In the strange report of the Secretary of State, responsive to a resolution moved by me in the Senate, the dependence of Baez upon our Navy is confessed in various forms. Nobody can read this document without noting the confession, first from the reluctant Secretary, and then from his agent. Referring to the correspondence of Raymond H. Perry, our Commercial Agent at San Domingo, who signed the treaties, the Secretary presents a summary, which, though obnoxious to just criticism, is a confession. According to him, the correspondence “tends to show that the presence of a United States man-of-war in the port was supposed to have _a peaceful influence_.”[25] The term “peaceful influence” is the pleonasm of the Secretary, confessing the maintenance of Baez in his usurpation. There is no such thing as stealing; “_convey_ the wise it call”; and so with the Secretary the maintenance of a usurper by our war-ships is only “a peaceful influence.” A discovery of the Secretary. But in the levity of his statement the Secretary forgets that a United States man-of-war has nothing to do within a foreign jurisdiction, and cannot exert influence there without unlawful intervention. The Secretary alludes also to the probability of “another revolution,” of course against Baez, in the event of the failure of the annexion plot; and here is another confession of the dependence of the usurper upon our Navy. But the correspondence of Mr. Perry, as communicated to the Senate, shows more plainly than the confession of the Secretary how completely the usurper was maintained in power by the strong arm of the United States. The anxiety of the usurper was betrayed at an early day, even while vaunting the popular enthusiasm for annexion. In a dispatch dated at San Domingo, January 20, 1870, Mr. Perry thus reports:-- “The Nantasket left this port January 1, 1870, and we have not heard from her since. She was to go to Puerto Plata [a port of Dominica] and return _viâ_ Samana Bay [also in Dominica]. _We need the protection of a man-of-war very much_, but anticipate her return very soon.”[26] Why the man-of-war was needed is easily inferred from what is said in the same dispatch:-- “The President tells me that it is almost impossible to prevent the people pronouncing for annexation before the proper time. _He prefers to await the arrival of a United States man-of-war before their opinion is publicly expressed._”[27] If the truth were told, the usurper felt that it was almost impossible to prevent the people from pronouncing for his overthrow, and therefore he wanted war-ships. Then under date of February 8, 1870, Mr. Perry reports again:-- “President Baez daily remarks that the United States Government has not kept its promises to send men-of-war to the coast. He seems very timid and lacks energy.”[28]