The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-07-06
ADDRESS OF HIS EX. J.L, STEVENS
Delivered at the Opera House,
Honolulu, July 4, 1897.
AMERICAN MINISTER RESIDENT.

Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLE
MEN 1t becomes the American where
ever he chances to be to commemorate
the Fourth of July, and every human
soul that loves Liberty and honors heroic
deeds, should join in this patriotic hon.
age, for on this day great Nation was
born, whose foundations are based on
the rights OF man, and through all whose
portals and temples circulates the health
tul air of Freedom. BY the Declaration
of Independence, with the events to
which it subsequently led, followed by
the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
the American fathers established Ma
ton on broader and surer foundations
than any which had preceded it. Gov
ernments had so far departed from fund
amental truths that emperors and kings
claimed to be above the sovereignty of
the people, and impudently assumed the
prerogative OF granting Constitutions to
the nations, whom they ruled without
any limitations but their own selfish
wills, and who maintained that all
powers not specified in their Constitu-
lions were reserved to themselves.
Against this wanton insult to human ma
ture and the rights of mankind the
American patriots proclaimed in the.Con-
stitution, stamped by the mighty genius
of Hamilton and signed by the stainless
hand of Washington, that Presidents,
Kings and Governors are but the agents
of the people, and that all rights and
powers not expressly delegated to these
agents, are reserved to the Nation, be-
tween which and the Almighty no
earthly power has the right to intervene
or assert authority. In defiance of
courts, of precedents and of the accumu-
lated errors and vices of countries, these
great truths were proclaimed, INDICATED
and made enduring by remarkable in
situations. That wise, bold action in
Philadelphia, lis years ago this day,
gave great impetus to that popular en-
ightenment which has established in all
of the best nations of the world constitu-
tons and laws, which Presidents, Mon
archs and People are equally bound to
obey, and which cannot be changed ex-
cept by the will of the People in the way
they themselves have prescribed.
In thus being born a free Nation,
America assumed it's right to be, and it's
being carried with it the responsibilities
and duties o& a Nation. Men and Ma
tons have no right to be born unless
they are willing to improve opportuni-
ties which come to them, to share the
responsibilities which time and circum-
stances plainly impose upon them. Then
they must act wisely and fearlessly, or
be compelled to abdicate, and thus tes-
tify to the world their unfitness to exist.
lime and opportunity will not wait for
them to play the sluggard and the cow
ard. They must do or die, or have an
existence less honorable than death
lNnf 81 10 I,xk,o L.
press on the American Nation? It's
right to be demands that it should guard
sacredly the rights OF all the citizens
within its borders, of whatever name or
color. 1t would be bitter satire on the
justice and good faith of American men
if it should prove that Abraham Lincoln
and half million of the brave sons of
the Union died in vain. Its right to be
carries with it the right to protect the
labor of its people in all proper ways,
against foreign competition, for labor is
the life and the browning honor of free
and virtuous people. This Protection of
American Industry has had the support
of the ablest statesmen of the Republic
from Washington to those of the present
time, and under its stimulating power
the United States has had growth of
without parallel in the economic history
of nations. AS the right of the Nation
to be demands that it should safeguard
all its just interests within, it equally
demands that it should not ignore it's
duties without. To make the Nation
healthful and strong at home. it must
guard its interests and make itself active
and strong abroad. A great Nation
which expects prosperity and wealth
| from the commerce of the seas, must
care for its interests wherever its flag
| has the right to float in the breezes of
| heaven. Thus nothing can be palmer
| than that the great design of cutting the
| Nicaragua canal, waterway between
the Atlantic and Pacific sides OF the
| Great Republic, should be aided and
| controlled by the American Govern
ment. By his advocacy of this magnif-
cent enterprise in the Senate of the
United States, John Sherman shows his
patriotism as plainly as did his illus
trious brother when he made his famous
march from Atlanta to the the sea. Fail
ing to aid the work of such supreme inn
| portance to the Nation would be more
| cowardly and efete than anything that
ever disgraced the meanest of the Bour.
bon kings.
The law of patriotism which demand
ed that railroads should be built across
the contradiction New York to San
Francisco, from st. Lawrence to Puget
Sound, and from the Gulf of Mexico tc
the Gulf of California, binding together
the forty-four States with steel and cleo.
tricity-also demands that an ocean cable
shall be laid from the American coast tx
Honolulu. and thence to Australia, where
a young Republic, half unconscious te
itself, is rising, giant in the Southern
seas, and still onward to the ancien
Empire, which under liberal Constitu
ton is rapidly advancing in new politica
and commercial life.
The Nation which has more iron, NOR,
coal, more cotton, more wheat and corn
more manufactures and more aggregate
wealth than any other in the world
, should have the best steamers, tn
largest merchant marine, of all the ma
tions that do business on the seas. 1t
as coWardly to abdicate American pres
tlge and power ON the ocean as on tn
. land. Add those who do not compre
| bend nor regard these elementary truth
would do well not to aspire to seats i
the American Congress, nor assume