LITMIR.BIZ

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became provisional president in 1874, took advantage of the non-payment of an annuity by the Samana Bay Company to rescind the contract with the company, called a national assembly, which formulated the constitution of March 24, 1874, and had himself elected president, entering upon office on April 6 of that year. As the constitution did not suit him, he called a new national convention and had another constitution promulgated on March 9, 1875. This was too much even for Santo Domingo, and his enemies formed a powerful league in Santiago with a view to having him impeached, but the Congress rejected the charges. Another civil war was imminent when Gonzalez resigned on February 23, 1876.

      The council of ministers took charge of the government and held an election at which Ulises F. Espaillat was designated president. He entered upon office on April 29, 1876, and as he was an excellent man would have given a good account of himself under different conditions; but General Gonzalez started a revolution on the Haitian frontier, and on October 5, 1876, Espaillat was ousted. A superior council of government was formed, which appointed General Gonzalez president in the beginning of November, 1876. Gonzalez had been in power for just one month when he was overthrown, in December, 1876, by a revolution that originated in the Cibao, and General Buenaventura Baez became president for the fifth time. The Republic thus had four presidents in 1876: Gonzalez twice, Espaillat and Baez. Baez called a constitutional convention and the constitution of May 14, 1877, was promulgated. Under the influence of the younger element he was less autocratic than in his previous administrations, but perhaps for that very reason his whole term was one prolonged struggle with insurrections, until he was obliged to surrender on February 24, 1878. He retired to Porto Rico and died near Mayaguez in 1884. Two governments were now established, General Ignacio Maria Gonzalez being proclaimed president in the Cibao, and General Cesareo Guillermo in Santo Domingo. An agreement was reached by them on April 13, 1878, and Guillermo became provisional president of the entire country. The constitution of 1877 was reproclaimed with amendments, an election was held and General Gonzalez was declared constitutional president, entering upon office on July 6, 1878. Guillermo immediately started a revolution with General Ulises Heureaux and compelled Gonzalez to abdicate on September 2, 1878. It was the end of Gonzalez' meteoric presidential flights, but after a period of retirement he ventured into public life again, and for many years was Dominican minister to Haiti.

      Jacinto de Castro, the president of the supreme court, acted as president until September 29,1878, when he was succeeded by the council of ministers of which Guillermo was chief. The constitution of 1878 was promulgated, with amendments, on February 11, 1879, and on February 28, Guillermo, after going through the form of an election, became constitutional president. He did not last long. On October 6, 1879, a revolution broke out at Puerto Plata and a provisional government was formed under the presidency of General Gregorio Luperon, an intelligent negro, who had been imprisoned for larceny under Spanish rule, but had redeemed himself by signal services in the War of the Restoration. Guillermo resisted two months, but was compelled to surrender on December 6, 1879.

      Luperon did not depart from the usual custom, but called a constitutional assembly which, in 1880, adopted with amendments the constitution of 1879, and fixed the presidential term at two years. Luperon then held an election and gave the presidency, for the two years beginning September 1, 1880, to one of his supporters, Father Fernando de Meriño, an eloquent priest who had taken an active part in politics since his youth, and who later became archbishop of Santo Domingo. The reverend gentleman suppressed all revolutionary uprisings with uncompromising severity and did not hesitate to execute the conspirators that fell into his hands.

      During Meriño's administration General Ulises Heureaux served as minister of the interior and began to wield the power which he was to retain for twenty years. Heureaux was born in Puerto Plata about 1846. Both of his parents were negroes, his father being a Haitian who followed the sea and afterwards became a merchant, and his mother a St. Thomas woman. He received a mercantile education and took part as a subordinate in the War of the Restoration against the Spaniards. On the withdrawal of the Spaniards, in 1865, he became a bandit on the Haitian border and practised horse stealing on a large scale. Later he obtained a position in the Puerto Plata custom-house and took a more and more prominent part in the civil disturbances of his country, until he became well known as a politician and a revolutionist. He distinguished himself by his bravery and was many times wounded. Throughout these civil wars he remained a sturdy follower of General Luperon, the successor of Santana as leader of the "Blue" party and an implacable opponent of General Buenaventura Baez, the chief of the "Reds" and of General Ignacio Maria Gonzalez, the leader of the "Greens." When General Luperon overthrew President Cesareo Guillermo, in 1879, Heureaux was closely associated with the revolutionary movement.

      Heureaux was able to strengthen himself to such an extent that when, in 1882, Luperon determined to become president himself he found that his former follower had outgrown him in power. The result was that Heureaux became president and served from September 1, 1882, to September 1, 1884. When his term expired a bitter struggle ensued with Luperon, who still retained considerable influence. Luperon's candidate was Segundo Imbert, while Heureaux supported General Francisco Gregorio Billini, who was ultimately victorious. Luperon went into exile, but later became reconciled with Heureaux and returned to die in Santo Domingo.

      Billini entered upon the presidency on September 1, 1884, but became restive under the demands of Heureaux and his friends and resigned on May 15, 1885. The vice-president, Alejandro Woss y Gil, succeeded to the chief office. His term was to have expired in September of the following year, but a formidable insurrection broke out in July, 1886, under General Casimiro N. de Moya, with the object of preventing Heureaux from carrying out his design of succeeding Gil. After six months of fighting, during which the number of fatalities was happily remarkably small, Heureaux was victorious, and having had himself re-elected, resumed the presidency on January 6, 1887, until which time Woss y Gil remained in office.

      The biennial elections were a source of annoyance even to one who was sure of victory, and Heureaux therefore called a constitutional convention which amended the constitution then in force and lengthened the presidential term to four years, beginning in 1889. As General Cesareo Guillermo, Heureaux's former companion in arms and later opponent, was understood to be nursing aspirations for the presidency, Heureaux sought to apprehend him. Guillermo fled, but finding himself pressed, committed suicide. No further obstacle opposed Heureaux's election, and he was again inaugurated on February 27, 1889.

      In the meantime negotiations had been undertaken for the contracting

       of new foreign loans, and one was floated in 1888 and another in 1892.

       The government's fiscal agent who secured these loans in Europe was

       General Eugenio Generoso Marchena, a man of much influence. In 1892

       General Marchena announced himself as a candidate for the presidency.

       Heureaux won without difficulty, but still uneasy, he arrested

       Marchena in Santo Domingo, imprisoned him for a year and sent him to

       Azua to be shot.

      During Heureaux's new term, beginning in 1893, the country by improvident bond issues and debt contraction, made rapid strides in the direction of bankruptcy. In 1893, the San Domingo Improvement Company, an American corporation, under contract with the government took charge of the customs collections for the purpose of providing for the services of the loans. The illegal imprisonment of several Frenchmen gave rise to friction with the French government and in 1894 a French fleet appeared before Santo Domingo City, but the matter was adjusted by the payment of an indemnity. As the 1889 constitution forbade a president from holding office for more than two terms in succession, Heureaux, wishing to continue in the presidency, obviated the difficulty by the simple expedient of promulgating a new constitution in 1896, in which the limitation was removed. He was declared unanimously elected in 1896 and began his final term on February 27, 1897.

      The long period of comparative peace enjoyed by the country under the rule of President Ulises Heureaux, or "Lilis," as the dictator was popularly known, brought seeming progress and prosperity, though at a heavy price. Many of his opponents Heureaux was able to buy, and in this way he retained the loyalty of hundreds of little military chiefs scattered through the country. Those whom he could not buy he persecuted,

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