Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-12-09
ANNEXATION OF HAWAII.
Dignity and Honor Require Confirm
alton of the Treaty.


BY a special message dated the 10th day
of June last, / laid before the senate
treaty signed that day by the plenipo-
tares Of the United states az ana OF dse re RE
Incorporation of the Hawaiian islands as
an integral part of the United States and
under it's sovereignty; The senate having
the treaty is still pending before that body
the subject may be properly referred to In
this message because the necessary action
legislation many details of the eventual
union should the fact of annexation be &C
complished as believe 1t should be:
While consistently disavowing from
very early period any aggressive policy OF
absorption in regard to the Hawaiian
group, long series of declarations through
three-quarters of century has proclaimed
the vital interest of the United States in the
Independent life of the islands and their
intimate commercial dependence upon this
country. At the same time it has been re-
peatedly asserted that in no event could the
entity of Hawaiian statehood cease by the
passage of the islands under the DONNA
ton or influence of another power than the
United States. Under these circumstances
the logic of events required that anneXa-
ton, heretofore offered but declined, should
in the ripenesS of time come about as the
natural result of the strengthening ties
that bind us to those islands, and be real
lied by the free will of the Hawian state
That treaty was unanimously ratified
without amendment by the senate and pres
ident of the republic of Hawaii on the 10th
of September last, and only awaits the IA
vorable action of the American senate to
effect the complete absorption of the
islands into the domain of the United States.
What the conditions of such a union shall
be, the political relation thereof to the
United States, the character of the local
administration, the quality and degree of
the elective franchise of the inha bitants,
the extension of the federal laws to the
territory or the enactment of special laws
to fit the peculiar condition thereof, the reg
ulation if need be of the labor system
therein, are all matters which the treaty
has wisely relegated to the congress.
Should BE Confirmed.
If the treaty is confirmed, as every con-
sideration of dignity and honor requires,
the , wisdom of congress win see to it that,
perhaps hardly yet fitted to share in the
highest franchises of citizenship, and hav-
i tfa,s due regard to the geographical condi-
IN local matters with the largest political
l1berties as an integral part of our nation,
VII, VIII be accorded to the Hawaiians. No
less Is due to people who, after nearly
five years of demonstrated capacity to full
MI the obligations of self-governing state
hood, come of their own free will to merge
their destinies in our body polite.
The questions which have arisen between
Japan and Hawaii by reason of the treat
the islands under the Observation-Disclosures
convention OF 1888 are in a satisfactory
stage of settlement by negotiation. This
government has not been invited to medi-
intervention in that matter further than
to evlnce its kindliest disposition toward
such speedy and direct adjustment by the
TWO sovereign states in interest as shall
comport with equity and honor. 1t is
gratifying to learn that the apprehensions
at first displayed on the part Of Japan,
lest the cessation of Hawafi's national life
through annexation might impair privi-
lleges to which Japan honorably laid claim,
have given place to confidence in the
uprlghtness of this government and in the
sincerity of it's purpose to deal with all
possible Interior questions in the broadcast
spirit of friendliness