The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-11-07
The Washington Letter Again.

Mn. EDITOR The oracle has spoken. The Gov
eminent organ of the 2Sth of October, brings up its
heaviest batteries to reply to the able letter published
in the San Francisco Bniiefin, and the effect is only
comparable to the sound of a Chinese gong, answer
ing to the sharp crack of a Chassepot rifle.
The sapient writer, from his lofty pedestal of I'M
Improbable virtue, finds something underhanded in
a letter addressed to " whom it may concern " and
published i'll a public newspaper, in which the writer
expresses views openly held and frequently stated by
himself in this community, draws conclusions from
facts not at all disproved, conclusions which may or
not be wisely drawn, but at least are not logically
controverted.
For thus giving publicity to political opinions a
writer is taken to task for plotting against the inter-
ests of the community. This charge derives its chief
interest as coming from the pen of one whose machin-
ations in the conspiracy of 1864 resulted in the
worst blow the interests of this Kingdom ever received
from human ingenuity.
The doctrine that any one who criticises the Gov
eminent or its officers is a g common enemy - has
long been held in the Government offices, though not
so commonly believed in outside those retreats of
perfect wisdom.
And who is this that invites his fellow citizens to
frown upon a g malicious detractor?' % whose high Q)
sense of honor receives so painful n shock can he
nave hHOWn duSnC Ol rtd tln Violated, OF under
handed and malicious detraction of others to obtain
their positions can it be a perfect saint whom the
sugar interest would prematurely canonize because,
forsooth, he worked for a time in the questionable
character of a lobbyist at Washington in Il their interest?
Shall all recollections of the ~intrigues and plots
which signalized the early part of the present reign,
(Which found their chief opponent in the writer thus
a~rraigned in his answer at the bar of that public
opiDion IN which he Unmarried its host fnneN-shall
all these recollections be lulled to rest by siren song
of treaty? Can a few months in the Hobbies at
Washington purify and make beatific a character
formerly considered only as remarkable for unprinci-
pied efforts of self aggrandizement? If SO, let us bow
to this would-be censor of his political opponents and
accept the doctrine that criticism is malignant treason
and needs no argument to disprove its conclusions.
Who doubts but that the present Government is a
petty despotism I: Think back to the January cleo
tons and refresh your memories. Who doubts the
desire at least to suppress free discussion? Read the
convention record when in the first flush of perjured
begotten power these conspirators made no secret of
their wishes Is there n denial of the abrogation of
constitutions? Can any government who acknowl-
edges no constitution or compact binding be other
than an incubus upon a nation? The fact is gener-
ally acknowledged and is ably expressed in the edit
orial of the Bulletin, that any independent govern
ment here Is a bar 10 progress and an incubus to the
prosperity of the islands; but it is also felt, and prop
erly perhaps, by some that such progress is not fairly
earned when made at the expense of existing rights.
This feeling however does not change the fact.
The illusions of the Government writer to what
the Government are doing for the schools. can only
mislead those abroad who are unfamiliar with the
persistent efforts of the Government for some years
to force the people into patrOnizing a system of edu-
o-..- e %Ia~ 80 III L. c.-oal
the majority of the people to support independent
schools while taxed TO sustain n system which is
odious to them, or with the artiice of the Ministers
in the last Legislature to get som of their measures
through by supporting a bill to correct some of these
evils while advising His Majesty to veto it.
But to quote this apostolic editorial, how shall
those who have not lived among US know how false
these assumptions are if not appraised by those whose
love of truth and hatred of petty d~espotism is above
their desire of gain? Who can grasp and appreciate
the idea of q 90 broader and more benignant policy"