If I can help them, I will; if I can save them from outrage, I must.

And never before was the occasion more imminent than now.

I speak only according to unquestionable reason and the instincts of the human heart, when I assert that a contract for the cession of territory must be fair and without suspicion of overawing force.

Especially must it be sacred with a Republic, for it is nothing but the mandate of Justice.

The rule is general in its application; nay, more, it is part of Universal Law, common to all municipal systems and to International Law.

Plainly there can be no cession of territory, and especially no surrender of national independence, except as the result of war, so long as hostile cannon are frowning.

The first step in negotiation must be the withdrawal of all force, coercive or minatory.

Spain boasted, in official papers, that in the act of reannexion the Dominicans were spontaneous, free, and unanimous,--that no Spanish emissaries were in the territory to influence its people, nor was there a Spanish bottom in its waters…

In the case of Spain the proceeding was an act of peace; in our case it is an act of war.

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.

Mark well, Sir,--a unanimous people, and not a single Spanish bottom on the coast or Spanish soldier on the territory.

Rarely have we had such a fleet in any waters: not in the Mediterranean, not in the Pacific, not in the East Indies.

If our purpose is peace, why these engines of war?

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 we would do good to the African race, why begin with violence to the Black Republic?

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 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…

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…

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.

The prisons were gorged, and the most respectable citizens were his victims.

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.

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…

Even if Baez defied the Constitution of his country, our Government, in dealing with him, could not do so.

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…

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…