sentences:  The Franklin Pierce administration instructed a special agent to negotiate a treaty permitting the United States to establish a naval base in Samaná Bay, resulting in an agreement in October 1854.However, the British and French envoys convinced the Dominican government to insert a stipulation that Dominican citizens be treated as white people in the United States.Again, in the aftermath of the American Civil War, US Secretary of State William H. Seward formed a plan to purchase or lease Samaná Bay for the United States, which was then seeking bases for its navy in the Caribbean.