Now, Sir, try this again. Suppose during our civil war Louis Napoleon, in an evil hour, had undertaken to set up Jefferson Davis as the head of this Government, and then to make a treaty with him by which Texas, said to have been much coveted by the Emperor, should be yielded and become part of Mexico, which itself was to become more or less part of France. Suppose Louis Napoleon had undertaken such an enterprise, how should we feel? Would not the blood boil? Would it be commended at all because we were told that there were large numbers in the Southern States who favored it? And yet this is precisely what the United States are now doing in the Bay of Samana and the port of San Domingo.
This may be seen in another light. We complain of taxes. Do you know what we have paid during this year in carrying out this sorrowful policy? I have here an article which I cut from a New York paper last evening, being a letter from San Domingo City, dated December 6, 1870, from which I will read a sentence:—
“The United States war-steamer Swatara is on a cruise, the Yantic is at San Domingo City, and the Nantasket is at Samana.”
Three ships out of the small Navy of the United States occupying these waters to enforce this policy! If force were not to be employed, why these three ships? why the necessity of any ship? Tell me. Can there be good reason?
When I think of all this accumulated power in those waters, those three war-vessels, with the patronage naturally incident to their presence, it is not astonishing that there is on the seaboard, immediately within their influence, a certain sentiment in favor of annexion. But when you penetrate the interior, beyond the sight of their smoke, at least beyond the influence of their money, it is otherwise. There the sentiment is adverse. There it is Cabral who prevails. So, at least, I am assured. But whether one or the other prevails, the objection is the same. You violate the first principles of self-government and of constitutional liberty, when you lend your power to either.
Sir, I have presented but half of this case, and perhaps the least painful part. I am now brought to another aspect of it. This naval force to which I have referred has also been directed against the neighboring Republic of Hayti (the only colored Government now existing in the world, a republic seeking to follow our great example,) penetrating its harbors and undertaking to dictate what it should do. If you will read again the reports at the Navy Department, you will find that I do not overstate when I say that they have undertaken to dictate to the Government of Hayti what it should do. Nor is this all. In an unhappy moment, the commodore of an American fleet, going ashore, allowed himself to insult and menace the Government there, saying, that, if it interfered in any way with the territory of Dominica, he would blow the town down. So I have been informed by one who ought to know. You look grave, Sir. Well you may. I wish I could give you the official evidence on this assumption; but I am assured, on evidence which I regard as beyond question, that this incident has occurred. In what school was our commodore reared? The prudent mother in the story cautioned her son to take care never to fight with a boy of his own size. An American commodore, in the same spirit, undertakes to insult a sister republic too weak to resist. Of course, if he did this on his own motion and without instructions from Washington, he ought to be removed,—and, in my judgment, rather than carry out such instructions, he ought to have thrown his sword into the sea.
Senators murmur. There is a rule of morals and of honor above all other rules, and no officer of Army or Navy can consent to do an act of wrong. This was the voice of our fathers during the Revolution. How we praised and glorified those British officers who refused to serve against them, generously sacrificing their commissions rather than enforce a tyranny! Often have I honored in my heart of hearts that great man, one of the greatest in English history, Granville Sharp, foremost of all England’s Abolitionists, because, while an humble clerk, and poor, in one of the departments in London, he resigned his post rather than sustain that policy toward the Colonies which he regarded as wrong.
No naval officer should have allowed himself to use such a menace toward this weak republic. By its very weakness was it entitled to kindness; and yet, Sir, its weakness was the occasion for the insult it received. Think you, Sir, that he would have used such language toward England or France? I think not.
All this is aggravated, when we consider the relations between Dominica and Hayti, and bring this incredible transaction to the touchstone of International Law. Dominica and Hayti became one under President Boyer in 1822, and the whole island continued as a unit until 1844, when Dominica rose against Hayti, and, after a bloody conflict of four years, in 1848 succeeded in securing its independence.