The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-04-19
HAWAIIAN PREFERENCES.
A st. Paul Paper Thinks the Native
Idea Should Not be Consulted.


Idea Should Not be Consulted.
The development of what passes
for public opinion in the Sandwich
Islands may enlighten the American
public on the folly of Judging these
people as we do our own. The re-
cent disturbing events there, with
the subsequent discussion of differ
ent possibilities for the future, have
shown the fact that the Hawaiians
are without real attachment to any
particular form of government and
have no fixed political principles
To reason about nation like this as
we do about our own, or about the
peoples with settled institutions and
reverence for them, is folly. Ha-
waiian public opinion is much like
that in Hayti or Venezuela or any
of the petty states that thrive on
revolutions and produce good crop
of military dictators, supported in
their turns by wholly indifferent
and ignorant people.
The best view of the status of
communities like that of the Sand
wich Islands, and the most intelli-
gent criticism of the forms of gov
eminent applied to them which we
have seen is found in the records of
Mr.. Froude of his travels in the
East and West Indies. He examin-
ed especially the colonial system of
the British Empire, and the effect
that it produced upon its subjects
in the many island kingdoms that
owe allegiance to the crown. His
conclusions were not palatable
either to believers in universal and
immediate democracy nor to the
Liberal party in his own country,
but they are interesting and they
have scientific fact below them. He
found that the experiment of gov
erning everywhere with an ignorant
and apathetic population required a
mixture of despotic forms, and that
the attempted introduction of free
institutions among semi-barbarous
people was not a success. In those
colonies in which local legislatures
had been created, and representa-
ton had been assigned to the native
population on the British plan, the
failure was most nearly complete.
The people were not ready for any
such form of government.
1t is too often forgotten, and they
are sometimes charged with treason
to democracy who remember it.
that, however precious constitu,
tional self-government may be tC
the highly developed nations, it re.
quires certain preparation to fit 9
people to enjoy it; and without this
it is as likely to be curse as a bless
ing. A printing press is an emblem
and product of high civilization
but it would be of no especial profit
to the natives of Central African
state if set down among them. Thi
is the trouble with all the o-callet
"republics" of the American cont
nent outside Of the United States
They are not supported by popu
lar devotion to republican princi
piles, and most Of their citizen
fereuces between one kind of gov
eminent. and another. OF exactl
that make are the native people c
Hawaii. The foreign resident ha
views about what the government {
the islands should be. The nativ
stands hesitating between republi
: and monarchy, between so-calle'
despotism and so-called freedom
with as little real fxity of purpos
as a lady bewcen two spring bon
nets. In his savage simplicity he
caught with words and with tn
forms of things, and is ready to vot
for monarchy to-day and a repul
lie tomorrow without feeling tina
there is any contradiction involved
, This is the disposition whic
8 stands in the way of the plan of as
certaining, on the part of the Unite
, States, what are the real preference
of the Hawaiian people, and cor
sulting them. The question of on
future relation to the government {
these islands is one to be determine
by our own interests, not by theirs
Their choice is changeable. T
them it is all one, whatever the forr
of rule, as long as they are let alon'
! There is no knowledge of the scienc
: of government and no devotion
f any of it's forms among the Hawa
!, ians. Their preferences, which hay
; already pointed in several differel
+ directions within a few weeks,