The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-08-01
Affairs

Nellt- III lAG ONA DAA ir- ~ uh7A NtAlN-l[NAs
in the absence of any important local questions
To discuss, may not be out of place.
In America, the all-ahsorbing topic was the
Democratie Presidential Convention, which con-
venei ia New York ON the 18th of July. The
nomination was probably made on the 9th or
9Th, and the first vessel from san Francisco will
bring us the result. Ii is difficult to guess what
it will be. but with all the light we can gather,
it looks rs If the party would take up Chief JUS
tiee Chase, formerly one Of the most radical
leading Republicans. With him ~ their leader
the prospects of the Democratic party to success
fully demoralizc .he Republicans, at least in the
SOUTH, and to make n fair show against Grant
throughout the Union, will be double what it
will be with any other candidate. Chase can
carry New York and Ohio sure, to begin with,
with a fair proportion of the remaining States.
No other Democratic candidate can be 50 certain
of success.
President johnson has at last Issued his final
universal amnesty proclamation. 1t was made
public July Sd, and includes JEFF. Davis, Brock
inridgc, Mason. Slidell and all the other famous
leaders liz the rebellion. Now that reconstruc-
ton is fairly under way, and two of the States
have actually become organized under the laws
Of Congress, it may be that the proclamation will
do more good than harm, especially if the trial
of JEFF. Davis has proved IA farce.
The two States that have been reconstructed
are Arkansas and Florida. Their State Consti-
tutions have been finally ratified by the people,
Governors chosen, State officers elected, and the
military rule terminated in them. Their Soma
tors and Representatives have also been admitted
into Congress and cannot De put out. These two
States arc as much part and parcel of the Union,
and in rs full standing rs Ohio and Indiana.
Eight States still remain out in the cold-NOrth
and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. OF these the
first two or three will probably be organized so
n to elect and send Senator's and Representatives
to Congress before it adiourns. No States but
those 50 represented in Congress can vote Mt the
%rsidcntial election.
n Abe report that Secretary Seward is still bar
Gaining for more real estate, and that to consist
OF Greenland and Iceland, seems almost incredi-
bic. For thcsc cold countries lac proposes TO pay
five and a half millions in gold. He is evidently
aiming for the whole North American continent,
and by obtaining Greenland, thus hedging in
British America ON the cast. hopes to make the
acquisition of the latter territory a matter of
ueNCo-ltN " nphht utiit hhy nv CAafDH iCAtA
u this subject n follows
..Ono would think the long hesitation OF the House
over paying the bill for Alaska would give Seward
pause in his real estate mania The essential ques-
ton in all these purchises Is whether we are not
giving too much for the whistle. Another important
question Is whether there is any particular haste
called ior-wiether we may not ut any future time
get Greenland, Iceland, and the whole North Pole, il
We want il, just as cheaply and easily as now. lfso,
why burden ourselves At present with further out
- III, II go ~. nzfsfIn nunu n r.-lnrf1Op
Of taxes and expenditures? Greenland and Iceland
possibly may be proved to possess value to us which
none Of u have hitherto imagined but even If they
do, will not five, ten or twenty years hence he just as
good a time to avail ourselves of their benefits? At
any rate, the Secretary should take n note OF the
temper of the House AMI Of the people ON this sub
ject. Warned by their unwillipgness TO expend over
81 900, 900 for Alaska, he should recognize the fact
that lac and the Senate have not all the power re-
quisite for making treaties which involve the expeh-
di.ure Of the public money" ~
The House of Representatives had fixed the 9th
OF july for action ON the Alaska appropriation,
and by first mail we shall learn what it has
been. There is very little doubt that the money
will be voted, and the action Of the Senate con-
frmed.
The action of the American Cabinet in recall
inc Minister Lawrence from Costa Rica, for hav-
ing fought n duel with the Russian Minister to
the same Republic, will meet public appreciation.
Secretary Seward wrote two letters, one to the
American Minister and the other to the Russian
Government. In that to Minister Lawrence he
saws. in so many words, : that any person who
will 50 far forget himself rs to fight a duel, il
unworthy to represent this Government, through
its Minister that any one who acquiesces in this
barbarous custom cannot be regarded by us as a
truly worthy representative of Russia" The Ian
-. .-.lo-,l- nE,nIal e,
be 50. The President and Secretary wish Gen.
Lawrence and Baron kusse now to understand
that they had incurred Governmental displeasure,
and they ut the same time aimed, by making an
example of the former, to show other officials that
they cannot fall back with IMMUNITY upon the
duelling code To- settle real or imaginary wrongs.
Coming from such 4 high quarter, this public
rebuke will have n most wholesome effect upon
legislators and People-an effect which was re
quircd."
Turning TO Europe, we find the telegraph re-
rorts n warm debate in the French Corps Lcgis-
htif ON the military expenses and impending
crisis Of European Powers. NJ. Theirs is re-
ported to have said =. that an outbreak of war is
sure to come in Europe from the national bank
ruptcy certain To follow from the extraordinary
increase in the expenditures for war purposes.
1t is impossible that prosperity can long continue
while such vast bodies of men are withdrawn
from reproductive industry and employed in the
useless business of marching and cOunter-marcll-
ins, but when the war from national bankruptcy
which VI. Theirs predicts breaks out, it will not
be n war between nations, but n civil war in each
and every ono of them for the demolition of the
system which has brought all their misfortunes
upon them"
The French Government Is encouraging the
extension Of its steam lines in the Pacific with
commcndable zeal. 1t now offers to assist n COM
Tany TO establish Il line from Panama to Valpa-
raiso, to run in connection with the Aspinwall
and 81. Nazaire steamers. For this service they
are to receive a subsidy of 10000 francs, and a
guaranty of five per cent. on the capital invested.
The snnc Gnrnrnmnnt- in nrler to nrlnnte the !