aty
President Grant was not discouraged. He returned to the subject six
months later, in his annual message of December, and discussed the
question afresh with apparently renewed confidence in the expediency
of the acquisition. "I now firmly believe," he said, "that the moment
it is known that the United States have entirely abandoned the project
of accepting as part of its own territory the Island of San Domingo,
a free port will be negotiated for by European nations in the Bay of
Samana, and a large commercial city will spring up, to which we will
be tributary without receiving responding benefits. Then will be seen
the folly of our rejecting so great a prize. . . . So convinced am I
of the advantages to flow from the acquisition of San Domingo, and of
the great disadvantages, I might also say calamities, to flow from its
non-acquisition, that I believe the subject has only to be investigated
to be approved." He recommended that "by joint resolution of the two
Houses of Congress, the Executive be authorized to appoint a commission
to negotiate a treaty with the authorities of San Domingo for the
acquisition of that island, and that an appropriation be made to defray
the expenses of such commission."

The subject at once led to discussion in both branches of Congress, in
which the hostility to the scheme on the part of some leading men
assumed the tone of personal exasperation towards General Grant. So
intense was the opposition that the President's friends in the Senate
did not deem it prudent even to discuss the measure which he
recommended. As the best that could be done, Mr. Morton of Indiana
introduced a resolution empowering the President to appoint three
Commissioners to proceed to San Domingo and make certain inquiries into
the political condition of the island, and also into its agricultural
and commercial value. The Commissioners were to have no compensation.
Their expenses were to be paid, and a secretary was to be provided.
Even in this mild shape the resolution was hotly opposed. It was
finally adopted by the Senate, but when it reached the House that body
refused to concur except with a proviso that "nothing in this
resolution shall be held, understood, or construed as committing
Congress to the policy of annexing San Domingo." The Senate concurred
in the condition thus attached and the President approved it. It was
plain that the President could not carry the annexation scheme; but he
courted