But in the levity of his statement the Secretary forgets that a United States man-of-war has nothing to do within a foreign jurisdiction, and cannot exert influence there without unlawful intervention.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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Nobody can read this document without noting the confession, first from the reluctant Secretary, and then from his agent.
And so our Navy has thus far conquered without a shot; but its presence in the waters of Hayti and Dominica was war.
War, whether great or little, whether on the fields of France or the island of San Domingo, is war, over which hovers not only Death, but every demon of wrath.
It is known as “the last reason of kings.” Alas, that it should ever be the reason of a Republic!
And still further, let the country judge if the time has not come to cry “Halt!” in this business, which already has the front of war.
Let the country judge if I was not right in every word that I then employed.
That these allegations were beyond question, at least by our Government, I knew well at the time, for I had the official evidence on my table; but I was unable to use it.
Treaties negotiated in violation of the Dominican Constitution and of International Law were to be maintained at all hazards, even that last terrible hazard of war; nor was Public Law in any of its forms, Constitutional or International…
In negotiation with another power, the Great Republic, which is an example to nations, cannot be insensible to the restrictions imposed by the Constitution of the contracting party; and this duty becomes stronger from the very weakness of…
Even if Baez defied the Constitution of his country, our Government, in dealing with him, could not do so.
No longer able to pocket the doubloons of Spain, the usurper sought to pocket our eagles, and not content with muskets and a battery to be used against his indignant fellow-countrymen, obtained the Navy of the United States to maintain him…
I wish that I could say something better of General Babcock; but if I spoke according to the evidence, much from his own lips, the portraiture would be more painful, and his unfitness more manifest.
The prisons were gorged, and the most respectable citizens were his victims.
A spontaneous cry, which may be called national, because it has risen from the depths of the majority, reveals the proportions of the movement, its character, and its legitimacy.
Are we not told by the proverb that the Devil has a long arm?
In harmony with this rule, when Nice and Savoy voted on the question of annexion to France, the French army was punctiliously withdrawn from the borders,--all of which was in simple obedience to International Ethics; but, instead of any…
If while negotiating with the Dominicans for their territory, and what is more than territory, their national life, you will not follow Spanish example and withdraw your war-ships with their flashing arms and threatening thunder, at least…
There are good steamers at New York, safe and sea-worthy, whose presence would not swell the array of war, nor subject the Great Republic to the grave imputation of seeking to accomplish its purpose by violence.
If we would do good to the African race, why begin with violence to the Black Republic?
If we seek annexion by the declared will of the people, spontaneous, free, and unanimous, as was the boast of Spain, why these floating batteries to overawe them?
If our purpose is peace, why these engines of war?
Rarely have we had such a fleet in any waters: not in the Mediterranean, not in the Pacific, not in the East Indies.
Mark well, Sir,--a unanimous people, and not a single Spanish bottom on the coast or Spanish soldier on the territory.
And then it is alleged that “the first condition” of reannexion must be “the unanimous, spontaneous, and explicit expression of the will of the Dominicans.” No foreign influence, no Spanish influence, was to interfere with the popular will.
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