Our Dominican Correspondence.

Decree for Organizing the Civic Guard—Requisitions on Foreigners to Enroll themselves therein—Subsequent Modification of it in Regard to this Class of Residents—The Question of the Lawfulness of such a Requisition, under the Law of Nations, Briefly Considered—Steps taken to Obtain the Recognition of the Republic—A Ground of Difficulty in this Matter Stated.

A measure of some interest to foreigners residing here—and to foreign states, also, so far as their interests are concerned—and on which action has just now begun to be taken, seems to demand some notice at the hand of your correspondent, if from no other American quarter.

Acting under the general authority conferred upon him by the article of the constitution mentioned in my last letter, the President of this Republic promulgated on the 22d of February last, a decree for the organization, throughout all the provinces, of the civic guard, or militia, of the State. This decree, in substance, made it obligatory on all male persons who at the sound of the tocsin of alarm, should be found within the limits of any town or place, to take arms, shall be considered as forming part of the guard, and as subject to perform duty, as the law or circumstances shall require. It further declared that foreigners, long established in the country, shall also form part of the civic guard, and, on the same footing and under the same penalties as the citizens, are allowed to choose in what company they will enroll themselves, and shall be furnished at their own expense.

It is decreed that the civic guard shall appear under arms to pass review once every three months—namely on the third Sunday of each quarter, in January, April, July, and October respectively. And, on all other occasions of alarm or duty, which includes the obligatory liability to march to the frontier, or another cantonment, in case of threatened invasion; and, in short, to serve in any manner the public service may require.

After entering into some details, which are unimportant to a foreign reader, the decree proceeds to prescribe specific penalties for non-compliance with its provisions. Non-commissioned officers and privates of the guard who shall not appear at the prescribed review, are subjected to six days' imprisonment; non-commissioned officers and privates of the line to a fine of two dollars, and a very small pecuniary fine; and, for the second offence, to double these penalties, or being incorporated into the troops of the line. No distinction is made between foreign residents and citizens; but all are subjected to the same rule.

The promulgation of this decree caused great excitement among the foreign residents, who are almost exclusively of European origin; and the national representatives of France and Spain, the only European ones here, and under whose protection most of the foreign residents are placed, immediately protested against its provisions as inapplicable to them, and instructing their countrymen not to comply with the mandate. The United States have no representative here, but the consul at Puerto Plata, on the north side of the island, took part in the protest, and sent a copy to the U. S. deputy here, at the capital, for a list of whatever American citizens were resident here, to enable him to protest to the government of this Republic against its application to them, in case such an intention on the part of the authorities to enforce it against citizens of the United States, should be manifested.

The executive, standard of these protests, suspended this decree against foreign residents, made by the 24th of March last, and the decision of the President to modify its terms in reference to this class of foreigners, which resulted in a supplemental decree, dated the 29th of March. In this latter, he states that the same penalties are to be applied to foreigners who are required to enroll themselves in the civic guard as upon national citizens—inasmuch as by not being in the enjoyment of political rights, (which belong only to citizens) the former cannot be made to constitute part of the militia of the country. On the contrary, the penalty against them will be, for the first and second delinquencies, arrest and imprisonment in the Commissariat—and the small prescribed fines; and for the third delinquency, to pay a fine, which is to be double the former, and to lose their patents, that is, licence to trade, &c., and of the right to obtain one again for the space of two years. The foreigners are further exempted from all duty, except that of defending by themselves, which shall constitute part of a detachment or guard, their own residences, or not to march to the frontier, or other cantonment, or to serve in any case except on the occasion of invasion—or calling forth and marching—of the civic guard. Inside of the precincts of their residences only, to take arms in the place of their residence, and under the command of an officer of the government for the purpose of protecting their own property, and that of the place, where their language allows it with equal propriety to be stationed, though the word country is that used by the public here, is in accordance with the spirit and intention of the law, for the protection of property. But whenever any of this company become so required, they are to be subject to the same penalties of the civic guard.

These modifications, so far from satisfying the spirit of the original decree, in connection with that of the original law, and the treaty stipulated mandatory one, for the sake of preserving the historical sequence of these proceedings, to show the course of things here, and not for the purpose of casting blame on the president of this republic, between which, though a flagrant contravention of personal rights of foreigners, under the law of nations, was yet essentially modified on protest being made against it. He tried to do full justice to foreigners, and while preserving the spirit of the decree, having all the binding force of the law, made such modifications as placed all on the same ground.

It is a principle of well settled, undisputed jurisprudence, that what is called the private law of nations, that no state has the right of calling on foreigners, who have not acquired the rights and privileges of citizens, to march to its frontiers, or to perform the same obedience that natives do to the general sovereign power of the state; but foreigners are exempt from all militia duty, or any public service whatever; and that in all cases of public emergency or commotion—intestine or from without—they are only liable to be called on as a guard, in this character, to place themselves under the command of their respective consuls, or of their late or embassy, as the case may be. The decree of the President of Santo Domingo, as modified, this government has the right to say, that no foreigner residing within its territory shall be allowed to carry on trade or follow any occupation, who refuses to enroll himself in the militia. This is an act of sovereignty which, so far as I am aware, has never been brought in question, though its exercise is certainly contrary to the spirit, as well as the usages, of modern times. But to subject foreigners to penalties, which, though pecuniary and otherwise small, necessarily carries with it as a sanction the right to enforce them, by arrest, imprisonment, or the seizure and confiscation of property, is to assume and exercise over a foreigner by the State, the legality of which is altogether denied by the law of nations. The United States, right, under the law of nations, it I am right in my construction of it, to complain of this decree, though by no means to the same objectionable extent as under the first. The republic of Hayti seems to have acquiesced in the terms of the supplementary decree, and this morning there were eight or ten Haytians enrolled in a guard for the purpose of organizing their company by electing their officers. The protest of the French correspondent, Mr. Herald, of course looked at it in a very different light; and while it was signed by any of his legitimate subjects, whose number, at Puerto Plata, and in all parts of the republic, is sufficient to form a tribe. If, instead of the form of a protestation, the communication of that power upon the foreigners had been in the form of an instruction, to be followed by a manifestation of spirit, our venerable and beloved uncle would have found himself in a very different situation than by those of "his own flesh and blood." My opinion is, that if France had chosen to act with that worthy gentleman's male representatives, this republic would have been instantly driven into a thing which cannot be rightfully required of it, by the refusal to yield to any reasonable request or soberness. It is not by a parade of fleet, or of troops, that small powers are brought to their senses, but by acts that show that if they do not listen to reason, they will be made to feel the weight of power.

The subject of the recognition of this republic, to which I have given some attention, as I have been given to understand, as before stated, no official application for the recognition of this republic has yet been made here in behalf of the United States' government. A circumstance occurred, not long since, connected with this simple statement of the fact, that this republic was about to send an embassy, and its attendant circumstances in full, should occur to make it worthy of a brief notice.

The truth is, the United States ought to be represented here, at least by a consul, or rather by an agent appointed directly by the department of state, with a small salary, to act as commercial agent, and not by a deputy of the one as appointed and resident at Puerto Plata, which port, for all practical purposes, is farther removed from the capital than is Castine, in the State of Maine, from Corpus Christi, Texas. Nor are the facilities of communication or intelligence between these two points of Puerto Plata and Puerto Capital as great as those, for all practical purposes, between this and the port of New York. looked to by the United States government than that which this republic has had to offer from its own, or as it has had for several years. Several let U. S. President appoint such a commissioner or agent; let him instruct her commander to enquire after resident American citizens, and perform every service where American citizens are denied any rights or exemptions which the law and usage of nations guarantee to the foreign residents of a country. Such a step, with such instructions faithfully carried out—as they certainly would be, if committed to any officer of the American navy—would have a most beneficial effect, and, even if its visit, so far from creating ill feeling, the writer knows would be received with open arms, while it would show that the American government is jealous of the rights of its citizens, wherever situated, and visited to its citizens the code of nations, the republic itself would feel that it had no longer reason to be feared, the Spanish States of the new world had, by a single act, stepped into the light of day.

This republic, now—since the 27th of February last—in the 5th year of its existence, has not yet been recognized by any power. Soon after the establishment of the present government, a commission was sent to Washington for the purpose of obtaining its recognition by the United States. It did not, however, succeed in reaching the object of its mission.

Since that time this government has sent commissioners to Europe, to endeavor to obtain the recognition of the new republic by the powers of Spain, France, and Great Britain. The aim has been to obtain a joint or simultaneous recognition of these three powers. This is regarded as a measure of policy, and as being essentially necessary to obtaining that of the other two, on account of the old Spanish title, to the territory of the republic—a title which has been so long and so frequently over-ridden without protestation, by supervening ones, as to be now buried, one would suppose, almost beyond the power or reach of resurrectionary resuscitation. I have said, without protestation. That is not altogether correct for the whole of the above period, as will appear by the following historical anecdote, which I have from good authority, and repeat, partly to preserve a curious piece of history, and partly as a record existing, on this side of the ocean at least, of a piece of history nowhere else, I believe, to be met with. Soon after the arrival of Boyer at Port au Prince, and partly to illustrate the political condition of Santo Domingo, at that period, or in or about the year 1827, the King of Spain sent a commissioner, named Don Jose Maria de Caminero, to formally demand of President Boyer the surrender and restoration of the Spanish part of the island, at that time constituting, as has been seen, a part of the Republic of Hayti. Boyer, who made an interview with head for that purpose, after listening to the demand of Caminero for the possession of it, at the solicitation of its inhabitants, for a long series of years, put to Caminero the question back to them, whether they would remove to Spain, or become citizens of the Haytian republic, or return under the dominion of Hayti; and on Caminero replying, that was not their popular voice, in favor of the latter course, which was probably true, he added, that no decided offence could be taken at so seemingly fair an outcome of the question, as Caminero, as is well known as well as President Boyer did, what would be the result of a vote of the inhabitants upon this method of decision; for a large majority of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo were then of African origin, and those who sympathy with them from being free of color; while a very small proportion of these would, of course, have an equal voice with the rest, though of a different political disposition, which, to the emancipated portion of them, would be to forfeit their freedom of political existence, or return to servitude under Spanish masters. Caminero took his passports, took his leave, and the demand was prosecuted no further.

The first commission sent to Washington, I learn, was received by the government from their commissioner, or by the secretary of state, through a letter sent from Madrid, in which they express the intention of the Spanish government of entertaining the recognition of the republic. It had, in fact, been solicited by the Dominican agent, and by the Spanish minister; but his displacement from office, and the events in Spain, which have rapidly followed each other, of a similar kind, have put an end to, and prevented the termination of the negotiation.

My own impression is, and I know it to be the government of the United States, that a question for recognition must be determined, in their wisdom, to determine for themselves. I do not feel authorized, for reasons set forth in my last, to state what the opinion of so humble an individual as myself may be on the subject; I have thus far contented myself with mainly stating facts, and circumstances of various kinds, leaving those who read my communications, so far as I have attempted to draw their own conclusions on this as on other points. Here, at least, is my own impression, that whatever question, I shall stop for the present. Hereafter, if circumstances permit, and the subject, as it well may, be on the point in consideration, superinduced by any state of things sufficiently favorable and tolerably well improved opportunity for further consideration, I trust I will have enabled me to bring together.