The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-06-04
speech

SpeecII
OF His Elk. G. C.. Harris, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, on the Master and Servant Law, deliver
ed June l, 1870:
I had not intended to speak on this bill before
it came into the House. l had purposed to speak
before the House, in case the Committee should
adopt the bill but the fact that one of my col
leagues has considered himself called upon to
give his opinion, has summoned me TO the debate,
and his action in the debate, considering his posi-
ton in the House and before the people, is very
strange indeed. His was q ministerial seat, and
so were the seats of his colleagues, which were given
by the same power, and We are to give you the benefit
Of -~aaG. has he nt7egfdu aud our opinion during the
prise that the Law officer of the Crown should tell
this Assembly that the existing law was not according
to the provisions of the Constitution. 1t would be
supposed that he should have brought forward a bill
to abolish the existing law. He has seen fit to bring
forward his official position, and reputation to pro-
nounce this law unconstitutional, which has been
existing for 30 years and he argues that he must
give an opinion on the bill now before the Assembly,
although he has on no occasion hitherto advised
the King or his colleagues in regard to this
question. He said he did not wish then to COM
nit himself, neither did he until the other day
ON this floor. 1t is my duty to state that none of my
colleagues or the Cabinet Council endorse him in his
opinion on this law, and 1 will, with great modesty,
state that | have been favored with positions of hon
or and trust under this Government.
This law is entirely within the Constitution of this
country. Judge Lee framed this law, and to the day
of his death maintained its constitutionality, and the
same may 10 II Sllu OF Jul5e lODerlSOn, up 10 whose
death the law never was questioned. But when-I
see gentlemen rise in their seats and talk of this law
as slavery, l am a little astonished. l hold in my
hand the authority of an important man i'll the even
ing of his life and the zenith of his fame, the same
being Mr.. Horace Greeley, OF whom many in this
Assembly have heard of before. That gentleman
states that the coOlie system is not n mild system of
slavery, it is no slavery, that no slave receives wages
and no slave can hold land, or claim a woman as his
wife or his offspring as his own children. l propose
to adopt this as my stand point in my debate, and am
willing to stand or fall by it, and any one aspiring to
high executive authority ought to know that the
coolie system is no slavery at all. The slave has no
wages. Does the contract laborer have no wages,
has he no chance of action against his master? L
propose to examine this law by the light of our own
Constitution and our own history. Fortunately we
have not to 60 far. There are people among us to-day
who assisted in framing the Constitution of 1852, as
well as the Constitution of 1864, in which the first
Articles are similar, the debates on tie Constitution
are i'll yonder House, and we can easily find out what
they meant by the word g inalienable,' without the
assistance of sages. We don't need the enlightened
opinion of Judge Thomas to find out what was cOnsti-
tutional. We would have known just as much if that
enlightened Massachusetts Judge had never lived, or
if the case of Parson, VS.. Trask had never happened.
L say we are not living under the laws of Massachu-
sets, by any means, and We don't need the enlight-
ened mind of the Massachusetts, Judge to direct us.
1 would rather have the opinion of Judge Lee in
regard to our own affairs than all the Massachusetts,
Judges, and l would rather take the opinion of Judge
Robertson than the whole legal fraternity of Massa-
chusetts.
You will permit me to refer to the reU1ark that
fell from the member from Kohala. 4" that he was
kuleanas when those now opposed to him
were riding around with the chiefs" 1 would like
to know what that has to do with the questions L
he did it for his own benefit. But Judge
Lee worked his very life out for this people, and was
deserving of some consideration. Ii the member
from Kohala thinks consideration due to him because
he surveyed kuleanas, [ would say that riding with
chiefs is no disgrace or surveying kuleanas no honor.
The Constitution of 1852 was proclaimed and there
was no doubt as to its meaning, and the trainers of
the said Constitution were Lee, Judd and Ii, and
these same men were members of the Council that
this Constitution. In 1858 commissioners
were appointed to compile the Civil Code, and these
were Lot K~amehameha and Judges Lee and Robert
son. Were these men unacquainted with the laws of
country? They had not discovered up to that
date that it was unconstitutional. 1t has only been
found out within a year by the member from kohala.
a brilliant discovery. There were good lawyers
during the session of 1868, and when the law was
no opposition was made to it on its I'M
Mr.. Bishop said that he did not
consider himself able to decide as to the constitution
atty of this law, and there were probably several
in the Assembly as modest as Mr.. Bishop.
For that reason 1 ask you to weigh well the allusion
[ have drawn your attention to. And then you
have the opinions of the old friends of this country,
and you can put it against our new corners. Plan
tations were few when this law was enacted. The
Lihue Plantation was the first started, and a large
amount of money was sunk there by its original
proprietors. In 1858 our exports were S536, 522, in
1869 they were 81. $50, 600 but as our sugar sold
1t a profit our exports amounted to over S3,0O0,O 900, '
the half of which was sugar, which these men seek
to destroy. In 1859 our imports were a million and
L quarter, and the way We paid that bill was by the
of our plantations. E
1t makes me ask sometimes, when 1 think of where 5
am, if it is in the country, whose race has so b
'apidly decreased. 1t was then that prostitution was 5
planted in this country. And it was philanthropic
men that started the agricultural prospects of this o
country / will ask the member from Honolulu to
20 with me to Wailuku, and 1 will compare that
With Lahaina, Wailuku was a dry plain at enc