The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-01-11
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial 0bntiser
ANUAR IL.
a Libel.

.H4 49, So
To say that selfinterest often blinds men to the
truth and leads them to hurried and unsound
conclusions, and a forgetfulness of the lessons of
Christian charity towards their fellow men, is
but to utter a truism. We see this bad phase oil
human nature in every day life, and are not sur
prised. But when a public journalist deliberately
and without cause libels the character of a public
man, the mischief becomes serious, and requires a
contradiction. The capitalists of New Bedford, it
is to be feared, in their all-absorbing regard for
their Own interests have allowed themselves to
form a most unjust and unfounded prejudice
against the gentleman who recently filed the
Office of United States Consul at this port. Wit
ness the following paragraph, which appears in
the New Bedford Mercury Of October 5th
The President (Monday) appointed as Consul at
Honolulu, in place of Mr.. Adamson, whose nomina-
ton the Senate failed to confirm, Chas. Nation, of
Ohio. Mr.. Adamson showed himself bitterly hostile
TO the whaling interests, and his retiral from the
Consulship Is particularly gratifying to our mer-
chants"
We unhesitatingly pronounce the statement
that 3 Mr. Adamson showed himself bitterly
hostile to the whaling interests to be a base
libel, without the slightest shadow of foundation.
1t q course of strict moral rectitude, a firm de-
termination TO fulfill the duties of his Office with
regard alike to the rights of all his countrymen
who had business with the Consulate, without
fear or favor.-if these qualities in Mr.. Adamsen
showed him to be bitterly hostile to the whal-
ing interests, let US ask our New Bedford
friends IN what way they would have a Consul
show that he is the reverse of IS bitterly hostile, "
that ne Is IN fact a warm friend of those inter-
estsE Must he have " an itching palm - an eye
single to the interests of 81 our merchants 81: a
PiIabie disposition an ear always open to the
master and none for the sailor; would the
presence Of such a Consul at Honolulu prove par
tsularly gratifying to them? We all know that
Mr. Adamson was just the reverse of this, and
performed the duties of his Office between man
and man honestly, fairly, courteously, and withal,
with that spirit of independence which always
springs naturaIyarom a principle of moral recti-
tude. And perhaps herein, lays the true reason
why our merchants " were so gratifed at bis
retlral from the Office. We, whe are on the spot, I
and who have seen the workings of the Ameri-
can Consuiates at these islands in years past,
may be allowed to know something about their
histories, and perhaps can form as accurate a
Judgment as to where the shoe pinches, as the
occupants Oh a New Bedford counting house. We
UnHOAu OI former lncumbentS IN
t"e consulate, the history of whose careers, if
'u'niuly and unreseryedly related, would aston
iSh some of the uninitiated. They were not
oyerburdened with qualms of conscience. and
nursed the whaling interests with almost as mucb
care and solicitude as they did their own. And
when they " RETIRED with handsome fortunesl
we never heard the slightest chuckle Of gratf6-I
cation from New Bedford,-not a whisper to the
elect that they were bitterly hostile to the inter
ess OF that burgh- Nor do We believe that they
were.
Jun thoughts on reading the above quoted par
agraph from the Mercury, were those of an honest
Indignation; of regret that a brother editor
shoUid permit his columns to be used for the pur-
pose of traducing the character of an honest official.
The extract is of itself evidence enough that the
editor knew but little of what he wrote that he
was oyerreached by some party interested in
blaekening the reputation of MIR. Adamson. for
selfish purposes It may perhaps be admitted
that Mr.. Adamson's policy was so independent
that it was too abrupt, and that it would have
been better to have reached the ends of Justice
and right at which he aimed by easy approaches.
MAJ there been a regularly organized Chamber of
Connsfee here, (the establishment OF which wa
nave recently being urging upon our mercantile
community Mr. Adamson would no doubt have