The record-union., 1894-01-10
THE HAWAIIAN MUDDLE.

Acting under the instructions of the Ad-
ministration, Minister Willis at Honolulu
has put the American nation into gro
tesque attitude, one likely to make it the
laughingstock of nations. This repre-
hensible action is due to the effort to do
that which the Administration in the
very breath with which it made it's de-
mand, declared it had not the ability to
enforce.
The RECORD UNION commended the
President for applying to nations the
same rule of moral obligation that is i'm
posed upon individuals. On the basis of
the integrity of Mr.. Blount's report, the
President found that our Minister had
unwarrantedly interfered in the domestic
affairs of another nation, and that through
such interference certain things had been
accomplished by one party, in the face of
the protest of the other that it was power
less to resist because of the interference
of and menace by the United States.
Thus believing, the President sought to
right the wrong he held to have been
committed. 1t was high moral purpose;
it required extraordinary courage to en-
tertain it in the face of public clamor.
But it was sufficient for him to have at
tempted. When he found that the Pro-
visional Government was founded on
something more than the blunder of re-
cognition by the Harrison Administra-
ton, he should have withdrawn the
United States from the whole matter and
left affairs to their own course.
AS the RECORD UNION said when it first
became apparent that without employ
ment of the threat of force, the President
could not attain the end he had in view
the righting of wrong-he should have
withdrawn from the whole affair." AS we
then said, so we now repeat
Two blunders have been made In this Haw-
allan matter. First, when President Harrison
with haste acknowledged The Provisional
Government, recognized it as a Government
before 1t had demonstrat through some CON
siderable time that it had capacity to main
tain itself
The next mistake was made by Mr. Cleve-
land in assuming that the recognition by
General Harrison had created Government.
He proposed, therefore, to reverse the revolu-
tion by withdrawing recognition that should
not have been given when 1t was. To do this.
he resolved that the old condition should be
restored and the Queen returned to her
throne. But he finds that this will not be con-
sented TO quietly by the revolutionists. So
between these two errors, there is but one
thing to do, and that is for the United States
TO withdraw from the whole business.
The secresy and mystery that has
marked the whole progress of the affair
has been ridiculous. We had defended
the silence of officials bearing dispatches,
and the republication of diplomatic
correspondence before its completion.
But the air of consequence and profound
mystery that has invested other affairs in
this whole Hawaiian busi&ess, affairs that
turn out to be commonplace and of pub
licity in Honolulu, is ridiculous and in
finitely more disquieting than the fullest
and earliest publicity of all Government
action in the Hawaiian matter could
possibly be.
The whole thing has assumed now an
un-American phase; it is humiliating
and the action of Minister Willis now re-
ported is as grotesque as it is reprehensi-
BILE. Whether we should annex the
Sandwich Islands or not; whether the
Queen should be restored or the Provis-
ional Government be taken under our
protecting wing, are not now matters of
concern compared with the preservation
of the dignity of the United States and
its reputation among the nations for
possession Of fair degree of common
sense.