Curiel to To His Excellency Ulyssus S. Grant, August 18, 1873

President Baez to President Grant.

Most Excellent Sir: It is now thirty years since the Dominician people, having been for the third time surprised by the invading hordes of Hayti, and having been under their domination for twenty-two years, reconquered their rights and proclaimed their independence.

From that time until the year 1861, when the re-incorporation of this country with Spain took place, there was but one interval of truce to the continuous and vandalic aggressions of that government, which never ceased to long for the conquest and devastation of our soil.

To no other cause was then clue the fact of the re-incorporation of this country with Spain, a combination which was thought likely to prove beneficial by the political men of that time, who had no realizing sense of the great difference of our institutions, or of the series of insurmountable obstacles to the establishment of the monarchical colonial system in an American country, which had so long had its destinies in its own hands, however precarious they may have been.

The war of restoration having come to an end, and the rights of the Dominicans having been asserted, Hayti did not again enter the arena as an invader, but commenced a secret war of a more malignant character, thenceforth using the Dominican element in order to crush the liberties of this people, if possible, by the aid of its own sons. Hayti at once assembled the malcontents, and did all in its power to encourage rebellion, offering aid and comfort to the rebels, giving them an asylnm on Haytien soil; sending them, with arms in their hands, to our frontier, and frequently assigning Haytien regular troops to aid their movements and to protect them in their flight.

To these tactics is due the fact that, consuming our resources and savings, (although always successful on the field of battle,) we have not yet been able to complete a victory. The enemies of the Dominican Republic flee to Hayti, where they live undisturbed, and where they easily repair their continual losses.

Such a situation caused the people of this republic to seek to improve their condition by rendering their future more secure; they, therefore, manifested a unanimous desire for annexation to the great republic of the United States of America.

Unfortunately that plan failed, leaving the country in the midst of a multitude of difficulties created by that combination, and, what is still more deplorable, the object of the jealousy, and even the hatred, of other peoples, whose interests did not accord with the security and progress of this.

The agreement made with the Samana Bay Company has given the finishing stroke to this situation, especially since the noise of its establishment has been succeeded by the most absolute silence and the most listless indifference.

It not being possible for the Dominican people to continue to support, alone and un-unaided, the horrible consequences of a combined hatred, which manifested itself in disguised attacks and machinations, they appeal to the great republic of the United States, through your excellency, soliciting the establishment of an efficient protectorate, which may preserve them from unwarranted attacks aimed at their very existence.

The Dominican people believe that this will not be distasteful even to the opponents of the plan of annexation. It would be an act of munificence and generosity whereby the republic of the United States would risk nothing, since it would simply cover with its ægis an inoffensive and friendly people whom Providence designed to be its natural ally; and all the sons of this people would greet with joy the day when their powerful sister should stretch out a hand to save them from the dangers which encompass them; which dangers would instantly disappear in view of such a diplomatic act.

If your excellency, seeing that the fate of a people without pretensions is at stake, shall feel, as I hope will be the case, a sympathetic impulse to do them justice, and shall make an effort to secure for them the protection of the republic of the United States, you will have the immense satisfaction of having saved the future of a people of the world discovered by Columbus, without having assumed any responsibility, or having entered into any compromise whatever, since we are not invaders, and make war upon none, and the height of our ambition is to dwell upon our own soil in peace.

I avail myself of this occasion to reiterate to your excellency the assurances of the sentiments of distinguished consideration and profound esteem with which I have the honor to subscribe myself.

Your excellency’s very obedient and respectful servant,