Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-22
The E1-Minister Taking Active Part
in Hawaiian Affairs.
MANY ANXIOUS FOR ANNEXATION
Utterances Made at Recent Popular
Meetings.
CONDITIONS IN THE ISLANDS

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
HONOLULU. June 8. 1895.
The observance of Decoration day be-
comes increasingly impressive every year.
Last Thursday saw in procession 300 ma
tional guards and 200 of the Philadelphia's
men. About twenty-five veterans of the
De Long Post of the G. A. r. were the
chief actors There was an unprecedented
profusion of flowers, in immense variety.
Half the graves in the large cemetery were
literally banked up with flowers. All the
gardens in the city must have been strip
ped. Pltifully there were no roses, in this
town three years ago full of roses to pro-
fusion. A vile nightbug from Japan has
killed nearly all our rosebushes by de-
vouring the leaves. Only those standing
In the glare of electric light survive. But
there were splendid carnations. glorious
water lilies, stephanotis. gardenia, plu-
maria. and hundreds of other sorts. among
them long streamers of bright yellow flow
ers. which overgrow whole trees in the
door yards.
The De Long Post had chosen L. A.
Thurston to be orator of the day. This
ELECTED disapproval from the two opposi-
ton papers, Independent and Bulletin. who
deemed it an affront to Mr.. Cleveland, who
had branded Thurston with his dispieasure
But those papers are scarcely recognized
dS eNpOHeNlS OF american sentiment. ne
veterans persisted. and the ex-minister ad
dressed them. standing quite near United
States Minister Willis, who was made the
medium of his removal from Washington.
The speaker was unusually eloquent, as
Honolulu oratory goes and the post could
not easily have chosen as well. Thurston
inherits ardent American patriotism. being
the grandson of two thorough Yankee mis-
sionary couples. He is sinewy in frame
and in speech. 1t Is true, he said. that
Americans love of country grows inversely
as the square of their distance from home.
They remember all the good of the land of
freedom and minimize all it's evils. There
are no more devoted Americans than we
who were born in Hawaii of American par
ents. But Col. Blount would have none of
us. We were outcasts in his view-men
without country. Hawaii belonged solely
to the natives and their Queen LII, and We
were neither Hawaians nor Americans.
Thurston naturally FESTIVE at that
sort of Arbitration by Col. BIount's tri-
bunal. and so incurred Mr.. Gresham's dis
pleasure.
Mr.. Thurston's Real Ofcnse.
AS has already been given out from the
State Department, Mr.. Thurston's real Of
tense was not the trifing matter occurring
last February, but it was his vigorous bat
Ting. in November, 1898. against the in
credible assumption that President Cleve-
land had held court of arbitration upon
the case of Queen Liliuokalani VS.. the pro-
viSional government which depoSed her.
Thurston'S written protest of December u
pas thoroughly destructive of that pre-
tense of arbitration, and Gresham never
forgave him for 1t, but always counted him
a detestable enemy. Thurston showed then,
as was again pointed out by Dole to Willis
few weeks later, that no agreement to
arbitrate the question had ever been made;
the issue had never been formulated; time
and place Of trial had never been notified;
Col Blount's Investigation" had been
cret and eX parte. The provisional govern
ment had never met the queens. witnesses
or known who they were, or presented
their own; no forms of tribunal had been
observed; this government had never i'm
agined that their right to exist had been
the subject of Blount's inquiries, but sup
posed that he was looking into the ex-
pediercy of annexation. Yet suddenly Pres
ident Cleveland pronounced the decision of
his tribunal and through Mr.. Willis or
dered Dole to step down and out and re-
store the queen. 1t was against that
enormous and incredible injustice that
Thurston had demonstrated in q decorous
and powerful state paper. 1t was his un-
pardonable ofense for which he has now
paid the penalty. He had the assurance
to question the jurisdiction of the Presi-
dent. He is expelled from the court for
contempt.
Thurston's report of his own case has
not yet been presented 1t is likely soon to
be handed in, and no doubt will be inter-
esting reading. He has been busy with
helping Gen. Hartwell as government coun-
sci in Neumann's appeal case before the
supreme court seeking to snow the I'M
constitutionality of the military commits
sion. AS a side diversion, he made tell
ing speech before the American League
the evening of the 18th. The time had ar
rived for three rumorS which had gained
some currency to be publicly refuted. Roy
alists were the authors and chief promoters
of the stories. but many on our side had
come to feel doubt. One was that Tnurston
was in favor of restoring the monarchy
under Kaiuani. 1t had no semblance of
foundation. He denied it with derision,
quoting Senator John T. Morgan's words.
When a throne falls in the western hem!-
sphere 1t is pulverzed and when a
scepter departs. 1t departs forever
Arguing for Annexation.
A second report related to the attorney
general, w. o. Smith, who was circun-
stantially reported to have told John Rich
ardson, a half-white royaist, of more abil-
ity than veracity, that the government
favored not annexation. but independence
with United States support to the existing
government. Thurston declared that what
Smith said was that he believed anneNa-
ton was the sole solution of our difficulty:
but If Richardson Gid not like the word
annexation and preferred the expression
political union he did not care what he
called it SO long as the United States flag
should fly over this country as the supreme
authority" Mr.. Smith, in a speech fol-
lowing Thurstons, declared whenever the
government gives up the cause of anneSa-
ton 1 want to get out of it. Annexation
is the only hope of the country and of the
Hawaiian race"
A royalist sheet, the Independent. partly
edited by Danish brCther-in-law of Rich
ardson, insists that the latter is to be be-
lieved and not Smith, whose political life
is imperiled" If Richardson spoke the
truth. That is true, because all the men,
bers of the government and all it's support
ers are unvaryingly and absolutely for an
neXaticn, and no man otherwise minded
could be one of their number. AS to honor
and veracty, the Dane gave his relative
away in the next paragraph by adducing.
to prove him actuated by no unfriendly
motives, the fact that Richardson had just
nominated Smith guardian Of his sis
ter's orphan family. Smiths hands are
full of trusts of all sorts. I never heard
of Richardson having any.
A third series of rumors was of serious
dissensons in the cabinet. This Thurston
denounced a lie out of whole cloth. He
continued by setting forth various cogent
reasons for seeking annexation. Chief
among these was the impossibility in SO
small and weak country of securing en-
t;y 1r-b;l ;,,ln