Santo Domingo: A Country with a Future Part 17

The present const.i.tution was drafted by a const.i.tutional a.s.sembly which sat in Santiago de los Caballeros in the early part of 1908. It is disappointing both as a literary and political doc.u.ment. The style bears witness to the haste with which the instrument was compiled.

Provisions quite unsuitable to Dominican conditions are included, such as that granting the right to vote to all male citizens over eighteen years of age. Such an extension of the suffrage would be looked upon askance even in countries where education is general, and in Santo Domingo would const.i.tute a serious danger if really put into effect.

While the presidential succession is left to be regulated by a law of Congress, the const.i.tution goes into minute details regarding citizenship, naturalization and several other matters. Repeated attempts have been made to secure a new const.i.tution and in 1914 partial elections were held for a const.i.tutional convention, but for one reason or another the plan has not matured. A new const.i.tution will probably be provided in connection with the cessation of American occupation.

According to the present const.i.tution the president must be a native born Dominican, at least thirty-five years of age and with a residence of at least twenty years in the Republic. His term of office is fixed at six years, to be counted from the day of inauguration. The fact that no specific date is mentioned has repeatedly proved a matter of convenience to successful revolutionists. The designation of a presidential term of office in the various const.i.tutions has thus far been something of an irony, for of the 43 executives who have come to the fore in the 70 years of national life, but three presidents have completed terms of office for which they were elected: Baez one term, Merino one and Heureaux four, nor was the distinction of these three due to ought but their success in suppressing revolutionary movements.

Five vice-presidents completed presidential terms. Two presidents were killed and twenty deposed. The other chief magistrates resigned more or less voluntarily.

Of the 43 presidents 15 were chosen by popular election according to const.i.tutional forms, 5 were vice-presidents who succeeded to the presidency, 4 were provisional presidents elected by Congress, 10 began as military presidents and then had themselves elected under const.i.tutional forms, and 9 were purely and simply military provisional presidents.

A comparison of the list of presidents with the roster of executives of Haiti reveals a disproportion, for though the black Republic has been in existence since 1804, it has had but twenty-nine chiefs of state, the average duration of whose rule was therefore much longer than has been the case in Santo Domingo. It is to be observed, however, that of the Haitian executives only one completed his term of office and voluntarily retired; of the others, four remained in power until their death from natural causes, eighteen were deposed by revolutions, one of them, committing suicide, another being executed on the steps of his burning palace, and still another being cut to pieces by the mob; five were a.s.sa.s.sinated; and one is chief magistrate at the present time.

The president and members of the Senate and House of Deputies are elected by indirect vote. Electors whose number and apportionment among the several provinces and their subdivisions are prescribed by law, are chosen by general suffrage in what are called primary a.s.semblies in the several munic.i.p.alities and const.i.tute electoral colleges which meet at the chief town of the respective province. The electors having cast their votes for president the minutes of the session are sent to the capital. The votes are counted in joint session of Congress and the successful candidate is proclaimed by that body.

Though the election procedure designated in the const.i.tution was gravely followed, yet not once in the history of the country has the result of an election been in doubt, nor is there an instance when the candidate of the government was not elected, excepting only the election of October, 1914, when the American government brought watchers from Porto Rico to avoid gross frauds and coercion. Usually everything was prepared beforehand and the primaries and the meetings of the electoral colleges were little more than ratification meetings.

The votes of the electoral colleges were generally unanimous in favor of the government's candidate, yet the odd spectacle has repeatedly presented itself, of a unanimously elected president being driven out of the country within a few months by a general revolution.

The const.i.tution authorizes the president to conclude treaties with the consent of Congress, to appoint certain government officials, to receive foreign diplomatic representatives, and to grant pardons in certain cases, and makes him commander-in-chief of the army and navy.

Most of the chief magistrates have not felt themselves hampered, however, whether in peace or war, by any enumeration of powers in the const.i.tution, for their ascendancy has generally been such that their wishes would be complied with and their illegal acts ratified or ignored by a subservient Congress. President Heureaux so controlled Congress, the courts, and all public functionaries, that the government was practically identical with his personality.

The const.i.tution provides that in case of the death, resignation or disability of the president the Congress shall by law designate the person who is to act as president until the disability ceases or a new president is elected, and that if Congress is not sitting the Cabinet officers are immediately to call a session. This is an innovation, as from 1853 to 1907 the Dominican const.i.tutions provided for a vice-president. The vice-president was generally a decorative feature.

He was required to possess the same qualifications as the president and was chosen with the same formalities, but no duties were a.s.signed to him, not even that of presiding in Congress, so that his only attribute was the glory of being a president in escrow. The newly elected vice-president therefore often quietly retired to his farm, emerging occasionally to act in the president's stead when the latter left the capital on a trip through the country. Frequently the vice-president was made delegate of the government in some part of the country and at times he was invested with a portfolio as one of the cabinet secretaries. During the administration of a strong president, as in the time of Heureaux, the vice-president was generally one of his satellites, whereas, when the president's power was not so firmly established, as in the administrations of Jimenez and Morales, one of his rivals would be mollified by the vice-presidency. In such cases friction frequently developed, and in the two cases specified the vice-presidents and presidential rivals, Vasquez and Caceres, overthrew the president and established themselves in power. Evidently in order to avoid such disturbances and temptations the const.i.tution of 1908 abolished the office of vice-president. The lack of a definite successor to the president, however, enabled Victoria to seize the presidency after the death of Caceres in 1911 and has given rise to uncertainty and trouble in the cases of presidential succession since that time.

It has been a custom, sometimes expressly authorized by the const.i.tution, for the president to delegate executive powers and prerogatives to persons selected by him in various parts of the country, especially where revolutionary uprisings threatened. There has usually been such a delegate of the government in the Cibao and often one in Azua. They are powerful officials, inasmuch as they are regarded as the direct representatives of the president and his administration, command the local military forces, and const.i.tute the fountain-head of all local executive appointments. Nominations as delegates of the government have been preferably conferred upon provincial governors or upon the vice-president. The president is naturally anxious to repose such powers in one of his confidants, but political exigencies have sometimes obliged him to soothe one of his rivals with the distinction and remain on the qui vive thereafter.

More than one governmental delegate has overthrown the president and established himself in power.

Provisional presidents have been numerous in Dominican history. After a successful revolution the victorious general usually proclaimed himself president of a provisional government and until the const.i.tution was again declared in force he and his ministers united executive and legislative power. How far the acts of such de facto governments were legally binding upon the Republic has been questioned in cases where obligations were imposed upon the country, but foreign governments in a.s.serting their rights have paid little attention to such quibbles.

The const.i.tution provides that there shall be such executive secretaries as may be determined by law. They are currently referred to as ministers and their number has been fixed at seven, namely, (1) secretary of the interior and police (interior y policia); (2) secretary of foreign relations (relaciones exteriores); (3) secretary of finance and commerce (hacienda y comercio); (4) secretary of war and the navy (guerra y marina); (5) secretary of justice and public instruction (justicia e instruccion publica); (6) secretary of agriculture and immigration (agricultura e inmigracion); (7) secretary of public development and communications (fomento y comunicaciones).

Communication between Congress and the executive departments is rendered easier than in the United States by the const.i.tutional provision that the secretaries of state are obliged to attend the Congressional sessions when called by Congress. This right of interpellation has frequently been exercised.

The secretary of the interior and police is at the head of an important department. He is the administrative superior of the provincial governors and the communal and cantonal chiefs. His position renders him the sentinel of the government for the detection of revolutionary movements.

The foreign office of the Republic is directed by the secretary of foreign affairs. The diplomatic service of Santo Domingo is limited to the modest needs of the country, the more important posts being those of minister plenipotentiary in the United States, Haiti and France and charge d'affaires in Cuba and Venezuela. The majority of consuls depend altogether upon consular fees for their remuneration, only a few of the more important being provided for in the budget. The consulates of most consequence have been considered to be those in the surrounding West India Islands and in New York City, for apart from their commercial relations with the Republic these places have been the favorite haunts of conspiring political exiles. Almost all the European countries are represented in the Dominican Republic either by ministers, charges d'affaires or consuls. Of the diplomatic representatives residing in Santo Domingo City the highest in rank is the American minister. Before 1904 the American minister to Haiti was accredited to the Dominican Republic as charge d'affaires. The United States has consular representatives at all the princ.i.p.al ports, there being an American consul at Puerto Plata and consular agents elsewhere. In the past, great respect has been shown to consulates even to the extent of allowing them privileges of extra-territoriality, and frequently political refugees have sought asylum under the flag of a mere consular agent.

The secretary of finance and commerce has charge of the sources of national income, and the customs and internal revenue services, and under his authority the disburs.e.m.e.nts of the Republic are audited. The office for the compilation of statistics, organized a few years ago, is also in this department.

The army, rural police, navy and the captaincies of the port are under the supervision of the secretary of war and the navy. This official is always a military man and generally takes the field in person in cases of revolutionary uprisings. During the insurrection of Jimenez against Morales in 1903-4, two of Morales' ministers of war were killed in battle.

Upon the American occupation in 1916 the military force of the Republic was disbanded. There were at that time twelve military posts, one in the capital of each province. The commanders and their aides and the chiefs of forts and their a.s.sistants were treated as distinct from the regular army. The army's strength and organization have varied greatly; at the time of its dissolution the authorized strength was one infantry regiment of about 470 officers and men, and a band of 33 men. Only a few months before, the preceding budget had authorized an infantry force of about 800 officers and men and a battery of mountain artillery of 100 officers and men, in addition to the all-important band. In reality, however, only the membership of the band was certain; in time of war the rest of the military establishment was much larger, and in time of peace it comprised numerous phantom soldiers, whose salaries were nevertheless regularly collected from the national treasury. Service was supposed to be voluntary, but the "volunteers" were generally picked out by communal chiefs and brought in under guard, sometimes tied with ropes to keep them from deserting.

There was also an inefficient and overbearing rural police called the "Guardia Republicana," supposed to consist of seven companies of about 800 officers and men, but here too things were not what they seemed.

The higher officers of the Republican Guard were a brigadier-general, a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel and 2 majors; those of the army only a colonel, 2 lieutenant-colonels and 2 majors, which was very modest for a country teeming with generals and where the budget of 1909 even appropriated $20,000 for a "corps of generals at the orders of the president."

The American garrison in the Republic, comprising about 1000 men, took over the military posts in the Republic and lent strength to the Guardia Republicana. By an order of the military governor, of April 7, 1917, the sum of $500,000 was set aside for the organization of a constabulary force to be called the "Guardia Nacional Dominicana," to take the place of the Dominican army, navy and police. This Dominican National Guard is to be commanded by a citizen of the United States and such other officers as the American government may consider necessary. Its organization is far advanced and it has already absorbed the Guardia Republicana. In it will be merged the frontier guard of about 70 men depending on the general receiver's office, and probably also the small munic.i.p.al police squads that compel the observance of munic.i.p.al ordinances.

The Dominican navy is now composed of a single gunboat, the "Independencia." At the end of Heureaux's rule the country boasted three. The best of these was the "Restauracion," which went on the rocks at the entrance to Macoris harbor in one of the first conflicts between the Jimenistas and Horacistas. The story goes that the steamer was about to attack Macoris, that the pilot, in sympathy with the opposition, grounded her with a view to having her captured, but that a sudden storm drove her to complete destruction. Another gunboat was the "Presidente," which had figured in history, for it was nothing less than the yacht "Deerhound," on which the Confederate Admiral Semmes took refuge after the sinking of the "Alabama" by the "Kearsarge." In 1906 it was sent to Newport News for overhauling as old age had made it unseaworthy, but since the repairs would have cost more than the vessel was worth, it was sold for old iron. The survivor, the "Independencia" is a trim vessel with a crew of fifty officers and men. Attached to the general receiver's office are several gasoline revenue cutters, recently provided.

The secretary of justice and public instruction has administrative supervision over the courts, jails and schools of the Republic, and the government subventions to primary and private schools are disbursed under his direction.

The secretary of agriculture and immigration is the cabinet officer of most recent creation. Prior to the 1908 const.i.tution agriculture had been in charge of the department of public development and there had been no special provision for immigration. The importance of these subjects for the Republic was felt to be such as to merit the establishment of a special department. In practice the department has done nothing, its efforts being hampered by revolutions and circ.u.mscribed by the limited sums at its disposal. Its activities have been confined to a general supervision of agriculture, the preparatory work of the establishment of an agricultural experiment station and the operation of a small meteorological service.

The department of public development and communications has charge of the postal service of the Republic, of the national telegraph and telephone, of the lighthouses, and of the public works carried on by the government.

The size of the national legislature of Santo Domingo has fluctuated considerably. Under the 1896 const.i.tution the Congress consisted of a single house of twenty-four members, two from each of the then existing six provinces and six districts. The increase of the national income permitting greater expenditures, the const.i.tution of 1908 provided for two houses, one called the Senate, the other the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate is composed of twelve members, one from each province, elected by the same electoral colleges that elect the president and holding office for six years. One-third of the Senate is renewed every two years. The number of members of the Chamber of Deputies is supposed to be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of the various provinces, but as there has been no census the number is provisionally fixed at twenty-four, two from each province. The members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected for a term of four years, also by the electoral colleges, which at the same time designate alternates for the several members.

Congress meets each year in regular session on the anniversary of Dominican independence, February 27, and its session is limited to ninety days, which may, however, be extended sixty days more. Since there are no provincial legislatures the powers of the Congress, set forth in the Const.i.tution, are sweeping. They include the right to legislate in general for every part of the Republic, to approve or reject treaties and to try the president, cabinet members and supreme court judges on impeachment charges.

In practice the elections for deputies have been as perfunctory as those for president, though there were occasional contests. The character and att.i.tude of Congress has varied with the character and condition of the presidents. During the inc.u.mbency of strong leaders, such as Santana, Baez and Heureaux, the Congress was little more than the tool of the executive, but when the personality of the president was not so overwhelming or when many of the deputies were followers of a rival chieftain, as in the administrations of Jimenez and Morales, an independent and sometimes a nagging spirit has been manifested.

Under the American occupation the Congress was by decree of January 2, 1917, declared in abeyance and all executive and legislative powers are temporarily exercised by the commander of the American forces. The heads of executive departments are officers of the American navy or marine corps. Otherwise the general structure of the government remains as before. The theory that Santo Domingo is an independent, sovereign country is carefully followed, though at times it leads to anomalous situations, as when the American military governor issues exequaturs to American consuls in Santo Domingo "by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Const.i.tution of the Dominican Republic," or when the American minister, Hon. W. W. Russell, representing the United States and receiving his instructions from the United States State Department, calls on Admiral H. S. Knapp, chief executive of Santo Domingo, who takes his orders from the United States Navy Department.

For administrative purposes the Republic is divided into twelve provinces; Azua, Barahona, Espaillat, La Vega, Macoris, Monte Cristi, Pacificador, Puerto Plata, Samana, Santiago, Santo Domingo and Seibo.

Formerly six were known as provinces and six as maritime districts, though there was in practice no distinction between them. The provinces are subdivided into communes and cantons--a canton being a commune in embryo--and these in turn are subdivided into sections.

Congress is empowered to create new provinces, communes and cantons.

In the twelve provinces there are now sixty-five communes, several comprising cantons. The provinces bear the names of their capital towns, except Espaillat and Pacificador, the former of which is called after Ulises F. Espaillat who took a prominent part in the War of Restoration and was president in 1876, and the latter in honor of President Heureaux, on whom a fawning Congress conferred the t.i.tle of Pacificador de la Patria, but these also are sometimes known by the names of their capitals, Moca and San Francisco de Macoris. The communes bear the names of their urban centers. Towns with long names are usually referred to by part of the name only, thus Santa Cruz del Seibo is known simply as El Seibo, Santa Barbara de Samana either as Santa Barbara or as Samana, etc.

At the head of each province is an official who bears the t.i.tle of governor. He acts as the direct agent of the president and is chief of the government police and commander of the military forces of the district. In civil matter he is dependent upon the department of the interior and police, in military affairs he is under the department of war and the navy. The governors are appointed by the president of the Republic and their salaries are paid from the national treasury. Under the present American occupation the various provinces still have their governors, but the real governors are the American officers locally in command of the occupation forces.

In each commune and canton there is a communal or cantonal chief who represents the governor of the province. He is paid by the national government and is charged with the preservation of the peace in his jurisdiction. Again in each section there is a sectional chief, a local police officer who depends on the communal chief.

The system of local chieftains of gradually diminishing category has brought Santo Domingo to resemble in some administrations a feudal monarchy rather than a const.i.tutional republic. As governor the president usually chose prominent men of the locality, either friends whom he wished to reward or opponents or rivals whom he was obliged to placate. The communal chiefs were also appointed by the president, though the governor's wishes were respected to a large extent, and here too men of influence were selected, such influence usually being reckoned by the possession of a devoted following. The section chiefs were chosen under similar considerations.

Though the law prescribes the duties of the governors, their local prestige, their authority as commanders of the military, and their activities in revolutionary times, have so exalted their position as to convert them into something like satraps and make them powerful supporters or dangerous rivals of the president. Many insurrections have been inaugurated by disaffected governors. At times provinces have remained practically independent for many months, ruled merely by the governor and a coterie of his friends, while the president, in the impossibility of imposing his authority, was obliged to acquiesce. A conspicuous example of such a peculiar state of affairs was furnished by the district of Monte Cristi, during the presidency of Morales. In December, 1903, the formidable insurrection of Jimenez against Provisional President Morales originated in Monte Cristi and though the government gradually regained the remainder of the country it was unable to subjugate this district, where the entire population was Jimenista and the character of the country rendered campaigning very difficult. Finally in the spring of 1904 a formal treaty was signed by which the insurgents agreed to lay down their arms upon the government's promise not to interfere in their district, where all executive appointments were thereafter to be made as recommended by the local authorities. Though const.i.tutional forms were still observed a few military chiefs thus a.s.sumed the direction of affairs.

Whenever any executive appointment was to be made, the name of the nominee was certified to the capital to be ratified as a matter of course; when orders came from Santo Domingo City, whether in civil or military affairs, they were obeyed or ignored as convenience dictated; the entire amount of the revenues collected in the Monte Cristi custom-house was retained in the district. In order to stimulate imports and increase the customs collections the local authorities even conceded a secret discount from the general tariff. With the enforcement of the San Domingo Improvement Company's arbitral award and the inauguration of the receivership for Santo Domingo the control of the custom-house pa.s.sed out of the hands of the local chieftains, who sullenly protested as against an invasion of their treaty rights.

In other matters the autonomy of the district remained unimpaired until the beginning of 1906 when upon the fall of Morales the government troops, in suppressing the revolution in the north, overran Monte Cristi province and restored its dependency upon the central government.

The healthiest and most important political subdivisions in Santo Domingo are the communal governments, and whatever progress has been made in the Republic has been due largely to their initiative. They correspond to the Spanish "municipios" and the French "communes." In Santo Domingo the French name was introduced during Haitian occupation. The various towns const.i.tute the centers of government, their jurisdiction extends over the surrounding rural districts, and the affairs of the whole are administered by a munic.i.p.al council. The powers of such councils are manifold and far-reaching and their importance has been accentuated by the chronic impotency of the central government to foster public improvements. The councils exercise all the faculties commonly pertaining to city councils elsewhere and have control of education, sanitation, streets and roads in their respective districts. They also act as election boards.

When an outlying hamlet of the rural belt has grown to sufficient size it is erected into a munic.i.p.al district or canton and accorded a justice of the peace and a cantonal chief and governing board. It remains subject, however, to the munic.i.p.al council of the commune of which it formed a part until further development warrants its segregation as an independent commune with its own council. The cantons, as well as some of the sections, are also provided with a cemetery and a small church or chapel.

From among their number the munic.i.p.al councilmen select a president who is regarded as mayor of the commune, though many of the duties elsewhere pertaining to mayors are discharged by an official called the syndic. The councilmen are supposed to be elected for a term of two years, but the oft repeated revolutions have interfered as seriously with their terms of office as with everything else. The average Dominican seems to manifest little interest in his munic.i.p.al elections; my question as to when the last local election was held would generally be answered with uncertainty: "Last January, no, last April, no, I believe it was in November." After all, the elections have usually been mere ratifications of slates prepared beforehand. In the time of Heureaux the lists of new councilmen were often arranged in the capital and a few days before election remitted to the various towns, even with a designation of the person whom the council was later to choose as its president.

The results of such a method of selection of councilmen has not been as unfavorable as might be expected. The position of councilman pays no salary and is not of sufficient importance to appeal to the politician, so that under the present system the princ.i.p.al merchants and other prominent men are frequently designated. The law does not prohibit foreigners from forming part of the munic.i.p.al councils and they have frequently been chosen, especially in Puerto Plata.

CHAPTER XIX

POLITICS AND REVOLUTIONS

Political parties.--Elections.--Relation between politics and revolutions.--Conduct of revolutions.--Casualties.--Number of revolutions.--Effect of revolutions.

The characteristic features of Dominican politics are the violence of political antagonism and the absence of differences of principle between the political parties. None of the three parties existing to-day has a platform, and the distinction between them is entirely a matter of the personality of the leaders. Each party alleges that it has the best people and the purest motives and views with alarm the government of the country by any other party. In practice therefore, politics follows the rule only too common in the Spanish-American countries, of resolving itself into a personal struggle between the "ins" and the "outs."

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.