CHAPTER VI
HISTORICAL SKETCH.—AMERICAN INFLUENCE.—1904 TO DATE (1918)
Financial difficulties.—Fiscal convention with the United States.—Caceres' administration.-Provisional presidents.—Civil disturbances.—Jimenez' second administration.—American intervention.
The enormous foreign and internal debt left by the Heureaux administration had been constantly increased by ruinous loans to which the succeeding governments were obliged to resort during the years of civil warfare, until the country was in a condition of hopeless bankruptcy. In the beginning of 1904 every item of the debt had been in default for months.
Under pressure from foreign governments, the principal debt items due foreign citizens had been recognized in international protocols and the income from each of the more important custom-houses was specifically pledged for their payment, but in no case was payment made. One of these protocols, signed with the American chargé d'affaires, liquidated the government's accounts with the San Domingo Improvement Company, which had been turned out from the administration of custom-houses by President Jimenez, and provided for a board of arbitration to settle the manner of payment. The arbitrators determined the instalments payable and specified the custom-house of Puerto Plata and certain others as security, which were to be turned over to an American agent in case of failure to pay. No payment being made, the American agent demanded compliance with the arbitral award and on October 20, 1904, was placed in possession of the custom-house at Puerto Plata.
The other foreign creditors, principally French, Belgian, and Italian, naturally began to clamor for the payment of their credits and for the delivery of the custom-houses pledged to them. To have done so would have meant absolute ruin, as the government would have been entirely deprived of means of subsistence. In face of the imminent likelihood of foreign intervention the Dominican government applied to the United States for assistance, and in February, 1905, the protocol of an agreement between the Dominican Republic and the United States was approved, providing for the collection of Dominican customs revenues under the direction of the United States, and the segregation of a specified portion toward the ultimate payment of the debt. The treaty was submitted to the United States Senate, but that body adjourned in March, 1905, without final action. The creditors again became importunate and an interim modus vivendi was therefore arranged, under which the Dominican customs were to be collected by a receiver designated by the President of the United States, and the proportion mentioned in the pending treaty was reserved as a creditors' fund. The temporary arrangement went into effect on April 1, 1905, and the effect was immediately apparent. Confidence was restored, the customs receipts rose to higher figures than ever before, and the prospects of peace became brighter as revolutionists could no longer count on captured customhouses to replenish their exchequer.
The position of President Morales was a difficult one. He was an ex-Jimenista at the head of an Horacista government, and there was no sympathy between him and his council. The Horacistas distrusted him and forced him to dismiss his friends from the cabinet and to make distasteful appointments. Seeing that he was being reduced to a figurehead, Morales secretly tried to form a party for himself or make arrangements with the Jimenistas who for months had been conspiring and threatening to rise. The friction became more severe until Morales, fearing that both his office and his life were in danger, on the day before Christmas, 1905, fled from the capital, while the Jimenistas rose in Monte Cristi and marched down to attack Santiago and Puerto Plata.
It was the anomalous spectacle of a president leading an insurrection against his own government. Fortune was against the insurgents from the beginning. Morales, while trying to scale a rocky wall near the Jaina River, in the neighborhood of the capital, fell and sprained his leg, so that he was unable to proceed further but was obliged to remain in hiding in the woods, suffering much pain. In the Cibao, important dispatches of the revolutionists were captured by the government forces, which were thus enabled to make surprise attacks. The insurgents attacked Puerto Plata under their best general, Demetrio Rodriguez, an intelligent mulatto, and would probably have taken the town, had not Rodriguez received a bullet in the temple, whereupon his men became panic-stricken and dispersed. Morales saw that all was lost and returned to the capital, where he went to the American legation for protection. On the following morning, January 12, 1906, with his foot bandaged and tears rolling down his cheeks, he wrote out his resignation. He was immediately conveyed to Porto Rico on an American cruiser. The triumph of the government was complete, its troops overran Monte Cristi, and an Horacista was made governor of the district. Morales fixed his residence in the island of St. Thomas and later in France. He continually conspired for a return to the presidency, and was once tried for filibustering in Porto Rico, but acquitted. A friendly administration made him Dominican minister in Paris, where he died in 1914.
Upon the resignation of Morales the vice-president, General Ramon Caceres, assumed the presidency. Caceres was born in Moca on December 15, 1867, and was a prominent cacao-planter. It was he who killed Heureaux in 1899, after which he entered public life, being governor of Santiago and delegate of the government in the Cibao during the administrations of Jimenez and Vasquez, an exile in Cuba during the administration of Woss y Gil, and vice-president and governmental delegate during the administration of Morales. He had the appearance of an honest country squire, large of body and great of heart.
During the years 1906 and 1907 special attention was given to the settlement of the debts of the republic. A new bond issue of $20,000,000 was made for the purpose of converting the old debts, and an arrangement was effected with the principal creditors, by which the amounts due were reduced by about one-half. Instead of the still pending convention of February, 1905, with the United States, a new fiscal treaty was agreed upon, and approved by the United States Senate and the Dominican Congress, taking effect on August 1, 1907. In similarity with the provisions of the modus vivendi, the customs income of the Republic is collected by a General Receiver of Dominican Customs, appointed by the President of the United States, and a portion of the income is set aside by him for the service of the loan.
For years the various governments had been planning to revise the constitution of 1896, Vasquez even calling a constitutional convention; but the political kaleidoscope turned before such intentions could be realized. Conditions becoming sufficiently stable, a new constitution was promulgated on September 9, 1907. It was found unsatisfactory and a constitutional convention met in Santiago and on February 22, 1908, promulgated the present constitution, by which the presidential term was lengthened to six years and the office of vice-president abolished. An election was held and General Ramon Caceres was chosen president, entering upon his new term on July 1, 1908.
As a result of the Dominican-American fiscal arrangement the old debt was practically all canceled, burdensome concessions were redeemed, and a large portion of the surplus from the new bond issue was set aside for public works, of which several were undertaken. A few uprisings by dissatisfied chiefs remained local and unsuccessful. A border clash with Haiti, which in January, 1911, caused the dispatch of troops to the frontier, was settled by diplomacy. The hope of continued peaceful conditions gave a new impulse to agriculture, industry and commerce, and the exports and imports increased year by year.
At a time when the future seemed brightest, the Republic was suddenly startled by the news of the assassination of President Caceres on Sunday afternoon, November 19, 1911. The president, with a single companion, was returning from a drive along the new road to San Geronimo. At Guibia, a suburb of the capital, a number of conspirators rushed for the carriage, seized the reins of the horse and began to shoot. The president's companion fled, but Caceres, a fearless man and an excellent shot, returned the fire. Almost simultaneously a bullet shattered his right wrist. The coachman lashed the horse in an attempt to escape, but the horse reared and threw the carriage against a hedge. The coachman then dragged Caceres from the carriage and assisted him to the stable of a house on the roadside, adjoining the American legation, but the conspirators meantime continued to fire furiously and several shots struck the president. Seeing their object accomplished, the assassins withdrew, and the president, mortally wounded, was carried to the American legation, where he expired a few minutes later.
The conspirators were a handful of malcontents led by General Luis Tejera, a young man of prominent family, at one time governor of the capital under Caceres, but lately estranged. Caceres had known of Tejera's seditious sentiments but refused to take them seriously. Immediately after the shooting, the conspirators hastened away in a waiting automobile, carrying with them their leader Tejera, who had been wounded in the leg during the affray. At the Jaina ferry the automobile was accidentally precipitated into the river, and the wounded man was fished out half drowned. The other conspirators left him in a hut by the road and escaped. Tejera was found by the pursuers, taken to the fort in Santo Domingo City, and summarily executed.
The commandant of arms of the capital, General Alfredo M. Victoria, who controlled the military forces, permitted his own ambitions to influence him more than the welfare of his country. Being only twenty-six years old, he was not of the constitutional age to be president, but listening to the counsel of scheming politicians, he dominated the situation by force of arms and brought about the selection of his uncle, Eladio Victoria, as provisional president. The latter was a senator from Santiago province, and had at one time been a member of Caceres' cabinet, but he was not regarded as of presidential calibre and his selection provoked general surprise and indignation. General Victoria's army was a potent argument; it withered the ambition of other aspirants to the presidency, and Senator Victoria was elected provisional president and entered upon office December 6, 1911. In the following February the usual form of public election was gone through and on February 27, 1912, he took the oath of office as constitutional president. His nephew occupied important cabinet positions under the new administration.
The general opposition to President Victoria and to the method of electing him found expression in revolutionary uprisings throughout the country, especially in the Cibao and Azua. Ex-President Vasquez, ex-President Morales and several Jimenista generals took the field independently. Morales was captured, but the others continued the fight. Beginning early in December, 1911, the war dragged on for months, both sides sustaining heavy losses and extensive sections of the country being devastated.
It became apparent that there was a deadlock, the government being powerless to subdue the revolutionists, while the revolutionists were unable to carry on an active campaign against the government. The American government eventually extended its good offices with a view to the reestablishment of peace and order. A special commission appointed by the President of the United States and consisting of an official of the War Department and another of the State Department arrived in Santo Domingo in October, 1912, and initiated a series of conferences with government and revolutionary leaders. An agreement was concluded and in accordance therewith the Dominican Congress assembled on November 26, 1912, accepted the resignation of President Victoria, and elected the archbishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Adolfo A. Nouel, as provisional president for a period of two years. He was inducted into office on December 1, 1912.
Archbishop Nouel, a man of great learning, beloved and respected throughout the country, entered upon his duties with the announced purpose of giving an impartial administration and governing with both parties. The difficulties of the plan were soon impressed upon him, particularly as he relied entirely upon moral suasion to carry his policies into effect. Pressure was applied for favors which he could not grant, his appointments were bitterly criticised as savoring of nepotism or as unduly favoring one side or the other, and some of the fiercer military chiefs assumed a menacing attitude. Sick and disgusted, Monsignor Nouel resigned the presidential office on March 31, 1913, and embarked for Europe.
The Dominican Congress immediately considered the choice of a temporary successor and after many ballots elected a compromise candidate, General José Bordas Valdez, an Horacista senator from Monte Cristi, as provisional president for a period of one year. He assumed office April 14, 1913. His designation did not please the Jimenistas, and the Horacistas also became hostile when it appeared that President Bordas contemplated forming a party of his own. His opponents promptly rose in the Cibao and took possession of the ports of Puerto Plata, Sanchez and Samana, which were thereupon blockaded by the government forces. In the latter part of September, 1913, the revolutionists laid down their arms on the promise of the American minister that free elections for presidential electors and members of a constitutional convention would be guaranteed. A municipal election was in fact held, but President Bordas, alleging that conditions were too unsettled for a general presidential election, held on as president de facto beyond the term for which he had been provisionally elected. On the day his term ended, April 13, 1914, another revolution broke out and rapidly spread to all parts of the Republic. Puerto Plata was occupied by the insurgents and blockaded for several months by government vessels, the blockade being accompanied by a siege of the city under the direction of the president himself. On the other hand, the insurgents laid siege to the capital. The government contracted heavy debts to carry on the war and the commerce of the country suffered greatly.
Again the American government lent its good offices for the restoration of order. In August, 1914, a commission of three delegates of the United States arrived in Santo Domingo to present a plan for the resignation of Bordas, the selection of a provisional president by the chiefs of the several political parties, a revision of the election law, and the holding of general elections. The plan was agreed to, President Bordas resigned, and Dr. Ramon Baez, a son of former President Buenaventura Baez, was elected by the Dominican Congress as provisional president on August 27, 1914.
Popular elections were held in October, at which there were four candidates: ex-President Juan Isidro Jimenez, ex-President Horacio Vasquez, ex-Minister of Finance Federico Velazquez, and a fourth of little consequence. The Jimenez and Velazquez forces effected a combination, as a result of which Juan Isidro Jimenez was elected president a second time, and took the oath of office on December 5, 1914.
For a moment it seemed as though the country was at last entering upon an era of peace and prosperity. The government made efforts to solve the financial problems left by the recent civil wars and to resume public improvements. Investments of foreign capital increased, and agriculture and commerce expanded.
The elements of disorganization were present, however, in as strong a degree as ever. Corruption was general in the administration of the public funds, but attempts at reform had no result further than to stimulate violent opposition. The old leaven of sedition was at work, and disgruntled military chiefs found a willing leader in the minister of war, General Desiderio Arias, a chronic revolutionist from Monte Cristi, who had for years used the popularity of Jimenez as a cloak for his own aspirations. The president, aged and infirm, was unable to meet the situation with energy, and disinclined to adopt severe measures.
In the early part of 1916 Arias had his friends in Congress vote to impeach President Jimenez for alleged frauds. The matter was still under discussion, and the president was ill at his country place on the San Cristobal road, near Santo Domingo City, when in April, 1916, General Arias suddenly seized the military control of the capital and issued a proclamation by which he practically deposed Jimenez and assumed the executive power himself.
Another civil war was imminent when deliverance came in an unexpected manner. For many years past in previous disturbances, one or both of the warring factions had looked to the United States government for help in restoring order, and diplomatic assistance had time after time put an end to strife. The endless succession of revolts had at length exhausted the patience of the American government. In the face of another general war with its attendant destruction of life and property, harm to American and other foreign interests, and danger of international complications (a British and a French man-of-war were already solicitously hovering off the capital), the American government took decisive action. With the consent of President Jimenez, it landed marines at old San Geronimo castle, on the Guibia road, near Santo Domingo City.
Though Jimenez approved of this action and recognized that his country could not emerge from the slough of revolution without American assistance, he was depressed at the condition of affairs, and in view of his physical feebleness felt himself unequal to the task of guiding the country through impending difficulties. He therefore on May 6, 1916, resigned the presidency of the Republic, and subsequently returned to Porto Rico to live. The council of ministers temporarily assumed the administration.
Arias, dismayed at the action of the United States, made protest, but the American government refused to admit the legality or sincerity of his conduct. Its troops advanced on Santo Domingo City and Rear-Admiral Caperton, the American commander, gave Arias twenty-four hours to evacuate. He promptly obeyed, and on May 15 the Americans occupied the city.
American troops continued to be landed, at Puerto Plata on June 5; at Monte Cristi on June 19; and at other seaports as necessity demanded, until a total of about 1800 marines had been disembarked. They proceeded into the interior, taking over the preservation of public order and disarming the inhabitants. They advanced on foot, in improvised motor trucks, and as real "horse marines," in accordance with a plan to secure thorough pacification by having them appear in all parts of the country. The American marines met with no serious opposition except in the Cibao, in the section between Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata and Santiago, where the following of Arias was strongest. To clear this section two columns were launched from the seacoast with Santiago as the objective, the first of 800 men from Monte Cristi, the second of about 200 men from Puerto Plata, the entire force being under command of Brigadier-General Joseph H. Pendleton. The expeditionary force from Monte Cristi, under Colonel Dunlop, advanced along the highway, which was little more than a muddy trail through a jungle of cactus and thorny brush, and several Americans were shot from ambush. Repeatedly small detachments of rebels made a stand upon some favorable piece of ground, until routed by the marines. The decisive encounter took place on July 1, 1916, at Guayacanes, near Esperanza, where a force of 400 marines after a stubborn fight carried a strongly entrenched position defended by about 300 rebels. The American losses were 1 enlisted man killed and 1 officer and 7 enlisted men wounded; the rebels are estimated to have lost several score between killed and wounded, their leader, Maximito Cabral, being killed fighting in the trenches after all his men were dead or driven off.
The second column, from Puerto Plata, under Major Bearss, opened up the railroad, encountering its principal resistance at the tunnel south of Altamira. The two columns joined forces at Navarrete and then occupied Santiago. All the insurgents eventually dispersed or surrendered, and Arias himself submitted to the American military control, which became absolute throughout the country. The total American losses in occupying the country were 3 officers killed and 3 wounded and 4 enlisted men killed and 12 wounded; the losses of the insurgents are estimated at between 100 and 300 killed and wounded.
The Dominican Congress proceeded on July 25, 1916, to elect a temporary president, and chose Dr. Francisco Henriquez Carvajal, a distinguished physician and highly cultured man. It was understood that he was to hold for six months and was not to seek reelection at the general election to be held within that time. The United States government, however, was loath to extend recognition unless assured that Santo Domingo would enter upon a path of order and progress. The fiscal treaty of 1907 had not secured the peace expected of it; the prohibition against the contracting of further indebtedness had been frequently violated; disorder and corruption had continued; and the American government deemed its task uncompleted if it should surrender the country to the same chaotic conditions. It accordingly required, as a condition of recognizing Henriquez, that a new treaty between the two countries be adopted, similar to the recently approved treaty between the United States and Haiti, where a series of revolutions culminating in a massacre of prisoners had the year before obliged the American government to intervene. The principal features of this treaty were the collection of customs under American auspices, the appointment of an American financial adviser, and the establishment of a constabulary force officered by Americans.
Henriquez, jealous of his country's sovereignty and fearful that the proposed arrangement would make the Dominican government a puppet controlled by all-powerful and not sufficiently responsible American officials, refused to accede to the American demands. The American authorities thereupon declined to pay over any of the Republic's revenues to a government which they did not recognize. Inasmuch as they not only collected the customs and port dues, but had assumed control of the other revenues as well, the Henriquez government was left penniless. Nevertheless, the American demands continued to be rejected. As a result, no salaries were paid in any part of the Republic; the officials who continued in their duties did so with the hope of being compensated at some future date; some services, such as the mail service, were discontinued almost entirely; and the whole machinery of the government was paralyzed.
This tension and anomalous condition lasted for several months. As the term for which Henriquez had been elected drew to a close, it became evident that he had no idea of retiring from the presidency, but, on the contrary, intended to hold general elections, in which he expected to be the successful candidate. The deadlock thus threatened to continue indefinitely, and the American government thereupon determined to cut the Gordian knot.
On November 29, 1916, Captain (later Rear-Admiral) H. S. Knapp, of the United States navy, commander of the American cruiser force in Dominican waters, and of the forces of occupation of the Dominican Republic, issued a proclamation, declaring the Dominican Republic under the military administration of the United States. The proclamation recited that the Dominican Republic had failed to live up to the terms of the treaty of 1907; that the American government had patiently endeavored to aid the Dominican government, but that the latter was not inclined or able to adopt the measures suggested, wherefore the American government believed the time at hand to take steps to assure the execution of said Convention and to maintain domestic tranquillity in the Republic. He therefore declared that the Dominican Republic was placed in a state of military occupation by the forces under his command; that the object of the occupation was not to destroy Dominican sovereignty, but to restore order; that Dominican laws were to continue in effect so far as they did not conflict with the objects of the occupation or the decrees of the military government; that the Dominican courts were to continue in their functions, except that offenses against the military government were to be judged by military courts; and that all the revenues of the Dominican government were to be paid over to the military government, which would administer the same. He called on all inhabitants to cooperate with the forces of the United States.
The military government so established took full possession of the country. The chiefs of the executive departments not having appeared in their offices, their posts were declared vacant and filled with officers of the American navy. In the country at large, there was little open opposition, and such as appeared was suppressed without difficulty. The inhabitants quickly reconciled themselves to the situation, realizing that it was to the best interests of their country. Dr. Henriquez, the ex-president, left for Cuba in the early part of December.
The military government thereupon proceeded to organize the finances, to pay arrears of salaries, to subdue several bandits who refused allegiance, and to confiscate all arms. Absolute order and security, greater than have prevailed in Santo Domingo since colonial days, were soon established. The military government then devoted itself to the construction of public works, especially roads, the organization of a police force, and in general to the improvement of the country.
After the Washington government determined to participate in the European war, the American military governor on April 12, 1917, connected Santo Domingo with the war by canceling the exequaturs of the German consular representatives in the Dominican Republic; there was no formal rupture, as no diplomatic representative of either country was at the time residing in the other. German residents were subjected to surveillance by the American authorities.
The Dominican Republic is still (January, 1918) being administered by American naval officers and the work of reorganization continues. Eventually—in all likelihood after the European war—the government is to be turned back to the Dominican people, and it is probable that such devolution will be under conditions that will assure a stable government, peace and progress.