Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-05

| ions uelQ IOr our OW IL stiusuhcoe anu . HA'
- ought not say to be deferred by the cry
that water, the highway of commerce, Is
y bar to this expansion which tfacKiess oes'
y erts has not confined nor by puerne fears
that We are unequal to legislate Tor the IN
Corporation of any territory into our ood!
polite.
Out of the vast aggregate of Island terri
J torv which darkens the chart of the Pacific
J west of the 14Oth meridian, there remains
, today only two important island groups I'M
} absorbed by European powers. Hawaii am
Samoa in corresponding and commanding
{ positions in the North and South Pacific
Hawaii standing, ",he jewelled outpost of
our Golden Gate" and Samoa. where mus
. pass that rich traffic to Australia and to the
Indies, to which the parting of this Con-
tinent and the union of the seas shall give
birth.
Regarding these two groups there has
been written, my friends, there is still be-
ing written chapter discreditable and I'M
paralleled in our diplomatic history.
l say, still being written, and to what de
gree of abasement the nation is now being
carried by fanatical policy poisoned b,
the personal pique of the secretary Of the
State, we are not permitted to know. But
we do know this, that so far as it has be-
come known, it has excited the ridicule and
contempt of other nations and the quick
condemnation of our own. So far as re-
CARDS the opinion of other nations we need
not much concern ourselves, but we have
serious grievance in our own mistreatment
If there is anybody on earth from whom
the people of this country have the right to
expect honest and straightforward state
ments it is from the President of the United
States in regard to the trusts with which he
is charged. And if there is any President IL
Ill our history whose professions give US
the right to expect this above all,it ia Presl-
dent Cleveland. But / submit that regarding
Samoa and Hawaii he was not dealt fairly
by our confidence. His messages to Con-
gress regarding these have been declara-
, tons of prejudice, presenting case made
up, not those of patriotic President sub
hitting question to the wider discretion
of Congress.
| They have been messages of denunclG
ton, of the denunciation that would destroy,
containing none of the suggestions of a
statesman who would rearrange and build
up. They have been messages Of decep-
ton, designed to conceal the very informa-
ton they profess to give.
to blind public opinion while BY means it
would not sanction, the country is led along
into pitfalls that might we'll have been pre-
pared by our enemies, such embarrassment
and shame our extrication has cost us.
/ speak first of the question of Samoa,
not because it is the most important, but
because it is SO little understood. Probably
there is no question in which our govern
ment has become so deeply involved, so
little understood as this. Who knows how
it was that our relations there a few years
ago brought us to the verge of war with
Germany, and actually cost us in lives and
treas sure the price itself of war? Who
; knows the point of honor behind all this
and the material interests at stake? The
letter of the secretary of state transmitted by
the President does not enlighten, nor was il
designed to do so. Apparently it is directed
against the present agreement regarding
Samoa, commonly known as the Berlin Act.
Really it is directed against our whole poll
cy which has brought us there.
If the conception of Mr.. Cleveland and
Mr.. Gresham of the duties of their high Of
fees be indeed to undo and destroy what
has been done for us in the Pacific by the
preceding administration if, as regards
Samoa, they wish not only to undo this, but
to set aside for naught what has been
gained for us by President Grant, by Sec
retaries Fish, Evarts, las well as by Benz amin
Harrison and James G. Blaine, let them
proceed, but let us have an end to false
pretences aud let them honestly avow the
, reason for their action
! My friends, am not here as a partisan
of the Berlin Act but having witnessed the
labors of those who framed it, knowing the
. history of its inception and having partici-
, pated in its workings when put into execu.
: ton. | protest against the misrepreserta-
ton made of it which enable the President
and the secretary of state to use 1t as
stalking horse behind which for motives of
their own they attack connection long and
. advantageously maintained by our govern
. ment.
' We have not time for details, but this
much should be known, that the Berlin AcI
, had its occasion in the events of Me-. Cleve-
lands first administration, and comes very
near being his own creation. During con.
ference which he had summoned at Wash
: ington to discuss Samoan affairs ON the
: agreed basis of the preservation OF
the neutrality of the Islands, a German
squadron seized them, deported the King
and outrageously violated the treaty rights
8 of American citizens. The sffront was fla
grant II not lntent0nal. For less than
e this, far weaker nations have rushed to war
n Mr.. Cleveland and his secretary of state
: sat mute. The country called loudly for
S action. To appesse public sentiment the
ships were sent and sacrificed TO the blum,
e dering incompetency of the administration
Under the leadership of senator from this
! State, Congress appropriated 100000 for
: the Profession of our interests and the oc.
J cupation of our harbor there. Germany
o alarmed, proposed a renewal of the confer.
y ences which she had high-handedly broken
up. And President Harrison and Secretary
: Blaine, with a patriotic regard for our posi-.
1 ton before the world, as well as for the re.
r spect due the action of their predecessors
u sentiment to which the present President
and his secretary of state are apparently
strangers, went on with the conference and
i appointed delegates. There was the bril-.
e liant, and American, the lamented William
$ Walter Phelps, there was the astute Kas-
i son, and Bates, of Delaware, Samoan
> student. man of learning and of heart
They worked long and laboriously, and the
: act was the result.
) So much for the Genesis of the Berlin
: Act. 1t restored the status quo at the time