The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-03-16
Sumner and San Domingo.

The inaugural declaration OF President
Grant that he had no policy to enforce
against the will of the people, when read
by the light of the heated zeal with
which the San Domingo scheme is push
ed, contrasts strongly with facts. The
meekness with which the newly anointed
magistrate of 1869 kissed the book and
spake of his purposes to forget self and
promote the welfare of the people, dis
guised, it appears, purpose to ride over
not only the will of the people, but the
usages of the party that elected him, and
to destroy its unity, if either or all stood
in the way of his purposes. Nothing
short of that can explain the ill-iudged
pertnacity with which the San Domingo
scheme has been pushed. even to the eX-
tremity of the attempted disgrace Of 4
man like Senator Sumner, whose hard
fought battles for the party of to-day had
passed into history when the President
was still an unknown tanners clerk in
Illinois, and Buchanan Democrat 1t
cannot be denied that the advantage. so
tar as public opinion goes, is with the
Senator. His long service, in which no
suspicion Of iobbery has attached to him,
his high position, talents and learning, the
constituency he represents, the devoted
friends who feel in their hearts the blow
aimed at him all these would have made
pause before aiming blow at him. There
is a proverb that ''thOse who know moth
inc, fear nothing" A 1.-THE of the caution
which our headlon@ President might learn
from a ward politician, would have saved
to himself a world Of perplcxity, and to
his party the fatal disruption which now
seems inevitable. The opposition to an
nexation, of which Mr.. Sumner is the
front, cannot be ridden over rs bv a charge
Of dragons.
1t is possible that the President or his
advisers imagine that the annexation
policy which gave power and prestige to
The Democratic party for so long a period.
can be made available to float radicalsm
a while longer. But Florida, Louisiana,
California. and all of Mexico worth hay
ing, are annexed, and the field is reapod
clean of continental territory, for the teeth
of the English lion are too formidable to
be confronted. Only the islands of the
Caribbean sea remain. Cuba has for
years been ready to drop into our lap,
prevented only by the infirmitv of pur-
pose shown at Washington. AT last the
territorial acquisition policy has settled
down upon poor dissolutc, sickly, cock
fighting, bankrupt San Domingo If this
scheme and its results are all that the
Grant administration will have with which
to 90 before the people in 1872, its show
for another term will be poor indeed
If the stubbornness of the President on
one hand, and the Indignation of Summers
friends on the other, shall rend the radi-
cal party in twain, in this wrangle over
the annexation of negro community. it
will be marked instance of vengeful
chickens coming home to roost. The
negro question and the war that grew
out of il have been almost the sole capital
Of the radical party since it came into ex-
istence. If a further dose of the same
medicine shall have the effect to deliver
the country, not only will it be crafty
ing result, but a new testimonial to the
theory that like cures like"