The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-03-29
gWnt5en Tor the r 4. Advertiser
Annexation, No. BY Junius.

these Islands, ia the event 81 annexation, would oe
that of a territory. Il is enough to reply, that even
As q territory, with the privilege OF having q Iegsla-
ture and Of enacting cur own laws and Of trading
without tariffs with the United States, with the Ger
tsinty OF independence guaranteed by the govern
ment which more than that Of any other country is
based on principles Of independence. We would be
more Independent than now. But the constitution
and laws Of tue United States provide respecting the
acquisition by that country Of foreign territory. that
the legislation over such territory may De affected by
stipulations a, its cession or by its previous laws and
ordinances (See Story on the Cous;itution-) 50
that If with oar well-o9ganized well-administered
government we could not ~stipulate for entrance into
the Union as s State, We could arrange for a govern
ment like that Of the Indian Territory, the people Of
which are treated by the United States as a separate
nation, the government Of which might be even
moaarchica!, and the lands Of which do not belong
to the United States. and the people Of which are
not taxed by that country yet they are not treated
as a foreign. but as a domestic nation, under the
protection of the United States. and with the enjoy
ment of free intercourse and trade with them. To
prevent q sudden and violent change of our institu-
tons, to continue awhile our present rulers, such Il
Protectorate might be a good temporary e~xredient,
until with increased population We could form a re-
publican government.
The writer goes Oh to speak of the feelings of ma
tionality entertained by the native Hawaiiaus. These
he represents as so intense that the iiawaiians would
not in the greatest poverty and toll barter their ma
tional independence for the highest wealth and
luxury. II " uld be pleasant to believe that this
idea about a people who have hardly yet realized
that they are a nation, having until lately been
divided into little clans, moved, not by aloha to Ha-
waii nei, but to particular chiefs, who hardly lisped
a murmur when the islands were captured by the
English and again by the French, who were utterly
apathetic when their national constitution was abro-
gated by Kamehameha Fifth, who now to a great ex-
tent hardly know whether they have a constitution
guaranteeing them independence, who are proven
bially ready to barter away their personal liberty,
their kuleanas, their wives and children, is not mere
sentimentalism. But they cannot be said to have a
desire for or against that, of which they know moth
ing. Whether they know anything of the question
of annexation may be judged from the fact. that
even the most intelligent of them, those who write
for the Hawaiian papers, have argued against annex
alton on the ground that they did not wish to be
forcibly deprived of their lands and to become slaves
So that the question ought rather to be,-Wha is for
their best good? When they fairly perceive that,
they will desire it.
The writer next expresses alarm lest the natives
lose their kuleanas. He perceives that the reviva! of
industry caused by annexation might occasion such
n demand for land, that they might desire to sell.
Thus he objects TO business prosperity itself. So a
reciprocity treaty or any measure calculated to foster
business should be deprecated. So the greatest boon
for the natives would be business stagnation.
He does not seem to observe that his scheme for
apportioning out the government lands to the natives
for inalienable homesteads is just as feasible under
,.o ooe,r "a notLa No., .lat h rroIf,ra of @Io
natives depends less on what tracts of land they may
own, on which in case of paralysis of business to
sleep in vice, as on what they themselves become.
how Industrious, intelligent and virtuous.
1t is in like manner objected, that through annex
alton the natives would come to be treated as AN in
ferior race, and that they would be mere cyphers in
the general government of the United States, and
that as n nation they would never reach distinction
MS though they were now on social equality with the
whites or might not erelong, as a State, be polite
ally the peer Of the other United States or might
not, like the American negroes, more readily win
their way by industry to wealth and distinction in u
prosperous than in a degenerating country.
fStll further ii is contended that by annexation
/" the evils which have decimated the Hawaiian peo-
pie would be increased tenfold.'' The remarks on
this topic. as well as the general tenor of the whole
article, seem to indicate u degree of Indifference or
hostility to the prosperity of the sugar business it
self. 1t may be that the writer sympathizes with
those, who. through disinterested desire for the per-
petuity and advancement of the native Hawaiians
view with solicitude the aggregation of the lands
of the Islands into a few large plantations, the dis
placement of the influence of religious leaders by
that of the planters, some of them not exactly mis-
slonary men, and the measure of vice prevailing in
the tenements around the sugar mills and who
long to see the natives living as formerly on their
kuleanas, and there, through careful culture OF the
youth of both sexes. learning to form Christian
homes. This is a noble desire. The character of
the people is a higher good than the greatest devel-
opment Of our material resources. But it would
be "a serious matter to charge that Christianity is
Incompatible with business prosperity and its con-
sequent civilization. This is too much like the an
cient monastic theory OF withdrawing from the &C
tivities and duties and temptations of life to pro-
mote q devotional temper by idleness in hermitages
in the wilderness. 1t were better. instead of re-
pressing, to regulate industry. The objections to
business would apply as well in the United States
and everywhere. The cause of the decrease of the
natives is not industry, nor as 4" Independence " in
Inmates. civilization, but vice aud its consequent
diseases and the prolific source of vice il idleness.
1t is said that the Africans Of the Southern United
States are now rapidly decreasing, the cause being
their Incidence in their newly acquired freedom.
The report OF missionaries from the barbarous
groups to the west of us, is that the inhabitants there
are disappearing more rapidly than the Hawaians
the cause being, not a civilization like that in a
measure existing here, but vices and diseases, which
are not civilization. If the best policy is to be
sought to as speedily as possible destroy this peo-
pie, that policy is to send them back by the ruin of
The plantations to sloth and sensuality.
The best regulation of industry also is only pos
sible through annexation or a reciprocity treaty.
The difficulty now in the way OF proper arrange
ments for native laborers is the small profits of
plantations. With greater profits the natives could