The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-06-02
THE LEGISLATURE.
TwENrY-sEvENrH DAY - CONTINUED.
TUESDAY, June 1st.

KEEP. IhurstOn SAID, L nave been
ordered by this house to apologize
for certain words spoken in this
house. l am now ready to apollo
gize.
Before complying with the resolu-
tion of this Assembly, l wish to
state that which every member of
this House who knows anything
about Parliamentary law, already
knows, that there is no rule in Par
liamentary law requiring me to COM
ply with that resolution. BY that
law no member can be compelled to
apologize for anything that does not
appear upon the minutes of the house,
and there is not one word down
on the records of this House con-
cerning the words used by me which
are complained of. This point was
made in my favor yesterday and
declined to take advantage of it.
Last Saturday, after l had asked for
specification of my offense, pro-
minent government officer met me
and said, Mr.. Thurston, you
haven't the courage Of your opinions.
You know well enough what you are
charged with and you are trying to
evade it," l am glad, Mr.. Presi-
dent, to have the opportunity to
show whether l have the courage
of my opinions or not.
By vote of a majority of this As
sembly it has been decreed that l
have on the floor of this house
abused my privileges and grossly in
suited the Minister of Finance and
the other Cabinet Ministers, and
that it is the sense of this house that
an apology is due it from me.
This action and this expression of
opinion has become fixed as an in
delible part of the record Of this
session and cannot be blOtted out.
In consideration Of the gravity Of
the offense charged l claim the right
to make statement of the circum-
stances under which this alleged in
suit took place, and under which
this vote was passed-a right which
hitherto has been denied me. l
claim this right for the purpose of
defending myself, and among honor
able men it would seem that this
should be enough; but this House
has shown me scant curtesy in this
matter, and has ignored and denied
the sacred right of self defense,
and it may be necessary for me to
show yet other reasons for being
allowed to defend myself in this
House. If other reason is needed,
l claim the right to defend the name
of an honored President of this
Assembly. Thirty odd years ago
Asa G. Thurston sat in this Assem-
bly, as its chief officer, and as my
fathers son claim the right to de-
fend his honorable name, the sole
inheritance which he bequeathed
me.
The charge made against me is a
personal one, and from its personal
character shall be obliged to speak in
. personal manner of the Ministers,
the Assembly and myself.
The vote of censure, If such it
may be called, which was passed by
this Assembly, was presented by
His Excellency John Nj. Kapena,
Minister of Finance, who imme-
diately began making remarks to the
effect that had been making lying
statements about him. He was
called to order for using unparlia-
mentary language, and a ruling
called for. Immediately after the
ruling of the chair, the member
from Hilo, Mr.. J. l.. Kaulukou, arose
and with his characteristic gentle
manliness and sense of fairness,
moved that the resolution be adopted
and that the previous question be
put. If the member from Hilo was
stiff, cold corpse, and a question
should come up within sound of him
involving the personal character OF
man, and that man had had nc
opportunity to speak in self-defense,
/ should expect the Hon. j. l..
Kaulukou's blackened and shrivelled
lips to form themselves into motion
for the previous question, and his
bony skeleton hand to be raised to
vote in favor of his motion. Fol
the sake of the reputation of my
native country and the Hawaiian
race, i am glad that the mover OF
this motion was not native Ha-
waiian, but the son of an alien.
Against my protest that under the
circumstances the previous question
was unfair and indecent, it was put
and carried, and the only member
of the government party who had
manIiness enough to vote against it
was the Attorney-General. ! thank
him for it, both on my own account
and as indicating that there. is at
least one spark of fairness left In