The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-01-24

Extracts from a paper on the subject OF
Political Machinery, read by Mr;
w. y. Armstrong before the Social
Science Club on January 22d.
When the good man sees the execu-
tive, the judicial, the legislative form
of the government established, and in
| full operation, he feels that something
has been created which will continue
by it's own force like broad, tranquil,
steady stream flowing on forever to
the sea. He forgets that this river is
made up out of thousand streams
and rivulets arising out of open and
hidden sources, subject to storms and
winds and cloud-bursts; that the
purity of the water represents only
the average purity of the numerous
sources of supply. He forgets that
political machinery represents only
the average of the people who are be-
hind governments and the laws made
by governments.
We may start with this proposition :
That the government of a State re-
fleets the condition and character of
the voter. A despotism is seldom
found. Russia is governed by the inn
piled ard emphatic consent of the
governed. The majority of Russians
peasants, merchants and noblemen-
accept despotism, and will fight for
McCawley, Secretary of State for
Bengal, told me that if the Indians
| would think alike, the British would
vanish in day from India. The day
after the battle of Sedan, the French
people, by single thought, abolished
the Empire. No force was needed.
| All thought alike, and it was done.
Before that, they had consented to
| the Empire. 1t is under any form OF
| government-democr or monarch
| ical-that the minority suffer or be.
come martyrs. Tell me who your vot-
ers are, and can tell you what your
government is. Tell me how your
! government is conducted and / will
| tell you who your voters are. COnsti-
| tutiOns and laws must express the
average sentiments of the people or
| they become invalid. The members
| of the Legislature of Texas carry
| knives and pistols because the voters
| do. When the negro got possession OF
| the Legislature of South Carolina he
made the government of that State a
negro camp meeting. Great Britain
| gradually lowers the franchise in
| England, and as the lower classes get
! the ballot the tone of Parliament is
| III.
| this recession from the ideal but
these evils are only thorns OF the tree
| which Englishmen have planted. In
| America, the dominant power after
| the war established negro suffrage in
| the South. The statesmen did not see
| that the character of the government
! was largely made, at the ballotboX.
After twenty-five years Of experience
and experiment, they discover that
| the negro is drawing the bolts out OF
| the structure of good government, and
| he is, therefore, being passed over to
| the shotgun of the Southerner, though
| the gun is now concealed.
Constitutions and laws are not thee
| ries, but evolutiOns, the expression of
the sentiments of the people; and
they change as the sentiment changes.
Judges and juries and sheriffs, will
not enforce what are called unpopular
laws. The founders of the American
republic, appreciating the evils of a
deprecated paper currency, made
gold and silver the coin of the new
state. Their foresight was limited.
The civil war made paper money a
necessity. The executive and the
legislature made it a legal tender.
The judiciary, knowing the act was
unconstitutional, but compelled by
clared the act to be constitutional.
That is to say; they made the consti-
tuition conform TO the wishes of the
people, and virtually tore off piece
from that solemn instrument.
There is always a movement of
force and influence from the subject
or citizen towards the machinery of
government, just as steam moves
from the boiler to the engine, and, in
the long run, this force dominates.
In Hawaii, the native majority
clearly expressed itself in the char
acter of the government. The last
king and queen, were fair and true
exponents of the opinions of the aver
age subject. The struggle of good
men against bad government has been
merely the striking of heads against
stone wall; the attempt to raise water
above its level. The trouble has not
been so much with the rulers as with
the people behind the rulers. Men
hoped for good government when it
was not possible, as men hope for rain
in the Arabian Sea which never
comes. They tried to graft fine buds
on u tree rotten TO the core. Energy
and thought mas been wasted on a
hopeless problem. They prayed to God
that ne would break the reign of his
universal law, and do miracle on
these islands.
Pol tical machinery, the making
nd administration of laws, must be
conducted by few men, who obtain
their commissions from the real