The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1884-02-09
TIE PACIFIC
COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.
SATURDAY, FEB. ., 1881.
HAWAIIAN POLITICS.
{ FROM THE DAILY p. c.. Al

|.
y WRITER in the HdlU0iidR Month";
iy, whose contribution is entitled
''Wanted-A Party" tells Us that cup
to the present time and even now po-
litical parties in the sense which at
taches to that term elsewhere, have
not existed here" Though admitting
that there are many things we'll said
and worthy of careful onsideratiOn
by ali thinking men in The article in
question, we are convinced that the
writer has started his argument from
wrong premises. We do not accept
the sentence we have quoted as "a true
statement of the position of affairs in
this community. For our own part
we can discern two well-marked pOlit-
zeal parties here. They may neither
of them have that peculiar machine"
organization which has been deveI-
Oped amongst our American neighbOrs
but they are quite as fully organized
as any political parties that are to be
found in England, France, British
Colonies or any other countries that
can be pointed to as truly living under
a constitutional, or to use better
phrase, a parliamentary government.
We are not at all anxious to see A Amer
lea political methods introduced here
just when they are falling into great
diScredit in the country of their ma
tivity. In a country like the United
States, with its population spread ov-
er an enormous territory, infinitely
larger than any that was ever gov
erned on republican principles before,
the "machine,n as it is now disparag-
ingly called, has had its uses and
probably cannot be dispensed with for
a long time to come. 1t has grown
corrupt, and become burden to the
community through the inherent de
fects of the Constitution Of the United
States in its minor details and not
because it was not q Skilfully and
honestly devised political method in
its inception. But though it will
probably be retained usefully for at
least another generation in the Uni
tea Safes in a pUrged and sOunder
condition, it is wholly unadapted to
narrow field like this. It's evils would
here become rampant whilst its bene-
fits can be equally well attained with
out it.
The writer ia the HUU0iiUU MOnthLy
has made a mistake, but it appears to
us to be quite an eXcusable one. Any
one who takes the newspaper writing
in our local papers OF the last four
years as his sole guide in an invesCiga- |
ton of Hawaiian politics must needs /
come to the conclusion that they are |.
wholly of a personal character; that /
they deal with men, not measu ures- /
to reverse an old political motto. But I
though a vast amount Of personal /
matter has been INDUCED in, more es- ;
peciaIly by the opposition press and /
though neither party has been very /
ready to speak out about its actual /
principles, it is an unmistakeable fact f.
that there are two parties in this land |
and that their proper designations
are the "Hawaiian" and the For
eign" parties. The Foreign party is
made up of heterogeneous elements
whose political principles run in
shades from the absolute annexation
st, who thinks that the millennium
for this country lies in its ABSORPTION
Oy the United States of America, to
5he moderate man is disposed to treat
he existing administration with fair
ness but does not like TO sever himself
from his every day associates by
tvowing so much. At the bottom,
however, there is one underlying prin-
,iple with all of them. They claim