He went certainly as
well prepared to make an unfavorable report as a favorable one, if the
facts warranted it. His report fully corroborated the views of previous
commissioners, and upon its receipt I felt that a sense of duty and a
due regard for our great national interests required me to negotiate a
treaty for the acquisition of the Republic of San Domingo.
As soon as it became publicly known that such a treaty had been
negotiated, the attention of the country was occupied with allegations
calculated to prejudice the merits of the case and with aspersions upon
those whose duty had connected them with it. Amid the public excitement
thus created the treaty failed to receive the requisite two-thirds vote
of the Senate, and was rejected; but whether the action of that body was
based wholly upon the merits of the treaty, or might not have been in
some degree influenced by such unfounded allegations, could not be known
by the people, because the debates of the Senate in secret session are
not published.
Under these circumstances I deemed it due to the office which I hold
and due to the character of the agents who had been charged with the
investigation that such proceedings should be had as would enable the
people to know the truth.
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