A counter revolution followed at once and swiftly attained large proportions. It became the most serious unsuccessful revolution the Republic had seen. At one time the whole country was in the hands of Jimenez except Santo Domingo City and the small port of Sosua, near Puerto Plata. The government forces were able to retake Puerto Plata, but the siege of the capital continued uninterruptedly from December to February. Attacks and sallies were frequent, every house along the walls and in the suburbs soon showed bullet marks and the town of San Carlos was again partially destroyed by fire. Finally Morales defeated the besiegers, and in March, Macoris was taken by the government forces and the backbone of the revolution was broken. The insurrection had spent itself on account of lack of supplies and efficient leaders. Jimenez, financially ruined by his attempts to reestablish himself in power, again withdrew to Porto Rico. The government forces were unable to retake the Monte Cristi district, but an agreement was reached by which the Jimenista authorities remained in full control and the district became practically independent.
An election was held, as a result of which Carlos F. Morales became president and Ramon Caceres vice-president, and they were inaugurated on June 19, 1904. The new president, Morales, was an unusually clever man, although his conduct sometimes betrayed that he came from a family in which there had been mental derangement. He was born in Puerto Plata, studied for the priesthood, took orders, and held the office of parish priest in various places in the Cibao. After the death of a brother who participated in Jimenez' ill-fated "Fanita" expedition and was killed in the attack on Monte Cristi, Morales took an interest in public affairs and during the administration of Jimenez became a member of Congress. At this time he laid aside his religious habit, married, and devoted himself exclusively to politics. During the Vasquez administration he was an exile in Cuba, but on the ascendancy of Woss y Gil he was made governor of Puerto Plata, and in this capacity initiated the revolt against the Gil government.
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.