The official returns to Mr. Sumner’s resolutions of December
9, 1870, and February 15, 1871, calling for the documents in
the State and Navy Departments relative to the case of San
Domingo,[11] gave occasion to the introduction by him, March
24, 1871, of a series of resolutions, subsequently amended to
read as follows:--
Resolutions regarding the employment of the Navy of the
United States on the coasts of San Domingo during the
pendency of negotiations for the acquisition of part of
that island.
Whereas any negotiation by one nation with a people
inferior in population and power, having in view the
acquisition of territory, should be above all suspicion
of influence from superior force, and in testimony to
this principle Spain boasted that the reïncorporation
of Dominica with her monarchy in 1861 was accomplished
without the presence of a single Spanish ship on the coast
or a Spanish soldier on the land, all of which appears in
official documents; and whereas the United States, being a
Republic founded on the Rights of Man, cannot depart from
such a principle and such a precedent without weakening the
obligations of justice between nations and inflicting a
blow upon Republican Institutions: Therefore,--
1. _Resolved_, That in obedience to correct principle, and
that Republican Institutions may not suffer, the naval
forces of the United States should be withdrawn from the
coasts of San Domingo during the pendency of negotiations
for the acquisition of any part of that island.
2. _Resolved_, That every sentiment of justice is disturbed
by the employment of foreign force in the maintenance of
a ruler engaged in selling his country, and this moral
repugnance is increased when it is known that the attempted
sale is in violation of the Constitution of the country
to be sold; that, therefore, the employment of our Navy
to maintain Baez in usurped power while attempting to
sell his country to the United States, in open violation
of the Dominican Constitution, is morally wrong, and any
transaction founded upon it must be null and void.
3. _Resolved_, That since the Equality of All Nations,
without regard to population, size, or power, is an axiom
of International Law, as the Equality of All Men is an
axiom of our Declaration of Independence, nothing can be
done to a small or weak nation that would not be done to
a large or powerful nation, or that we would not allow
to be done to ourselves; and therefore any treatment of
the Republic of Hayti by the Navy of the United States
inconsistent with this principle is an infraction of
International Law in one of its great safeguards, and
should be disavowed by the Government of the United States.
4. _Resolved_, That since certain naval officers of the
United States, commanding large war-ships, including the
monitor Dictator and the frigate Severn, with powerful
armaments, acting under instructions from the Executive,
and without the authority of an Act of Congress, have
entered one or more ports of the Republic of Hayti,
a friendly nation, and under the menace of open and
instant war have coerced and restrained that republic
in its sovereignty and independence under International
Law,--therefore, in justice to the Republic of Hayti,
also in recognition of its equal rights in the Family of
Nations, and in deference to the fundamental principles of
our institutions, these hostile acts should be disavowed by
the Government of the United States.
5. _Resolved_, That under the Constitution of the United
States the power to declare war is placed under the
safeguard of an Act of Congress; that the President alone
cannot declare war; that this is a peculiar principle
of our Government by which it is distinguished from
monarchical Governments, where power to declare war, as
also the treaty-making power, is in the Executive alone;
that in pursuance of this principle the President cannot,
by any act of his own, as by an unratified treaty, obtain
any such power, and thus divest Congress of its control;
and that therefore the employment of the Navy without
the authority of Congress in acts of hostility against a
friendly foreign nation, or in belligerent intervention
in the affairs of a foreign nation, is an infraction of
the Constitution of the United States, and a usurpation of
power not conferred upon the President.
6. _Resolved_, That while the President, without any
previous declaration of war by Act of Congress, may defend
the country against invasion by foreign enemies, he is
not justified in exercising the same power in an outlying
foreign island, which has not yet become part of the United
States; that a title under an unratified treaty is at
most inchoate and contingent while it is created by the
President alone, in which respect it differs from any such
title created by Act of Congress; and since it is created
by the President alone, without the support of law, whether
in legislation or a ratified treaty, the employment of the
Navy in the maintenance of the Government there is without
any excuse of national defence, as also without any excuse
of a previous declaration of war by Congress.
7. _Resolved_, That whatever may be the title to territory
under an unratified treaty, it is positive that after
the failure of the treaty in the Senate all pretext of
title ceases, so that our Government is in all respects a
stranger to the territory, without excuse or apology for
any interference against its enemies, foreign or domestic;
and therefore any belligerent intervention or act of war
on the coasts of San Domingo after the failure of the
Dominican treaty in the Senate is unauthorized violence,
utterly without support in law or reason, and proceeding
directly from that kingly prerogative which is disowned by
the Constitution of the United States.
8. _Resolved_, That in any proceedings for the acquisition
of part of the island of San Domingo, whatever may be
its temptations of soil, climate, and productions, there
must be no exercise of influence by superior force, nor
any violation of Public Law, whether International or
Constitutional; and therefore the present proceedings,
which have been conducted at great cost of money, under
the constant shadow of superior force, and through the
belligerent intervention of our Navy, acting in violation
of International Law, and initiating war without an Act of
Congress, must be abandoned, to the end that justice may
be maintained, and that proceedings so adverse to correct
principles may not become an example for the future.
9. _Resolved_, That, instead of seeking to acquire part
of the island of San Domingo by belligerent intervention
without the authority of an Act of Congress, it would
have been in better accord with the principles of our
Republic and its mission of peace and beneficence, had
our Government, in the spirit of good neighborhood and
by friendly appeal, instead of belligerent intervention,
striven for the establishment of tranquillity throughout
the whole island, so that the internal dissensions of
Dominica and its disturbed relations with Hayti might be
brought to a close, thus obtaining that security which is
the first condition of prosperity, all of which, being in
the nature of good offices, would have been without any
violation of International Law, and without any usurpation
of War Powers under the Constitution of the United States.