The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1896-07-24


other instance with tact, wisdom
and dignity unsurpassed by any OF
his prececessors-pIaced the Gov
erpment in a false and embarrassing
position, from which only the stupid
ohstinacy OF the queen and her adj
visers gave us the lucky chance to
withdraw Carried away by their
sense Of the gross injustice which
had been done, both the President
and Mr.. Gresham failed to recog'
uize the sad fact, as true in the inter
course OF nations as in the relations
OF men, that there are wrongs which
can never be wholly righted, status
quo which can never be wholly re-
uewed, however maguanimous and
anxious for restitution the offender
may be. Because we had wrongly
interfered to depose queen did not
Justify us in wrongful interference
to reinstate her.
The plain implication to be drawn
from the language which Mr., Willis,
who in the meantime had succeeded
Mr.. Blount, was instructed to use,
was that if the queen should grant
iul amnesty to all who participated
in the movement against her" the
United States would lend its aid to
put her back, even to the extent OF
using armed force. Fortunately for
us the queen refused to give this
pledge; the leaders OF the provision
al government declared that they
would fight for their newly acquired
rights, and the Secretary Of State
was able to retrieve his mistakes by
telegrapbing to the Minister instruc-
tons to insist on the promise OF
complete amnesty, adding the eau
ton that should she ask whet her,
il she agreed, active steps to rein
state her would be taken, then he
was to answer that the President
could not use force without the
authority OF Congress-" In his
Message reviewing the facts, in De-
cember, 1898, the President failed to
distinguish between the right to
compensation and the duty of rein
statement, and wrongly insisted
upon the latter. But the queens
refusal to accept his conditions
forced him to submit the whole
matter to Congress, and both
Houses, after passing sound resolu.
tions approving the principle Of
confederation and pronouncing
annexation or protectorate mex.
pedient, let the matter drop. The
blunder was as nothing weighed
against the noble ser7ice which the
Administration rendered by it's
prompt action in saving the country
from the incalculable dangers and
far reaching consequences to which
we were all but committed by the
Republican President and Secretary
of State. The future student Of
American history who reads OF their
extraordinary attempt to revolu-
tionize our national policy by the
incorporation, as part OF our body
polite, Of the territory and inhabi-
tants OF group of islands two thou
sand miles away from our extreme
western coast, without warning,
without an examination of the facts,
and almost without debate, will lay
litti stress on the later error of the
De. ,ocratic President " no saved us
from all this, and whose mistake was
after all only mistake OF methods
from the consequences of which we
luckily escaped,-The Forum.
stevens was an appointee Of
Blaine, his former partner in the
Kennebec Journal" He seems to
have imbibed, aud attempted to
carry out, the views of the late Re.
publican Secretary of State. Blame
said in 1881, when member OF Gar
fields Cabinet, that Hawaii was
part OF the protective aud CONNER
clal system OF the United States"
and in 1892 declara6 ~ consular I ha