By September 1869, Babcock and Cazneau drew up plans for annexation and submitted them to Báez, who generally approved. According to the drafts, Samaná Bay would be sold to the United States for $2 million or the whole country would be annexed to the United States after the U.S. paid off the Dominican Republic's national debt of $1.5 million. Báez told Babcock that before returning to Santo Domingo with a formal treaty, he should be assured by a sufficient number of Senators that they would ratify it. Babcock replied that President Grant, "would not enter into any treaty without weighing the matter well, and feeling assured that it would be approved." Babcock was a supporter of Congressional Reconstruction, and he saw Santo Domingo, not as a nation of blacks, but as a source of new opportunities in a post-war world. Babcock asked Báez to put in writing an annexation proposal he could transmit to Grant. After Báez agreed to do so, Gautier prepared a formal memorandum to be sent back to Washington.