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Santo Domingo Annexation by the United States

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> Dominican Republic > Referenda

Office

Referendum

Honorific

Referendum - Abbr:

Type

Referendum

Filing Deadline

00, 0000 - 12:00pm Central

Polls Open

February 19, 1870 - 06:00am Central

Polls Close

February 19, 1870 - 08:00pm Central

Term Start

February 19, 1870 - 12:00pm

Term End

December 31, 9999 - 12:00pm

Contributor

411 Name Removed

Last Modified

IndyGeorgia July 09, 2016 09:17pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

Grant wanted to annex the Dominican Republic so that free Blacks would have their own state. It's unclear what his exact plan was since Sumner blocked it in the Senate. Depending on the source, Grant either believed that White Southerners would never accept free Blacks as equal and therefore it was better they just start anew somewhere else entirely or he thought landowners would start treating sharecroppers better if there was the serious threat of them up and quitting (and going en mass to the Dominican Republic).

The Dominican president at the time, Buenaventura Báez, was the one who came up with the idea. On one hand, he was corrupt and rigged elections (including probably this one), on the other, he was very pragmatic in that he realized his country wasn't really able to run itself and at best could only hope to produce leaders who were merely corrupt, like himself. He also tried to annex his country to Spain and France.

Douglass supported the annexation because he believed Báez that the people wanted it.

Sumner opposed it because he thought it was a plot to force American Blacks out of the South and to deny Dominican Blacks of self government.

Gregorio Luperón was a notable Dominican soldier and later president who had fought against the Spanish for independence. He opposed the annexation for similar anti-imperialist reasons.