Confer with naval officers, confer with honest patriot citizens who know the case, and they will all testify that without the presence of our ships-of-war in those waters Baez would have been powerless.

Ever since the signature of the treaty, and especially since its rejection, Baez has been sustained in power by the presence of our naval force.

I state it with all the responsibility of my position, and with full conviction of its truth.

You call him “President”; they call him there “Dictator”; better call him “Emperor,” and then the parallel will be complete.

He is sustained in power by the Government of the United States that he may betray his country.

I challenge him to utter one word of doubt of the proposition which I now lay down, that Baez is maintained in power by the naval force of the United States, and that, being in power, we seek to negotiate with him that he may sell his…

Allow me to give one more illustration, and then the Senator may interfere.--It has a parallel in earlier days, when the British Government selected the king of the Mosquitoes as their puppet on the margin of Central America.

Are we not now treating Baez in some measure as England treated the Mosquito king?

I aver--and the Commission will show it--that all parties, whether against the Baez Government or for it, are equally for annexation; and if that is true, all this is frivolous.

He says that my allegation is “frivolous.” Sir, never was there a more important allegation brought forward in this Chamber.

Is it frivolous, when I see the flag of my country prostituted to an act of wrong?

I say, Why send them out, when we now have in the archives of this Republic evidence that this very Baez is sustained in power by the naval force of the United States, and that he now looks to this force for protection?

On the contrary, there is between them discord; they differ from each other,--one seeking unity for these two Governments, the other seeking to sell his country for a price.

But, whatever may be the sentiment of the people, whether Baez and Cabral agree or disagree, I come back to the single practical point that Baez has been, and is now, maintained in power by the naval force of the United States.

All this is still worse, when it is considered that the very Constitution of Dominica, under which the adventurer professes to hold rule, provides that there shall be no transfer to any foreign power of any portion of the country.

And yet this is precisely what the United States are now doing in the Bay of Samana and the port of San Domingo.

You violate the first principles of self-government and of constitutional liberty, when you lend your power to either.

This naval force to which I have referred has also been directed against the neighboring Republic of Hayti (the only colored Government now existing in the world, a republic seeking to follow our great example,) penetrating its harbors and…

An American commodore, in the same spirit, undertakes to insult a sister republic too weak to resist.

Of course, if he did this on his own motion and without instructions from Washington, he ought to be removed,--and, in my judgment, rather than carry out such instructions, he ought to have thrown his sword into the sea.

There is a rule of morals and of honor above all other rules, and no officer of Army or Navy can consent to do an act of wrong.

This was the voice of our fathers during the Revolution.

How we praised and glorified those British officers who refused to serve against them, generously sacrificing their commissions rather than enforce a tyranny!

No naval officer should have allowed himself to use such a menace toward this weak republic.

By its very weakness was it entitled to kindness; and yet, Sir, its weakness was the occasion for the insult it received.