I have heard it said that Orville E. Babcock did not write “Aide-de-Camp” against his name at the bottom of the protocol. This was not necessary. The designation of a person in such documents always appears at the beginning,--as, for instance, in a deed between two parties. It is not written against the name. Therefore we have here a “protocol,” so entitled, signed by a young officer who entitles himself “Aide-de-Camp to his Excellency, the President of the United States,” and who promises for the President that he shall privately use all his influence in order that the idea of annexing the Dominican Republic to the United States may acquire such a degree of popularity among members of Congress as will be necessary for its accomplishment. Such was the promise. Senators about me know how faithfully the President has fulfilled it, how faithfully he has labored, privately and publicly, even beyond the protocol,--the protocol only required that he should work privately,--privately and publicly, in order that the idea of annexing the Dominican Republic should be agreeable to Congress. The young officer, “Aide-de-Camp to the President of the United States,” with this important and unprecedented document in his pocket, returned to Washington. Instead of being called to account for this unauthorized transaction, pledging the Chief Magistrate to use his influence privately with Congress in order to cram down a measure that the confederates justly supposed to be offensive, he was sent back with directions to negotiate a treaty. I would not allude to that treaty, if it had not been made the subject of discussion by the President himself in his Annual Message. You know it. The treaty itself is not on your tables legislatively; it has never been communicated legislatively to Congress. The other House, which may be called to act upon this important measure, can know nothing of that treaty, and what we know of it we cannot speak of even in this debate. We can simply speak of its existence, for the President himself has imparted that to Congress and to the country. The treaty exists; and now the practical question is, By what means was it negotiated? I have described to you the three confederates who seduced into their company the aide-de-camp of the President; and now I have to aver, and I insist that the evidence will substantiate what I say, that at the time of the signature of the treaty of annexion Baez was sustained in power by the presence of our naval force in the waters of the Dominican Government. Go to the documents, and you will find that what I say is true. Confer with naval officers, confer with honest patriot citizens who know the case, and they will all testify that without the presence of our ships-of-war in those waters Baez would have been powerless.