The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-03-20

: property and liberty in contemplation.
there would still be enough in the
conditions now presented there TO ex-
cite the most anxious interest of our
people. Citizens of the United States
with wisdom, charity, Christian faith
and a love of constitutional govern
ment, have patiently, laboriously, and
honestly built up Hawaii into = civ
ilized power under q written cOustitu-
ton, and they can justly claim the
sympathy and assistance of all civ
iliZed people in resisting its destruc-
ton, either to crafty wantOn lust
of absolute power on the part OF the
Queen, or the abuse of its authority in
fostering vice and rewarding crime.
The facts of recent history present
broadly and distinctly the question
between an absolute aud corrupt
monarchy in Hawaii, and a govern
ment in which the rights and liberties
guaranteed by u written constitution
shall be respected and preserved. The
facts do not show that the people who
built up this constitutional system
and have based upon it wholesome
laws and a we'll balanced and well
guarded plan of administration have
had any desire to abrogate the organic
laws, corrupt the statute laws, or to
dethrone the Queen. In every phase
of their dealings with these questions
their course has been conservative,
and the defense of their lives, liberty
and property, and the honest admin
| istration of the government has been
the real motive OF their actions. They
are not, therefore, TO be justly classed
as conspirators against the Govern
ment. That they turn their thoughts
toward the United States and desire
annexation to this country could not
be denied without imputing to them
the loss of the sentiment of love and
reverence for this Republic that is
utterly unknown to our people.
On Monday, the 18th of January,
| 1858, Hawaii was passing through the
severe ordeal of trial which was
| conducted by the people who arrayed
| themselves on the side of the Queen
and those who were organized in OPP
position to her revolutionary pur-
poses. The Queen seems to have
abandoned the controversy into the
hands of the people, and made no
effort to suppress the meeting of the
citizens opposed to her revolutionary
proceedings by calling out her troops
TO disperse the meeting or to arrest its
leaders. Both the meetings were quiet
and orderly, but the meeting at the
arsenal was intensely earnest, and men
were heard to express their opinions
freely and without interruption at both
meetings, and they came to their resO-
lutions without disturbance. When
these meetings dispersed, the Queens
effort TO reject the constitution of 1887
had haan pnnrnyraI bxrt tho
ing held Oh the palace grounds and
composed almost entirely of native
Kanakas the other meeting had re
solved to establish a provisional gov
eminent, and formed a committee to
proceed with its organization. The
Queen, though thus strongly endorsed
by her native-born subjects, as she
calls them, did not venture any arrests
of the alleged revolutionists, but evil
IDENTIFY conscious that the revolution
which she had endeavored to set on
foot had failed of efficient support,
she did not use her troops or the po-
lice or any other power in the direc-
ton OF asserting her royal authority.
The meeting of the people at the
arsenal was followed by organization,
the arming of the citizens, the strong
array OF forces, and q determined
spirit of success which has material
lied into an established government
that has continued to exist for more
than year, practically without any
opposition in Hawaii, aud with the
recognition of many great powers, in
Guiding the United States These
events show, beyond reasonable dis
pute, the acceptance by the people of
Hawaii Of the judgment and determi-
nation of the meeting at the arsenal
that the Queen had abdicated, that
her authority had departed, that she
and her ministers had submitted to
the inevitable, and that they retained
no longer any substantial ground of
nope or expectation that the Queen
would be restored to her former office.
The question whether such state
of affairs as is shown by the undisput-
ed facts in this case constitute an alb
1icatiOn and created an interregnum
was passed upon in England with
more care, because of the serious re
suits that followed the decision, than
seems to have been bestowed upon a
Ike controversy in any other coun-
Try.
The people of Great Britain have
many liberties that are firmly estab-
ny, and on many occasions they have
Isserted their rights, as the basis Of
governmental power, with great deter
n1nation and success. In 1858, when
lanes III was on the throne, his severe
onduct, exercised through the Judi
larry of the Kingdom and in other
ways, and strong adhesion to the
Jathollc religion, caused the people of
treat Britain to accuse him of an in
ention to violate their unwritten con-
tltution. He was a great and power
I'll king, and had accomplished very
much for the glory and honor of Eng
and. But the people of England held
nm to an observance Of the spirit of
rs oath of loyalty TO TN constitution
that country, and, when they be
anne satisfied that he had made an
fort to subvert it, they in their Par
lament passed upon the question of
is abdication and held that his inten-
oI and effort to violate the constitu-
OH robbed him of his fitI. t. A.