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.

Let the country judge if I was not right in every word that I then employed.

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.

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.

And so our Navy has thus far conquered without a shot; but its presence in the waters of Hayti and Dominica was war.

Nobody can read this document without noting the confession, first from the reluctant Secretary, and then from his agent.

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.

The Secretary alludes also to the probability of “another revolution,” of course against Baez, in the event of the failure of the annexion plot; and here is another confession of the dependence of the usurper upon our Navy.

Perry, as communicated to the Senate, shows more plainly than the confession of the Secretary how completely the usurper was maintained in power by the strong arm of the United States.

If the truth were told, the usurper felt that it was almost impossible to prevent the people from pronouncing for his overthrow, and therefore he wanted war-ships.

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.

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.

This drama of a usurper sustained by foreign power is illustrated by an episode, where the liberty of an American citizen was sacrificed to the consummation of the plot.

Hatch was detained in prison by the authority of the usurper, at the special instance of Cazneau and with the connivance of Babcock, in order to prevent his influence against the treaty of annexion.

In other days it was said that the best government is where an injury to a single citizen is resented as an injury to the whole State.

To all its paramount titles of Independence and Equality, sacred and unimpeachable, must be added its special character as an example of self-government, being the first in the history of the African race, and a promise of the future.

Who can doubt that as such this Black Republic has a value beyond all the products of its teeming tropical soil?

If the Report of the State Department is a confession, that of the Navy Department is an authentic record of acts flagrant and indefensible,--unless we are ready to set aside the Law of Nations and the Constitution of the United States…

To be sure, it was their “moral support” he was to have; but they were nevertheless “guns.” Thus in all times has lawless force sought to disguise itself.

Here, Sir, permit me to say, is the first sign of war, being an undoubted usurpation, whether by President or Secretary.

We have heard of an “armed neutrality,” and of an “armed peace”; but here is an armed negotiation.

Armed negotiation was changed to armed intervention, being an act of war,--all of which is placed beyond question.

Not only the whole Navy of the United States, but all the power of our Republic is promised to the usurper.

What is this but war, at the call of the usurper Baez, against the enemies of his Government, whether domestic or foreign?