Mr. President, as I draw to a close, allow me to repeat the very deep
regret with which I make this exposure. Most gladly would I avoid it.
Controversy, especially at my time of life, has no attraction for me;
but I have been reared in the school of duty, and now, as of old, I
cannot see wrong without trying to arrest it. I plead now, as I have
often pleaded before, for Justice and Peace.
In the evidence adduced I have confined myself carefully to public
documents, not travelling out of the record. Dispatches, naval orders,
naval reports,--these are the unimpeachable authorities. And all these
have been officially communicated to the Senate, are now printed by
its order, accessible to all. On this unanswerable and cumulative
testimony, where each part confirms the rest, and the whole has the
harmony of truth, I present this transgression. And here it is not I
who speak, but the testimony.
Thus stands the case. International Law has been violated in two of
its commanding rules, one securing the Equality of Nations, and the
other providing against Belligerent Intervention,--while a distinctive
fundamental principle of the Constitution, by which the President
is deprived of a kingly prerogative, is disregarded, and this very
kingly prerogative is asserted by the President. This is the simplest
statement. Looking still further at the facts, we see that all this
great disobedience has for its object the acquisition of an outlying
tropical island, with large promise of wealth, and that in carrying
out this scheme our Republic has forcibly maintained a usurper in
power that he might sell his country, and has dealt a blow at the
independence of the Black Republic of Hayti, which, besides being a
wrong to that Republic, was an insult to the African race. And all this
has been done by kingly prerogative alone, without the authority of
an Act of Congress. If such a transaction, many-headed in wrong, can
escape judgment, it is difficult to see what securities remain. What
other sacred rule of International Law may not be violated? What other
foreign nation may not be struck at? What other belligerent menace may
not be hurled? What other kingly prerogative may not be seized?
On another occasion I showed how these wrongful proceedings had been
sustained by the President beyond all example, but in a corresponding
spirit. Never before has there been such Presidential intervention
in the Senate as we have been constrained to witness. Presidential
visits to the Capitol, with appeals to Senators, have been followed by
assemblies at the Executive Mansion, also with appeals to Senators;
and who can measure the pressure of all kinds by himself or agents,
especially through the appointing power, all to secure the consummation
of this scheme? In harmony with this effort was the Presidential
Message, where, while charging the Senate with “folly” in rejecting the
treaty, we are gravely assured that by the proposed acquisition “our
large debt abroad is ultimately to be extinguished,”--thus making San
Domingo the pack-horse of our vast load.
Then, responding to the belligerent menace of his Admiral, the
President makes a kindred menace by proposing nothing less than the
acquisition of “the island of San Domingo,” thus adding the Black
Republic to his scheme. The innocent population there were startled.
Their Minister here protested. Nor is it unnatural that it should be
so. Suppose the Queen of England, in her speech at the opening of
Parliament, had proposed in formal terms the acquisition of the United
States; or suppose Louis Napoleon, in his speech at the opening of
the Chambers, during the Mexican War, while the French forces were
in Mexico, had coolly proposed the acquisition of that portion of
the United States adjoining Mexico and stretching to the Atlantic,
and, in support of his proposition, had set forth the productiveness
of the soil, the natural wealth that abounded there, and wound up by
announcing that out of this might be paid the French debt abroad,
which was to be saddled upon the coveted territory. Suppose such a
proposition by Louis Napoleon or by the English Queen, made in formal
speech to Chambers or Parliament, what would have been the feeling in
our country? Nor would that feeling have been diminished by the excuse
that the offensive proposition crept into the speech by accident.
Whether by accident or design, it would attest small consideration for
our national existence. But the Haytians love their country as we love
ours; especially are they resolute for national independence. All this
is shown by the reports which reach us now, even if their whole history
did not attest it.
The language of the President in charging the Senate with “folly” was
not according to approved precedents. Clearly this is not a proper term
to be employed by one branch of the Government with regard to another,
least of all by the President with regard to the Senate. Folly, Sir!
Was it folly, when the Senate refused to sanction proceedings by
which the Equal Rights of the Black Republic were assailed? Was it
folly, not to sanction hostilities against the Black Republic without
the authority of Congress? Was it folly, not to sanction belligerent
intervention in a foreign country without the authority of Congress?
Was it folly, not to sanction a usurpation of the War Powers under the
Constitution? According to the President, all this was folly in the
Senate. Let the country judge.
Thus do we discern, whether on the coasts of San Domingo or here at
Washington, the same determination, with the same disregard of great
principles, as also the same recklessness toward the people of Hayti,
who have never injured us.