AS COMMISSIONER TO SANTO DOMINGO -1871 489 



teen different expeditions were thus organized and des- 

 patched, and these made careful examinations and re- 

 ports which were wrought into the final report of the com- 

 mission. It is doubtful whether any country was ever so 

 thoroughly examined in so short a time. One party visited 

 various harbors with reference to their value for naval or 

 military purposes ; another took as its subject the neces- 

 sary fortifications ; another, agriculture ; another, the coal 

 supply ; another, the precious metals ; another, the prevail- 

 ing epidemics and diseases of the country ; while the com- 

 mission itself adjourned from place to place, taking testi- 

 mony on land tenures and on the general conditions and 

 disposition of the people. 



I became much attached to my colleagues. The first of 

 these, Senator Wade of Ohio, was bluff, direct, shrewd, 

 and well preserved, though over seventy years of age. 

 He was a rough diamond, kindly in his judgments unless 

 his feeling of justice was injured ; then he was implacable. 

 Many sayings of his were current, among them a dry an- 

 swer to a senator from Texas who, having dwelt in high- 

 flown discourse on the superlative characteristics of the 

 State he represented, wound up all by saying, "All that 

 Texas needs to make it a paradise is water and good so- 

 ciety," to which Wade instantly replied, "That 's all they 

 need in hell." The nimbleness and shrewdness of some 

 public men he failed to appreciate. On his saying some- 

 thing to me rather unfavorable to a noted statesman of 

 New England, I answered him, ' i But, senator, he made an 

 admirable Speaker of the House of Representatives." To 

 which he answered, ' ' So would a squirrel if he could talk. ' ' 



Dr. Howe was a very different sort of man a man of 

 the highest cultivation and of wide experience, who had de- 

 voted his whole life to philanthropic efforts. He had been 

 imprisoned in Spandau for attempting to aid the Poles; 

 had narrowly escaped with his life while struggling in 

 Greece against Turkey; and had braved death again and 

 again while aiding the free-State men against the pro- 

 slavery myrmidons of Kansas. He told me that of all 



