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[DOUGLASS, Frederick (1818–1895)]. Report of the Commission of Inquiry to the Island of Santo Domingo, [42nd Congress, 1st Session, Senate Ex. Doc. 9]. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1871.
8vo. Folding map, index at end. Contemporary red cloth (spotting and staining to covers, spine ends a bit worn, front hinge cracked). Provenance: “Compliments C.T. Arribone(?)”.
FIRST EDITION. In 1869, President U.S. Grant attempted a treaty to annex Santo Domingo (as the Dominican Republic was commonly known) as a United States territory with the promise of eventual statehood which he thought would bring about an end of slavery in Cuba and elsewhere. Douglass, an assistant secretary to the commissioners, supported this purchase with the hopes that it might serve as a new black–majority state for freed slaves. The treaty was ultimately defeated in the Senate by the opposition in 1870 as the annexation was thought to be expensive, launch an American empire in the Caribbean, and diminish independent Hispanic and African creole republics in the Western Hemisphere.