230 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



corporation of Dominica with her monarchy in 1861 

 was accomplished without the presence of a single 

 Spanish ship on the coast, or a Spanish soldier on the 

 land, all of which appears in official documents ; and 

 whereas the United States being a republic founded 

 on the rights of man, cannot depart from such a prin- 

 ciple, and such a precedent, without weakening the 

 obligations of justice between nations, and inflicting 

 a blow upon republican institutions : therefore 



Resolved, That in obedience to correct principle, 

 and that republican institutions may not suffer, the 

 naval forces of the United States should be with- 

 drawn from the coasts of St. Domingo during^ the 

 pendency of negotiations for the acquisition oi any 

 part of that island. 



Resolved, That every sentiment of justice is dis- 

 turbed by the employment of foreign force in the 

 maintenance of a ruler engaged in selling his coun- 

 try, and this moral repugnance is increased when 

 it is known that the attempted sale is in violation 

 of the constitution of the country to be sold ; that, 

 therefore, the employment of our navy to maintain 

 Baez in usurped power while attempting to sell his 

 country to the United States, in open violation of the 

 Dominican constitution, is morally wrong, and any 

 transaction founded upon it must be null and void. 



Resolved, That since the equality of all nations, 

 without regard to population, size, or power, is an 

 axiom of international law, as the equality of all 

 men is an axiom of our Declaration of Independence, 

 nothing can be done to a small or weak nation that 

 would not be done to a large or powerful nation, or 

 that we would not allow to be done to ourselves : 

 and therefore any treatment of the Eepublic of Hayti 

 by the Navy of the United States inconsistent with 

 this principle, is an infraction of international law 

 in one of its great safeguards, and should be dis- 

 avowed by the Government of the United States. 



Resolved, That since certain naval officers of the 

 United States, commanding large war-ships, includ- 

 ing the monitor Dictator, and the frigate Severn, 

 with powerful armaments, acting under instructions 

 from the Executive, and without the authority of an 

 act of Congress, have entered one or more ports of 

 the Kepublio of Hayti, a friendly nation, and, under 

 the menace of open and instant war, have coerced 

 and restrained that republic in its sovereignty and 

 independence under international law ; therefore, in 

 justice to the Eepublic of Hayti, also, in recognition 

 of its equal rights in the family of nations, and in 

 deference to the fundamental principles of our insti- 

 tutions, these hostile acts should be disavowed by 

 the Government of the United States. 



Resolved, That under the Constitution of the Uni- 

 ted States the power to declare war is placed under 

 the safeguard of an act of Congress ; that the Presi- 

 dent alone cannot declare war ; that this is a peculiar 

 principle of our Government by which it is distin- 

 guished from monarchical governments, where power 

 to declare war ? as also the treaty-making power, is 

 in the Executive alone ; that in pursuance of this 

 principle, the President cannot, by any act of his 

 own, as by an unratified treaty, obtain any such 

 power, and thus divest Congress of its control ; and 

 that, therefore, the employment of the navy without 

 the authority of Congress, in acts of hostility against 

 a friendly foreign nation, or in belligerent interven- 

 tion in the affairs of a foreign nation, Is an infraction 

 of the Constitution of the United States, and a usur- 



Resolved, That while the President, without any 

 previous declaration of war by act of Congress, may 

 defend the country against invasion by foreign ene- 

 mies, he is not justified in exercising the same power 

 in an outlying foreign island, which has not yet be- 

 come part of the United States that a title under an 

 unratified treaty is at most inchoate and contingent, 

 while it is created by the President alone, in which 

 respect it differs from any such title created by act 

 of Congress ; and since it is created by the President 



alone, without the support of law, whether in legis- 

 lation^ or a ratified treaty, the employment of the 

 navy in the maintenance of the Government there 

 is without any excuse of national defence, as also 

 without any excuse of a previous declaration of war 

 by Congress. 



Resolved, That whatever may be the title to terri- 

 tory tinder an unratified treaty, it is positive that 

 after the failure of the treaty in the Senate all pretext 

 of title ceases, so that our Government is in all re- 

 spects a stranger to the territory, without excuse or 

 apology for any interference against its enemies, for- 

 eign or domestic ; and therefore any belligerent in- 

 tervention, or act of war on the coasts of St. Domingo 

 after the failure of the Dominican treaty in the Senate 

 is unauthorized violence, utterly without support in 

 law or reason, and proceeding directly from that 

 kingly prerogative which is disowned by the Con- 

 stitution of the United States. 



_ Resolved, That in any proceedings for the acqui- 

 sition of part of the island of St. Domingo, whatever 

 may be its temptations of soil, climate, and produc- 

 tions, there must be no exercise of influence by su- 

 perior force, nor any violation of public law, whether 

 international or constitutional ; and therefore the 

 present proceedings, which have been conducted at 

 great ^cost of money, under the constant shadow of 

 superior force, and through the belligerent interven- 

 tion of our navy, acting in violation of international 

 law, and initiating war without an act of Congress, 

 must be abandoned, to the end that justice may be 

 maintained, and that proceedings so adverse to correct 

 principles may not become an example for the future. 



Resolved, That instead of seeking to acquire part 

 of the island of St. Domingo by belligerent interven- 

 tion, without the authority of an act of Congress, it 

 would have been in better accord with the principles 

 of our republic, and its mission of peace and benefi- 

 cence, had our Government, in the spirit of good 

 neighborhood, and by friendly appeal, instead of 

 belligerent intervention, striven for the establish- 

 ment of tranquillity throughout the whole island, so 

 that the internal dissensions of Dominica and its 

 disturbed relations with Hayti might be brought to 

 a close, thus obtaining that security which is the 

 first condition of prosperity, all of which, being in 

 the nature of good offices, would have been without 

 any violation of international law, and without any 

 usurpation of war powers under the Constitution o'f 

 the United States. 



Subsequently, on April 5th, the President of 

 the United States sent a message to Congress 

 with the report of the commissioners who had 

 been sent out to St. Domingo. (For the mes- 

 sage and report, see PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.) 



In the Senate, on April 17th, Mr. Stewart, of 

 Nevada, offered the following resolution, pro- 

 posing an amendment to the Constitution : 



A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Con 

 ptitution of the United States. 



Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Represent or 

 fives of the United States of America in Congress as- 

 sembled (two-thirds of both Houses concurring there- 

 in), That the following article be submitted to the 

 Legislatures of the several States, and when adopted 

 by three-fourths of the States shall become a part of 

 the Constitution of the United States, and known as 

 article sixteen of amendments to said Constitution : 



ARTICLE XVI. Section 1. There shall be main- 

 tained in each State and Territory a^system of free 

 common schools ; but neither the United States, nor 

 any State, Territory, county, nor municipal corpora- 

 tion, shall aid in the support of any school wherein 

 the peculiar tenets of any religious denomination are 

 taught. 



Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce thi9 

 article by appropriate legislation. 



