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

| SeuatoR 0aDDeFSb Speech.
In the Senate on the twenty seventh
| instant, Mr.. Sumner commenced speaking
| a. soon - practicable after that body was
called to order. In his opening paragraph
he definitely asserts that it ie now ON evil
dence before tho Senate that the navy Of
the United States, acting under orders from
Washington, has been engaged in measures
Of violence and of belligerent intervention;
being at war, in fact, without the authority
of Congress.
| The whole business, he adds, is aggra-
waited when it il considered that the de-
clared object Of this violence is the acquisi-
tion Of foreign territory. being halt an
island in the Caribbean sea. and still further
that this violence has been employed first
to prop and maintain weak ruler, himself
an usurper, upholding him in power that ne
might sell his country; and, secondly, it has
been employed to menace the black republic
of Hayti. Such q case, Mr.. Sumner con-
tinues, is too grave for silence. For the
sake Of the navy, the administration.
republican institutions, and for the sake OF
the Republican party, which cannot afford
to become responsible for such conduct, the
case must not pass without inquiry; but
beyond Ill these considerations is the COM
manding one Of tho rule of justice.
The question is mot whether the acquisi-
| ton of San Domingo il desirable, but
whether We are justified in the means em.
plOyed to accomplish this acquisition; and
evidence now before US elbows too clearly
that means have been employed which can
not be justified. He had supposed that the
proceedings as regards the treaty for annex
alton were blameless until, while 1t was
pending before the Senate, the Assistant
dispatches, among which was ono from our
| consular agent there, who signed treaty OF
annexation, from which it distinctly ap-
peared that Baez, while engaged in selling
his country, was maintained in power by the
navy of the United States. Other evidence
has accumulated to show that We were en-
gagged in forcing upon weak people sacri-
| fee of their country. -
The State Department and Navy Depart
| ment each contained record Of the dis
graceful, intolerable and deplorable pro-
ceedings, and still they pressed its con-
summation; the story Of NabOth's vineyard
was revived. Unless the reports ct the
State and Navy departments are discred-
| tied, it is obvious, beyond doubt, that our
| government has seized the war powers care
fully guarded by the constitution, and with
out authority Of Congress has employed
| them to trample on the independence and
| equal rights of two nations cO-equal with
our own.
The Senator then characterizes Baez and
Grant as co-partners in the melancholy
affair. He carefully reviews the history of
| the former, and his interruptions usurpa-
ton. He recites that the origin of the
scheme for annexing the half Of the island
is generally known.
Baes was obliged to invoke foreign as
| sistance. "Help me, Cassius, or l sink, y
cried the grand citizen. European powers
would not listen; none of them wanted his
halt of the lsland-not Spain, not France,
not England-nOne would take it, but still
| the grand citizen cried, when at last he was
relieved by an answering voice from our
republic. A young officer inexperienced in
life, ignorant of the world, untaught in the
Spanish language, unversed in international
law, knowing absolutely nothing OF the in
tercOurse between nations, and unconscious
of the constitution of his country, was Sc
lected by the President to answer the cry Of
the grand citizen.
In closest association with Baez, and with
profitable concessions, not easy to measure
was an American named Cazeneau-known
as dislOyal to our country, and so thor
oughly suspected that q military plenipo-
tentiary before leaving Washington was ex-
pressly warned against him. But like seeks
like, and he at once rushed into the embrace
of the speculator who boasted his intimacy,
beyond all Americans, with the Samana and
annexation negotiations to their close, and
who did not hesitate to instruct Baez that it
was not only his right but his duty to keep
an American citizen in prison to serve and
protect the negotiations in which our Presi-
dent was interested, which he denOminates
the "business ON hand" By the side of
Cazeneau was Fabens, also a speculatOr and
a life long intriguer, afterward envoy ex-
traOrdinary and minister plenip0tentiary OF
Baez in the great business.
A treaty was signed by which the usurper
pretended to sell his country to the United
States for one and half million; also, an
other treaty leasing the Bay of Samana for
an annual rent Of $l5O, 900; the latter sum
was paid down by the young plenipoten-
tiary, Or $780, 600 cash, and $4,000 in mus
tanned the navy of the United States to
maintain him in his treason.
By the Dominican constitution of 1866, it
is sOlemnlv declared neither the whole nor
any part of the territory of the republic can
ever be alienated, while the President takes
the following oath of office: 81 swear by
God and the Holy Evangelists to keep, and
cause to be kept, the constitution and laws
of the Dominican people, to respect their
The previous constitution had said simply:
"No part of the territory of the republic can
be alienated." But now, as if anticipating
recent events, it was declared that ''neither
the whole or part" thus explicitly exclud-
ing the power exercised.
All this was set aside while the plot went
ON. Even if Baez defied the constitution of
his country, our government, in dealing
with him, could not do 80.
In negotiating with another power, this
great republic, which is an example to ma
tiOns, can not be insensible to the restric-
tions imposed by the constitution of the
contracting party. This duty becomes
stronger from the very weakness of the
other side. Defied by the Dominican
usurper, all these restrictions must be care
fully regarded by the United States. This
is an established rule of international law.
Thus the constitution of both contracting
republics and the law of nations were all
set at naught in this great business.
Mr.. Davis Hatch, of Norwalk, Connec-
ticut, was guilty of writing letters to New
York journal exposing the character of
Baez. The latter arrested him as soon as
his second usurpatiOn succeeded, and i'm
prisoned him, and he was detained in prison
by authority of the usurper, and at the
special instance of Cazeneau and with the
cOnnivance of Babcock, in order to prevent
his influence against the treaty Of annex
alton. The evidence is explicit and unan-
swerable.
Gaulier, the minister of Baez who had
signed the treaty, in an official note to our
consular agent, dated at San Domingo, Feb
ruary 19, 1870, and communicated to the
State Department, says: II desire that
you will be good enough to assure his ex-
cellency, the Secretary of State at Wash
ington, that the prolonged sojourn of Hatch
here has been only to prevent his hostile ao-
ton in New York" Nor is this all. Gaze
neau had the unequaled hardihood to write
70 no Thor, AZ WoahiuOfOn under