76 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS in force, March 30, 1870. The adoption of this amendment had been recommended by President Grant, and had had his active support throughout, and it is largely due to his efforts that it is now a part of the constitution. He proclaimed its adop tion by the somewhat unusual course of sending a special message to congress, in which he said : "I regard it as a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of the government to the present day." He also urged in this message that congress should encour age popular education, in order that the negro might become better fitted for the exercise of the privileges conferred upon him by this important amendment. In the summer of 1869 a representative from Santo Domingo informed the president that the government and people of that republic favored annexation to the United States. The president sent several officers of the government to investi gate the condition of affairs there, and became so clearly impressed with the advantages that would result from the acquisition of that country that he negotiated a treaty of annexation, and submitted it to the senate at the next meeting of congress. In May, 1870, he urged favorable action on the part of that body in a message in which he set forth the reasons that had governed him, and again called attention to it in his second annual message.
