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During the incumbency of strong leaders, such as Santana, Baez and Heureaux, the Congress was little more than the tool of the executive, but when the personality of the president was not so overwhelming or when many of the deputies were followers of a rival chieftain, as in the administrations of Jimenez and Morales, an independent and sometimes a nagging spirit has been manifested.
Caceres and his companions fled to the mountains, and the body of Heureaux was taken to Santiago, where it was afterwards interred in the cathedral. Juan Wenceslao Figuereo, vice-president of the Republic, an aged negro, succeeded to the presidency. The death of Heureaux precipitated a revolution headed by General Horacio Vasquez.
At times the methods of the good father were a little spectacular: thus on one occasion when supplicating Heureaux in behalf of several prisoners sentenced to death, he took off his hat and vowed he would not put it on again until the prisoners were pardoned, but the order of execution was carried out and ever afterwards Father Billini went hatless.
In July, 1899, when Heureaux prepared for a trip through the Cibao, he was informed of a plot to kill him on the way. When he arrived in Moca he thought that no danger awaited him there, as he expected that if any attack were to be made on him it would be at some solitary portion of the road and not in a town in broad daylight.
On the death of Heureaux, Juan Isidro Jimenez, as president, and Horacio Vasquez, as vice-president, came into power. The rivalry between Jimenez and Vasquez caused a division between their respective followers, who called themselves Jimenistas and Horacistas, thus forming the principal parties which continue to the present time.
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 this connection I am reminded of the convincing political speeches attributed to one of the foremost men of La Vega during the farcical campaigns preceding the elections of Heureaux. He is quoted as saying: "My friends, this Republic is founded on the free and unrestricted suffrage of its citizens. It is the proud boast of the Dominican that under the constitution he may vote as he pleases.
President Heureaux so controlled Congress, the courts, and all public functionaries, that the government was practically identical with his personality.
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.
The real parties that kept see-sawing in and out of power from the early days of the Republic down to the time of Heureaux were those founded by General Pedro Santana and General Buenaventura Baez.