658 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



still retained. These are bodies elected by the peo- 

 ple, holding regular sessions, keeping records of 

 their proceedings, and exercising considerable care in 

 the registration of vital statistics. To these bodies 

 belongs the local administration. They are small, 

 and the length of the term of office prevents, in 

 some degree, the immediate influence of the popular 

 will being felt upon them : still they serve at least to 

 keep up the traditions of local freedom and some 

 habit of local management of affairs. The men 

 chosen seem worthy of their trust. The commis- 

 sioners were impressed with the general character 

 and ability of the members of their municipal bodies. 

 There are" among them many who would do honor 

 to similar councds in any country. The difficulties 

 and dangers with, which these men have been envi- 

 roned seem to have deepened and strengthened their 

 characters, while interest in political affairs has been 

 by the same circumstances nearly crushed out of the 

 more timid majority. It was among this class that 

 the Commission and their agents found their most 

 intelligent welcome, and unrestrained conversation 

 with them showed that their welcome was not a mere 

 formality to which they had been compelled. It ap- 

 pears to the commissioners that, under a government 

 guaranteeing liberty and order, these municipal 

 bodies scattered through the country might become 

 centres of a better system than the Dominican Ke- 

 public has yet known. 



The constant succession of insurrectionary leaders 

 and the long series of disturbances to which it has 

 been the fate of the Dominican people to be subject- 

 ed, many years since led thoughtful men among them 

 to look abroad in the hope of relief. It was this sen- 

 timent which led the population generally to aquiesce 

 quietly at first in the occupation of the republic by 

 the forces of Spain in 1861. That occupation had been 

 brought about by the management of Santana and 

 others, then in power, aided by the Spanish ships-of- 

 war, without the general knowledge of the people, 

 and it was suddenly consummated to the surprise or 

 the great majority of the citizens. The commission- 

 ers took especial pains in all parts of the country to 

 examine into the cause of the failure that followed 

 this annexation, as well as of the unpopularity and 

 overthrow of the Spanish rule in the island. These 

 have been generally stated to them as follows : 



.1. That, contrary to the understanding between 

 the Dominican and Spanish Governments, the public 

 offices of all sorts were mainly filled with Spaniards, 

 to the exclusion of Dominicans. 



2. That the Spanish subordinate functionaries were 

 not generally native Spaniards, but Spanish subjects, 

 drawn from Cuba and Porto Kico, colonies where 

 blacks and men of color are held as slaves, and the 

 atmosphere in which these men had been brought up 

 had filled them with a prejudice which unfitted them 

 utterly for the administration ^ of government in a 

 country where the great majority of the population 

 are colored, and a considerable number are black. 



3. That some of the superior officers and very many 

 of the soldiery were brutal beyond endurance, and 

 that very little effective redress could be obtained. 

 It was stated to the Commission by a venerable cler- 

 gyman, in charge of one of the most important par- 

 ishes on the island, a man of acknowledged devotion 

 to Christian duty, and entirely trustworthy ^ that the 

 Spanish governor of that province had, to his certain 

 knowledge, been concerned in the assassination of a 

 mother to obtain control of the person of her daugh- 

 ter ; that he had entered the clergyman's house, stick 

 in hand, and threatened him with ignominious chas- 

 tisement, and that in various ways the Spaniards op- 

 pressed the people, treating them as conquered, and 

 insulting their local authorities. 



4. That the Spanish rulers showed a mania for 

 regulating the details of ordinary life, in some cases 

 resulting in positive indignities to the people. 



5. That the ecclesiastical administration was at va- 

 riance with their ideas. Practically, religious tolera- 



tion had grown up in the republic. This fact the ncV, 

 archbishop, under the Spaniards, did not seem to 

 have recognized. Protestant churches were shut, and 

 orders were issued to the clergy of the Established 

 Church to enforce a multitude of vexatious regula- 

 tions upon their flocks, involving spying upon fami- 

 lies. To use the language of a venerable priest, " tho 

 archbishop was a worthy man, but he seemed to con- 

 sider that he was living in the time of the Inquisi- 

 tion." Tho clergy were dissatisfied at that policy. 

 Remonstrances were made, and a letter from one 

 Catholic clergyman to the archbishop stated that 

 " such measures befit neither this age nor this coun- 

 try." To these may be added the fact that the Ma- 

 sonic fraternity, which possess a very large and wide- 

 spread membership among the best men of the island, 

 was understood to be menaced. 



6. That there were manifested on various occa- 

 sions certain deep-seated political ideas. Of these 

 may be mentioned opposition to monarchy and to 

 colonial subjection, and attachment to the name of 

 the republic. 



7. That there was aroused a popular apprehension, 

 founded upon a knowledge of Spanish administra- 

 tion on the neighboring island, that slavery would be 

 reestablished, either by reducing the colored Domini- 

 can people to the condition of slaves or by new im- 

 portations. 



Although these causes were not equally operative 

 in all parts of the country, and the better class of 

 Spanish officials mitigated them considerably in some 

 districts, they were sufficient, when joined to uneasi- 

 ness under the colonial yoke, to cause an insurrec- 

 tion, which soon became a revolution. The people 

 revolted in all parts of the interior, and, aided by 

 greater knowledge of the country, and greater famil- 

 iarity with guerrilla warfare, resisted all attempts to 

 put them down. They finally drove the Spaniards 

 into the strongholds on the coast, where the soldiers 

 died by wholesale of the malignant fevers engendered 

 in close and filthy barracks devoid of all sanitary ap- 



Eliances. Of the Spanish losses no exact data could 

 e obtained ; the best opinion seemed to be, that tho 

 Spaniards sent in all about 35,000 troops, of whom be- 

 tween 6,000 and 8,000 were lost by desertion and tha 

 causes above alluded to. 



Although bitterly disappointed in the results of 

 the Spanish annexation, the people, who were soon 

 involved in new revolutions, cease not to look abroad 

 in the hope of relief. To the surprise of the Com- 

 mission, in almost all parts of the country, even tho 

 remotest, the people were found to be familiar with 

 the question of annexation to the United States, and 

 to have discussed it among themselves with intelli- 

 gence. All classes, in all parts of the republic, were 

 consulted magistrates and ecclesiastics of every 

 grade; officials, civil and military; citizens of all 

 professions and occupations in town and country 

 and everywhere there was a general agreement in the 

 declaration that their only hope of permanent peaco 

 and prosperity is in annexation to and becoming part 

 of the people of the United States. They generally 

 declared their belief, that the strong arm of this re- 

 public, taking them under protection as part of the 

 nation, would at once end the efforts and hopes of 

 every seditious, revolutionary leader, and establish 

 law, order, and prosperity. 



The incorporation into public sentiment of a feel- 

 ing strongly favorable to annexation to the United 

 States, in preference to any other power, is partially 

 due to the presence, in various parts of the country, 

 of small colonies of colored people, formerly from tho 

 United States. These persons, or their immediate 

 ancestors, generally came into the country in the 

 time of President Boyer. Their love of the country 

 of their birth seems to have deepened with time, and 

 they all look upon American institutions as the^only 

 means of rescuing the country from its present inse- 

 curity. Very touching expressions of this met the 

 commissioners at various points. These people live 



