The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-04-07
The speech of Senator Sumner.


He commenced by asserting that it is now
on evidence before the Senate that the navy
of the United States, acting under orders
from Washington, has been engaged in
measures of violence and belligerent inter
vention, being war without the authority of
Congr SIS. The whole business is aggravated
when Ut is considered that the declared OBJ
ject of this violence is the acquisition of
foreign territory, being half of an island in
the Caribbean sea; and still further, that
this violence has been employed, first to
prop and maintain a weak ruler, himself an
usurper, upholding him in power, that he
might sell his country and, secondly, it has
been employed TO menace the black Republic
of Hayti. Such case. Mr.. Sumner continues,
is too grave for silence. For the sake of the
navy, the Administration, republican insti-
tutions, and for the sake of the Republican
party, which cannot afford to become re-
sponsible for such conduct, the case must not
pass without inquiry. But beyond all these
considerations is the commanding rule of
justice. The question is not whether the
acquisition of San Domingo is desirable, but
whether we are justified IN the means en-
ployed to accomplish this acquisition, And
the evidence now before us shows too clearly
that means nave been employed which can
not be justified. He had supposed that pro-
ceedings regarding the treaty for annexation
were blameless until, while il was pending
before the Senate, the Assistant Secretary
OF State brought him a number of dispatch
es, among which was one from our consular
agent there, who signed the treaty for annex
alton, from which it distinctly appeared that
Baez, while engaged in selling his country,
was maintained in power by the navy of the
United States. Other evidence has accumu-
lated to show that we were engaged in fore
ing upon weak people the sacrifice of their
country. The State Department and the
Navy Department each contained record
of dsgraceful, intolerable, and deplorable
proceedings, and still they pressed consum-
nation. The story of Naboth's vineyard
was reviewed. Unless the reports of the
State and Navy Departments are discredited,
it is obvious, beyond doubt, that our Govern
ment has seized the war powers, carefully
guarded by the Constitution, and, without
the authority of Congress, has employed
them TO trample on the independence and
equal rights of two nations coequal with
ours. The Senator then characterzes Baez
and Grant as copartners in the melancholy
affair, and carefully reviews the history of
the former, and his unscrupulou3 usurpa-
tions rec'tes the scheme for anneXing half
the island. Quoting the exclamation of the
Duke of Wellington, 8" There can be no
such thing, my lords, as little war;" the
battle, and SO our navy has thus far con-
quered without a shot. But its presence in
Hayti and Dominica was war. He then
minutely reviews the testimony to this effect
furnished by the State and Navy Depart
ments, from which it appears that the very
agent who signed the treaties officially re.
ported that the usurper was maintained in
power by our guns. But intervention in
Dominica is only one part of the story, even
according to the reluctant confession of the
Navy Department In the effort To secure
the much covete territory, our Govern
ment, not content with maintaining the
usurper Baez in power, in occupying the
harbors Of Dominica with war ships of the
United States, sent other war ships. being
none other than orr powerful monitor Dicta-
tor, with the irigate Severn as n consort, and
with still other monitors in their train, to
menace the black Republic Of Hayti by an
act Of war An American Admiral was
found to do this thing, and an American
Minister; himself of African blood. was
found 10 aid the Admiral. The dispatch Of
the Secretary of State instituting this act of
war is not communicated to the Senate But
we are sufficiently enlightened BY that of
Bassett, our Minister resident at Port au
Prince, who, under date of Feb II, 1870. in
forms the State Department in Warrington
that he had transmitted to the IIaytien Gov
eminent notification that the United States
asked and expected strict neutrality in ref
erence to the internal affairs of San Domin-
go. This assault upon the equality and in
dependence oft the black Republic, Mr. Sum-
ner adds. appears more fully in the report
to the Navy Department, which is an au-
thentic record of acts fragrant and ndefensi-
BILE. Mr.. Sumner then proceeded to show
that this conduct is gross violation of inter
national law, and of the Constitution of the
United States, and every employment of
these war powers in pursuance Of this as
sumption was an usurpation, and that as
sumption in the San Domingo treaty is ex-
ceptional and abnormal, being abso-
lutely without precedent. Bat, con
tlnues Mr.. Sumner, even admitting
some remote semblance, excuse or apology
during the pending of the treaty, all of
which | insist is absurd beyond question,
though not entirely impossible in quarter
not at all unused to constitutional questions, /
and needing them little; conceding that the |
assumpsit inserted in the treaty by the Sec
rotary of State had deceived the President I
into the idea that he possessed the kinply |
prero yative of declaring war at his own mere |
motion, and wishing TO deal most gently, |
even with an undoubted usurpation of the |
klngly prerogative so long as the Seer, tary
Of State is the sworn counselor of the Prcsi- |
lent, supplied formula for the usurpation.
and you will bear witness that have done |
nothing but state the case. Il is hard to
hold back when the same usurpation is
openly prolonged after the Senate had re-
ected the treaty on which the exercise of
he kingly prerogative was founded, and
when the assumpsit devised by the Secretary
IF State had passed into the limbo of things
ost on earth. Here there is no remote in
intestinal semblance of excuse or apology.
Nothing, absolutely nothing. The usurpa-
ion pivots on nonentity, always excepting
he kingly will of the President, which.
'onstitutionally, is nonentity. The great
lrtist of Bologna, in much admired statue,
culptured Mercury as standing on puff of
,ir; bat the President has not even puff of
lir to stand on. Mr.. Sumner then con-
,luded: In the evidence adduced | have
confined myself carefully to public docu-
nents. On this unanswerable testimony,
where each part confirms the rest, and the
whole has the harmony Of truth, present
his transgression, and here it is not | who
peak, but the testimony. Thus stands the
ase. The international law has been VIC
ated in two acts, one securing the equality
# nations, and the other providing against
,elligerent intervention. Looking still
urther at the facts, we see that all this great
lisobedience has for its object the acquisition
VI an nutlvinO fropico1 leland ,y;tl Iox.o