Baez fled from the country and answered with a fiery counter-appeal,
justifying himself and accusing Santana of despotism, whereupon the
breach between the two strong men was complete. Santana also quarrelled
with Congress and banished or shot his principal adversaries. In
1854 a constitutional convention assembled to draft a constitution
more to Santana's taste than the existing one. The presidential term
was extended to six years and the office of vice-president was
introduced, General Manuel de Regla Mota being elected to this office
when General Felipe Alfau declined it. This constitution did not last
six months, for before the end of the year Santana had it further
restricted.
Under fear of foreign complications Haiti had remained quiet for
several years, but in 1855, when England and France were engaged in
the Crimean war, the emperor Soulouque made a last determined effort
to subjugate Santo Domingo. One army advanced by way of the south,
another through the central valley; both captured the border towns and
drove the Dominican outposts before them; and both were defeated on
the same day, December 22, 1855, the southern army at Cambronal, near
Neiba, by a Dominican force under General Sosa, and the other on the
savanna of Santome, by a force under General Jose Maria Cabral.
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