Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1897-12-16
MCKINLEY ON ANNEXATION
The President Of the United States
Regards 1t as a Logical Sequence.
Every Consideration Of Dignity and Honor
Requires the Confirmation Of the
Annexation Treaty.

ley's message to Congress which
relates to Hawaii:
BY special message, delivered
the 18th day of Juoe last, L laid
before the Senate of the United
States treaty signed that day by
the plenipotentiaries of the United
States and of the Republic of Ha-
waii having for it. purpose the
incorporation of the Hawaiian
Islands rs an integral part Of the
United States and under its sover-
eighty. The Senate having remov
ed the injunction of secrecy, al
though the treaty is still pending
before thbt body, the subjsc. may
be properly referred to in this
message because the necessary
action of Congress is required to
determine by legislation many
details of the eventual union
should the fact OF annexation be
accom- pl'shed, as 1 believe it
should be.
While consistently disavowing
from very ca ly period any
aggressive policy of absorption in
regard to the Hawaiian group, a
long series of discussions through
three quarters of century has
proclaimed the vital interest of
the United States in the indepen-
dent life of the islands and their
intimate commercial dependency
upon this country. At the same
time it has been repeatedly assert
ed that in no event could the en-
tity of Hawaiian statehood cease
by the passage of the island un-
der the domination or influence of
another power than the United
States. Under these circum-
stances the logic of events re-
quired that annexation, before
offered but declined, should in the
ripeness of time come about as a
natural result of strengthening
the ties that bind US 10 those isl-
ands and be realized by the free
will of the Hawaiian state.
That treaty was unanimously
ratified without amendment by the
Seuate and President OF the re-
public of Hawaii on the 10th of
September last, and only awaits
the favorable action of the Ameri
can Senate to effect the
complete absorption of the
islands into the domains of
the United States. What the
conditions of such a union shall
be, the political relation thereof
to the Unitad Stats, the character
of the local administration, the
quality and degree of the elective
franchise of the inhabitants, the
extension of the Federal laws to
the territory or the enactment OF
special laws to fit the peculiar
condition thereof, the regulation
OF needs of labor therein, and all
matters which the treaty has
wisely relee atPd to Congress.
Ii the treaty is confirmed, az
every consideration of dignity and
honor requires, the wisdom OF
Congress will see to it that, avoid.
ing abrupt assimilation of ele.
meuts perhaps hardly yet fitted to
share in the highest franchises OF
citizenship and having due regard
to the geographical conditions, the
most just provisions for self rule
in local matters with the largest
political liberties as an integral
pert of our nation will be accord
ed to the Hawaiisns.
No less lie due to a people who,
after nearly five years of demon
strated capacity to fulfill the obi
cations of self-governing state
hood, come of their free will to
merge their destinies in our body
polite.
The questions which have arisen
between Japan and Hawaii by
reason OF the treatment of Japa
nese laborers emigrating to the
islands upder the Hawaiian Japa
nese convention of 1888 are i'm a
satisfactory stage of settlement by
! negotiation. This Government
has not been invited to mediate
and on the other hand has sought nc
Intervention in that matter further
than to evince its kindliest dispo,
sitlsn toward such a speedy ant
direct adjustment by the two
sovereign states in interest al