192 



CONGRESS. (THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII.) 



The resolution was reported in the Senate June 

 17; it was taken up for discussion June 20 ; and the 

 debate continued until July 6, when the resolution 

 was adopted. Those in favor of it refrained from 

 di-riission, and the speeches delivered were mainly 

 in opposition to the measure. 



These extracts from the argument of the late 

 Senator from Vermont, the venerable and lamented 

 Morrill, represent the drift of conservative opinion 

 against annexation : 



"On our part the annexation of the Hawaiian 

 Islands is only an overdone example of the Euro- 

 pean colonial system. It belongs to and emanates 

 from the aristocratic school of politics. It has no 

 abhorrence of coolie labor, which is the double cousin 

 of slavery. It covets prodigal expenditures and a 

 big display of power. It does not listen to the still, 

 small voice of peace, industry, and economy, but to 

 the blast of the popular trumpet which would con- 

 quer worlds and reign over Hawaii rather than 

 serve in heaven. 



" My firm conviction, however, is that annexation 

 of distant islands is not in harmony with the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, but is conspicuously 

 repugnant thereto ; nor is it in harmony with the 

 history or even with any of the recorded opinions 

 of our earliest and ripest statesmen. Claiming 

 nothing in consideration of any words of mine, 

 except for the facts here presented, I have yet to ' 

 hear any sufficient reasons which should induce me 

 to break the consistency of my record of many 

 years' standing against the annexation of distant 

 foreign lands. May I not ask. Has the country ever 

 lamented the rejection of Santo Domingo? Mani- 

 festly no. Let me hope that I may never part with 

 my profound reverence for the eminent statesmen 

 who constructed the Constitution of our republic, 

 and I shall also hope to be pardoned if I should not 

 turn the pictures of the faces of those eminent 

 Americans to the wall, and flout their memory, 

 whose wisdom has guided the great achievements of 

 our country through its first century, although they, 

 ' rich in saving common sense,' flatly refused the 

 doubtful achievement of annexing distant foreign 

 islands. 



" The title of the parties now holding the dominion 

 of the Hawaiian Islands is based on conquest with- 

 out arms, which is better than would have been a 

 title by usurpation, superior to any bargain that 

 might have been made with Liliuokalani, and must 

 now be treated as a de facto government. It suc- 

 ceeds to the power and estate of its predecessor, and 

 the United States may extend, if it chooses, some 

 favors to Hawaii, as was done long years ago, but 

 can not afford to even seem to profit by the recent 

 conqui'-t. \'>r can the United States afford to ac- 

 cept the validity of the title of the present possess- 

 ors all they have while much of the world and 

 so many Senators hold it open to suspicion and dis- 

 pute, although held to be excellent by most of those 

 who favor annexation, an anyhow annexation. 



"It has been very ominously hinted that other 

 nations, more ambitious, are eager to take these 

 islands in case of our declination, but this is squarely 

 denied by Great Britain, and, were the islanders to 

 so consent, their ingratitude would diminish my 

 grief were we called upon to say, ' Farewell, Ha- 

 waii.' But Hawaii will never let go of even our 

 little finger, and the ominous hint is of no more 

 worth than it was when made in the case of Santo 

 Domingo, or of St. John, or St. Thomas, or in the 

 case of Hawaii in 18M, or than any other very 

 cheap theatrical thunder. 



"No other nation can offer Hawaii an equal 

 market for its sugar to that of the United States, 

 and such a market is their great and abiding neces- 

 sity. Hawaii has nothing, however, to give in re- 



turn or no market of the slightest importance to 

 reciprocate. England could not renounce and 

 stultify its free-trade policy by imposing duties on 

 sugar, and then, in the same act of Parliament, pro- 

 vide that all sugar imported from Hawaii should 

 be free of duty. Germany and France are both 

 heavily in the sugar industry, and would be the last 

 to nurse and coddle Hawaii in the*ame line, as 

 that would only compel them to assume the burden 

 we now bear. They may not like us, but they have 

 been taught 



" ' Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot 

 That it do singe yourself.' 



" The republic of Hawaii, with ' all the world 

 before it where to choose,' would not commit com- 

 mercial suicide by the blunder of trying to find a 

 better friend than the United States. No other na- 

 tion will seek their acquisition so long as we let. it 

 be known, as we have done for more than fifty 

 years, that the United States would regard it as an 

 unfriendly act and would resist it. 



" The personnel of the present Hawaiian Govern- 

 ment is guided not only with some skill, but with 

 sufficient ' iron and blood ' to maintain its independ- 

 ence as a state. I see no good reason for a change. 

 Let us tell them, as we have done for over a half 

 century, ' We are your friend, and your independ- 

 ence as a state will have our continued favor and 

 support.' If a trinity of foreign powers move to 

 combine, or to galvanize the carcass of the ancient, 

 Holy Alliance, as some timid people apprehend, ii. 

 order to curb the United States, the first crack of the 

 European whip will be the only summons required 

 by Americans for the crisis. Later let the historian 

 record whether empires or republics in Europe have 

 been made stronger or weaker by such a conflict. 

 It is known to be perilous to expose imperial armies 

 to political contagion by contact, even in war, with 

 republican soldiers. 



" The fact, however, that we have been so long 

 held as the foremost friend of the Ilawaiians makes 

 it difficult for any of us to look upon the question 

 of their annexation with absolute justice to the na- 

 tional interests of our own country. Yet that is 

 what we are here for. 



"The important question is now presented of the 

 acquisition of this far-away territory not contigu- 

 ous, but a straggling litter of islands of volcanic 

 birth, which it is proposed shall somehow actually 

 become an integral part of the territory of our re- 

 public. Annexation, it should be honestly con- 

 fessed, has not been so much sought after by the 

 natives as by the dominant and more astute aliens, 

 who have been fully acclimated by their very tropi- 

 cal sugar dividends. 



"After denouncing as forbidden fruit' the acqui- 

 sition of the distant islands of the sea, as we have 

 often done, for which European empires are still s< 

 hungry, it appears strange that a change so radical 

 should suddenly blot our past history and present 

 us to the world as eager to acquire even what will 

 be impossible for Americans to assimilate, what will 

 degrade our republican system of government, and 

 can not elevate the general political character of 

 our people. 



" The formal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, 

 under a one-man power, under a republic in name, 

 or whatever form of governmental experiment we 

 may choose or be compelled to prescribe, will adver- 

 tise the final wreckage of the 'Monroe doctrine/ 

 so long held dear by the American people. Self- 

 respect will compel ns to discard and seek a divorce 

 from the glory of a connection with a historic 

 measure to which the public opinion of mankind 

 will at once pronounce us unworthy. We can not 

 afford to denounce and forbid all acquisitions of 



