The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-05-05
FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1898
MR.. NoRDHoFF'S ERRORS

so, in twenty-four hours time, while his
sea legs were yet with him, he essayed
to cover and decide the whole complex
matter of the origin and trend of the
revolution and the state of public sentl-
ment on the Hawaiian Islands The
job was a stupendous one, but Mr.
Nordhoff took hold cf it with all the
dash and intrepidity Of a writer who was
born without fear Of facts and without
an atom of doubt that his own opinions
Of what thing ought to be would prop
erly describe what the thing is.
Mr.. Nordhof' has always been against
annexation and its cognate policies
We have heard that he was opposed
to the Alaskan purchase, and we know
that the plans to acquire St, Thom1s
and San Domingo awoke his strong
resentment and enlisted his rebelious
pen. Had he been earlier in the field
we have no doubt that he would have de-
nOunced the Louisiana purchase, the
Texas admission and the California
seizure of which happily aided in
making his country great. Be that as
it may he came here with an avowed
prejudice against annexation which his
newspaper shared, and which he did
not intend, apparently, to permit either
time or evidence to efface or modify.
1t was his business and his pleasure TO
make out a case against the reform
movement Fortunately for the cause
of good government here the best he
could do was weak in that most indis-
pensible quality to all Cases-the pre-
else truth. The premises upon which
he based his conclusions were and are
VIGOROUSLY and provably unsound
To begin with, Mr.. Nordhof' declares
that the native population is "unani,
mously and strongly opposed to anneXa-
ton" On the contrary there are, on
the rolls of the Annexation Club, the
names of over 1900 adult male natives,
a number which would be very much
larger but for the fact that the ex Queen
has inundated her late subjects by
the frequent declaration that she was
about to berestored. Instead of "I928
Americans, men, women and children,
composing the Annexation party, that
body comprises seven-eighths of the
20, 900 white people on Hawaii nei,
representative of whom is the active
junta-incuding not single woman,
child or non.voter in its 5000 members
of the Annexation Club. In this
array is the great proportion of the
business element, exclusive of the
Spreckels sugar interest which is be
lieved to be against annexation.
Mr.. Nordhof repeats the erroneous
charge that the revolution was an affair
of planters. How he could have
found this out in twenty-four hours,
twelve of which were given over to rest
and meals, we leave it for him 90 ex-
plain. He certainly did not learn it
from the accounts of the mass meeting
that preceded the revolution wherein
the planters advised delay and moder-
alton; neither did he learn it from
Claus SpreCkels who, while the Heyald'S
correspondent was writing, had made
the air of Honolulu lurid with his OBJ
jeCtions to the course which the an
nexation party had pursued He did
notfnd names to justifysuch a postulate
in the organization Of the Provisional
Government, wherein the planter is by
no means the factor he would have be-
come if the January revolt had been OF
his own leadership or seeking. Nor
could Mr. Nordhoh have discovered
signs of sugar in the organization of
the STAR-a journal established as an
exponent of the revolution by the An
neXation party, a hundred or more of
whom subscribed to its stock, but
with not a single cane planter on the
list, Even among the haf-white in
triguers for the throne the Heyald'S cor
respondent would have searched un-
fruitfully for such a statement as he has
so unhesitatingly made. In point of
fact he must have borrowed his strange
error from the absurd leading articles
of his own erratic, London edited journ,
nal or weaved it from his Imagination
as a spider does a web from its own
bowels.
Mr., Nordhoh says that the Provis-
ional Government continues to exist