The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-06-26
sHERMAN's REPORT.

vi NhL u INC
Negotiations eliminating In the Treaty
"A Free and Independent State Seeking
Annexation to the United States.
WASHINGTON, June Is.-Accompanv-
ing the presidents message and the Ha-
wallan treaty, as sent to the senate, was
h following report from Secretary
Sherman:
To the President:
The undersigned. secretary OF state. has the
honor to lay before the president, for submits
sion to the senate, should it be deemed for the
pubic interest to do so, q treaty signed in the
city Of Washington on the 18th inst. by the I'M
derSigned and by the duly empowered repre-
sentativeS OF the Republic Of Hawaii. whereby
the islands constituting the said Republic OF
Hawaii and ali their dependencies are fully and
absolutely coded to the United States Of Amer
lea forever.
ndoeS not seem necessary to the present pur-
pose OF the undersigned to review the incident of
1893 when a treaty OF cession was signed on
February IA and sabmitted TO the senate. being
subsequently Withdrawn by the president on
the 9Th of March following. The negotiation
which has eliminated in the treaty now sub
mitted has not been a mere resumption of the
negotiation OF 1898, but was initiated and has
been 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 mon
Rrchy. a provisional government for the con-
troll and management OF public affairs and the
protection - the public peace, such govern
ment to exist only until terms Of union with
the United States should have been negotiated
and agreed upon.
Thus self-constituted, its promoters claimed
for it only a de facto existence until the purpose
OF annexation in which it took rise should be
accomplished As time passed and the plan of
union with the United States became an uncer-
tain contingency, the organization Of the
Hawaiian commonwealth underwent necessary
changes; the temporary character Of its first
government gave place TO a permanent scheme
under a constitution framed by the representa-
tives Of the electors Of the islands, adminiStTS-
ton by an executive council, not by suffrage,
but self-appOinted. succeeded by an elective
and parliamentary regime; and the ability OF
the new government to hold-aS the Repub-
lie Of Hawaiian independent place in the
family Of sovereign states, preserving
order at home and fulfilling international
obligations abroad, has been put to the
proof. Recognized by the powers OF the earth,
sending any receiving ENJOYS, enforcing respect
for the law, and maintaining peace within its
island borders, Hawaii sends to the United
States, not a commission representing a sue
cesSful revolution, but the accredited plenipo- /
Tertiary OF a constituted and frmly-eStablished
sovereign state. However sufficient may have
been the authority of the commissioners with
whom this government treated in 1898, and
however satisfied the president may have then
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 than established government,
a country whose administration had been cast
down by q bloodleSS but complete revolution,
and a community in a state Of political transit
tiOn.
Now, however, the Republic OF Hawaii ap-
prOacheS the United States as an equal, and
points for its authority to that provision of
article 81 OF the constitution promulgated July
p. 1894.
''The president, with the approval Of the
cabinet, is hereby expressly authorized and
empowered to make a treaty OF political or COM
mercial union between the Republic of Hawaii
and the United States OF America, subject to
the ratification OF the senate"
The present negotiation is, therefore, as has
been said. not a mere renewal OF the tender Of
Hawaiian territory in 1893, but has responded
TO the purpose declared in the Hawaiian con-
s%titutiOn, and the conference Of the plenipoten-
tiarieS have been directed to weighing the ad-
vantageS of the political and the commercial
union alternative proposed here relatively
considering the scope and extent thereof. 1t
soon appeared to the negOtiators that a purely
commercial union on the lines Of the Ger
man Zollverein could not satisfy the prob
lens 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 fits chief source Of
revenue from customs duties by placing its ter
ritory in q relation of free exchange with the
territory Of the United States, its main market
of purchase and supply. while on the other hand
it wouldentail upon Hawaii the maintenance
OF an internal revenue system on a par with
that OF the United States, or else involve the
organization Of q corresponding branch Of our
revenue service within a foreign jurisdiction.
We have had with Hawaii since 1875 a treaty of
commercial union which practically assimi-
lates the two territories with regard to many Of
their most important productions, and excludes
other nations from enjoyment Of its privileges;
yet, although that treaty has outlived other less
favored reciprocity schemes. its permanency
has at times been gravely imperiled. Under
such circumstances, to enter upon the radical
experiment OF a complete commercial union be-
tween Hawaii and the United States, as indie
pendently sovereign, without assurance Of
permanencv and with perpetual subsection to
the vlcissitudes 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 q pro-
tectorate, an offensive and defensive alliance
and a national guarantee were passed in view.
In all these the independence OF the subordi-
mated state is the distinguished feature and
with it the assumption by the paramount state
OF responsibility, without domain. The dis
parity Of the relative interests and the distance
separating the two countries could not fail to
render any form of protective association either
unduly burdensome or illusory in its benefits,
SO far as the protecting state is concerned,
while any attempt to counteract this by tribu-
tary dependence or q measure Of "tncor-
troll would be a retrograde move
feudal or colonial establishm'
pedicnt and incompatible :
policy.
There remained, thereto
the islands and their cor
the political system OF II
only solution satisfy