Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-17
THE HAWAIIAN TREATY.

The United States have a treaty with
Hawaii which ia of great national import
ance, and which provides that "as long as
this treaty remains in force the Hawaiian
government will not lease or otherwise dis
pose of or create any lien upon any port,
barber or other territory in that dominion,
or grant any special privilege or rights of
use therein to any other power, State or gov
eminent, nor make any treaty by which any
other nation shall obtain The came privileges
relative to the admission of any articles free
of duty hereby secured 10 the United States"
On the face of it this treaty securing to US
exclusive privileges appears to be one OF the
utmost value and worth preserving, even at
a high coat. Are the Sandwich Islands,
with which it is made, SO situated as TO con-
stitute these privileges of real moment to
this country? Upon this matter there is
testimony no American reader can
disregard, and if the reader will look over
the map in his atlas and observe the position
of the island with respect to our own shores
and the British possessions, he will be able to
Judge how we'll or i'll founded that testimony
is. A senator from the Pacific shore points
out shat a line run from the Fiji Islands to
British Columbia on our northwest coast,
runs through the Sandwich Islands, and
these, under British control, would complete
q chain of naval stations from Australia on
the south, across the Golden Gate of San
Francisco, the mouth of Columbia river,
and OF Puget Sound; woald command the
hsrbor Of San Diego, the termini Of both the
Northern and Southern Pacific railroads,
and would constitute a most formidable and
standing menace to the future peace and
commercial prosperity of the whole Pacific
coa.t." The London Times says "the mari
time power which holds Pearl river harbor,
and moors her feet there, holds
the key of the north Pacific" Our
own Gen. Schofeld says that ''the
Sandwich Islands form the only natural
support to the defense of the Pacific coast"
Adm. Porter declares that "with the Sand
witch Islands the Pacific coast ia impregna-
BILE; without them it is defenseless." Forty
years ago, when we had no Pacific posses
sions, and when the French were threaten
ing these islands, Daniel Webster wrote to
the government: "If the French take pos
session of these islands they will be dis
lodged, if my advice is followed, if it take
to do it." This consideration led TO Secre-
tary Marcy negotiating the Hawaiian treaty
in 1855, and that afterward led our govern
meut, whether Democratic or Republican,
and also the Senate, strongly and effectually
to support the treaty in the face of all oppo-
sition, and OF the hostility OF our sugar
growing interest, an interest that attacks the
treaty, although all the sugar grown here
supplies less than four per cent of the
amount Of the national consumption. To
terminate this treaty would ruin the islands
unless they made similar one with some
other government, and England too vel
understands the power she would gain BY
becoming our successor 10 neglect so advan
tageous an opportunity. In the face O.
| all this, attempts are making TO In
duce our government to surrender what
for nearly fifty years, has been so highl.
valued. And why surrender the power sno
national safety this treaty iwpsrls? Patri
otic motives? The welfare OF our country
No, but the dam aging spirit Of sviRail mo
nopoly; desire to stop the admission o
Hawaiian sugar; money getting; narro'
considerations OF particular trading inter
est as against the defense and safety of tn
country's Pacific boundary. So befogged
"protection" in its graspings that tn
naiisnal welfare counts for nothing in pre-
portion to the little sugar that is grown hert
The country must be made tributary to tn
monopolists, and the foreign and home in
terests sacrificed to the greed for money
Shall such motives overthrow a wise polio,
and cast advantages against us into tn
hands OF, possibly, future enemies, by leay
ing Hawaii defense'ess at the feet of En-
gland2 If we grew no sugar, there woul
be no attack made upon the Hawsiis
treaty. Is the whole country to be put ur
der tribute aud advantages gained by treatie
favorable to our national defense forfeited
because an Insignificant bit of sugar
grown here? That is psrverting the fruit
fulness of our soil into an instrument Of evi