Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-11-24
HAWAIIAN

AS the Hawaiian difficulty is just now
the all-absorbing topic of discussion and
as many people who read the newspaper
comments at this time do not under
stand, or are not familiar with The
causes leading up to the revolution Of a
year ago and the dethroning OF Queen
L~iliuokalana, the following from the
Washington Post will be read with in
terest:
The revolution Of Hawaii about a year
ago was precipitated by an attempt on the
part Of the Queen to undo a reform in the
interest OF decency and civilization. Some
years ago, when her predecessor, King
kalakaua, was in grea. financial straits
and wished TO negotiate a loan. his cabinet
officers advised him that he would have to
consent to a change in the constitution if
he wished their cooperation and support.
The change they demanded was one which
would give the legislative branch Of the
government some larger authority over
expenditures and thus remove from the
control of an ignorant, sensual. and
capricious monarch the financial d~estinies
OF the kingdom. Kalakaua consented. The
new constitution went into effect and
thereafter there was in the governmental
process Of Hawaii some slight appearance
OF a tendency toward int lIigcnce and re.
straint.
When Liliuokaiani succeeded to power
however. she found this restraint particu.
larly irksOme. a woman OF coarse in
stincts and licentiOus appetite. she 1eDeI!ed
against the limitations by which her self.
indulgence had been circumscribtd. and
lODged for a return to the old barbaric
freedom Of the past. She wished to rein.
state an arrangement under which she
could give free reign to her brutal and cor.
rupt inclinatl0ns, and accordingly, she
convened her cabinet n informed them
that she wished to undue that salutary re-
form which had been extOrted from kala-
kaua and to rtinstate a regime Of unbridled
lust and license. 1t was upon this issue
that the cabinet abandoned her. refusing
to authorize the %reactionary constitution,
and in the face of this alarming prospect
thai the intelligent and civilized element of
the population, startled into self-defense,
inaugurated the revolution which de.
thrOned her.
Whatever may be urged against the
methods by which this revolution was &C.
complished. it wa none the less a revol,
of civilization against barbarism, a protes,
BY the spirit of liberty against tyranny in
its most odious and revolving shape. And
the triumph of that revolt was a result il
which all enlightened and virtuous people
could properly rejoice. That the bushes:
interests. the moral and intellectual forces
the virtuous and progressive sentiment OF
the population should array themselve:
against a contamination so repulsive wa!
inevitable. That every intelligent human
being within the radius of that malign in
fluence aud threatened by that contem
plated infamy would resist the impending
calamity was as natural as that virtue
should antagonize vice or decency rise VI
against degradation.
This is the situation into which the
United States government now proposes Il
project itself-not as the protector and ad
v0cxte of regeneration, but as the instru
ment of chaos. Upon the strength Of a de
batable possibility that there may hav'
been q display of excessive ardor in tn
cause of which our free institutions are tn
foremost and peculiar exemplifcation, it i
now proposed that the flag Of the Ameri
can union shall be made the symbol of
sinister invasion, and the military forces 0
q free nation employed to %re-enslave
hundred thousand e%mancipated human be
ings. Within the next forty-eight hour
we may hear that liberty has been Destroyer
and despotism in its most brutal and re