The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-05-02

"Minister Willis called on the
Minister of Foreign Affairs on the
| 80th of April, and read to him a letter
| from Secretary Gresham dated Feb
ruary 21st last, which he said had
been sent to Japan by mistake, in
| timating that Mr.. Thurston is no
| longer personally acceptable to the
Administration at Washington as
| Hawaiian Minister.
"The ground is that Mr.. Thurston
had allowed q representative of the
| press to read private letters to Mr..
Thurston from Honolulu concerning
tions of which were made public.
"These letters also contained criti-
cisms upon the policy of the Admins
tratiOn toward Hawaii which were
not published, but came to the knowl-
edge of Mr.. Gresham"
The above is the statement given
out by Minister Hatch yesterday
afternoon after the meeting Of the
Executive and Advisory Councils.
The communication was discussed
by the Cabinet at its morning ses-
sion, and a meeting of the Councils
was called at 4 o'clock in the after
noon. The session was a short
one, and no definite action was
taken upon the matter.
The letter of Secretary Gresham
regarding the Bowler case was also
placed before the legislative body.
This document reads as follows:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, /
WASHINGTON, April 5, 1895. !
ALBERT S. WILLIS, ESQ, Honolulu,
II. I.
SIR: 1t appears from your No. S8
of February % that on the 22d of that
month, J. F. Bowler was convicted
before military commission sitting
at Honolulu for participation or COM
plicity in the disturbance or uprising
in Hawaii early in January and sem
fenced to imprisonment at hard la
Dor for five years and to pay fine Of
$4,000; that he now claims protection
as an American citizen; and that the
Hawaiian authorities assert he is not
entitled to such protection because he
is a naturaliZed citizen of that Gov
ernment.
When Mr.. Bowler left this country
but on March Is, 1885, he voluntarily
took an oath to support the cOnstitu-
ton and laws of the Hawaiian Islands
and bear true alleg lance to the king,
without expressly renOuncing or re-
serving his allegiance to the United
States. Section 432 of the statute pre-
scribing this oath Compiled laws of
Hawaii, 1884,, provides that every
foreigner so naturaliZed shall be
deemed for all purposes a native of
the islands and subject only to their
laws and entitled to their protection,
and no longer amenable to his native
sovereign while residing in the king
dom nor entitled to resort to his ma
tive country for protection or inter
vention; that for every such resort he
shall be subjected to the penalties an
nexed TO rebellion, and that having
been thus naturaIized he shall be en-
titled to all the rights and immunities
of Hawaiian subject. I am Informed
that the Supreme Court of Hawaii has
held that the taking Of this oath oper-
ates to naturalize the alien and ad-
NIT him to full citizenship. II is not
claimed that since 1885 Mr.. Bowler
ever returned to the United States or
resided elsewhere than on the islands. |
This Government has never held to |
the doctrine of perpetual allegiance,
on the contrary from its organization,
it has maintained that the right to |
throw off ones natural allegiance and |
assume another is inallenable. "Ex-
patriation," said Attorney General |
Black in 1859, "IncluGes not only emf |
grafton out of ones native country,
but naturalization in the country |
adopted as future residence" The |
effect of naturalization is to place the |
adopted citizen in the same relation |
to the government as native citizens |
or subjects. The right of the Ha |
waiian Government with his consent |
to adopt Mr.. Bowler as fully as if he |
had been born upon its soil is as clear |
as his right to expatriate himself. He |
manifested his intention of abandon |
ing his American citizenship by TAX
ing the oath to support the cOnstitu-
ton and laws of Hawaii and bear
true allegiance. to the king, and, so
far as known, he manifested no con-
trary intention before his arrest. |
That oath is inconsistent with his
allegiance to the United States. By
taking it, he obliged himself to sup
port the government of his adoption,
even to the extent of fighting its bat
ties in the event of war between it
and the country of his origin. He
could not bear TRUE allegiance to
both governments at the same time.
The President directs that you in