The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-11-27

CnWept, unhonored and unsung."
Americans have quite as much reason to love their
country as any other people ON the face of the earth,
and they are not generally at all backward in ex-
pressing their sentiments.
1t is sometimes charged that we boast too much of
our country and it's Institutions. If we have a boast
ing disposition, we came fairly by it in the way of
Inheritance. Men of the Anglo Saxon race are unones-
tionably inclined somewhat that way, but it is a pc
culiarity that they rarely boast without substantial
reason. Their pretenslons are usually so well supper
ted thaf they cannot reasonably be called in question.
And why may not Americans boast If they wish
to do so they have ample material. They have a coun-
try whose advances in the career of greatness are un-
paralleled. The tonnage of its commercial marine is
at this moment in advance of that of any other nation.
The shipping of the civilized world is composed of
145, 500, vessels, with an aggregate tonnage ola, $780,
600. OF these vessels 48, 800 are American, with q
tonnage of 1861, 416. Great Britain and her colo
MES have $4,000 ships with a tonnage of 5,043 ,270.
Thus it appears that the commerce of the earth is
mainly In the hands of the Anglo Saxon race. More
than ten and a half millions of all the tonnage afoat
is their property.
Our institutions confer a greater degree of individ-
ual freedom than those of any other nation, with
quite as much security of life and property. We have
got rid of the old and absurd idea of regulating con-
science by law, being satisfied that it is properly an
affair between man and his Creator,-not q fit sub
ject of cognizance by the state.
The Hawaiian GOvernment-thank to American
inf1uences-has initiated us in this respect, and stands
the second in the whole list of governments which do
not arrogate the right of intermeddling in matters of
religious belief.
will call it, to a length which would exhaust your
patience. Although [ am honored in having been
announced as one of the speakers of the occasion, 1
came here more to listen than to talk. There are
those present from the sea, who know how to utter
their sentiments, and are expected to utter them.
To them and to others 1 shall give way, after a few
more observations suggested by the occasion.
The American Club was organized, not for any
political or disloyal purpose. The main object is to
afford to American residents and visitors a place of
convenient resort well provided with newspapers and
periodicals from every quarter of the United States
and the world at large, where they may store their
minds with information which most concerns them,
find rational amusement, or confer upon subjects OF
mutual interest.
1t looks as well to the whaling fleet of the Pacific
chiefly American,-aS to those settled on shore.
The whalers who come to the Hawaiian Islands have
much to do with Individual and public prosperity.
The life of this Kingdom comes from the sea; the main
sinews of it's strength are the same which brave the
rigors of hyperborean regions, and s%ubjugate the le-
viathan monsters of the deep.
But for the American whale fisheries, Honolulu,
Lahaina and Hilo would have been mere villages of
rude huts. Even the Hawaiian Government might
have wanted n place in the family of nations. Let
the whaling fleet cease to make these Islands their
annual resort, and we should see desolation where now
prosperity abounds. Your furnishing mercantile
hnuses would be closed, and their proprietors seek out
more profitable scenes of adventure. Desolation would
Sunk dDIOt v III IdDu duu IuC Idllh SEdSS SDIIuS
up on the now well trodden streets.
The Hawaiian Government has wisely acted with
reference to these interests and necessities. Its policy
has been to encourage immigration, to favor COM
merce, to throw out all possible attractions to the for
eigner. Thus, foreigners are allowed to acquire real
estate the same as natives. They may become sub
jccts entitled to every right of the country without re-
nouncing their own natural allegiance. There is not
upon the face of the earth a country so liberal in its
laws of naturalization and its general treatment of
foreigners as the Hawaiian Kingdom. All honor to
this generous policy 1t is worthy of admiration and
of gratitude. 1t deserves q return of good will which
I know American feeling is prepared to accord.
Long may such a feeling be perpetuated! Long may
the Sovereign who now wisely controls the reins of
administration, be spared to perpetuate the lberality
which his predecessors inaugurated.
The American Club is not a conclave to plot
treason. 1t is an association just as legitimate as the
British and German Clubs, formed for the purpose of
mutual advantage and improvement,-formed if you
please, to encourage q spirit of patriotism and of
American nationality. Its members know their du-
ties to the authorities under which they live, and L
take it upon myself to declare that they Will never
fail in any obligations which belong to their position
as members of Society.
But there is one sentiment which will ever exist in
their breasts. 1t is a sentiment of love for the flag
under which they were born-a sentiment of devotion
to the free institutions under which they were reared.
1t is a first love which no subsequent affection can
eradicate,-no changes of condition destroy.
When abroad, though our party convictions may
be as strong as ever, we cease to feel as mere parti-
sans; we attach more importance to the simple char
acter of American citizenship than it is possible to
feel at home. Our patriotism expands, and we real
Use more completely the magnificence of the g goodly
heritage which has fallen to our lot, as the citizens
of a great and glorious Republic.
The value of the Union-the grand source of all
our national greatness-looms up as an object of the
highest concern. We forget localties,-we sink geo
graphical diyisiOns-we look to the national banner
with its radiant stars and unsullied stripes, as an EN-
blem of unity, and we indulge the conidant hope
that the unity it represents may be perpetuated.
Whoever may be President, whether Buchanan, FIRE.
mont or Fillmore, and in this respect we have no means
o~fforminga satisfactory conjecture though the election
is made, the integrity of the American Government
will be preserved. The oath of the chief Ma gistrate to
be taken, his sense of selfrespect, his regard for a re-
spectacle place i'll history, and above all, the senti-
ments of patriotism he undoubtedly entertains, are
a sufficient pledge that he viii be faithful to the con-
stitution.
The people of the United States as a whole, think
as you do,--they deem the Union the grand source
of all their prosperity; they viii cling to it as the
source of their highest hopes. They concur in the
sentiment of their most distinguished poet, and with
him they can ever exclaim:
-" Sail on, o, ship of State!
SAN on, y, Union strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all its hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what master laid thy keel.
What woraTnen wrought thy ribs of deal,
Who made each mast and sail and rope.
What anvlls rung, what hammers beat,