The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-22
DANIEL WEBSTER'S SHORT VS.
ION.

When we think of the teeming popu-
lation which now fills many portions Of
our country west of the Rocky Noun
tains. and remember how famous,
all over the world, is their
singular beauty and their incom-
parable value to the tourist, the
health seeker, the agriculturist and
the horticuIturist, as well as the miner,
il is interesting TO read what so intelli-
gent statesman as Daniel Webster
thought Of them just fifty years ago,
and TO know that his views were
shared by many other prominent pub
lie men of the time. In a speech de-
livered in the United States Senate in
1874, with regard to the proposal that
a mail service should be established
between Missouri and the Pacific Coast,
Webster said: What do we want
with this vast worthless area, this re-
gion of sayages and wild beasts, of
deserts. of shifting sands and whirl-
winds of dust, of cactus and prairie
dogs? To what use could we ever hope
to put these great deserts, or these
endless mountain ranges, impenetrable
and covered to their bases with eter-
nal snow? What can we ever hope to
do with the western coast, a coast OF
three thousand miles, -rock-bound,
cherries and uninviting, with not a
harbor on it? What use have we for
such a country? Mr.. President, 1 will
never vote one cent from the public
treasury to place the Pacific coast one
inch nearer Boston than it is today. -
Scientific American.
And yet this statesman, who
failed to see the great value OF the
Pacific coast, said in 1912, to
General Marshall of these Islands,
who, while on his way to London
as Hawaiian Commissioner, visited
him while Secretary of State, eff
England interferes in those Islands
1.-THE Hawaiian we will make fuss
about it." His craftsmanship fail
ed to grasp the inevitable growth
of the nation. Far-sighted as he
was. he had never studied the posi-
bilities of national growth. He
was hardly in advance of the early
and ignorant Virginia pioneers,
who in 1905, pushed their way in
boats up the James river to Rich
mond, in the hope of finding just
beyond that place, the entrance to
the great South ocean," As they
utterly failed to conceive the vast
boundaries of the continent, so
Mr.. Webster, two hundred and
fifty years later, failed to detect the
possible growth of the AnglO-Sax-
on race on the same continent.
The singular aspect of the case
is, that his imagination could take
a flying leap over the continent and
the sea, and with almost superna-
tural vision, see the value of this
Pacific domain, while it utterly
failed to conceive of the magni-
icent empire lying before it.
In Justice to the memory of Mr..
Webster, it must be said that the
reasons which led him to take this
apparently far reaching view of
Americas relations to Hawaii, were
the furnishing whaling trade IN
the Pacific, and the great import
ance of these Islands as a resting
and supply station. There was no
speculation about it. 1t was an ex-
listing fact. The semi-annual call
at this port of several hundred
whale ships compelled the vigi-
lance of the American Govern
ment, lest some other power should
seize the Islands and cripple the
industry. But the whale men
slaughtered the whales, just as the
seal men kill off the seals, reckless
" and without note of the future.
The real present, the Importance of
Hawaii, fell into temporary abey-
ance, only to rise again as the sky
become dark in the Orient.