It is not difficult to indicate when this disastrous change, exalting
the will of one man above all else, became not merely manifest, but
painfully conspicuous. Already it had begun to show itself in personal
pretensions, to which I shall refer soon, when, suddenly and without
any warning through the public press or any expression from public
opinion, the President elected by the Republican Party precipitated
upon the country an ill-considered and ill-omened scheme for the
annexion of a portion of the island of San Domingo, in pursuance
of a treaty negotiated by a person of his own household styling
himself “Aide-de-Camp to the President of the United States.” Had
this effort, however injudicious in object, been confined to ordinary
and constitutional proceedings, with proper regard for a coördinate
branch of the Government, it would have soon dropped out of sight
and been remembered only as a blunder. But it was not so. Strangely
and unaccountably, it was pressed for months by every means and
appliance of power, whether at home or abroad, now reaching into the
Senate Chamber, and now into the waters about the island. Reluctant
Senators were subdued to its support, while, treading under foot the
Constitution in one of its most distinctive republican principles,
the President seized the war powers of the nation, instituted foreign
intervention, and capped the climax of usurpation by menace of violence
to the Black Republic of Hayti, where the colored race have begun
the experiment of self-government,--thus adding manifest outrage of
International Law to manifest outrage of the Constitution, while the
long-suffering African was condemned to new indignity. All these
things, so utterly indefensible and aggravating, and therefore to be
promptly disowned, found defenders on this floor. The President who
was the original author of the wrongs continued to maintain them,
and appealed to Republican Senators for help,--thus fulfilling the
eccentric stipulation with the Government of Baez executed by his
Aide-de-Camp.
At last a Republican Senator, who felt it his duty to exhibit these
plain violations of the Constitution and of International Law, and
then in obedience to the irresistible promptings of his nature and in
harmony with his whole life pleaded for the equal rights of the Black
Republic, who declared that he did this as a Republican and to save the
party from this wretched complicity,--this Republican Senator, engaged
in a patriotic service, and anxious to save the colored people from
outrage, was denounced on this floor as a traitor to the party; and
this was done by a Senator speaking for the party, and known to be in
intimate relations with the President guilty of these wrongs. Evidently
the party was in process of change from that generous association
dedicated to Human Rights and to the guardianship of the African race.
Too plainly it was becoming the instrument of _one man and his personal
will_,--no matter how much he set at defiance the Constitution and
International Law, or how much he insulted the colored people. The
President was to be maintained at all hazards, notwithstanding his
aberrations, and all who called them in question were to be struck down.
In exhibiting this autocratic pretension, so revolutionary and
unrepublican in character, I mean to be moderate in language and
to keep within the strictest bounds. The facts are indisputable,
and nobody can deny the gross violation of the Constitution and of
International Law with insult to the Black Republic,--the whole case
being more reprehensible, as also plainly more unconstitutional and
more illegal, than anything alleged against Andrew Johnson on his
impeachment. Believe me, Sir, I should gladly leave this matter to the
judgment already recorded, if it were not put in issue again by the
extraordinary efforts, radiating on every line of office, to press its
author for a second term as President; and since silence gives consent,
all these efforts are his efforts. They become more noteworthy when it
is considered that the name of the candidate thus pressed has become
a sign of discord and not of concord, dividing instead of uniting the
Republican Party, so that these extraordinary efforts tend directly
to the disruption of the party,--all of which he witnesses, and again
by his silence ratifies. “Let the party split,” says the President,
“I will not renounce my chance of a second term.” The extent of this
personal pressure and the subordination of the party to the will of an
individual compel us to consider his pretensions. These, too, are in
issue.