New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-04-30
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SAN D0m1tG0s ~
The ASsnnfs - Y ~ I 80 IRspsrs =
the Ceum1tooo - o6tsnl 8elatio1s Of
ehe massachusetts I,egislneuFe-Tbe
OpInlsns Of Our Eax1y etases1nen On the
West India IslanAs.
The following is tho report Of the Com
mittee ON Federal Relations Of the Massa-
chusetts Senate on the subject of the annexa-
ton Of San Domingo:
CoNMoNwKALrH OF MAssAcHusKrrs,
House Of Representatives. April 10, 1871.
The Committee on Federal Relations, to
whom was referred the following res0lu-
tons, introduced by Mr.. Stearns, of
Hampden:
s.ResOlve in relation to the annexation of
Dominica to the United States.
"Resoloed, That the Legislature OF Mas
sachusetts do most heartily approve of the
conduct of the Hon. Charles Sumner, in OPP
posing the annexation of Dominica to the
United States, involving as it does injury
and misfortune to q weak neighb0ring re-
public, possibility of war and blOodshed,
the Joining to US Of an undesirable, ignorant
and debauched population. an addition to
our great national debt and increased bur-
dens of taxation;
'.That we emphatically denounce the un.
seemly attacks made upon our honOred Sena-
tor for boldly and fearlessly maintaining the
right, and extend him gladly our. words OF
cheer and encouragement.
" RESOLVED, That copy of this resolution
be forwarded to each Of our Senators and
Representatives in Congress-"
Submit the following report prepared and
signed March 10, 1871:
1t is the good habit Of the Massachusetts,
Legislature to confhe its attention to mat
tiers within its own jurisdiction, and not to
pass upon national questions unless they
are OF the greatest importance or involve
some new elements that the public mind is
supposed to be anxious to consider and un.
derstand.
The preceding resolutions bring to the at.
tentiOn of the Legislature, substantially,
the proposition that has recently engaged
the national government, to-wit: The pro.
position to inquire into the expediency OF
extending our dominion over a part Of one
OF the most valuable of the West India
islands, San Domingo, at the request of its
government and people.
The policy of acquiring some such
power in the West Indies, for commercial
and naval purposes, as seemed naturally to
belong to us, has long beer. familiar and
welcome to our national councils; it is only
the shape that the question now assumes
that is of recent date. Hitherto the chief
obstacle to this policy has been the rule,
wisely adhered to by our government, not
to extend our dominion where the people to
be affected by the measure had not mani
tested their free consent to the change.
The proposition in regard to San Domingo
was made in the belief that this obstacle
does not now stand in the way; and the
committee think that the government would
have failed in its duty to the country if it
had neglected the opportunity of entering
upon the question of acquisition by institu-
ting full, authentic and reliable investiga-
ton as to it's merits.
This ancient and familiar policy was born
with the nation. It grows spontaneously
out of our geographical situation, and seeks
the rightful commerce and appropriate de-
Tense OF the country. The eastern coast of
the American continent, in the latitude of
the West Indies, recedes till it nearly
reaches the Pacific; and a longitudinal line
that touches this capital and the centre of
South America marks off an American Med
iterranean as great in it's extent of waters
as the old European Mediterranean, always
so renowned in the navigation of the Old
World. Within this American sea lie nearly
all the greater Antilles of the archipelago,
and the lesser Antilles; even the "still-
vexed BermOothes" are not far outside the
line. Nature designed them as a part of
the American system; b. the same laws
that Salamis belonged, to Greece, Sicily to
Rome; that the Isles Of Wight and Man be-
long to England. Louisburg and Cape Bre-
ton to the British provinces, is America con-
stituted the natural and paternal guardian
of these lonely children Of the sea. They
are hard BY our southeastern seaboard.
They are directly in the pathway of our
cOastwise, South American and Californian
trade; and when the American Isthmus
shall become canalized, as it surely will be,
and the trade of Western Europe with the
Western American coast and the East, shall
westward hold it's way" who does not see
that these-waters will become the most i'm
pOrtant theatre known to navigation!
This policy was early forced upon the at
tenrion of this country, not only because
these islands were near by, but because
they were the most convenient as we'll as
prolific lands beneath the line that could
furnish us with our necessary supply of the
products of the tropics. We had the agri-
cultural and mechanical products of tenn.
perate zone; they had neither, and wanted
tropical products that are our necessaries
in daily consumption; their forests fur.
nished plenteOusly the fine woods that are
appropriated by US in the mechanic arts.
We wanted both, and had neither. The
products of either cline justsupplemented
those of tho other, and in these differing
commodities the young country saw the
natural basis Of . great, Aourislling and
beneficent external commerce. In no other
quarter of the world did such a prospect
meet her ardent gaze. The agricultural
similar latitudeS wcro substantially the
same as her own. Their store was full
Carrying Goals to Newcastle" was never
tempting business to our cOuntrymen in
her early or ripper years. To manufacture
ing and the mechanic arts she could not re-
sort, except clandestinely, for the imperial
mother did not allow her to hammer out q
''hob.nail;" and had she fabricated it she
could not have transported the commodity
to any British port in one OF her own YES
sells. And had she been free to manufac
ture and to transport, she knew her com
merce would have poor business in carry.
ing the products to those of old countries
whose developed mines. perfected nachin.
cry, redundant capital, abundant labor and
trained skill enabled them to set all compe
titiOn at defiance. Agriculture, uninvig-
Grated by other pursuits, could employ but
a slight portion of her teeming energies
down to the sea in ships" she must 60, il
obedience to the instincts of commercial
race. one uTcW IFOHl us OeptnS all tnt
tribes Of it's inhabitants fit for the food o.
man, and its mightier game she chased and
captured on whatever coast or in whatever
cline they could be found. For an external
commerce that would invigorate and ex
pand her enterprise upon land she looked t.
those neighboring tropical islands with the
lively expectations of rightful heir to {
heritage. Time and experience have only
strengthened this feeling.
The history Of our commerce with thOs'
islands is dreary one As soon as they as