Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/419

 Washington, Mr. Schurz stopped in front of the Sumner house, now the east side of the Arlington “Annex,” and pointing up to the second story said to his companion: “Ah, how many long evenings I have passed with Sumner up there in his library! It was there that we planned the defeat of Grant's scheme to annex Santo Domingo.” Though Sumner's great reputation and his violent personal quarrel with Grant made him the most conspicuous figure in the opposition to annexation, it was in fact Schurz who did most of the careful planning through which the President was defeated.

The task would have been an easy one if the ratification of the treaty had depended solely on the merits of the case. At first very few Senators manifested any positive desire for annexation, and the mass of the Republicans were indifferent, with a leaning toward opposition. Yet upon this indifferentism a deep impression was made by the terrible earnestness with which the President continued to press his policy. It was but a year since Andrew Johnson had left the White House, and many Republicans recoiled with terror from the idea of another breach with the Executive. They dreaded less the peril of annexing Santo Domingo than that of dividing the Republican party from its official chief. Thus party considerations finally prevailed with most of the Republican Senators. Against such considerations Schurz was peculiarly unfitted to make headway; for his whole intellectual habit precluded him from properly estimating the idea of party per se. However, with the aid of the Democrats, he and Sumner were victorious: ratification was refused by the Senate, June 29, 1870, by a vote of 28 to 28, two-thirds being required to ratify.

Grant, though intensely irritated by this outcome, was far from convinced that he was defeated. At the next session of