The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-27
GRANT TRIED TO ANNEX SAN DOMINGO

Three months after Grant was in
augurated president in 1868, he dis
patched Gen. o. E. Babcock. one of his
private secretaries, to San Domingo
upon an errand of which the public
knew nothing. BabCOck bore letter
OF instructions from Secretary Fish APP
parently limiting the missions to an in.
quiry into the conditions, prospects and
resources of the island. From it's tenor
the negotiation Of a treaty was not at
that time anticipated by the state de-
partment. General Babcock's mission
finally resulted, however, in a treaty
for the annexation to the United States
of the republic of Dominica and a con-
vention for the lease of the bay and
peninsula OF SANTANA, separately nego-
tiated and both concluded on Nov. 90,
1869
Blaine, in his ''Twenty Years of Con-
gress." describes Grant as placing ex-
travagant estimates upon the value of
the territory which he supposed was
now acquired under the Babcock trea-
ties. In his message to congress he ex-
pressed the belief that the island would
yield to the United States all the sugar,
coffee, tobacco and other tropical pro-
ducts which the country would con-
sumo. He maintained that "the ac-
QUESTION of San Domingo will furnish
our citizens with the necessaries of ev-
ery-day life at cheaper rates than ever
before; and 1t is in fine a rapid stride
towards that greatness which the in
telligence, industry and enterprise Of
our citizens entitle this country to as
sumo among nations"
Earnest as General Grant was in his
argument, deeply as his personal feel
1ngs We're enlisted in the issue, thor
oughly as his administration was com
mitted to the treaty. the senate on June
30, 1870, to his utter surprise, rejected
it by a tie vote, % to %. Though the
votes of two-thirds of the senators
were required to confirm the treaty,
President Grant was not discouraged.
He returned to the subject six months
later. in his annual message Of Deem
Der, and discussed the subject afresh
with renewed confidence in the exped-
iency of the acquisition. 80 convinced
am l." he wrote, ''of the advantages to
flow from the acquisition, that I believe
the subject has only to be investigated
to be approved" He recommended that
congress by joint resolution, authorize
the president to appoint a commission
to negotiate treaty.
So intense was 'te opposition to The
scheme that some of the presidents
friends did not deem it prudent even
to discuss the measure that he recon-
mended. AS the best that could be
done, Morton of Indiana introduced a
resolution empowering the president to
appoint three commissioners to proce /
to San Domingo and make certain in
quiries into the political condition of
The island, ard also into into its agri-
cultural and commercial value. Even
in this mild shape the resolution was
holly opposed. 1t was finally adopted
by the senate, but the house refused
to concur, except with a proviso that
nothing in the resolution shall be held,
understood or construed as committing
congress to the policy of annexing San
Domingo" The senate concurred in
the condition thus attached and the
president approved it.
The president selected for the COM
mission Benjamin r. Wade of Ohio,
Andrew D. White of New York and
Samuel G. Howe of Massachusetts