Part 17 (1/2)
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 citizens.h.i.+p, 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 members.h.i.+p 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.