriage state is based on the eX-
man was buried the day we ar
rived the padre collected ZIG, paid IN advance
for reading the funeral service. 1t Is, eonS ;e
uuently, twice as cheap to get married as W u'e
and vet more appear to prefer the latter.
In relation to the public sentiment about
he is very explicit and clear.
In town, whoever held lease of a lot
kept Bhop-or was creature OF Baez'
was very decided for annexation, but they
all admitted that the feelings of the coun'
try people were unanimously hostile to the
project. A trader who kept store in the
town aLd as in favor Of annexation told
him:
Not ten out of every hundred men who are
stated by the Government to have voted IN favor
of annexation-and the Government puonenes
the affirmative vote at Is, 695-voted at all Inc
whole fraud was managed by Baez precisely as
the Spanish invitation was managed w santana
Az far as SANTANA is concerned, the late pieDls-
cite was taken simply by q few OF the Govern
ment officials forming caucus and calling be-
fore them the leading men OF the place, ana sig
nifying to them the advisabiity of their taking
an active part in obtaining the unanimous vote
OF the Inhabitants. Only two rash men dared TO
vots mo- As to the country people, that is, the
people OF the commune residing outSloe nAnta
to the polls was kindly saved them: their names
were written by the tools OF Baez on the slips,
and put into the electoral urn, or rather box. -
The foregoing was the plth OF Mr. As e'ate-
ment.
The result of his operations in town de-
termined him to visit the country and CON
verse with the people; and he gives the
substance of several conversations with the
colored peasantry. All of them, without
exception, violently opposed annexation
for many ressons-some of which are too
characteristic to be doubted. They did not
want the white people ON the island. The
Spaniards were bad enough, but the Yam
KEGS would be worse than the Spaniards.
But, says the correspondent. the Yankees
will give you good government We
don't want good government. We can't
afford it. We don't want to pay your poll
taxes and tariffs and property taxes. Now,
We pay nothing. Now we work when we
please and don't want to work much. We
want to live quietly and easily but if you
Yankees come, you will take control of af-
fairs out Of our hands and the Dominicans
will not stand that, and then there will be
war. Our own people will not allow us to
live in peace with you. Moreover, none
OF your schemes for improvement will be
practicable here. Nowhite man can work
in the fields. A peasant said
do not imagine that slaves will ever again
be brought from Africa, and only by slavery car
this island produce more than it consumes. The
Epaniards brought to Samana one Thousand
Chinese from Havana they were acolimated in
Ouba; they were put to work in the fields. ant
when the Epaniards left there was not single
Ohinsman alive. The Spaniards driver
out ut least rs much by the climate as by the
Dominican arms"
The correspondent says that the peas
ants complained of the ignominy of be
ing governed by an alien race of another
color, and all of them predicted war as
the certain result of another attempt te
bring it about. One of patty OF these
mulattoes whom he accosted said:
sob, yes, sir" said he, sit would no doubt be
much better to have good than a bad govern.
ment, but zoe can't afford a good one. II i chose
TO wozk more might clear more of that wood, >
pointing to the edge Of o wood not o hundred
yards from the back of the hut, land il I chose
to work from morning to night, ! might raise
more stuff and sell il in the city and get rich
but FIRST Of all. don't like working in the sun
and the more you have the more You are expect
rNno 81 arHkk En- hn nW1n IN