The Hawaiian gazette., 1897-10-26
REPRESENTATIVE men PRESENT
Each Side Allowed an
Hour and Five Minutes.
Whole Question of Commercial
Advantage to Pacific Coast
Reviewed.

On the goth of September the Pacific
Unitarian Club held its first regular
meeting since vacation at the Cali
fcrnia Hotel in San Francisco. The
subject, by appointment, was 1.-The An
nexation of Hawaii" and three mem
bers were selected to debate on each
side of the question. An hour and
five minutes were given each side.
There were many representative Cali
fornians present, and the subject was
ably discussed by prominent men.
The quotations from the debate are
from the Pacific Unitarian.
The opening argument was by Will
liam H. Mills. 1t is summarized by
the Unitarian as follows: In every ma
uon and in every community, two
forces are in contention: Progress and
Conservatism. Progress is impelled by
those forces which produce upward
movements in national life. and Con-
servatism is the resistance which
Progress must encounter and over
which would occupy the club for the
evening, possessed a high moral, as
well as national interest. When. in
1872, Kentucky applied for admission
as a State into the Union, the bill was
discussed in Committee of the Whole
IN both branches of Congress. A mi
nority, representing the conservatism
OF the time, objected, on the ground
that the original thirteen Colonies had
achieved liberty for themselves, but
that the compact between them did not
involve the extension of sovereignty to
other States. The minority entertained
the opinion that liberty was thing
which would be diminished rather
than augmented, by its extension. The
error of the minority was referable to
the want of familiarity with the truth
that the extension of the right of self
government, added to the security of
the exercise of that right on the part
OF those already possessing it. The
analogy in the minds of this mistaken
minority was drawn from experiences
OF past usurpations.
When a government extends sover-
eighty over a territory or people by
way of conquest, and holds those
people in subsection, the exercise of
force is necessary, and the government
exercising it may be weakened: but in
corporation with representation, and
the extension of the doctrine that gov
eminent derives its just power from
the consent of the governed, lays the
foundation of the central authority in
that government broader and deeper,
and thus adds strength to the whole
structure.
The petition of the people of Ken
lucky professed devotion to the prin-
ciple of self-government and to the
union Of the States. The minority OPP
posed TO the admission of this first
State, urged the obvious fact that
enough territory existed out of which
the first States were formed to event
ually overbalance the power of the or
iginal thirteen States, and thus the
scepter of sovereignty would pass from
them. The fundamental error of the
minority resided in the mistaken idea
that the central authority of a fedora
ton of sovereign States was weakened
by the multiplicity of such States.
In the retrospect, this argument ap-
pears TO us as wholly untenable and
absurd. The argument urged against
the admission of Kentucky was based
upon the same mistaken ideas which
opposed the acquisition of the Louis
lana Territory from France and the
Territory of Florida from Spain. 1t
opposed the annexation of Texas, and,
subsequently, the requirement of the
Pacific territory coded to the United
States by the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1916. Opposition in all
these instances was from the stand
point of existing conditions.
True craftsmanship involves at
least a century in its horizons. Nations
are constructed, not for today, but for
all future time. The club would not
understand the true merits OF the issue
involved in the discussion unless it
occupied the view point of the high
table-lands, where the topography of
human history and human destiny
might be better comprehended.
The United States possessed an en-
pire of territory west of the Rocky
Mountains. Since its acquisition, it
had awaited the coming of an empire
of wealth and population. Its true
greatness would begin when the pro-
vincial relation it occupies to the At
lantic States ceases. Its true growth
would date from the time when the
sea became a paramount and control
ing factor in its commercial and in
dustriai development. The sea would
confer upon the Pacific States and
Territories Independent commercial
relations and original industrial pros
perity. The provincial condition in
which the intimacy of communication
with the Atlantic seaboard held the
Pacific States and Territories, would
pass away only by the requirement
of commercial and industrial indie
pendence, and these could be conferred
only with the sea as the paramount