The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-12-06
INTERNATIONAL RECIPROCITY.
street Church. Honolulu, Nov. %, 1879, on the
, Occasion OF the Annual American Thanksgiving.
BY REV. 5. c. DAMON, D. D.

both the natural and spiritual world. " Give,
and It shall be given unto you, - is the broad and
comprehensive declaration Of Him who spake as
never man spake. The great Apostle, Paul
Celebrates the same idea when be asserts, " He
which sOweth beautifully shall reap also bounti-
fully. and he which soweth sparingly shall reap
also sparingly - and again, - Whatsoever a man
sOweth, that shall he also reap - while David
presents the same idea in a poetical form. They
that SOW in tears shall reap in joy" Let
no one imagine that these Scriptural utter
ances have merely a religious and spiritual
bearing. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the
great English philosopher and poet of the
past generatiUD, remarks in one OF his Lay
Sermons, that IN Scripture is contained ell
genuine and profound craftsmanship. Herein is
distinctly recognised and involved the principle Of
Reciprocity. The Rev. a. w. Loomis, author of
a volume on 8 Confucius and the Chinese Clas-
sics, remarks on reciprocity " We have said
that we find in the writings Of the sages that
which reminds Us c Of the precept,
Love thy ~neighbor as myself; ; and yet we have
not found quite that. We have the golden rule
several times stated in it's negative form, : Do not
to others what you would not have others do to
you, and rarely IN the positive form, : Do to
others as you would that others should do to you,'
and to this people may be exhOrted by appealing
merely to selfish considerations" page 1867
Pay not this principle be deemed a suitable
theme for a Thanksgiving discourse on On occa-
sion when the pleasant memories of an American
Thanksgiving blend and miDgle with reminis-
cences Of Hawaiian Independence. We meet as
Americans, yet on Hawaiian soil, and under the
protection Of a government invigorated, strength
ened and lostered by the underlying and over
shadowing influences of the Great Republic.
My object will now be to speak upon
INTERNATIONAL REcIPROcITY-hS benefits, and
ITS relations TO Commerce, Science, Literature and
Christianity.
/. CoNNERCE.-The history of the world in
cludes among it's most important clements the
history of commerce. There has always existed
a traffic among the nations. The products of one
CLINE and nation are exchanged for those of
another. 1t would appear as if n nations
growth and development essentially depended
upon its foreign commerce. Among the most
interesting features of ancient history we are ever
meeting with facts relating to commerce and
trade among different nations. In the worlds
early history we are made acquainted with Phe-
nieian mme along the shores of the Mediter-
ranean and extending to the tin-producing island
of Britain. What interest gathers around the
commercial ventures of Hiram and Solomon, fit
ting out their ships from Ezion Geber to trade
with the spice islands Of the PARKWAY lands of
the Indian seas, and not returning for three years,
but when they arrive bringing " gold and silver,
ivory and apes and peacocks." Grecian and
Roman Is IS grand subject for study.
How much the pages Of Homer and Virgil are
enIiyened by the voyages of their heroes and
nCLOlLC1s W q hNNA~SN oNhNA 1AOhhS VIZ
ship which conveyed the Apostle Paul from a
port Of Syria to Rome, sailing along the shores of
Cyprus and Crete, Of Southern Italy and Sicily.
Then follows the of succeeding ages,
including the supremacy OF Venice, until the
discovery and commerce of the New World en-
crossed the wealth, enterprise and shipping of all
the nations of Europe. For nearly four hundred
years this vast field of enterprise and commercial
venture has been enlarging until now. God is
employing the commerce of the globe as one of
the potent agencies for bringing the nations of
the earth into fellowship. Remarks Ex-Governor
Stanford, in a late report on the Central Pacific
railroad a : The wealth of the country depends
on the cheapncss of transportation, while print
ing, steam and the telegraph are bringing all
nations into one neighborhOod." Remark Messrs.
Fisk & Hatch, bankers of New York, in a late
circular - The marvellous drawing together of
the nations of the earth in financial matters
makes the bonds Of the United States Government
almost as home-like in England, Germany and
France as their own national bonds"
After more than twenty years of persevering
and persistent effort, the United States and the
Hawaiian Islands entered into a treaty of reci-
procity, taking advanced ground on the line of
international commerce.. 1t was an important
measure for a great commercial nation TO enter
into n reciprocity treaty with the Hawaiian
Kingdom. Standing in this pulpit, and deliver
ing a discourse on a similar OCCASION, IN Novem-
Der, 1874, five years ago, l then remarked
- America mas Deen tue iOslSI-pdISubO VI laval
mel, and now the latter asks for a still more init
mate bond of union, such as will be formed by a
treaty Of reciprocity. do most earnestly main
tain that it would prove mutually beneficial
beneficial to the Islands, but still more BENEFICIAL
TO the United States. These Islands are what
the people of Oregon and California need to
their commercial integrity and unity,
such as may be secured by reciprocity. The
results Of reciprocity, / believe, fully confirm
what / then asserted Custom-house statistics
also point in the same direction. This treaty
seems destined TO work out results of vastly
greater moment than were anticipated. Capital
and labor are attracted hither from America,
Europe, China and the islands Of this ocean. we
are Just beginning TO witness the commercial
benefits of reciprocity. Our Islands will become
more and more to Oregon and California what
the East and West India islands arc to Europe
and America.
Trade remarks a writer in the Boston Ad-
~Uertiser, " will not endure unless it is based on
the golden rule-unless one treats the man with
whom he trades as he would himself be treated
This writer then proceeds to show how the great
Fenelon illustrated this idea in his "Telemachus,'
while MIR. Wells, the American political econ
omist, does the same in reference to Adam
Smith, the author of = = The Wealth Of Nations
The L. ). Government, in negotiating this treaty
with the Hawaiian Islands, has manifested a
generosity and nobleness which is not to be
without its happy influences upon other nations.
Other treaties oil reciprocity VIII Hollow. Among
the recent items of intelligence from Japan, |
have read the following newspaper report = The
new treaty between the United States and Japan
was signed July 25th, and is kept secret. This
treaty is understood to confer reciprocal CONNER
cial advantages, from which all other nations are
excluded, except on condition of accepting the
mutual obligations 1t is well known that
England and Germany gre now pressing the
japanese Government upon points really lnVolv-
ing the Independence of the Empire, while the
United States Government is unfolding that En-
pire, as it did Hawaiian independence when
European nations would have biOtted it out of
existence
L cannot refrain from here referring to the most
signal manner in which Hawaiian national indie
was preserved and secured Most nobly
did Richards, Judd, Ricord, Lee, Allen, and
specially r. q. Wyllie, stand up for Hawaiian
Independence. The long and successful minis
teriaI career of Mr.. Wyllie is quite noteworthy.
The stern Scotchman would not finch or give way
one iota when the Kings prerogative was in
fringed upon. He never would have allowed His
Majesty to have signed such a treaty as has just
been negotiated between the Samoan Islands and
r-r-I L. :, .-oII g. rS that VIC hava N Can- |