1509

A Unique Passport for the State that Never Was.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:325.00 USD Estimated At:650.00 - 900.00 USD
A Unique Passport for the State that Never Was.
Manuscript passport, signed by J(oseph) W. Fabens as Gov. of Samana & Samana Bay Co. of Santo Domingo. May 4, 1873, 8 1/2 x 13 1/2, 1 p. A remarkable document in the wake of Fabens' collusion with Seward and Grant to acquire the Dominican Republic, in a saga which split the Republican Party: in this passport, Fabens states, "Permission is hereby accorded to W.O. Bartlett to pass from this to any foreign port or place beyond the jurisdiction on his personal business and the authorities and all others whom it may concern are hereby requested to permit... Barlett safely and freely to pass...." Fabens, a Massachusetts expatriate, after acquiring lands and concessions, aided and abetted plans of Santo Domingo's Pres. Baez for that country to be annexed by the U.S. The plan had the backing of Secs. of State Hamilton Fish and predecessor William Seward, who had just acquired Alaska. Fabens convinced Grant of the desirability of annexing Santo Domingo, playing on his fear that a European power could secure the island first, and particularly of leasing Samana Bay - for $7.5 million over half a century - as a naval base to protect the planned Nicaragua canal. Grant also believed that U.S. annexation would provide a migration opportunity and jobs for blacks suffering discrimination here, and would hasten the end of slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Grant thought that such a safety valve for Southern blacks would weaken the K.K.K. A treaty of annexation was drafted, but the U.S. Senate effectively rejected it, with a tie vote of 28-28. The objection was made against Fabens et al of harboring corrupt interests, and that such annexation would be an imperialistic act. Grant sent a committee, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to Santo Domingo, returning home with a favorable report. But "the defeat of the treaty in the Senate directly contributed to division of the Republican Party into two opposing factions during the election of 1872: the Radical Republicans (composed of Grant and his loyalists), and the Liberal Republicans (Schurz, Sumner, Horace Greeley as Presidential candidate, and other opponents of Grant)..."--wikipedia. Despite failure of the grand plan, Fabens still tried to maintain personal control over Samana Bay, as shown by this passport. Bartlett was a prominent N.Y. attorney. Tattered at blank bottom margin, two old glassine hinges on verso, uniform ivory toning, else good plus. At least six books have been written on this affair, dubbed by one historian as "the moral miasma of the tropics." Rare and notable.