Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-11-30
Why We Should Annex Hawaii.

states. Wnen you next dlluut W the SUI
ject will youplease give. for the informa'
ton of your readers. the present popu-
lation Of the island by nationalities.
have seen such statement within ter
DAYS, | think in the Boston Journal.
regret that / had not preserved it hut
to the best of my recollection it was
something like this: Natives. $4,000;
Americans less than 1900: English
and Portuguese, each several thousands
more than Americans and Chinese
many thousands more. besides many
OF other nationaiities.
1t does not seem to me that this
would make a desirable population
for a territory of the United States and
l feel quite sure that California would
not welcome them as a county.
We have now in Arizona and New
Mexico more of an alien element than
is conducive to good government.
How then would it be with terri
tory of 1900 Americans and a mongrel
lot of. say. $4,000 or 10000 nom Ameri-
cans If our form of government was
as flexible as that of England. If we
could hold the islands as colony as
England holds India, it might do.
Since it is otherwise may we be pre-
served from such an addition to our
electorate. r
Waterville. Nov. %. 1896.
The Hawaiian census of 1890 gives
the population of that country as So.
500. 5S.714 males and 1926 females. OF
this population in 1890 94,436 We're ma
tives. 6ls6 half-castes. 7495 born in
Hawaii of foreign parents, 1901 Chin
csc. r. 800 Japanese. $500 Portuguese.
1928 Americans 1874 British. 1884 Ger
mans and about 1900 other foreigners.
1t seems to us that our correspon-
dents view of the desira hility of an
nexing these islands is not broad
one Certainly it is not the one that
has animated the great statesmen OF
our country in the acquisition of the i'm
mensc territory that has been added
to the thirteen original colonies. JEFF
ferson was not diverted from the
Louisiana purchase in 1909. by the fact
that it's population, so far as it had
any population at all. was composed
of Spaniards. and Indians. The ques-
ton with him was not the narrow
and temporal one, Who lives there?" He
was patriot who saw beyond the
narrow confines of his own day and
generation. His only question was,
will the acquisition of this territory
add to the growth, and safety and
prosperity of my country" He be-
lieved that it would, and through him
the treaty of purchase negotiated with
Napoleon by Mr.. Livingston and Mr..
Monroe, was ratified by the United
States Senate. 1t is difficult now, in
the light of history. to conceive that
this broad and statesmanlike act of
more than any other, since the adop-
ton of the Federal constitution has con-
OF our country, could possibly have
called forth a btterand even vitupera-
tive storm of public condemnation and
abuse-but such was the fact. 1t is
also true that not an inch of territory
was ever added to the original colon
les, that did not call forth the most
vehement and determined opposition
of certain class of citizens: but JEFF
ferson did not belong to this class. He
was broader than his day and genera
ton. How wisely and we'll he builded
time has shown. Out of the magnifi-
cent stretch of territory he secured to
his country by the Louisiana pur-
chase have been carved the great
states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis-
souri,. Iowa. Kansas, Nebraska, Mime
sofa. west of the Mississippi, Colorado.
north of the Arkansas. North Dakota.
South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana
and Indian territory. The fact that
the population of Alaska was almost
wholly composed of Esquimaux did not
prevent our government from pur-
chasing this vast territory from Rus
STA. Today we are just beginning to
realize the vast resources, especially
IL mineral wealth, to be found there.
The head of the government survey
PARTY that recently returned from
there declares that it has the richest
deposits of gold in the world Who
doubts but what there will one day be
a population there in every way cred
liable to our country and loyal to its
| institutions? Never has any territory
been added to our thirteen original
| colonies that contained the degree OF
| material prosperity. or whose affairs
were so ably administered, by brave
and able men of American antecedents
and sympathies, as is the case in Ha-
wall today. There never was a terri
tory added to the original colonies
that could boast anything like the de.
gree of civilization, that is found to-
day in the fertile little country whose
executive affairs are directed by San.
| ford Il. Dole, a gentleman who doae