The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-06-18
The Secretary OF States Paper
on Hawaiian Annexation.
Seems to Cover the Question in
All Its Phases.
THE ONLY WAY OPEN
Situation Has Changed Materi-
ally Since 1898.
Any Course But Annexation is
Out of the Question He Says.

WASHINGTON, June 18.-The senate in
executive session yesterday afternoon
made public the Hawaiian annexation
treaty and accompanying papers.
Accompanying the presidents mess
age and the treaty was the following
report from secretary Sherman:
The President:
The undersigned, secretary of state,
has the honor to lay before the preSl-
dent for submission to the senate
should II be deemed for the public in
terest to do so, a treaty signed in the
city of Washington on the 18th instant
nv the undersigned and by the duly
enoDowered representative OF the re-
n11l61ic of Hawaii, whereby the islands
constituting the said republic OF Ha-
wall and all their dependencies are ully
and absolutely ceded to the On1leo
States of America forever. 1t does not
seem necessary to the purpose of the
undersigned to review the incident OF
1893 when a similar treaty OF session
was signed on February IA ana submit
ted to the senate, being subsequently
withdrawn by the president on the 9tn
of March following. The negotiation
which has eliminated in the treaty now
submitted has not been a mere resuihp-
ton of the negotiation OF 1888, Dut was
initiated and has been conducted upon
independent lines.
Then an abrupt revolutionary move
m9nt had brought ABOUT the 0GbAAA OAAC
ruent Of the late queen and set up IN
stead of the heretofore titulary mon
archy a provisional government for the
control and management OF pupl1c al
fairs and the protection OF the PUBIC eI1,
peace, such government to exist only
until terms of union with the United
States should have been negotiated ana
agreed upon. Thus self-const1tuted,
its promoters claimed for 1t only de
facto existence until the purpose of an
nexation in which it took rise should
be ACCOMPLISHED AS time passed and
the plan of union with the United
States became an uncertain contln-
gency the organization of the HAWAII
an commonwealth underwent necessary
changes; the temporary character OF
it's government gave place TO a peIHlA-
nent scheme under constitution ram
ed by the representatives of the elect
ors of the island. Administration by
an executive council not chosen by sur
frage, but by self-appointment, was
succeeded by an elective and parna-
mentary regime and the ability of the
new government to hold as the republic
of Hawaii an Independent place in the
family of sovereign states, preserving
order at home and fulfilling interna-
tional obligations abroad, has been put
to the proof.
Recoenized by the powers of the
earth, sending and receiving ENJOYS
enforcing respect for the law and main
tanning peace within its island borders,
Hawaii sends to the United States, not
a commission representing successtuI
revolution, but the accredited plen1po-
Tertiary of a constituted and firmly es-
tablished sovereign state. however
sufficient may have been the authority
of the commissioners with whom the
United States government treated IN
1893 and however satisfied the pres
ident may then have been of their
power to offer the dominion of the Aa-
waiian islands to the United states,
the fact remains that what they then
rendered was a territory rather than an
established government, country
whose administration had been cast
down by q bloOdless but complete reVo.
luton and a community in a state of
political transition
Now, however, the republic OF Ha-
wall approaches the United States as
an equal and points for its authority
to that provision OF article 81 OF the
constitution, promulgated July "a, 1894:
The president, with the approval OF
the cabinet, is hereby expressly author
lied and empowered to make a treaty
Of political or commercial union be-
tween the republic of Hawaii and the
United States of America, subject to
the ratification of the senate
The present negotiation is therefore
a has been said not mere renewal of
the tender of Hawaiian territory made
in 1898, but has responded to the pur-
pose declared in the Hawaiian conSti-
tuition and the conferences of the pleni-
potentiaries have been directed to
weighing the advantages of the political
ana the commercial union alternative
proposed here relatively considering the
scope and the extent thereof. 1t soon
appeared to the negOtiators that a
purely commercial union on the lines
of the German zOliverein could not sat
isfy the problems of the administration
in Hawaii and of the political associa-
tions between the islands and the Uni
ted States. Such a commercial union
would on the one hand deprive the Ha-
waiian government of its chief source
of revenue from customs duties by plac-
F,a ffrV7 IF fr-oo
chs nge with the territory of the United
States, its main market of purchase and
supply while on the other hand it would
entail upon Hawaii the maintenance of
an internal revenue system on a par
with that of the United States, or else
involve the organization Of a CORES
pond ng branch of our revenue service
within q foreign jurisdiction.
We have had with Hawaii since 1875,
a treaty of commercial union, which
practically assinilates the two terri
tories with regard to many of their
most important productions and ex-
cludes other nations from enjoyment of
its privileges, yet although that treaty
has Outlived other less favored recip-
rOcity schemes, its pernlanency has at
times been gravely imperilled. Under
such circumstances to enter upon the
radical experiment of a complete COM
mercial union between Hawaii and the
United States as Independently SOW
ereign, without assurance of perman-
ency end with perpetual subsection to
the vicissitudes of public sentiment in
the two countries, was not to be thought
of.
Turning then to the various practical
forms of political union the several
phases Of a protectorate, an offensive
and defensive alliance and national
guarantee, were pa sed in review. In all
Ct these the Independence of the subor-
dinated state is the distinguishing fea-
ture and with it the assumption by the
para mount state of responsibility, with
out domain. The disparity of the rela-
tive interests and the distance Separat-
ing the two countries could not fail to
render any form of protective associa-
ton, either unduly burdensome, or il