In July of 1869, President Grant sent General Orville E. Babcock to Santo Domingo with written instructions from the Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, to inquire into the political situation there and into the value and resources of the country. Babcock, terming himself aide-de-camp to the President of the United States, succeeded somehow or other in so impressing his importance and authority upon the willing Baez and his confederates as to move them to sign a treaty for the annexation of the Dominican Republic to the United States. It appears that he pledged the {324} President of the United States to use privately all his influence with the members of Congress for the ratification of the Treaty. [Sidenote: The Treaty before the Senate.] On the 10th of January, 1870, President Grant sent this proposed Treaty to the Senate for ratification. He must have thought that there would be no difficulty in securing for it the approval of that body, for his message was only three lines in length and contained no argument. It was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and it soon became manifest that a serious opposition to ratification was developing itself. The President now procured from the Dominican representative at Washington an agreement to an extension of the time for ratification, and in communicating this to the Senate on May 31st he went into an argument in support of the proposed treaty. He said, among other things, that the acquisition of this country would cut off one hundred millions of dollars' worth of the imports of the United States and largely increase its exports, and would thus enable the United States to extinguish its large debt abroad; that it would give the United States military command of the entrance to the Caribbean Sea and "the Isthmus transit of commerce"; and that it was necessary in order to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. He declared that the inhabitants of Santo Domingo yearned "for the protection of our free institutions and laws, and our progress and civilization." And he affirmed that he had information that a European Power was standing ready to offer two millions of dollars for the possession of Samana Bay alone. It would be difficult to find another message of a President of the United States which contained an equal amount of such extravagant nonsense. [Sidenote: Its rejection.] The Committee on Foreign Affairs thoroughly sifted the subject, and recommended that the proposed Treaty {325} be not ratified, and the Senate, despite the influence of the Administration, sustained the Committee. This action of the Senate occurred on the 30th of June. The President was surprised, mortified and indignant. He was especially angry with the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Sumner, and was from that moment determined to oust Sumner from that position. [Sidenote: The President's attempt to renew negotiations.]