The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-04-07

luIus GJuCA " 90 LAo
in the Executive Mansion of
he President. The Rear Admiral
pports the dignifed reply of the
resident and Secretary Of State,
Who said: "That while they were
aware of their weakness, they knew
their rights and would maintain
them, and their dignity as far as
they were able, and they must be
allowed to Judge Of their own policy"
or words to that effect. In fact,
the Rear Admiral told the Haytien
President, that if any sail under the
Haytien or any other flag was found
in the Dominican waters he would
sink or capture them.
Congress has the sole right to de-
clare war, that is to say q majority of
both houses and the President must
concur in it. The President has set
this principle at naught. He COW
enanted in the treaty, which was re-
jected, as follows:
"The people of the Dominican
Republic shall, in the shortest pos
sible time, express in a manner con-
formable to their laws their will con-
cerping the cession herein provided
for. and the United States shall, un-
til such expression shall be had, pro-
tect the Dominican Republic against
foreign interpOsition, in order that
the 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 there
fore "brutum fulmen," q mere wood
en- gun, until after the ratification Of
the treaty. Otherwise the President
alone might declare war without an
act of Congress, doing indirectly
what he cannot do directly, and thus
overturning hat special safe guard
placing what the story justly calls,
this highest sovereign prerogative,
under the guardianship of Congress.
But the treaty making power itself
belongs to the President, with two
thirds of the Senate. The Presi-
dent alone cannot 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 ursurpatiOn
is openly prolonged, after the Senate
has rejected the treaty on which the
exercise of the kingly prerogative
was founded.
Nh. Sumner concluded, that in the
evidence adducsd, l have confined
myself carfully to public documents.
On this unanswerable and cumula-
tive testimony, where slch a part
confirms the rest and the whole have
the harmony of truth, l present this
transgressiOn, and here it is not
who speak but the testimony, there
stands a case of International Jaw
which has been violated in two of
its commanding rules; one securing
the equality of nations and the 9TH
er providing against belligerent in
tervention, while a distinctive fund
ament of the principle of the consti-
tuition, in which the PRESIDENT is de
prived of kingly prerOgative, is dis
regarded and this very kingly pre-
rogative, is asserted by the Presi
dent. This is the simplest state
ment. Looking still further, fact
we see, that all the great disobedi
ence has for its object the atquisi
ton of an outlying tropical island
with large promise of wealth, and
that in carrying out this scheme, oul
republic has forcibly maintained
usurper in powe~, that he might sell
his country and has dealt blow at
the independence of the Black Re-
public of Hayti, which being q wrong
to that republic, was an insult to the
African race, and all this has been
done by q prerogative alone without
authority of an act of congress, for
such a transaction. Many headed
in the wrong can escape judement
but it is difficult to see what securl-
ties remain, while the other sacred
rules of the international law may
be violated; what foreign nation may
not be struck? at what other bellig
erent, menace may not be hurledt
what other kingly prerogative may
not be seized2 Never before has
there been such Presidential inter
vention in she Senate, as we have
been constrained to witness. The
President visits the Capitol with ap-
peals to the Senators, which have
been followed by assemblies at the
Executive Mansion, also with ap-
peals to the Senators, and who can
Imagine the pressure Of all kinds by
himself and his agents, especially
through appointing power, all to Sc
cure the consummation Of this
schemep Thus do we discern in the
acts of the President, whether on the
coasts of San Domingo or here at
Washington, thesam determination,
with the same disregard of great
principles, and also the same reek-
liessness toward the people of Haytl,
who never injured Us. In view OF
these things, the first inquiry Is, not
of the soil, climate, productiVeness,
and the possibilities, but the excep-
tional and abnormal proceedings OF
our own government. Before con.
Idemning a treaty, or any question OF
acquisition, we must at least put
Yourselves right as nation; nor DO l
see how this can be done without re-
tracing our steps and consenting to
act in subordination to international
law and the Constitution OF the
United States. Therefore on the
question of acquisitions, l say moth
ing to-day, only alluding to some
questions involved in the question,
whether we will assume the bloody
hazards involved in this business, as
it has been pursued, with the alter
native of war expenditure for war
ships and troops, causing more pain
full anxieties, while the land of Tous-
SAINT L'Ouverture listens to the con
slant whisper of Independence; and
there Is still that other question Of
debts and obligations, acknowledge
ed and unacknowledged, with an i'm
mense claim by Hayti and an unset
tied boundary, which 1 have already
called a bloody law lawsuit. These
annexations / state only mean that
while to my mind there is something
better than belligerent Intervention
and acts of war, with the menace oi
absOrDtion at the untold cost of treas