The truth becomes still more apparent in the dispatch of February 20, 1870,--nearly three months after the signature of the treaties, and while they were still pending before the Senate,--where it is openly reported:-- _“If the United States ships were withdrawn, he [Baez] could not hold the reins of this Government._ I have told him this.”[29] Nothing can be plainer. In other words, the usurper was maintained in power by our guns. Such was the official communication of the very agent who had signed the treaties, and who was himself an ardent annexionist. Desiring annexion, he confesses the means employed to accomplish it. How the President did not at once abandon, unfinished, treaties maintained by violence, how the Secretary of State did not at once resign rather than be a party to this transaction, is beyond comprehension. Nor was the State Department left uninformed with regard to the distribution of this naval force. Here is the report, under date of San Domingo, March 12, 1870, while the vote was proceeding:-- “The Severn lies at this port; the Swatara left for Samana the 9th; the Nantasket goes to Puerto Plata to-morrow, the 13th; the Yantic lies in the river in this city. Admiral Poor, on board the Severn, is expected to remain at this port for some time. Everything is very quiet at present throughout the country.”[30] Thus under the guns of our Navy was quiet maintained, while Baez, like another usurper, exclaimed, “Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on!” What this same official reported to the State Department he afterward reaffirmed under oath, in his testimony before the committee of the Senate on the case of Mr. Hatch. The words were few, but decisive, touching the acts of our Navy,--“committed since we had been there, _protecting Baez from the citizens of San Domingo_.”[31] Then, again, in a private letter to myself, under date of Bristol, Rhode Island, February 10, 1871, after stating that he had reported what the record shows to be true, “that Baez was sustained and held in power by the United States Navy,” he adds, “This fact Baez acknowledged to me.” So that we have the confession of the Secretary of State, also the confession of his agent at San Domingo, and the confession of Baez himself, that the usurper depended for support on our Navy. AN AMERICAN CITIZEN SACRIFICED TO HELP THE TREATY.