The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-18

sending and receiving ENJOYS, enforcing
respect for the law and maintaining peate
within its island borders, Hawaii SENDS 10
the United States, not commission rep
resentng a successful revolution, put {lS
accredited plenipotenuary OF consututep
and firmly established sovereign state.
However sufficient may have been the au-
thority of the commissioners with Whom tue
United States government treated IN 1875
and however satisfied the President may
have been of their power to oner the 40
main of the Hawaiian Islands 10 the Cnlteu
states the fact remains that what tney
rendered was a territory rather thdn an
established governmental country whose
administration had been cast down by
bloodless but complete revolution and a
community in state of political TRANSITION.
Now, however. the republic of Hawaii ap37
proaches the United States as an equal ana
points for its authority to that provision OF
Article 80 of the Constitution, promulgated
July a. 1894. The President with the ap-
proval of the Cabinet. is hereby expressly
authorized and empowered to make a
treaty Of political or commercial union Pc
United States of America subject to the
ratification of the Senate.
The present negotiations, therefore, as
has been said are not a mere renewal of
the tender of Hawaiian territory made in
1888 but response to the purpose de-
clared in the Hawaiian Constitution, and
have been directed to weighing the advan-
tages of the political and commercial union
alternatively proposed and relatively con-
sdering the scope and extent thereof. II
soon appeared to the negotiators that a
purely commercial union on the lines of
the German ZollVeren could not satisfy the
problems of the administration in Hawaii
and of the political association between the
islands and the United States Such a
commercial union would, on the one hand,
deprive the Hawaiian government Of its
chief source of revenue from customs du-
ties by placing its territory in relation OF
free exchange with the territory or the
United States its main market of purchase
and supply, While on the other hand IL
would entail upon Hawaii the maintenance
internal system a
with the United States or else involve the
organization of a corresponding branch or
diction
We have had with Hawaii since 1875
treaty of commercial union which prac-
ticaly assimiates the two territories with
regard to many of their most important
productions and excludes other nations
from enjoyment of it's privileges, yet al
though that treaty has outlived other less
favored reciprocity schemes, its perma-
nency has at times been gravely imperlled.
Under such circumstances, to enter upon
the radical experiment of complete com
mercial union between Hawaii and the
United States. as Independently sovereign,
without assurance of permanency ana Win
perpetual subsection to the vfcissitudes of
public sentiment in the two countries was
not TO be thought Of Turning, then 70 the
various practical forms of political union
the several phases of protectorate, an
offensive and defensive alliance and a ma
In all OF these the independence of the
subordinated state is the Distinguishing
feature and with it the assumption by the
paramount state of responsibility without
domain. The disparity of the relative m
teTests and the distances separating the
two countries could not fail TO render
form of protective association, either un-
duly burdensome illusory in its bene-
fits, so far as the protecting state is con-
cerned, while any attempt 10 couIteract
this by tributary dependence or q measure
of suzerain control would be retrograde
movement toward a feudal or colonial es-
tablishment alike ineXpedlent ana incoil-
natibla with national DOi1CY.
''There remained therefore, the annexa-
tion of the islands and their complete aD-
sorption into the political system of the
United States as the only solution satlsfy-
ing all the governing conditions ana prom
ising permanent and mutual benenta Inc
present treaty has been framed on that
basis thus substantially reverting to the
original proposal of 1898, and necessarily
adopting many of the features or that ar
tiators have been constrained and limited
by the constitutional powers or the govern g.el--
ment of the United States. AS In previous
instances, when the United states mas ac-
quired territory by treaty 1t mas Deen nee
essary to reverse all the organic provisions
for the action OF Congress. If this was
requisite i'm the case of the transfer 10 the
United States of part OF the DOMAIN %, OF
ttular sovereign, as in the cesslon or LOUIS
lana by France of Florida by Spain, or or
Alaska by Russia, it is the more requisite
when the act is not cessiOn, but union, in
Volying the complete Incorporation of an
alien sovereignty into the body pontlc OF
the United States. For this the only preGe-
uncompleted treaty concluded during Pres
ident Grants administration, NOV. ~, looS,
for the annexation OF the DomlnlGGIan re-
that example the treaty now signed py the
plenipotentiaries of the United states ana
the republic of Hawaii reserves TO the con-
gress of the United States the determina-
ton of all questions affecting the form OF
government of the annexed terrltory' tne
citizenship and elective franchise OF its an
habitants and the manner in Whlch Ihe
laws of the United States are TO be eX-
tended to the islands.
Congress shall be complete and unques-
toned and pursuant to the recognized doG-
trine of public law that treaties expire with
the independent life of the contracting state
there has been introduced, out OF abundant
caution, an express proVlso ior the Geter5
mination of all treaties heretofore concluded
by Hawaii with foreign nations ana the
extension to the islands OF the treaties OF
the United States This leaves Gongresse Itse tee
to deal with such especial reguiatlon OF tne
contract labor system OF the lSlanos as clI-
cumstances may require, There Delng no
general provision of existing statutes 10
prescribe the form of government for new
iy incorporated territory, IT was necessary
to stipulate. as in the Dominican preceqent,
for continuing the existing machinery OF the
government and laws on the HaWallan ISL
ands until provision shall be made py law
for the government as tbrgs moor orr
porated into the Union; but, having IN view
the peculiar status created in HaWan py
laws enacted in execution or treaueS mere
tofore concluded between Hawaii and other
countries, only such Hawaiian laws are
thus Professionally continued as shaA not pe
incompatible with the Constitution or the
laws of the United States, or with the pro-
visions of this treaty.
III will be noticed that express stipulation
is made prohibiting the coming of Chinese,
laborers from Hawaiian Islands to any other
part of our national territory. rms proVlc
sion was proper and necessary in view OF
the Chinese exclusion acts, and 1t behooved
the negotiators to see 10 IT That TINS treaty,
which in turn is to become in due con-
stitutional course supreme law or the
land shall not alter or amend existing law
in this most important regard.
SHOT HER BROTHER,