CHAPTER XXIX

DIPLOMATIC EPISODES

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RANT was immensely impressed by things of monumental size. He understood quantity better than he

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understood quality. From the beginning of his administration he had the territorial expansion of the United States in mind. He had convinced himself, through some process of esoteric reasoning, that a large and powerful country, with bulldog tendencies, ought to be happier than a smaller one. He thought of far-flung possessions, and of the American drum-beat being heard around the world.

At first glance it may seem difficult to reconcile this policy with his spirit of pacifism, but both ideas really fit into the same pattern. He expected to expand our territory by treaty or purchase, and not by conquest; and he thought that the taking over of the smaller peoples would keep them out of trouble and promote the cause of universal peace.

It never occurred to him, apparently, that the addition to our system of alien races would increase the complexity of our own problems. And one would naturally think that the anarchy existing in the Southern states was enough to keep any President very busy, without looking for other anarchies to conquer.

One of his first moves, after he became President, was an attempt to annex the Caribbean republic of San Domingo. He failed to accomplish it, and his failure is astonishing when one considers his immense popularity at that time. We can ascribe it only to his awkward ineptitude in handling the matter.

The state of affairs in San Domingo was almost as bad as the state of affairs in Louisiana. The Dominicans, like the Louisianians, had two rival governments, each claiming to express the will of the people. The fighting between the two factions in San Domingo was not as fierce and bloody as it was in Louisiana, but it went on for a longer time.

At one of the cabinet meetings soon after Grant became President he remarked that the navy department wanted Samana Bay, on the east coast of San Domingo, as a coaling station, and that he intended to send Colonel Babcock down to San Domingo to examine the harbor and sound the government of San Domingo on the question of its acquisition. (This was the same Colonel Babcock who became involved later in the Whisky Ring scandal.) I think that Grant had the idea of acquiring the whole of San Domingo in his mind at that time, but he said nothing about it at the cabinet meeting.

Babcock went, saw, and came back. Soon after his return the cabinet gathered one day and found the table loaded heavily with specimens of Dominican ores, hardwoods, coffee berries and other tropical products. Babcock had brought them there and arranged them on the table as an exhibit. The President was ready to tell the cabinet about his plan of annexation, and he wanted to bring out his idea impressively.

While Babcock was in San Domingo he had met General Baez, an intelligent quadroon, who claimed to be president of the Dominican republic. His assertion was flatly denied, however, by another quadroon named Cabral, who declared that he was president and that he was going to have Baez shot as soon as he could catch him. Baez treated this threat with contempt. According to him Cabral was merely a low-down, noaccount disturber of the peace, without any following. Baez stated further that as soon as he could get hold of Cabral he intended to put him up against a wall and shoot him. At the time of Babcock's visit neither of them had caught the other.

Babcock, either on his own initiative, or following Presi

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dent Grant's instructions-I do not know which-drew up a treaty with Baez for the annexation of the whole of San Domingo by the United States.

As soon as the cabinet met the President smiled at his associates and said, "Babcock has returned, as you see, and has brought a treaty of annexation." He picked up a document which was lying on the table. "I suppose it is not formal, as he had no diplomatic powers; but we can easily cure that. We can send back the treaty and have Perry, the consular agent, sign it; and as he is an officer of the State Department it would make it all right."

The members of the cabinet were amazed. All turned toward Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, with inquiry in their eyes; but Mr. Fish had not seen the treaty; he had heard of its existence only the day before. At last Mr. Cox, looking at the President over the intervening products of San Domingo, broke the embarrassing silence. "But, Mr. President," he asked, "has it been settled then, that we want to annex San Domingo?" Grant's face flushed; he remained silent. Nobody asked to see the treaty. After a moment of hesitation the President called for the next order of business, and San Domingo was never mentioned in a cabinet meeting again.

But that did not end the matter. Grant's obstinacy was well able to stand rebuffs, and he made up his mind to put the treaty through regardless of the cabinet's attitude.

Hamilton Fish went to the White House the next day and offered to resign, for the reason that a treaty had been negotiated without his knowledge. But the President persuaded him to stay in the cabinet. "I need you," he said, "and Mrs. Grant needs your wife." He was thinking, no doubt, of Mrs. Grant's social inexperience. Mrs. Fish was an old lady with steel-colored curls. She wore black jet ornaments and carried the whole of the Social Register in her memory.

Before Fish left the White House Grant had induced him to advocate the plan of annexation. Rhodes remarks that

thereafter Fish was a "loyal though not an ardent supporter" of the annexation policy.

But how about Charles Sumner, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate? That intense egoist had been ignored entirely . . . the deadliest insult he could imagine. He whetted the Senatorial bowie knife and concealed his feelings behind a dark silence, like a Sicilian bandit behind a wall. He would just love to have that treaty appear in the Senate. It would be murdered in cold blood, if it were the last act of his official life.

Grant sent Babcock to San Domingo again to have the treaty put in good diplomatic form. When it came back-Babcock with it-in November, it looked impressive with its seals and ribbons. It had been signed by Baez and the American consular agent in San Domingo. Now nothing remained to do but to rush it through the Senate.

The provisions of the treaty were very simple. The United States was to take over the republic of San Domingo and hold it as American territory. Baez and his friends were to get $1,500,000 of American money for the avowed purpose of paying off the Dominican public debt. But something had to be done to hold up the head of the sinking Baez government while the treaty was being discussed, so Grant ordered naval vessels to the island. They patrolled the coast and landed marines now and then.

Grant was not nearly as adroit as his twentieth century successors. The puttering over the treaty was really unnecessary. He might have ordered the Navy Department to occupy San Domingo without saying anything to Congress about it. It could have been done while Congress was not in session. Then, when the affair eventually burst into argument, what could be simpler or more plausible than for him to declare the occupation a necessary proceeding-that he had landed marines and taken charge of things for the purpose of keeping

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order and upholding civilization? He never realized what a potent word Civilization is.

In attempting to get the treaty ratified Grant shed the dignity that surrounds a President. He called on senators at their homes and pleaded with them to vote for the annexation program. San Domingo was a sun that filled his whole sky for a time. He had an exaggerated idea of its importance, of the wealth of its natural resources. One of his arguments was that the island would furnish a colonizing ground for American negroes.

One evening in January, 1870, he called on Sumner and asked him to support the treaty in the Senate. Sumner remarked that he had not seen the treaty and Grant promised to send the document to him by Babcock, who would explain its features. Although Sumner's injured feelings were soothed a little by this action he was greatly annoyed during the interview by Grant's apparent ignorance of his position in the Senate. The President referred to him four times as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But he accompanied his caller to the door, shook hands and said: "Mr. President, I am an administration man, and whatever you do will always find in me the most careful and candid consideration."

Grant concluded from this statement that Sumner meant to give his support to the treaty, but he really meant nothing more than he said, which was that he would consider it carefully and candidly.

When the treaty got to the Committee on Foreign Relations Sumner came out in an opposition to it that was bitter and unyielding. He carried a majority of the committee with him, and the measure appeared before the Senate with the committee's disapproval. On June 30, 1870, the treaty failed of ratification in the Senate, and was relegated to the trash pile of imperialism.

Despite this rather contemptuous rejection Grant still clung to the annexation scheme. He attempted to revive it in De