From the Union of Friday last. Our Relations with Dominica—The Interest taken by France and England in General Cazneau's Mission.

The anti-American journals of Europe have largely occupied themselves, in concert with their faithful allies—the disunion press of this country—in misrepresenting the motives and circumstances of the treaty which I had concluded with the Dominican republic, but which was afterwards set aside by the hostile interference of France and England. This was to be expected; for the enemies of American progress instinctively favor any attack on the internal peace or national greatness of our republic; and as naturally oppose whatever tends to give the United States pre-eminence over the European kingdoms of their idolatry.

If such a thing exists as an "American system of policy," the Dominican republic had the strongest claims on the friendly notice of our government, and, at the solicitation of many Spanish-American friends who felt the importance of the crisis, I caused those claims and the condition of that country to be laid before President Pierce at the commencement of his administration.

Its geographical vicinity and central position were urged in behalf of interests common to both nations, as well as its desirable harbors; its valuable products—exactly what our country does not produce, and must purchase; its wants—exactly what our people can supply on the best terms; its commanding situation at the intersection of the great and growing lines of American commerce; its free and liberal institutions; its expressed wish to enter into closer relations with its "great neighbor of the north; and, not least among those considerations, the significant fact—which no American patriot can, and which no American statesman will, overlook—that this neglected republic is the only territory in the whole circle of West India islands under American rule.

This solitary foothold of American nationality is struggling for life against the attempts of Solouque to reduce it to a negro despotism. He claims for the negroes, under the title they acquired by their former massacres of the whites, the right to hold the remnant of the race in subjection, and to blot out civil and religious liberty at their pleasure. France and England secretly foment these pretensions, and they are sustained, more or less openly, by the leading disunion journals in the United States.

The Dominicans asked nothing but to be left in the peaceful possession of their own patrimony, and to receive from the United States the moral aid of a national recognition and the encouragement of a fair reciprocal treaty. Their object was a stable and independent nationality, with free security of person, property and religion for all creeds, classes, and races; and to serve the Dominican people in this necessity was also the soundest course of policy for the United States.

In plain terms, these are the questions before us: Shall the entire West Indies, with their one hundred thousand square miles of territory, and their three millions of inhabitants, be wholly Africanized and made the instruments of European opposition to American progress, or shall we encourage the Dominican republic to maintain an independent nationality and become the nucleus of an American system in the Antilles? Shall the allied powers, who boast that their position at the gates of the Gulf of Mexico enables them "at any time to cut in twain the commerce between the Northern and Southern States" of the Union, be permitted to increase this power by new encroachments, to exclude us altogether, while they usurp Samana, the key of the Caribbean sea, as they have before usurped the control of San Juan, the invaluable inlet of the Nicaragua route, and the Ruatan archipelago, the general outpour of our isthmus transit to California, or shall we be allowed to obtain by fair negotiation one haven of refuge in our own American seas where we can treat guaranteed all the rights of trade, travel, and residence conceded to the citizens of the most favored nations, under the same universal and applicable conditions of obedience to the laws of the country while within their jurisdiction.

The wise liberality of the Dominican laws enabled me to engraft in the permanent conditions of amity perfect freedom and security of conscience, worship, and property; and this, with its eminent advantages of soil and climate, was so well calculated to invite American industry and capital to settle in the country and enhance its prosperity, not to excite the active opposition of the allies.

The governments of France and England injure their own people in obstructing the prosperity of the American republics, for we are their best customers. The richer we are, the more largely we shall buy of their fabrics, unless they drive us into tariffs of exclusion by way of reprisal for their attacks on our interests.

In this jealous dread of American progress, the agents of France and England conspired with the negro party, headed by Baez, the secret ally of Solouque, to excite a war of races. Their prospect was to murder the heads of the government, overthrow the constitutional republic, and establish a negro despotism on the ashes of the white race. I was told weeks beforehand the co-operation of a French and English squadron was promised, and it actually presented itself at the appointed time before the city of Santo Domingo, and at certain indicated points in the vicinity. But when the squadron arrived it found the Dominican government had already discovered and crushed the plan of revolution and massacre, and the French and English consuls had to content themselves for the present with using the squadron and their diplomatic flags to protect the conspirators from punishment. Their consulates were made the rendezvous and asylum of the negro leaders of the frustrated plot; and when the Dominican authorities demanded these notorious criminals for trial, the consuls replied with the same insolent contempt of the sovereign rights of the Dominican republic which they had displayed in the American negotiations—that the rebels were "under the protection of France and England, and none of them should be (and none of them were) punished."

Every intelligent observer is aware that not only in Santo Domingo, but at all the points commanding our coast and isthmus trade, these powers are usurping territory and extending their semi-colonies and contraband protectorates; but no President can put an end to European encroachment on our side of the Atlantic until he is sustained by a Congress that has the nerve and patriotism to plant itself on American principles.

England and France have violated the laws of neutrality towards us, and it would be no more than a just act of self-protection if Congress were to repeal the neutrality laws of 1818, so far as they apply to the encroaching powers, but not in any form to enlarge the safety of unoffending neighbors; or suspend them until the allies shall have evacuated their usurpations on American soil and sovereignty, and shall give better guarantees for the future than evasive diplomatic explanations.

WILLIAM L. CAZNEAU.