Hawaii holomua = Progress. [volume] (Honolulu) 1893-1895, 1894-04-28


President in the first inssancel
Clearly it did duty as plain
and imperative as would be i'm
posed npon an individual whose
servants and agents. acting in his
maine ahd behalf, had enabled
one or two private contestants to
secure and make off with proper
ty which did not belong to him
except when won by his own un-
aided strength the duty. name
! ly, of aiding. within the limits of
his leg,l power. in restoring the
property to him from whom it
bad been thus wrongfully wrest-
ed.
Non-intervention, non-inter-
ference in the sense of interna.
iional or pnb!ic law, does not
mean aiding one of two parties
struggling for political supremacy
to achieve success. and then sit
ting idly by and allowing the
party Thus aided to enjoy the
fruit of its success on the plea of
non-interference. Honor and
Justice. good morals aud public
law alike require a nation in such
case to do what it can to right
Its wrong.
This and nothing else has been
the policy and action of the pre-
sent Administration. Such a
problem, unprecedented before
in our annals, could not have
fallen into better hands than
those of President Cleveland and
S cretary Gresham-men of the
keenest sense CT public and per-
sonal honor, ardent and patriotic
Americans, devoted to justice and
fair dealing. Unfortunately,
owing to action for which the
present Administration is not res
ponsibie, the wrong done by the
representative of the United
States mt Hawaii could not be
absolutely undone against the
will of the beneficiary of the
wrong. By the act of the Ameri-
can minister at Hawaii and of the
late Administration, the provl-
sional government had been re-
cognized by the United States
government as de facto govern
ment whose right to exist as an
independ mt government could no
longer be denied.
Only one course was open to
our government. n-meiy. to with
draw its further support from the
provisional government, to re-
! move Its troops from Hawaii, to
abandon all real or ostensible
protection of that government,
and. finally, to call on the pro-
visional government to return the
booty which by our aid it had
succeeded in gaining. To do
this was the aim and scope of the
Presidents policy. This is tue
exact measure of our duty as ex-
pressed in Secretary Gresham's
report of October Is. 1898. to the
President, and in the Presidents
message to Congress of the same
date and Secretary Gresham S
first Instructions to Minister
Willis of the same date. us we'll
as the more explicit instructions
of December 3. 1893. This is
likewise the policy faithfully
carried ont by Minister Willis in
all his dealings with the Queen
and the provisional government
"a policy which, of course, came
to a natural close with the refusal
of the provisional government to
accede to the demand and urg-
ency Of our government.
Partisans and Jingoists may
decry this policy and style it the
policy of infimy, but the Impair
tial Judgment and the instructed
conscience of the world, as we'll
as of the American people, will
honor and applaud it.
To descant. ms so many do, on
the alleged immortality of the
Queen. or on the fact that the
success of President Cleveland's
efforts would have restored a
monarch. is utterly beside the
mark BY the clear precepts of
all international law our govern
ment has not the least concern
with the personal character of a
foreign ruler, or with the form of
government of a foreign nation.
and it is proper to say here that
the evidence does not sustain,
but tends to negative, the accus-
ations made against the Queen
character.
When it is said the President
has been engaged in the offensive
task of trying To restore mon
archy, it is well to ask what sort
of a government now exists in
Hawtii. The Queens govern
ment was certainly a highly
limited constitutional monarchy,
but what Is the provisional gov
ernmentl A mere junta. bald |
oligarcy. an unrestrained desot-
ism, set NJ aud maintained with |
out the smallest reference to the