New-York tribune., 1872-07-01
HOW THE MILITARY RING PROTECTS OUR
CITIZENS ABROAD.

CITIZENS ABROAD.
| One of the subjects referred to the notice of
| the Senate Committee on Retrenchment dur
| ing the session just closed, was the conduct of
| Gen. Grant and his military secretaries and
aides in the negotiation of the SantO Do
mingo Treaty. The matter, Of course, was not
reached-with an election SO close at hand it
was hardly to be expected that the Admins
tration Senators should consent to reach it
but a great deal of evidence on it was taken
some time ago by another committee, and
there are certain points of the inquiry touch
ing which nO reasonable doubt can remain.
About the suspected speculatiOns of Babcock,
Ingalls,, and others, with Messrs. Cazneau, Fa-
bens and Baez, we do not now concern our
selves but the case of Mr. Davis Hatch,
citizen of Connecticut living in SantO Do
mingo, and the sort of protection he obtained
in a critical emergency from the President OF
the United States, ought to be recalled to the
notice of the people, and though the story
has been told before, we purpose telling 1t
again.
Mr. Hatch was interested with Mr. Augustus
Sche1 and others in working a salt mine on
the island and had also concession from the
Spanish Government confirmed after the re-
tirement of the Spaniards by President Ca
bral) for the construction Of a railroad from
the mines to BarahOna. lie had made himself
obnoxious to Baez by certain letters published
in the newspapers of this city while CabTal
was President and Bacz in exile, and he was
hated by Mr.. Cazneau because he furnished
the information upon which the u. 5. Senate
rejected that gentleman when he was nOmi-
mated by President Johnson as Minister to
Santo Domingo. So when Baez drove the
troops of Cabral out of Barahona, one Of
his first measures was to arrest Mr.
Hatch who was quietly attending to his busi-
ness in that town, and to send him
a hundred miles into the interior, to be tried
by a military court at Azua on the charge of
cooperating with the Cabral party. There
seems to have been no foundation whatever
for the charge, but Mr.. Hatch was found
guilty and sentenced to he shot. Immediately
afterward by a decree of the Dominican SEN
ate, he received a full pardon, on condition
that he would leave the country. This was on
the 4th of October, 1869. He was not set at lib
erty, however, and for more than five months
after his pardon Baez continued to hold him
imprisoned by purely arbitrary order. He
was very frank in telling why he committed
this outrage; he was afraid Mr.. Hatch would
oppose the scheme of annexation. The Do
minican Secretary of State wrote to the
United States commercial agent in February.
that Mr. Hatch would have been released
at once chad it not been for the iTecOncila-
"ble enmity with which he attacks the Gov
eminent in all of its acts through the news
"papers and their agents. inyenting calumnies
" to dirert the public mind against annexation
" to the United States - and assured our rep
resentative that " the prolonged sojOum of
Mr.. Hatch had been enforced only to prevent
" his hostile action at New-YOrk." Admiral
Poor reports that Baez, in an interview with
him, explained the continued incarceration of
Mr.. Hatch on the ground that, if set at liberty,
L" he would exert an influence upon public
"oDinion that would be very detrimental to
&" the interests of SantO Domingo with regard to
annexation"
At the time of Mr.. Hatch's arrest, our COM
mcrcial agent, Mr.. j. SOmers Smith, made
earnest representations on his behalf, and
brought the case to the notice of Gen. Bah
cock, who was then at Santo Domingo with
Cazneau, arranging the preliminaries of the
annexation treaty. But Babcock refused to
ciate Of Cazneau (thOugh Secretary Fish had
cautioned him against that gentleman, and
Cazneau had private reasons for wishing Mr..
Hatch to be kept in jail Mr.. Hatch ap-
pealed to Commander Queen of the TuscarOrd,
but the Tuscarora, by orders from Washing
ton, was absolutely at Gen. Babcock's disDo-
sal, and that officer, upon the bare statements
of Baez and Cazneau, chose to assure Com
mander Queen that Mr.. Hatch was guilty, and
the case was not one in which the Govern
ment could interfere. So BabcOck went home,
and about the same time Mr.. Smith was re-
called. presumably for his zeal, and Major r.
H. Perry sent out in his stead. The new COM
mercial agent at once made application for the
release Of Mr.. Hatch. Baez assured him in
the presence of Cazneau that Hatch was
only held to prevent him from opposing
annexation, and ga few weeks restraint
"would not be so incOnvenient to him as his
"slanderous statements might become to the
"succcss of Gen. Grants policy in the An
"tilles;" and Cazneau not only concurred with
the Dominican President but volunteered the
opinion that Hatch ought to be kept in Jail
until the great business i'll hand" had been
disposed of Cameau wrote an account of
this interview 10 BaDcOck, ana Ianiehttu
PeITy's "want of discretion
Meantime Gen. Babcock made his second
visit to Santo Domingo. He might have sat
isicd himself then of the horrible injustice
committed against his countryman; he might
by a single word have set him at liberty but
he took pains on the contrary to advise the
new commercial agent not to interfere in the
case and when he was asked by Mr.. Perry
why it was that the Dominican Government
still refused to let Mr. Hatch 90, he replied