“President Baez daily remarks that the United States Government
has not kept its promises to send men-of-war to the coast. He
seems very timid and lacks energy.”[28]
The truth becomes still more apparent in the dispatch of February 20,
1870,--nearly three months after the signature of the treaties, and
while they were still pending before the Senate,--where it is openly
reported:--
_“If the United States ships were withdrawn, he [Baez] could
not hold the reins of this Government._ I have told him
this.”[29]
Nothing can be plainer. In other words, the usurper was maintained in
power by our guns. Such was the official communication of the very
agent who had signed the treaties, and who was himself an ardent
annexionist. Desiring annexion, he confesses the means employed to
accomplish it. How the President did not at once abandon, unfinished,
treaties maintained by violence, how the Secretary of State did not
at once resign rather than be a party to this transaction, is beyond
comprehension.
Nor was the State Department left uninformed with regard to the
distribution of this naval force. Here is the report, under date of San
Domingo, March 12, 1870, while the vote was proceeding:--
“The Severn lies at this port; the Swatara left for Samana
the 9th; the Nantasket goes to Puerto Plata to-morrow, the
13th; the Yantic lies in the river in this city. Admiral Poor,
on board the Severn, is expected to remain at this port for
some time. Everything is very quiet at present throughout the
country.”[30]
Thus under the guns of our Navy was quiet maintained, while Baez, like
another usurper, exclaimed, “Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely
on!”
What this same official reported to the State Department he afterward
reaffirmed under oath, in his testimony before the committee of the
Senate on the case of Mr. Hatch. The words were few, but decisive,
touching the acts of our Navy,--“committed since we had been there,
_protecting Baez from the citizens of San Domingo_.”[31]
Then, again, in a private letter to myself, under date of Bristol,
Rhode Island, February 10, 1871, after stating that he had reported
what the record shows to be true, “that Baez was sustained and held in
power by the United States Navy,” he adds, “This fact Baez acknowledged
to me.”
So that we have the confession of the Secretary of State, also the
confession of his agent at San Domingo, and the confession of Baez
himself, that the usurper depended for support on our Navy.