Clearfield Republican

SAN DOMINGO AS IT IS.
It is now time to strip some of the
tropical verdure from the annexation
accounts of San Domingo, and show it
as seen by those who write facts, not
fiction. The leanings of a vast ma-
jority of the letters published, are so
obvious and apparent as to strike the
most careless and inattentive reader.
They describe nothing but waving
palms and placid waters, and fruitful
fields and happy people. Above the
earth bend rich harvests, beneath it
lie treasures untold. There are cities
which require only a few white men
to make them spring up like magic,
and harbors capable of holding the
navies of the world, when controlled
by proper rulers. All the people
are in favor of annexation, and Baez
and his colleagues patterns of wisdom,
prudence and patriotism. These are
the pictures presented by the writers,
in the interest of the San Domingo
jobbers. The bait is well covered
with affluent description. But be-
neath is the keen and deadly hook,
upon which the nation is to be hung
in this matter of annexation. There
are papers, however, which prick this
bubble and let out the wind. Among
them is the Chicago Times, which in a
recent article says: "The Commissioners
could not discover that General
Grant, or any other Federal office-
holder, is the actual owner of any
water lots there; but they did discover
that 'Fabens and his associates and
O'Sullivan have a perpetual lease, at
a nominal price, of nearly all of the
available water front around the har-
bor.' Who knows what private Fa-
bens, O'Sullivan and their associates
have made with Grant and his asso-
ciates? Not the Commissioners, sure-
ly. The Commissioners found Mr.
Baez, one of the two or three Presi-
dents of San Domingo, who, of course,
gave them a cordial reception, and
expressed himself as ready for a trade.
The Commissioners explained to the
intelligent Mr. Baez that they did not
come with authority to close a bar-
gain for the country he wants to sell,
but to see about it. Mr. Baez, like
an experienced real estate broker, set
forth the advantageous properties of
the commodity in the best light, and
offered to send for Mr. Cabral, another
President of the country, if the Com-
missioners would like to see him."
This is a more temperate way of look-
ing at the San Domingo bargain, and
one which gives a more truthful idea
of the value of the accounts which
have been sent home by the florid
correspondents of annexation journals.
What could they have known of the
real condition of the country in six
days? And yet, in that time, they
made up their minds that San Domin-
go was a paradise, Baez a prodigy,
and annexation the desire of all the
people of the Republic. This is the
way in which the San Domingo job is
recommended to the people of this
country, and such testimony is to
form a basis for legislative action of a
favorable character for the jobbers.

"At San Domingo City, there is
nothing but an open roadstead, and
the ground swell, occasioned by the
southern trades, and which rules all
the year, is the very worst I ever felt.
and renders loading a vessel outside n
sheer impossibility. There is a small
inner harbor, or rather the widened
mouth of the river Ozama, opposite
the town, with fourteen to sixteen
feet of water in it: but no vessel can
cross the bar drawing more than ten
and a-half feet. The United States
steamer Yantic, which was drawing
eleven feet, struck on the bar on en-
tering. I hear she was so damaged
that it is not unlikely she may never
be moved.

"The Bay of Caldera is surrounded
the most part with flat salt marshes,
and there is no fresh water procurable
in the vicinity. The whole shores of
the bay are, moreover, utterly unin-
habited, there not being a house or a
sign of civilization anywhere about.

"When President Grant spoke as
he did in his message to Congress,
of the navy yards, arsenals, ships of
war, &c., to be delivered by San Do-
mingo in case of annexation, he talked
the most arrant nonsense in the world.
The Dominican navy is and has been
for over fifteen months. the navy of
the United States, and will be found
after annexation to consist solely of
two small schooners of some 60 to 80
tons each, now lying in the river
Ozama, at San Domingo, and in
neither of which any sane man would
venture a mile from shore. As to
navy-yards, arsenals, docks, &c., &c.,
there is absolutely no pretension to
anything of the sort.

"As to coal. Professor Blake dis-
proved the existence of it at the head
of Samana Gulf: he brought back to the
Tennessee, after a very elaborate ex-
amination, only samples of very good
lignite. This is noteworthy, because
Mr. Fabens, in a pamphlet in which
he extols the resources of this island
to the seventh heaven or a little high-
er, quotes a letter written by Gen.
Buceta, one of the Generals command-
ing the last Spanish army of occupa-
tion, in which he says that coal from
these veins had been put on board
one of the Spanish war steamers and
found equal to the best Cardiff. There
is no coal at all, and this is a fair sam-
ple of ninety-nine hundredths of the
"bosh" that has been written by in-
terested parties about San Domingo.
As to labor, the whole matter may be
summed up in a few words. The
original Indians were unfitted by
their physical constitution for hard
work, and when put to it by the
Spaniards were soon exterminated.
No white man can work in San
Domingo. The mulattoes are enerva-
ted by the climate, and cannot work
hard.
The negroes will not labor unless
forced. Now, what capitalist will
advance a dollar on the richest possi-
ble land. when not only there is no
labor on it, but when all kinds of
labor are inefficient.

"The climate of San Domingo to
the white man is simply one of the
most deadly in the world. I do not
care what testimony the Commission-
ers may report; they cannot alter
facts. But as a specimen of the way
they collect it, I give you the follow-
ing facts: At Samana, Mr. Burr. an
American, testified to the health of
the place. His child had been sick,
all the time. The wife of another
American there told me that they had
only one child, and they did not dare
to have it in Samana from fear it
would take the fever. In conversa-
tion with Fred Douglass before leaving
Samana, he said to me:"I am con-
vinced that Nature has arrayed her-
self in all her beauty to tempt men to
come here to their death. Beautiful
as this country is. I am satisfied is is
the grave of the white man and the
negro also. I feel the climatic influ-
ences myself." I respectfully call the
attention of President Grant to this
remark of Mr. Douglass."

After stating further facts of the
same character, the writer declares
that the "annexation of San Domingo
by the United States is, as far as Baez
is concerned, a swindle for personal
aggrandizement; as far as Dominicans
not immediately interested, are con-
cerned, it is an imposition, to which
they are in reality earnestly opposed.
and which they will resist to the
death." This latter view is sustained
and corroborated by a private letter
from San Domingo City, which says:
"The feeling among the population
against annexation is more bitter than
ever, but no one dares to speak out
openly, for fear of banishment or im-
prisonment. A complete reign of
terror has been inaugurated by Baez;
United States vessels of war, in con-
junction with his troops, have over-
awed the free will of the people
therefore, Baez does as he pleases.
But, mark well: if annexation does
take place, the United States troops
will be obliged to exterminate the
present race of Dominicans; so sure is
it that a bloody revolution will follow.
It is strange that President Grant has
allowed himself to be so deceived.
Not one-tenth part of the people favor
annexation, and nearly all who do are
in this city alone." It is well that
such plainly noted facts as these,
should go to the people side by side
with the statements of jobbers and
annexationists. General Grant is de-
termined to push the bargain through
Congress. If he is able to do so, let
the job be put upon the record of his
administration in its proper colors.