The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-07-07

it and find ample room. 1t is SO grand that
every soul in the United States at the present
time could live comfortably and have a garden
in any one of the great Western States.
Texas alone can give everyone two acres OF
ground, and still have enough left over to &C
commOdate a million or two more. No, there is
no fear of our being over-crowded there Is
ample room for ourselves, our children and our
children's children, and there is plenty, not only
for ourselves and our descendants, but for the
millions who care to tempt the seas for the sake
of the freedom we offer them and when the
time does come when We feel a trihe hampered
for space, when We want more room, our
friendly neighbors on the north and south will be
only too glad to receive aud welcome our over
flow.
Are We a poor nation? Well, poverty has not
l., skeleton hand on US as yet. Sharp perjury
has not yet worn US to the bones" Our raiment
is not entirely ragged. We still have bread,
and now and then a bit of meat. We plod along
with a daily income of about 81, 900, 900 We pay
our debts too fast to suit our creditors. Our
paper Is worth more than its face, our national
vaults ARE SO full OF coin that the treasurer is at
his wits end to know where to store that which
Is pouring III. We owe less than $34 apiece, and
We could pay that tomorrow if We wished, and
if our creditors could he induced to take the
money. No, We are not poor; it would be better
for US, l sometimes think if We were not so
rich. The knowledge of possessing so much
material wealth is, | fear, sapping our national
siren !th aud making Us less jealous of our ma
tional honor.
There WIS II time when we would not
stand an inoinuatiOn, much less an in
suit, but HOW we are so rich that
we are hard to arouse. Anger slumbers
deep, and resentment has been drugged by gold,
at least so it seems, but, after all, the lethargy
is but seeming. A sharp shock would stir us
into our old-time activity. A threat would cause
US to shake ourselves beneath our mountain of
gold, aud perhaps ruin the aggressor by the
weight of the metal. There may, too, be an
other reason for our amiability. We are q giant,
and therefore good-natured. We rather laugh
ut the growlings of puny powers, and smile at
the threatenings of those whom we could wipe
out of existence at u single blow. The other
day, when a South American power VS. showing
her teeth and talking war, we didn't even
answer back, because we knew that if worst came
to worst, if the infatuated nation dared raise its
hand, we could take each one of its people and
throw them into the sea, and yet not miss the
men we sent to do it, nor know that they had
left our borders. No, my friends, the vaunts of
jealous powers that the Yankees will not fight
have been too often answered by bloody death to
be regarded by US now. Are the Yankees cow
ards?" yelled the men of Massachusetts as the
red British line went Keeling and broken down
the slopes of Bunker Hill. That question was
answered then, and since that time on the SAN
guined fields of Mexico, and by a thousand con-
tests in that fratricidal war which stepped our
whole nation in its own best blood, the answer
has been again and again repeated No, the
Yankees were not towards at Bunker Hill, nor
ever after. During the war of the revolution
they fought with a stubborn endurance,
and with a bull dog courage that never
weakened nor failed, and when the
wal of 1912 gave them a chance they showed
upon the seas what courage meant. Think of
Porter in the Essex at Valparaiso-his topmasts
gone, his ship disabled and on a lee shore,
disaster staring him in the face, two English
vessels of superior metal lowering around him,
everything inducing him to haul down his flag
Yet at his anchors he fought them until
his officers and crew lay dead around him, and
his decks were so deep in blood that the ruby
stream ran from the scuppers. Think of Deca-
tur advancing into the stronghold of the bar
barous Dey. Think of the dying Lawrence who
cried with his last breath 9 don't give up the
ship" Think of Perry leaving his shattered
vessel TO pass under a hail of grape to dictate
terms from the deck of another. No, 1 need not
turn back the pages of history to show the bray
cry Of Americans. Who denies it? Who is
there to come forward and say that when dan
ger stares US in the face, or which our honor is
assaulted We are not ready. I think there ia no
one; no not one in the whole world. We are at
peace with all the world it is true; and some
times the quiet man is thought to be one who
may be abused with inpunity, but beware the
righteous anger of a giant. That verse which
is the motto of one of the great political parties
in England expresses our condition exactly.
We don't want to fight
But, by lingo, if we do,
We've got the men, we've got the guns,
And We We got the money too"
But this sounds like pure and unadulterated
brag, and We did not meet here to-
day to indulge in that disagreeable exercise;
We are accused, perhaps rightfully, of being a
nation of boosters, but it is to be remarked that
We generally carry out what We undertake, and
that We undertake enterprises now and then
which appall people not accustomed to the
spring. the snap aud the energy of the Americans.
And after all, is it a crime to be proud of our
great successes. Is it a sin to be elated over the
achievements of our fellow-citlzens Are we
doing wrong when we look with pleasure on such
a work as the Pacific Railway, and when one of
US builds toward heaven two monuments almost
riyalling the pyramid of Chepos, and swings
from their submits IA bridge, the like of which
the ingenuity of man has never before produced.
Are We to be chided because we burn a few fire.
works, and because a million of rs stand in