The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-20
THES.Y." NATION" AND THE REVo
LUTON.


tility toward the leaders of our revo-
luton of '9S. These readers had
right to expect that paper Whlcn as
sumed, and with some reason lor LII
to move on a higher plane OF news
paper literature, would take unusual
care to ascertain the facts underlying
our revolutionary movement before
taking an attitude about IT. Small as
the movement was in comparison
with similar movements in other
great countries, it involved an ln'er-
esting and complicated development
of political institutions among mixed
races, and especially the remarKaoie
case of the tender and kindly and
lust relations of the Anglo-Saxon race
20 a weaker race up to the moment OF
revolution.
The Nation, however, burst out
with bitter invective against mis-
sionary thieves and pirates" and took
aides with the n. Y. Herald and Mr.
Nordhof in persistently misrepre-
senting the facts regarding the depo-
sition OF the Queen. The Nation was
singularly fortunate in having at
command, IL 1t chose to use it, the
evidence of Mrs E l.. Youmens, and
others, who, with Mr.. G. r. Bishop,
the largest living benefaetor OF the
native race, would have given il reii-
able evidence, II there is such a thing
- In
failed to obtain it.
Nearly two years have now passed,
and the Nation can get Its "hind
siehtD on the affair. Nordhof conf
IDENTIFY predicted that the revolution
lists would come to grief. They have
not The very men whom the Ma
ton declared were scared conspira-
torsu were called men Of high charac-
ter by Mr.. Willis. 1t presented the
native race as stripped of its heaven
born rights, while the Holomau, the
Royalist native organ, some months
later, in a burst of rage because the
natives were totally Indifferent to the
situation, said that the race had gone
TO pieces over "poi and gin," and pos
sessed neither fight, industry nor man.
hood, and it acknowledged and proved
all the offenses that the revolutionists
had ever charged against il.
The Nation held that the success OF
the revolution was due to the presence
Of the American marines, but some
months afterward Ka Leo Qeading
native journal) declared, and we pub
lished its statement, that it was due
to the fact that Marshal c. b. Wilson
had a lot of "drunks" behind him,
with whom he could do nothing.
The attitude of the Nation shows
the great, almost insurmountable diff
ficulty, of getting at the truth, for his
toricaI purposes. Probably the Nation
trusted to some ''reliable citizen" for
some Information, in the first in
stance, just as the French press might
have relied upon such an eminent citi-
zen as Mr.. Condert, member of Tam
many hall, for a reliable account of
its high moral character, and, conse-
quently, would have called the oppo-
nents of Tammany, scared conspir-
ators," who were robbing the demo-
cratic majority of its rights.
The attitude of the Nation also
shows how miserably inefficient the
press ia, in gathering reliable material
for history. y man, without special
training in the history of political
evolution; and, probably, without
any of the legal training so valuable
in sitting out facts, in conflicting
controversy; called upon, every day,
TO consider all sorts of questions, with
q consciousness that no one proposes
70 stake a penny on his judgment in
any case, puts on his hat, runs around
the corner, meets q "Ieliable citizen"
comes back, makes up his mind off
hand about a certain matter, and then
proceeds to tell some thousands of his
readers that he knew all about il; and
in the case of Hawaii, confidently
tells them that a lot of missionary
pirates and thieves" are committing
infamous crimes, against \ high
minded, and suffering race. The
same man, spinning the same yarn,
in a city club, would be at once chal-
Ienged, by his fellows for his evil
dence, and he would fall back, OF
course, on some respectable CITIZEN"
like Mr.. Condert, who had carefully
informed him about things of which
he knew little or nothing. All OF this
is not extraordinary, and is well illus
trated in the recent Napoleonic Liter
allure, which is now, after ninety
years Of doubt, getting out the bottom
facts of that wonderful mans career.
An impartial and accurate history