Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/256

236 by Presidents whose supreme rule of action was the Constitution of the Republic, and in what manner our Executive now ought to have acted in the San Domingo case.

There is still one sentence in the Secretary's letter, which I cannot refrain from referring to, for it is of great import. It is the following:

Under the orders of the Executive, it is a part of the duty of those ships of your fleet which are at any time cruising in the waters of San Domingo to maintain this status against every Power, and while we would not yield the right to interfere with it to the most powerful Government, we cannot concede that right even to the weakest.

So there is, after all, something in what the Senator from Wisconsin said yesterday, that our menace was not directed against Hayti alone, but that even a possible conflict with greater Powers was contemplated in the program. Sir, it was indeed not entirely without the limits of possibility. Is not the debt of the republic of San Domingo rather in a confused state? Are not Englishmen somewhat concerned in it by loans? And might not the British Government, in consideration of the interests of some of its subjects, accidentally make a claim against the Government of San Domingo and try to enforce it, our arrangements with Baez notwithstanding? Might not in a country with a lawless Government like the Dominican republic, by wrongs inflicted upon foreigners, grave complications arise with Powers more formidable than Hayti, in which we would suddenly find ourselves involved? And the Secretary bravely defies the most powerful nations of the world.

Sir, look at this. By the President's arbitrary act, for the success of a scheme in which neither Congress nor the people of the United States take any interest,