The record-union., 1897-06-18

the national Legislature in the case will
be performed with the largest regard
for the interest of this rich insular do
main and for the welfare of the inhab-
itants thereof.
civilian MCKINLEY.
Executive Mansion, Washington,
June 16, 1897"
SHERMAN'S LETTER
WASHINGTON, June 17.-Accom-
panying the message and treaty was the
following report from Secretary Sher-
man:
ITO the President: The undersigned,
Secretary of State, has the honor to lay
| before the President for submission to
the Senate, should it be deemed to the
public interest, the treaty signed in the
city of Washington, between the under
signed and by the duly empowered rep
resentatives of the Republic Of Hawaii,
whereby the islands constituting the Re-
public of Hawaii and all their dependen-
cies are fully ceded to the United States
| forever. 1t does not seem necessary TO
the present purpose of the undersigned
| to review the incident of 1893, when a
similar treaty Of cession was signed on
February 18th and submitted to the
Senate, being subsequently withdrawn
by the 9th of March following.
1.-The negotiation which has culnli-
mated in the treaty now submitted has
not been resumption of negotiation of
| 1898, but was initiated and has teen
conducted upon independent lines. Then
an abrupt revolutionary movement had
brought about the dethronement of the
late Queen, and set UP instead of the
heretofore titulary monarchy Provis-
| ional Government for the control and
management Of public affairs and the
protection of the public peace, such
| Government to exist only until terms of
union with the United States shall have
been negotiated and agreed upon. Thus
constituted it's promoters claimed for it
only de facto existence until the pur-
pose of annexation in which it took rise
should be accomplished.
LAS time passed, and the plan of union
with the United States became an uncer-
| tain contingency, their organization of
the Hawaiian commonwealth under
went necessary changes; the temporary
| character of it's first government gave
place to a permanent scheme under
constitution framed by the representa-
tives of the electors of the island; ad-
ministration by an executive council not
chosen by suffrage, but self-appointed,
| was succeeded by an elective and par
! liamentary regime and the ability OF
| the new government to hold as the Re-
| public of Hawaii, an independent place
IN the family of sovereign States, pre-
serving order at home and fulfilling in
ternational obligations abroad, has been
put to the proof. Recognized by the
Powers of the earth, sending and re-
ceiving ENJOYS and enforcing respect
for the laws and maintaining peace
within the islands borders, Hawaii
| sends to the United States not a COM
| mission representing revolution, but the
accredited plenipotentiary of a cOnsti-
tuted and firmly established sovereign
State. However sufficient may have
been the authority of the Commissioners
with whom the United States Govern
ment treated in 1898, and however sat
isfied the President may then have been
of their power to offer the domain of the
Hawaiian Islands to the United States,
the fact remains that what they then
rendered was a territory rather thar an
established Government, a country
whose administration had been cast
down by a 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 it's authority to
that provision of Article 80 of the Con-
stitution promulgated July "a, 1894:
no Anraf h rf
Cabinet, is hereby expressly authorized
and empowered to make a treaty of po-
litical or commercial union between the
Republic of Hawaii and the United
States of America subject to the ratifi-
cation of the Senate.
THE present negotiation is, there
fore, as has been said, not a mere re-
newal of the tender of Hawaiian terri
tory, as in 1893, but has responded to
the purpose declared in the Hawaiian
Constitution, and the conferences of the
plenipotentiaries have been directed to
weighing the advantages of the politi-
cal and the commercial union alterna-
tive proposed here, relatively consider
ing the scope and extent thereof.
1T soon appeared to the negotiators
that a purely commercial union on the
lines of the German Zollverein could
not satisfy the problems of the admin
istratiOn in Hawaiis political associa-
ton between the islands and the United
States. Such commercial union
would, on the other hand, deprive the
Hawaiian Government of it's chief
source of revenue from customs duties
by placing it's territory in a relation of.
free exchange with the territory of the
United States its main market of pur-
chase 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 corresponding branch of our rev.
enue service within a Jurisdiction.
1--WE have had with Hawaii since 1885
a treaty Of commercial union which
practically assimilates the two terrific
ries with regard to many of their most
important productions, yet, although
that treaty has not outlived less ia
vored reciprocity schemes. its perma-
nency has at times been gravely imper-
illed. Under such circumstances. 10
enter upon the radical experiment or
prompt commercial union between Ha-
wall and the United States as indie
pendently sovereign, without assurance
of permanency and with perpetual sub
lection to the vicissitudes of public sem
timent in the two countries. was not
to be thought of.
Turning, then, to the various prac-
teal forms of political union. the sew
eral phases of protectorate, an often
sive and defensive alliance in case of