The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-07-01
LAMENT OF MIR. STEVENS.
The Ex-Minister Gets It Straight
from Pixley's Shoulder.

Says the San Francisco Argonaut
of June IL: "The lamentations of
Jeremiah are joyous in comparison
with the groans which John l.. Ste
vens, ex-Minister to Hawaii, emitted
in presence of the Chamber of Com
merce on his return from the post
from which he had been removed.
1t was, perhaps, hardly to be expect
ed that he should endure such
cuff from fortune with philosophy"
The Argonaut describes the situa-
ton after Minister Stevens return
from Hilo, when "he found the city
in connection, party of white
planters, shopkeepers and adventur-
ers having declared that, the mon
archy was abolished and supreme
power vested in some half-dozen
gentlemen, some of whom had sworn
allegiance to the Queen, and not
one of whom had been invited by
the Hawaiians to take charge of
public affairs. Under such circum-
stances, the duty of the Minister of
the United States was obviously to
keep his hands off and to counsel
an appeal to the people of the ISL
ands who are educated and intelli-
gent. Mr.. Stevens did neither. As
United States Minister, he authoriz
ed the Boston to land her marines,
and hoisted the American flag over
the Office where the usurping gov
eminent transacted business. Tt
was thus made to appear by the Am
erican representative that the United
States was back of the rebels. He
did not advise an appeal to the peo-
pie, and that for the excellent rea-
son that such an appeal would have
been fatal to the so-called provi-
sional government. At the last cleo
ton in Hawaii, 1858 votes were
cast. Of these, 1854 were cast by
Hawaiians, 637 by Americans, sos by
Englishmen, 1872 by Germans, 2O91
by Portuguese-the Chinese and
Japanese being non-voters. Mr..
Stevens and his confederates knew
perfectly we'll that out of these
thirteen thousand five hundred vot-
ers, they could not command one
thousand votes; therefore, they did
not risk a plebiscite, and they have
| AoC odlSo w w 81 you.
Assuming that the pocketful of
voters with whom he acted repre-
sented the islands and we're warrant
ed in assigning their sovereignty to
whomsoever they pleased, Mr.. Ste
vens warmly Endorsed the applica-
ton of Mr.. Thurston's self-elected
commission for annexation to the
United States. That body consisted
of four Americans and one English
man, without drop of Hawaiian
blood in their veins. They had no
more right to speak for Hawaii than
Denis Kearney has to speak for Cali
fornia. And yet they had the impu-
dence to ask Mr.. Cleveland to recog-
nize them as genuine representatives
of Hawaii and to listen to their tale
of woe.
Gas Mr.. Stevens halls from Maine,
he must be presumed to be an Amer
lean, and yet the reasons which he
gave to the Chamber of Commerce
for annexing Hawaii are strangely
un-American. We in this country
are not borrowing our foreign policy
from Rome or Alexander of Mace
don, nor do we consider the example
of England in grabbing foreign
countries good one to follow. The
American idea is that we have coun-
try enough of our own to take care
Of True, we have in this country a
pot-house school of politicians (they
used to to be called Filibusters) who
are in favor Of all sorts of blatant
un-Americanisms, including that of
robbing foreign nations of their
land; but these persons constitute a
microscopical section of the Ameri-
can people. When Mr.. Stevens tells
us that the shop keepers, planters,
and adventures whom he represents
"stretch out a pleading hand to this
mighty nation of freemen not to
abandon them in their days of i'm
perative need" he does not affect us
at all; we shall not study the ques-
ton of annexation until Mr.. Ste
vens's friends can show that they
have right to stretch out any hand
at all for Hawaii. Mr.. Stevens calls
the islands the Plymouth Rock of
the Pacific that ocean fortress of
Christian civilization fronting the
iAoiooiS WIN CuaC 10 FoIy PIcUUy
and sweet. But Americans are not
now looking round for Plymouth
Rocks or ocean fortresses to steal in
defiance of the protest of their
owners. Mr.. Stevens does not I'M
derstand his countrymen.
His great objection to the Queen
of Hawaii is her immortality. He is
like O'Donnell, who has no fault to
> find with the Chinese as competitors
in the labor-market, but cannot en-
: dure their vices; their moral conduct
falls SO far below the O'Donnell
standard. So Mr.. Stevens's high
moral tone is chiefly shocked at the
Hawaiian monarchy because it is
coarsely luxurious in it's tastes and
Wishes constantly sending out i'm
pure exhalations,' utterly vicious
and demoralizing, AN astounding
: exhibition of shame with "a semi
barbaric queen at it's head and cor
| ruption, anarchy, and barbaric sensu-
alism' at its tail. 1t was as a moral
list, and not as statesman, that he
consented to take part in the farce