In the early days of the Republic different policies were occasionally seriously considered. It was then held by some that independence should be preserved at any cost while others contended that in view of the constant, civil wars the country should seek peace and progress under the protection of some foreign power. Although the annexationists were at first called conservatives and their opponents liberals, these divergent views were not the exclusive property of any designated group of men, but the annexation idea was generally espoused by the party that happened to be in power, which thus hoped both to save the country and perpetuate its own rule, while independence was invariably supported by the opposition, which bristled with patriotic indignation and the fear that it might be permanently excluded from the banquet-table. Thus Santana obtained a return to Spanish rule in 1861 and Cabral a few years later agitated the question of American annexation and their action was denounced by Baez; yet shortly after Baez almost succeeded in securing annexation to the United States and was stigmatized as a traitor by Cabral. Another issue which existed for a few years after the separation from Haiti in 1844 was the division between clericals on the one hand and liberals on the other, a party division that has created havoc in other parts of Spanish America. The very indefinite claims on each side and the practical unanimity of the country in its attitude towards the church caused this issue to disappear. The real parties that kept see-sawing in and out of power from the early days of the Republic down to the time of Heureaux were those founded by General Pedro Santana and General Buenaventura Baez. Intimate friends in the struggles with Haiti which followed Santo Domingo's declaration of independence, their ambitious and domineering natures soon clashed, and each collected a group of friends and incessantly conspired against the other. The partisans of Baez, or Baecistas, adopted red for the color of the cockades and ribbons which distinguished them in the civil wars, and came to be known as the "Reds," while the followers of Santana, or Santanistas, adopted blue and were known as the "Blues."