CONGRESS. (THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII.) 



193 



territory in the Western Hemisphere by European 

 governments, even at the peril of war,' and forth- 

 with embark in a thus bedarnned enterprise our- 

 selves. If we would have our yet unstained doc- 

 trine respected by others, we must scrupulously 

 practice what we preach. 



" Because several of the larger Eastern nations 

 have been in an expensive and furious catch-as- 

 catch-can naval hunt to seize ports and harbors, 

 or any tidbits of the Chinese Empire, it is not a 

 sufficient reason why the United States should sud- 

 denly blot its record by showing how easily we can 

 be seduced by a like besetting sin. 



" How unfortunate are we that the wonderful 

 value and prodigious importance, military and sen- 

 timental, of the Hawaiian Islands had not been dis- 

 covered earlier, and their annexation pushed prior 

 to our distinct pledge in favor of their ' independ- 

 ence as a state ' and before we had rejected these 

 and all other like distant islands, and by rather 

 grandly proposing instead to establish the ' Monroe 

 doctrine, which we now find more difficult to prac- 

 tice ourselves than it has been to impose upon 

 Europe. Surely Hawaiian annexation would have 

 been less repugnant, less unfortunate, had it been 

 proposed before leprosy had destroyed so large a 

 part of the native population, and especially before 

 the islands had been invaded and so heavily stocked 

 with the Chinese and Japanese contract laborers. 

 Certainly, could these incurable grievances now be 

 removed, the objections to annexation would be less 

 conspicuous, but still formidable, as even then the 

 islands as American dependencies would have had 

 no temptation to the statesmen of the eras of Wash- 

 ington, nor of Jackson or Lincoln. 



" Less than 3 per cent, of the present number of 

 inhabitants in Hawaii are of American origin not 

 enough to dominate or to boss the 97 per cent, of 

 the other nationalities, which could not without too 

 great risk be trusted to self-government, nor even 

 to loyalty to the United States, yet they expect soon, 

 whatever may be the terms of annexation, that they 

 will be full-fledged citizens of an integral part of 

 the Union, entitled to share in governing the United 

 States in both houses of Congress. To this 1 am 

 irrevocably opposed. 



" An examination of the basis of any possible free 

 government in Hawaii, with inhabitants of so many 

 different languages, religions, habits, and traditions, 

 mostly monarchists, presents no encouragement for 

 the creation or permanence of a republican form of 

 government, to which nine out every ten are theo- 

 retically as well as practically opposed. The objec- 

 tions apparent there to suffrage, whether free or 

 limited, seem insuperable. To confine suffrage to 

 the 3,080 Americans alone, including men, women, 

 and children, would hardly be submitted to, except 

 at the point of the bayonet. If the natives were 

 allowed to vote, representing 39,504 (including half- 

 castes and lepers), they might restore the deposed 

 Queen, and it would be queer to treat the natives as 

 no longer citizens but savages after we have been 

 their schoolmasters and missionaries so many years. 

 What the Japanese, numbering 25,407. with their 

 rights by treaty, would do if allowed to vote we can 

 only guess that they would antagonize the Chinese, 

 who number 21,606. And there are 15,291 of the 

 unreckoned Portuguese. Certainly none of these 

 could ever be safely counted in favor of leaving the 

 ' paramount ' authority in the hands of the United 

 States, and an army of sufficient strength, with the 

 Stars and Stripes, would therefore be a permanant 

 necessity to shield the islands from insurrections 

 and revolutions. 



" It has been the happiness of the republic of the 

 United States that it has long find very distinctly 

 had the benefit of a contrast with aristocratic em- 

 VOL. xxxviu. 13 A 



pires and monarchies in relation to colonial depend- 

 encies. These arrogant aristocracies nurse their 

 pride and dazzle their subjects with the obedience 

 and enchantments of distant colonies and depend- 

 encies, but their condition is now, or was recently, 

 on exhibition by their paternal and maternal wars 

 and rumors of wars in India, North and South 

 Africa, Madagascar, Egypt, China, Philippine 

 Islands, and Cuba. 



" These perennial colonial flagellations, or life 

 struggles of colonies and dependencies which refuse 

 to stay conquered, require the increase of big home 

 armies and bigger navies, which can only be main- 

 tained by the biggest taxes. The aristocratic em- 

 pires push the inexorable demand of three to five 

 years of the life of all their young men in military 

 service, and then to be ready for further service 

 until emancipated by the decrepitude of old age. 

 These large standing armies threaten their neigh- 

 bors, and their neighbors threaten everybody else by 

 an increase of their battle ships. Boundless public 

 debts and double and twisted taxes leave their 

 people poor, with no hope that these grim and stub- 

 born exactions will ever be less. 



" Hitherto the statesmen of our republic have 

 kept clear of colonies and dependencies, for it need 

 not be admitted that Alaska is an exception, nor 

 that it is ever more likely to become one of the 

 United States than any other part of the yet unap- 

 propriated north pole. Our young men of the re- 

 public are at school, or at work on the farm, or busy 

 somewhere learning a trade or a profession from 

 which they may derive a livelihood or the comforts of 

 an independent home. They are not impressed for 

 the regular army, which is so small as to be almost 

 invisible, and wholly composed of volunteers. Two 

 thirds of our rebellion debt has been paid, and we 

 fully expect to pay the remainder, and that it will 

 speedily grow less. 



"The historic policy of the republic of the 

 United States for the hundred years just passed, 

 based as it has been upon the sound doctrine pro- 

 mulgated by Washington in his farewell address 

 with words of perennial wisdom against foreign en- 

 tangling alliances, has taken root in the hearts of 

 the American people, where it is treasured up as 

 their political Bible and can not now be ' mocked at ' 

 as merely an ancient tradition. Its acceptance has 

 made the nation great, made it respected. If our 

 fidelity to the well-ripened statesmanship of the 

 Father of his Country shall be perpetuated for the 

 next hundred years as in the past, the honor, pros- 

 perity, and power of our republic, it may safely be 

 predicted, will light and lead all the nations." 



An amendment to the resolution was offered by 

 Senator White, of California, striking out the phrase 

 " in due form" in the preamble, and inserting the 

 phrase, " by a treaty which has never been ratified 

 but is now pending in the Senate of the United 

 States." It was rejected by a vote of 40 nays to 20 

 yeas. 



An amendment was offered by Senator Pettigrew, 

 of South Dakota: " That contract labor laws and all 

 laws, civil or criminal, now in force in said islands 

 by which men are held for service for a definite 

 term, except in punishment of crime, whereof the 

 party has been duly convicted, are hereby repealed." 

 It was rejected by a vote of 41 nays to 22 yeas. 



An amendment was offered by Senator Bacon, of 

 Georgia : " That this resolution shall not be operative 

 and of binding effect upon either the United States 

 of America or the republic of Hawaii until the same 

 shall have been consented to and approved by the 

 majority of the voters voting at an election to be 

 held in the Hawaiian Islands, at which election all 

 male natives of such islands of the age of twenty-one 

 years, and all naturalized male persons in" said 



