The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-09-17
Browbeating.

The organ of the Ministry, in It's last issue,
seemingly alarmed at the stand taken by the
Editor of the Friend, Rev. S. g.. Damon, and the
Principal Of the Labainaluna Seminary, Rev. S.
E. Bishop, attempts to give those gentlemen a
mild reproof for daring to differ from the Govern
ment and planters on the eoolie system and the
Master and Servant - Act. The officials who
thus try to dragoon the reverend gentlemen for
their clarionlike rebuke of an Ubiquitous system,
should remember that public opinion is rapidly
changing on the leading question of the day, and
that the gentlemen named are but the advance
guard of a strong force. The days of our present
labor system are numbered.
The organ attempts to undermine the foundation
upon which the Rev. S. E. Bishops communica-
ton to our paper is based, by stigmatizing the
statement relating to the Dolores Cgdrte, pub
lished IN this paper, as a falsehood. We challenge
the organ for the proof of its assertion. To SIM
Ply throw out the assertion of falsity is neither
proof nor argument, and will not be accepted
as such.
The attempt to ridicule the statement that a
wealthy merchant was kidnapped and held in
durance on board the Dolores Ugarte is worthy
the source from which it emanates. The poor
creatures who were landed here bear testimony Of
the fact, and their story is fully corroborated by
the mate of the ship, who gave a gentlemen in
this city an account of the behavior of the mer-
chant upon the voyage hither. The mate of the ship
was discharged here and took passage, the day
after arrival, upon the Agar for San Francisco,
but was communicative enough while here to give
a version of the traffic in which the ship was en-
gagged, which would excite the indignation of every
true man.
;ifIhe ship should have been stopped here in
order that the coolies might have appealed to our
Courts, and would have been but for the fact that
the Captain, c~ounseled by his agents, who had
the advantage of the advice of the Minister of
Foreign Relations and the sympathy of the Second
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, contempt
uously disregarded the writ issued by Justice
Hartwell. We are confident that had the Gov
eminent been true to the Constitution and laws
of the land, this ship would not now have been on
her way to Tahiti, a floating pest house.
The Captain, after promising the Marshal to
answer the writ, got his ship under weigh, and
kept out of the jurisdiction of our Courts, until
he had finished recruiting; openly insulting our
Courts by SO doing. 1t would have been useless
for the editor of the Friend to have appealed to
any one.
Again, had justice been done the Chinese who
were detained on board, every soul would now
have been rejoicing in freedom on our shores,
and we should have been in possession of the
labor which our planters are hoarse in shouting
for, and which would have gone far towards
making amends for the unfortunate termination
of Mr.. Wilder's mission.
In regard TO the miserable condition of the
ship we have ample and reliable evidence to
sustain our statement. The condition of the
coolies landed here told only too plainly of the
filth and restitution.
The evidence of the medical gentleman with
whom the organ has conversed should be accepted
cautiously, as it is well known that he is a planter
in full sympathy with the forced labor party.
We acknowledge that a gentleman of his mature
years, with an experience gathered in every cline
and upon every sea, but with whose fame and
reputation the fates seem to have been reticent. is
entitled to respectful consideration but when he
gratuitously states that it is his opinion that the
parties concerned in securing the freedom of the
forty-two coolies, landed from the Dolores Ugarte,
were guilty of stealing, thereby acknowledging
the right of property in a human being, and that
if any of the number should die the parties
would also be guilty of manslaughter, we may
well question the soundness of his opinion upon
any other subject, be it ever SD confidently given.